(This review is going up late because of personal reasons. Sorry about that.)
Margaux joins me so we can tear apart the lackluster, uninspired mid-season finale of The Walking Dead.
Trevor: “How It’s Gotta Be” got off to a needlessly confusing start, rife with time jumps and flashbacks. First Rick is in the sniper’s tower, then he’s with the Scavengers? Negan is in a car now? And then the heavy-handed flashback to Carl speaking profundities (“If you care, you don’t just hope”)? The first few minutes of this mid-season finale were The Walking Dead at its worst and most insufferably artsy, a facsimile of innovation narration. It was maddening, and the episode didn’t really get much better from there. How did you like it?
Margaux: It was confusing at best, and the most insufferably shitty mid-season finale The Walking Dead has had at worst. I spent most of the episode trying to figure out literally where the hell we were, which took any power or interest out of anything good they managed to pull off. And holy shit, can we talk the fucking face montage?! What fucking purpose does it serve to have a apocalyptic perfume ad not once, but three different times in a 90 minute episode? If you need to fill time, DON’T ASK FOR A 90 MINUTE MID-SEASON FINALE.
Trevor: It definitely felt like filler, and like the show as trying to tell us that any of the characters shown could be saying goodbye to TWD. Problem is, deaths on this show have very little impact any more, and it was telegraphed early on that it would be Carl who got it.
Margaux: It really was, not only was Carl some sort of Instagram account of faux-inspirational quotes attributed to no one, but he also spoke the title of the episode to which I shouted at my TV, “DEAD!”
Trevor: The Walking Dead always does right by its departing cast members by giving them a big showcase episode (whether or not those episodes are good is a different matter) and the second Carl started giving Rick an intro to morality lecture, the writing was on the wall.
And you know what? We’ll get to this more later I’m sure, but I just wanna say: I will, in a weird way, miss Carl. He was usually a badly-written character, but my HOT TAKE is that Chandler Riggs has grown into a pretty decent actor. But I’m skipping ahead, let’s start…fuckin’, wherever, I don’t care.
Margaux: Carl murdered his fucking Mom and the only good thing about Negan is the fact that he constantly brings that up anytime he sees Carl. After that moment, I had no choice but to respect Carl as a driving force on this show. That being said, Carl has been on this show since he was ten goddamn years old and I’ve grown to like him and his relationship with Rick, which, they’re relationship has always felt under explored for me – how to teach your child to be a good person in the apocalypse. After offing Glenn, they didn’t have anyone else to kill off who holds any emotional weight besides Carl (something Kirkman said he’d never do in the comics because at its core, The Walking Dead is about a father and son), so the way they decided to kill him off was really a disservice him character and the actor.
Trevor: Now I’m trying to think of the last satisfying character death. I think maybe Sasha? She went out like a badass, and now Sonequa Martin-Green is kicking ass on Star Trek Discovery. This show has really lost its touch, is what I’m trying to say.
To wit: Negan showing up outside Sanctuary, with an ultimatum, is something that should have happened around the fifth or sixth episode. (Of course that wouldn’t work because of this half-season’s approach, taking place over a single day.) The show promised “all out war,” and knew it couldn’t deliver because a prolonged war means people die, and this show is really attached to its cast.
Nowhere is that more laughably obvious than when Simon forces Maggie off the road and says he’s going to kill one of them; the show gets out of killing her or Jesus by having a Hilltop rando in the backseat. “Not Neil!” none of America shouted. My God, that pissed me off: introducing a character for the sole purpose of killing him instead of someone in the main cast. Also, this is neither here nor there, but since people like Maggie, for the most part, I feel like Lauren Cohan gets a pass on her atrocious accent. She’s gotta be making fun of the South, right? She sounds like Kate Burton on Scandal. Okay, rant over.
Margaux: Maggie’s accent gets worse (or lazier, can’t tell which) with each episode. She doesn’t sound Southern or like she’s even ever seen a farm, let alone lived on one. But my God, thank you for bringing up that fake out because it was so poorly staged, I had to rewind it several times just to figure out who, if anyone, even got shot. And even then, I was like, “who in the fuck is Neil?!” It was such a cheap moment, if The Walking Dead had the ability to feel shame, they should for that. Like I said earlier, any scene that was remotely starting to get interesting or scary, Negan showing up to Alexandria or Steven Ogg’s mustache stopping Maggie the exact same way they did when they killed Glenn, was immediately deflated of tension or suspense due to it being poorly filmed and directed in the dark and its intentionally confusing blocking.
Another example, when Aaron and Enid stake out a distillery truck for…reasons, and when they spot someone creeping around, Enid somehow shoots Grandma Oceanside and kills her? It’s like, wait a sec, what the hell just happened, we didn’t even see anything nor do even know what’s going on or why. I understand keeping things a bit mysterious, but at a certain point, you have to let the audience in on what the fucking plan is so this shit feels like it has a some stakes to it or else it’s just a bunch of dumbasses frolicking around in the goddamn dark. THIS SHOW GETS ME SO HEATED CAUSE THEY ALWAYS BLOW IT.
Trevor: I can no bullshit see you getting madder as you type. It’s kind of incredible. I’m glad you brought up the Aaron/Enid scene, which bugged me for a number of reasons. 1, Aaron is a fuckin’ barrel of laughs, making Enid feel bad just for sitting in Eric’s seat. 2, of course you’re a better driver than Carl, Enid, he’s got no goddamn depth perception. And 3, I like that it went immediately haywire. Like, right away these goddamn dopes fucked it up. “We have to negotiate with -” BLAMMO, killed the matriarch. Such a clumsy way to introduce conflict for the back half of the season; I mean, they literally stumbled upon it.
And yes, “How It’s Gotta Be” taking place at night didn’t help things at all. I couldn’t tell what was happening, ever, and that was especially rough in the shootout. I had trouble discerning if Dwight was shooting at Saviors or at others, and then he was shot by…that woman…in the first of two instances of someone not killing someone who they should really, really kill.
Margaux: The only part worth cheering over was when Dwight when full Benedict Arnold, for some reason that was incredibly satisfying, mainly cause I don’t want Eugene ratting him out would made the blood directly burst from my veins due to rage.
Trevor: That part worked because the show bothered to develop it! Funny how that works. (Talking to you, Scott Gimple.)
Margaux: Exactly! Emotional stakes, IT’S A FUCKING CORNERSTONE OF FUCKING WRITING YOU GODDAMN HACK (Gimple, not you, obviously).
And can we talk about Eugene real quick? Sure, he 11th hour sorta does the right thing, but boy have they ruined that character too. I know we haven’t (and really don’t need to) rehash the events of last week’s episode, but Eugene talks in a such a deliberately goofy, dumbshit way now, I can barely understand what the fuck he’s talking about. Why can’t he plainly tell Gabriel and Doctor Man, get the fuck out – I’ll cover for you? AND WHO GETS DRUNK OFF AN OUNCE OF WINE? A BABY MOUSE?! Fuck this show.
Trevor: My god, last week I said that when Josh McDermitt is really committed, Eugene’s dialogue achieves the sense of a weird kind of poetry, and I stand by that, but the second he opened his mouth I audibly said “BUUUUUUH.” It’s total goddamn gibberish, and Jadis isn’t much better. The world hasn’t been over long enough for the Scavengers to talk like cavemen! It’s been like eighteen months!
Margaux: Okay, can we just never hear from the fucking trash people ever again? For them to WASTE SO MUCH TIME on Rick’s hubris of trying to get those reject Star Trek characters to join his fight, only to IMMEDIATELY BAIL ON RICK, I NEVER EVER want to see their stupid fucking faces ever again. THEY DO NOTHING AND BRING NOTHING AND THEY ARE EQUAL TO THOSE ART SCHOOL FUCKS WHO ARE WEIRD FOR WEIRDS SAKE WITH ZERO MOTIVATION.
Trevor: An army of Wes Bentleys from American Beauty.
Margaux: At least Wes Bentley had the excuse of being a shitty high school student. What’s the trash people raison d’etre?
Trevor: I suppose we should at least touch on Carl’s goodbye. I like that he got his hero moment, offering his life in place of Rick’s, and giving everyone time to make it to the sewers.
Margaux: HOW WAS THAT HERO MOMENT, PLEASE TELL ME. We didn’t even see him get bit! That was such a cop out to highest of orders.
Trevor: Okay, fair enough, but I thought Riggs played the moment well, and like I said earlier, the show always gives departing characters a big moment; that doesn’t mean they always land. I guess I liked it outside the context of the actual show.
Margaux: Doesn’t matter how well he played it if the writers never gave him anything more to do than just die in a sewer thanklessly like a damn mole person. He basically created something outta thin air and while impressive, all it did was add to the confusion and straight up betrayal to his character. JUSTICE FOR CARL! He desevered so much better.
Trevor: I weirdly enjoy the connection between him and Negan – don’t get me wrong, Negan is a horribly written character, but I feel like those scenes are the most challenging for Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and he enjoys playing them. Was this the right time for Carl to go out? No, it was rushed and mostly sloppy. But the show had to kill someone off to save room for people like Eugene, Jadis, and Ezekiel; eventually every single character will talk like a goddamn lunatic. This is going to become a Funny Games situation wherein AMC dares us to stop watching.
Margaux: I hope Michael Haneke sues you for using his brilliant movie in comparison to this trash can fire of a show. HOW VERY DARE, TREV.
Hands down, The Walking Dead’s worst mid-season finale. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why they don’t follow the comics more closely. All these re-mixes and character flips weight this show more than Carl’s stupid sheriffs hat. I think it’s only going to get worse from here if Gimple and Co think the way forward is Jadis and Eugene and characters like Neil (RIP) or even long-haired-Savior-dick, and not Carl.
Trevor: I think this show should only keep showrunners for 2-3 seasons. When Gimple came on board I was pretty excited, but he needs to be eyeing the exit door. Get someone really weird to run the show and let them do whatever they want. Of course that will never happen, but it would help keep things from getting stale. Oh well, another show that would be vastly improved if you and I were in charge of it. Do you want to put this to bed, or is there anything else you’d like to touch on?
Margaux: Unless someone from AMC is reading this and wants to hire us for the writers room, please put me out of my misery, I can’t talk about “How It’s Gotta Be” anymore.
If you couldn’t tell already, I really hated this episode. It was more insulting to The Walking Dead audience than Glenn’s dumpster psych out. This season started out strong and had a lot of potential, but the one thing this show is good at is wasting its potential (and time too), clearly this show is no long interested in telling a good or satisfying story. It can’t even be bothered to light its sets properly so you can understand what action is happening because they don’t care, and so I don’t understand why I should either. At least they all get to cash a check at the end of it, why the hell are we still watching?
“How It’s Gotta Be” score: 1/5
The Walking Dead season 8A score: 2/5
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