Margaux I talk last night’s tiger-tastic episode of The Walking Dead.
Trevor: So there’s an upside and a downside to the Morgan/Carol episodes. The upside is Carol, who was at her best in “The Well.” The downside, obviously, is smug, self-righteous Morgan, who took this long to admit that he maybe doesn’t know what’s best for everyone. But I guess you gotta take the sweet with the sour, and for the most part, I thought “The Well” was a pretty good episode. How did it work for you?
Margaux: In the grand scheme of things I think “The Well” is largely forgettable episode because The Walking Dead is bad at a lot of things, and bottle episodes is one of them. And that also goes for slower paced episodes with no real discernable threats or villainous machinations, these types of episode just flounder because this show is not very good at maintaining longer narrative threads. So if you look at “The Well” as a short story, of sorts, it kind of works. But guess what? I don’t usually like short stories, and this is damn TV show. The only two things that worked were Carol (uh, duh, Carol is best thing this show has going for it) and the last 10-15 minutes of Ezekiel – once he dropped the act, but then they took it too far and made last 5-10 minutes of their interaction into straight up exposition, which got really exhausting really quick. We can do the solve the zoo for X tiger math, the only bit of his speech that worked for me was when Ezekiel said he’d dabbled in community theater, we didn’t need much more of an explanation beyond that.
But I don’t know how this any more plainly than I did in my watch notes about Carol and Ezekiel, they gon’ fuck. Throwing my money down now.
Trevor: There’s your DVD blurb, AMC: “The Walking Dead is bad at a lot of things – GAMbIT Magazine.”
I agree that setup episodes have never been the show’s strong suit, and my first thought upon seeing the Kingdom was “Looks nice; I wonder how Negan will destroy it.” Because, let’s face it, that’s how this season is ending. Every nice place that TWD shows us ends up getting destroyed: the prison, Woodbury, Alexandria, Terminus, and the Greene farm. Speaking of which, the reason those other locales worked for me, more or less, is that they were built around some semblance of reality. Mostly they were just walled-off safe spaces, sometimes run by someone who was insane. The Kingdom is a fantasy land inhabited by mental patients who think they’re characters in Medieval Times. But I have to admit, Ezekiel’s speech about embracing the contradictions kind of sold me on the Kingdom (conceptually speaking). I chalk that up to Ezekiel being pretty damn cool and charismatic. I mean, he’s got a pet tiger, which should look stupid, but ends up helping TWD in one of its coolest character introductions yet.
Margaux: “Nice place, real shame Negan is gonna annihilate it in six episodes”; I mean the only bit that really landed for me was the goods and services exchange between The Kingdom and The Saviors. And it worked, almost accidentally on two levels. First one being we get a glimpse of how this mobster, one-sided agreement with Negan and Co works week-to-week, and because Negan is so unhinged and you’re usually only as good as the company you keep, you know The Saviors won’t bat (pun intended) an eye at taking off someone’s head if they didn’t like their cut of jib all of a sudden, so there was a nice soupcon of tension there. The other way was watching the post-apocalyptic version of spitting in someone’s food, feeding the animals you give them with walker meat. We never got to see Bob’s rotten meat theory play out, and I have a feeling that this little stunt will come back around for The Kingdom. And Ezekiel knows this, which is why he saved Carol and Morgan.
Trevor: Yeah, I liked that scene too, for a number of reasons. One, feeding walkers to the pigs is a nice little “fuck you” to the Saviors, and it shows that even if the Kingdom will play ball because it’s the prudent thing to do, it doesn’t make them complete pushovers. Two, it helps dovetail these two plots, and establishes a believable reason for the Kingdom, the Saviors, and Rick’s group to cross paths. My only complaint about that scene was that the Saviors we saw were a shade cartoonish, like they were all abusive step-fathers before the apocalypse.
Margaux: From the shithead step-brother who takes a swing at The Kingdom-er to the “good cop” step-dad whose only had a fifth of Evan Williams this morning, yeah it was a little silly, but when the “problem” of Negan is as pervasive as it is, it’s interesting to see others more or less the survive the situation. Plus, we all see The Kingdom and what remains of Alexandria teaming up to take on Negan coming as easily as a hoard of cobweb covered zombies.
Trevor: That’s true, and using the Saviors as connective tissue is a good way to expand the world so that it includes everyone. I was worried that this season would feel like two separate shows, and “The Well” did a nice job of addressing that. Because if there’s two shows, and Morgan is a main character one of them, I’m not watching that show.
Margaux: It might’ve taken Morgan almost the entire episode to admit he’s not the sensei you’re looking for, but I think I’m back in Morgan’s corner – the further we get from that fucking goat cheese, the better I feel. Besides, I’m kind of into his and Carol’s Andy Dufresne/Red Redding Shawshank vibe. It’s like Grumpy Old Men, but one of them is a lady and it’s the end of the world, you know, things that should really make you grumpy.
“I’m sorry I tried to shoot and stab you so many times” “you’re my favorite person that I’ve knocked out”, A+++++ exchange.
Trevor: I like to give Morgan shit, but I have to admit that he’s making small strides towards becoming a more likable character. And I find it funny that you always mention the goat cheese, because “Here’s Not Here” was the last time I found him truly interesting. But he and Carol do have a better rapport, and it was nice of him to lead Carol to her new house, and trust her to take care of the walker inside. In a weird way, that’s a compliment.
Margaux: Even though this was, blessedly, a “Carol episode,” what “The Well” simply never accomplished (and something the show has been trying way too hard and long to justify) is WHY Carol wants to leave. I don’t buy this whole, “I don’t wanna kill so good anymore” angle, cause that is part of who Carol is. If it was just not wanting to be part of any group anymore because she’s better off on her own, that’s fine. But they continually muddy the waters, example: the cold open. Carol is on the brink of death, and Morgan and The Kingdom help schlep her back to get medical attention, but the whole time Carol seeing the walkers as real people. Does that mean she wants to die? Or is she just concussed? A little from column A and from column B? PICK ONE THING AND PROVE YOUR POINT WITH GUSTO, PLEASE. THANKS.
Trevor: Yeah, I don’t like PTSD Carol any more than you do, and I hope they pick a route to take with her, because otherwise you’re wasting Melissa McBride, which I’m pretty sure is illegal.
Is there anything else you’d like to touch on, or do you want to talk star count?
Margaux: My problem with The Walking Dead’s attempts at portraying PTSD is on par with my annoyance with Real Housewives appropriating the term: YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. STOP.
“The Well” is a three and half star episode, the half is for just not being the premiere and of course, Carol. I cannot say I’m excited or looking forward to The Daryl Hour next week, his melty face nemesis is a total drag. And not a good kind of drag, like a drag queen, like a literal person who drag the whole fucking thing into the ground and then rolls you around in the fire. Ugh, can we get back to kicking ass and not taking names?
“The Well” is largely forgettable episode because The Walking Dead is bad at a lot of things, and bottle episodes is one of them.
3.5/5
Pretty Good
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