The theme of The Walking Dead this week is companionship, whether it’s the kind we want or the kind we have. In a strong cold open, we see Bob walking alone down some train tracks, resting on top of a van surrounded by walkers, and at last being approached by Glenn and Daryl. Daryl asks Rick’s patented three questions, and Bob returns with them to the prison. It’s a nice bit of foreshadowing, as those three men – Bob, Daryl, and Glenn – all play into the story.
It’s great to finally see more of Bob; there’s still a lot we don’t know, and I wish he’d stop referring to his previous two groups in the most nebulous way possible, but Lawrence Gilliard Jr. inhabits the role with ease and skill, imbuing Bob with a sad sense of happiness, while at the same time giving him the world-weariness that Gilliard brought to his most famous role, that of D’Angelo Barksdale on The Wire. When Bob finally cracks a smile, walking next to Sasha, it’s hard not to respond in kind.
Sonequa Martin-Green, as Sasha, acquits herself nicely as well. She hasn’t been given a whole lot to do, and for a few episodes it looked as though she’d die in the prison epidemic. She and Bob have good chemistry together, and even though she doesn’t necessarily return his kiss, she doesn’t slap him away either. Like I said, companionship. In a situation like the one these characters are in, you grab on to whomever you can. Remember what Maggie said to Glenn when they had sex in the pharmacy in season two: “I’ll have sex with you.” Not “I want to” or “I like you;” it was a basic urge for intimacy and closeness that has since blossomed into a marriage for which she will risk her life, and that of others.
Daryl and Beth are getting closer, too. While I wasn’t a huge fan of last week’s episode, “Alone” wisely sticks with the twosome and builds on what was established. In fact, this is a better hour for Emily Kinney’s Beth than last week was, and she was one of two main characters on screen. When she and Daryl are holed up in a surreal funeral home and she asks him what made him believe there were still good people, he just looks at her. We know the answer: You, Beth. But it takes her by surprise. She lets out a soft “Oh,” and it’s a touchingly vulnerable moment for both of them. It makes Daryl’s reaction to her abduction all the more heartbreaking.
There are a few wild cards on the table now, namely Joe (played by Jeff Kober of Sons of Anarchy and New Girl), who Rick almost shot on a porch last week, and Terminus, where all the different splinter cells of the group seem to be heading. I haven’t read this far in Robert Kirkman’s books, so I don’t know anything about Terminus. As a viewer, it seems like a way to reunite the group, but there might (and probably is) be a lot I don’t know. Either way, “Alone” was a marked improvement over last week, and makes me excited for the rest of the season.
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