Margaux and I loved last night’s episode of The Walking Dead. Read on to find out why, true believers! Excelsior!
Trevor: I gotta say, this is the first episode of The Walking Dead season 6B that’s made me genuinely excited for the rest of the season. If every episode was as solid as “Not Tomorrow Yet” – which at its best reminded me of “No Sanctuary,” season five’s stellar debut – then I wouldn’t come locked and loaded with groans and eye rolls every Sunday. This show can still pull it off. It’s nice to see.
Margaux: It was the most suspenseful episode we’ve had in awhile, too. It’s like The Walking Dead suddenly remembered they had stakes and they finally made good on the promise of the feeling that any main character could die at moment. This was a bone head, terrifying plan, but it worked so well even though it shouldn’t of. The pace was fantastic and it was well written, playing to each character of the group’s strength (Abe even got in one of his patented weirdo one-liners), and “Not Tomorrow Yet” had one of my favorite cold opens of the season. Cookie cutter Carol is back!
Side bar: it did bode well for the episode that it started off checking in with Carol after she was sidelined for (in our opinion) too much of season 6B. Glad she got the catch up that she deserves, Melissa McBride is so good you can’t even be mad it took this long to get back to her.
Trevor: Agreed, I loved the cold open, and it was a smart move to bring back Carol so heavily in this episode. I liked seeing her go about the business of making beet and acorn cookies for the whole town, and when she has to kill the walker with a machete, it’s more of a nuisance than a threat. It’s a smart way of showing how walkers have just become part of the fabric of everyday life.
And Carol is a good lens through which to view the central question of “Not Tomorrow Yet,” which largely concerned the toll that killing takes on you. It’s a testament to how good this episode was that it was able to balance ass-kicking action with a heady philosophical question like that, without ever giving the viewer tonal whiplash. But of course Morgan has a dumb answer to everything. Like, no shit he wants to just talk to the Saviors. Morgan would be easier to sympathize with if he was ever, ever right, but his track record is abysmal. Everyone Morgan thinks he can save, he can’t. He just looks like an idiot at this point.
Margaux: Quickly want to rattle off the things about Carol’s arc this episode that I loved. 1. Her kill journal, suck it dreams! 2. That she leaves a cookie on Sam’s tombstone – do you want to get ants, Carol? BECAUSE THAT’S HOW YOU GET ANTS. 3. Her hand delivering cookies to everyone in Alexandria, BUT Morgan. I cannot tell you how happy I am that we didn’t have another 45 minute episode dedicated to yet another deep dive on morality and what it means to take a life vs not vs goat cheese vs whatever. But I have to say, after Rick corralled the Alexandrians (which there aren’t a whole lot of honestly, I thought they had more than 12 people living there) in the church to lay out yet again another half baked preemptive strike plan, I had to, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, agree with Morgan a little bit. If only because Rick’s own track record with fixing something before it’s too late isn’t all that stellar either (quarry full of walker anyone?).
Trevor: I liked the way that was shot, with Rick framed in front of the stained-glass window. Not exactly subtle staging, especially considering the name of the group’s new foes. The Walking Dead definitely wants us to know that Rick has a SAVIOR complex. Get it??
Margaux: They did everything but write it on the screen for you. Rick’s meeting in the church, which they hardly ever have used for townhall purposes, was about as subtle as the Kardashians.
Trevor: And double yes on the Alexandrians. There is not a single one, since Deanna and Jessie died, that has become anything close to important. Which is something that “Not Tomorrow Yet” looked to rectify, with its introduction of the out-of-nowhere romance between Carol and Tobin. Either that, or Scott Gimple just wanted to fuck with Tumblr, which is likely having a “What about Daryl and Carol???” meltdown right about now.
Margaux: I liked the Carol and Tobin romance, probably because the way I flirt is call the object of my affection an asshole too, but that’s neither here nor there. I think if Rick and Michonne can grow close during that time jump, then Carol can get her groove back. Plus, I thought their kiss was sweet, but on the reals, Tobin is a bit of a puss and Carol could (and might) snap that boy in half.
Speaking of romance, talk about the absolute wrong time to break up with Rosita, like, damn Abraham, you cold as ice. And for all the bitching I do about Eugene, I was very relieved to have his mullet comic relief after Abe stormed out. “I used to think you were the last woman on earth, and I now I know you’re not.” HOLY FUCK, SOMEONE TAKE ROSITA TO THE BURN UNIT.
Trevor: Yeah, that was brutal. Part of me thinks Abe did that almost for her benefit, like if she thought he was the world’s biggest asshole she’d move on quicker. But either way, she needs to go to the drama ward for that burn.
So that’s a good enough segue for us to start talking about the raid on the Saviors’ compound, which, holy shit. Everything about this worked, especially the grisly detail of them finding the head of a walker who looked enough like Gregory to fool the guard. Well, let me clarify: almost everything about this worked. I wasn’t sold on Maggie’s stubbornness. I see where she’s coming from, but repeating “I have to go” doesn’t make you less pregnant. Jesus, I know she’s an independent woman and can make her own decisions, but no one, including her husband, objecting to this felt really off to me. Other than that, it was aces.
Margaux: Well, I think Carol being protective of Maggie was a good way of trying to gel that situation into something that made more sense. Maggie feels obligated to be there because she orchestrated the deal and would feel cowardly if she didn’t at least stand guard around their designated perimeter, but Glenn or Rick not giving her a back up (seriously, one pregnant woman to keep a lookout? What kind of fuckery is this?) was just them being up their own ass. Also, and I’m not sure if this is the intention, and it could be all subconscious, but I get the sense that Maggie doesn’t want to be pregnant, so she puts herself in somewhat unsafe situations.
And to give you the tonal whiplash missing from last night, I think Rick punching the dead walker square in the nose and creating some lie to cover any bases that might give them away to the Savior’s was hilarious in that “oh, now Rick is covered in blood again” way. He is the Patrick Bateman of the apocalypse, and I am into it.
Trevor: Yeah, that was an oddly funny sight gag. And I liked how Andy (the Hilltop guy) told Rick that he was scarier than the Saviors. We didn’t get much of the Saviors last night – well, we got a lot of them, don’t get me wrong, but they were just there to get shot, with the exception of those two guards who Andy talked to. (The one with the beard was, um, not a very good actor.)
I loved loved loved the shootout at the compound. It was thrilling and tense, everything this show should be, and it was not without its more human moments. The scene with Glenn and Heath was just terrific. It says so much about Glenn that he kills the sleeping man so Heath doesn’t have to.
Margaux: Yes! Glenn and Heath’s conversation leading up to the massacre should of been pretentious and limp, but I was actually interested to finally hear more about Heath, and even discover something new about Glenn, that he’s never killed a non-walker before. And if it makes Glenn feel better, those guys he took out seem very…sociopath-y. But the whole siege on the Saviors was so tense, it was the nail biting action you tune into The Walking Dead for. The setup of the Savior’s compound is risky and nerve racking, only one entrance and exit? The maze like layout so you’re not quite sure where the hell you’re even going? WHO WAS BEHIND THAT ONE LOCKED DOOR? I mean, to quote Michonne, “I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHICH ONE WAS NEGAN”. Spoiler: It was none of the people the fuckin’ people they murdered in the middle of the night like some Seal Team 6 assassin squad.
Trevor: Director Greg Nicotero made great use of those claustrophobic corridors. And earlier in the season I was wondering how Negan would find out about the group after Daryl’s RPG stunt – well, now I know. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m sorry I doubted you, Walking Dead.
And how about that ending? Last time we heard a faraway voice on a walkie-talkie it was Glenn, so this could be a little bit of foreshadowing to that death everyone is speculating about. Personally, I was just surprised to see female Saviors. I assumed if that compound was co-ed, it would be a bad environment for women, for many reasons.
Margaux: I think the word you’re looking for is rape-y. Because I totally got that vibe from what we were shown of the Savior compound, but from what I’ve read about the comic books, Negan has a sister-wives thing going on. I don’t want to be quick to assume, but since they were already outside of their Savior safety zone, I can’t help but feel like they get high priority on the escape route (since one Savior gets the come up on Abe and ultimately pulls the fire alarm and ruins their cover) so that must mean they’re someone fairly important, important enough to be saved/spared. Again, just speculating about those women’s roles in Savior nation, but I don’t think what we were shown last night of their headquarters is all that there is to see, I think it’s a lot bigger than they were lead to believe.
Trevor: Agreed, which was a nice reveal. This was just a base of operations – a satellite facility, if you will. Get it? Cause of the satellite dishes. You get it. I’m genuinely excited about next week’s Walking Dead, for the first time in a long time. My minor complaints aside, “Not Tomorrow Yet” was the most solid the show has been in a long time, and might be season 6B’s first 4.5-star episode. Your thoughts?
Margaux: The Walking Dead hasn’t captured our interest in a positive way in a long time, let alone been this intriguing. Not only that, they managed to sneak in some character development and advance the plot for a second week in a row! I have to agree with your 4.5 star rating with some cautious optimism.
About Author
