What They Say:
Coda – New enemies disregard rules and morals; although Rick wants to find a peaceful agreement, the enemies seem to prefer a more violent resolution.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As we hit the mid season finale, this half of the season has definitely been a lot of fun for me with strong episodes all around. Even the previous episode, which was mostly place-setting for this one, had a lot of good character pieces coming into play with what they’re all doing. Though a lot of folks seemed to consider the first Beth-centric episode pretty awful, I liked seeing her story come into focus and then to see how the other arcs started connecting with it as well was definitely a lot of fun. The Walking Dead can be pretty polarizing for a lot of fans, though I’m always amused by the less hardcore fans that tune every week with no comics reference that just enjoy it and can’t understand why it gets the grief it does from a vocal segment of fans. I keep ending up in the middle with it, but in the end this season has left me pretty damn happy so far.
The cold open for this episode goes in a pretty brutal way to start as the cop that snookered Sasha is off making his run at things but ends up not being able to get his cuffs off before the walkers start coming at him. In a twist we haven’t’ seen in an age, Rick gets into the cop car himself and chases him down. When he refuses to stop for Rick, Rick runs right into him to make his point. With what he did to Sasha and betrayed the small bit of trust that he was giving him, it’s no surprise that Rick has gone hard here. While Rick is giving some small amount of trust at times, with Daryl having pulled him back a little bit from the hard edge, he’s also not going to give any to those that betray it. But he’s also not a complete ass as he won’t let the walkers get him. The slow but steady transformation of Rick continues to be fascinating.
Gabriel’s arc in the season hasn’t been a thrilling one for many, but I’ve enjoyed seeing how a man of faith buckled under the surreal nature of the world and has found that he really can’t cope well with the reality of the world. Rather than becoming a warrior priest in this new world, he’s become a weak and craven man that is consumed by guilty but still does all the wrong things. His leaving the church has not gone well and now that he’s being chased, he’s come running back and looking for help after they did such a good job barricading themselves inside. It turns pretty frantic as the church begins to be overrun inside, but it’s good to see Michonne return to form here with her sword while realizing the odds are hugely against them. Not surprising, it doesn’t take long for the church to fall. But it’s not a place they’re abandoning just yet as they do a decent job of securing it again from the outside and trapping a lot of walkers inside.
Of course, these walkers aren’t as rotted as a lot of others we’ve seen, so they’ve got a bit of strength about them to keep them going. Which leaves the situation at the church a bit up in the air. Of course, it all turns on a dime with the arrival of Abraham and his group where they crash into the front door to barricade it more. It’s a pretty good reunion overall though as old friends reconnect again after being apart for a couple of days, but the best news is for Maggie that Beth is alive. This starts to push everyone on the same path towards Atlanta in order to get her and join up with Rick and the others. More numbers is always a good thing, though that can upset the balance as well.
Because of Lamson’s death, Rick and Daryl are trying to figure out the best way to deal with the group at the hospital as there’s a lot of uncertainty as to who is telling the truth and how Dawn will react in regards to a potential trade. Dawn’s still dealing with an odd place and it’s hard to tell where the real balance of power lays, and there are some humanizing elements about her that are decent as we see her and Beth talking about her Captain that died and the respect she had for him. While Beth has had her stupid moments in the hospital arc, or rather the writers have given her stupid moments, she’s handling things fairly well by being a sympathetic person along with others that are caught up in the same kind of situation. But she’s also pushing back a bit here and there at those in power, particularly with Dawn. One of the recurring things that has come up, similar to other “safe” havens the group has come across, is the difference between those in safe places and those out in the world. It’s not a bad thing to work with as we see both sides and the overall evolution of our group on the outside, with losses and additions along the way that changes their dynamic.
We do see Dawn reaching her breaking point after she talks a bit about what she’s done to Beth and they discover that another officer, O’Donnell, overheard them and is going to use it for a bit of regime change. The two actually have a good verbal standoff as she puts him in his place and insists that she’s done with what has come so far. Naturally, it turns pretty physical and violent and the two women have to stand together overall. It’s a good moment for Dawn, though it doesn’t really make you like her if you already didn’t. Beth does see through things in a clear enough way with what Dawn is doing since you can see how she used Beth, even subconsciously, to get rid of those that were causing a real problem for her. The two have an interesting conversation later in Carol’s room, especially as Dawn talks about how those that leave this place always come back because they can’t survive in the world. She thinks the same of Beth, though Beth has certainly proven she can survive in the world.
When Rick’s plan goes into motion, the first encounter is a pretty tense one as he goes out by himself to bring out the proposal to two officers that meet up with him. It’s all made pretty clear and straightforward, all while adding in the lie about Lamson to make things as even as possible, but we also see that while the officers believe that they have the advantage, there’s at least one person waiting in the wings with excellent shooting skills. While it’s not a huge moment in a sense, it’s very well done just by being within the city and coming from a different perspective than the usual in the woods or other run down buildings. Taking place here amid all of this former civilization gives it an even creepier feeling since it’s so empty.
Moving the trade into the hospital itself is a pretty tense thing as well since there’s a certain layer of trust that has to exist and we know that it’s thin at best as even Beth is arming up in the only way she can at the moment to be prepared. With a couple of angled camera shots, it’s all done in a pretty good way here as the sides are laid out and the real choices have to be made about how to go through with things while holding out hope that this all plays out in a civil way. Exchanging for Carol first makes sense since she’s in the wheelchair and as the second one goes down, with Dawn bringing Beth to the line for it, even that goes smoothly and you just wait for the other shoe to drop.
Of course, Dawn takes it a step further in insisting that Noah be turned over as well, but that raises the stakes. Noah’s willing to go back to protect the group, but Rick doesn’t want to let it go through. It’s decently emotional as Beth embraces him and realizes just what kind of person Dawn is truly like, reaffirming what she had been coming to for awhile. So seeing her try and take out Dawn, get killed herself, that just about turns the whole thing into a flashpoint with Daryl killing Dawn. But its one of the officers that was returned that brings some calm to the situation, insisting that it was all about Dawn that made this situation into the problem it was and that with her dead, and Beth dead, nobody else should suffer. Tying this to the arrival of Abraham and his group gives us the full group back together, with the addition of Noah joining up byleaving the hospital now, but it all turns utterly horrible with Maggie realizing that Beth is lost at this point, something that she refused to believe before and held such hope for.
In Summary:
With the series not having much in the way of a main cast body count this season, it’s no surprise that things go south in a big way in the final minutes here. This half of the season brings to a close the hospital arc of it, which was really only about half of it total when you get down to it outside of a few seeded areas. This side of the season has been really strong for me as a viewer and I’m excited to see where it’s going to go next and how this death will affect things and how the more formal addition of Noah and Gabriel to the group will change things. Of course, the larger arc of the show is that of the series as a whole with Rick and we continue to see his evolution here in a good way. This episode was a really good mid-season finale and I’m definitely very pleased by what’s come so far, especially with the wonderful little tease we get in the last seconds with Morgan and his journey.
Grade: A-
