The game changes again.
What They Say:
The Distance – After withstanding a spectacular storm, Rick and the others meet what appears to be a friendly person, but find themselves mistrustful.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The fifth season of The Walking Dead has certainly been a busy one and it’s worked very well for me with what it’s doing. The previous episode was a very essential piece of it all as we’ve needed to have the gang now all back together, having dealt with so many losses, having a goal in front of them, but also needing to show them at probably their lowest as a whole in far too long. There was a kind of oppression there that really worked well, having them dealing with different things on top of the losses they’ve had, and you can have things get to that kind of infectious level where it just spirals more and more, especially in the sweltering heat as they try and move north on foot. There was a lot of good character material for me that kept it moving well and it had the right kind of miraculous event that can happen to bring them all together with a simple but effective renewed sense about them. And, of course, the arrival of Aaron.
The cold open here has Aaron being brought into the barn, which is amusing since everyone is so tense at his arrival and he’s pretty much your average nice guy that just stepped into it all. Aaron tries to play it pretty light, as he wants them to try and join the community that he’s a part of, and there’s an almost community theater aspect about it since he comes across so simply in all of this. That said, considering the miracle everyone just survived, and the sense of hope that was starting to come about them, there’s something to be said about his presence there. Aaron makes the kind of awkward sale on getting them to come and check it out, but it has that kind of naive but realistic approach some of these communities would have. Rick, on the other hand, sees what they have as something that they’ve had before themselves and lost, so there’s definitely some mixed feelings to be had about it all, particularly on top of experiences like the Governor.
As it goes on, Aaron makes it clear why they’re wanting Rick and the others in their community as they’re people that are still that, but survivors that didn’t turn on each other. Aaron’s in a difficult place to be sure in trying to convince them if his honesty here but he does keep pointing out that if they wanted to kill Rick and the others, they could do it easily enough. Rick’s adamant that none of this is real and that it’s just another trap, but he’s running against a problem where Michonne and some of the others want to find out the truth of it all as part of their own trying to hold onto hope. Rick does say it right in that their way is dangerous in trying to find out what’s going on while his isn’t, and that’s another shift in the kind of dynamic of his leadership. A decent enough group does end up being put together to check out aspects of Aaron’s story, something that makes a lot of sense, though leaving Aaron with Rick makes me cringe just a bit as Rick is still leaning very far towards Shane territory.
While Rick deals with Aaron there, Glenn and the others discover that Aaron is telling the truth about a way to get back to the community he’s talking about and that certainly works in Michonne and Maggie’s favor since they want to believe at this point. There’s a little walker action to be sure, with them all being watched afar from Aaron’s friend, and we continue to get that too good to be true feeling. While we’ve had that before and know how that played out, the potential for it to be good and true is definitely interesting. With this discovery overall, it doesn’t take much for everyone to get on board to going, though it again takes Michonne to be the voice of reason for it to happen, which is what the second half of this season has been about for her so far. Rick is still keeping things in his hands though as his level of distrust is so high, understandably so, and that just makes the whole thing complicated in getting to the community since Aaron only knows how to drive there and he’s trying to protect his people as well.
With the journey going at night along a route that Aaron doesn’t recommend since it hasn’t been cleared, there’s some tense moments along the way that really work well. But then it all goes to hell when the road itself is littered with walkers and the first car just drives through it, turning it from white to red and covered in blood and guts in a really disturbing way. Naturally, the complications just keep going from there since the car doesn’t start up again and the camper went off in a different direction so as to not go through the whole pack of walkers. As it just keeps getting worse and worse, we end up down to just Rick, Glenn and Michonne chasing after Aaron who bugs out after seeing a flare go off, so now it’s just crazy tense in the woods at night with way too many walkers around getting way too close. It’s too soon for another main character to be killed is the only potentially comforting thought here.
When the two groups do finally reconnect in the night, Rick still tense as hell, we get the introduction of Eric, who had seen briefly before, and the reunion with Aaron, which brings us to my knowledge our first gay relationship in the TV series. There’s definitely a decent connection between the two that comes out to light here and there’s an amusing ease between them thats’ good to see. Eric’s spent some time with Maggie and the others so far, so he’s already liking what he’s seen which is amusing in itself. After all the tension, having these two coming across in this way with laughter and lightness is what’s needed to help defuse things a bit, though for Rick that’s not something that happens easily or quickly. Glenn does what he can to try and de escalate Rick a bit, but even that has Rick looking at him in disbelief, that Glenn might actually trust again on some level and that’s almost frightening to him.
After so much time in Georgia and surrounding areas for so long, bringing the show to Alexandria here and getting our first look at Washington DC is definitely tantalizing, especially as they come around a curve and see the Washington Monument, which for Abraham and Rosita has its own meaning considering their lengthy journey from Texas with Eugene. Hope is coming back and it’s a hard thing for some of them to try and grab onto considering how often it’s burned before and for Rick, that’s been the dominating aspect of this episode, which has been a long and natural progression for him with all that’s been going on for him and his group and family here. Michonne and he have some good scenes together throughout this as her own evolution has gone past his and she’s doing what she can to try and guide him along as well.
In Summary:
The Walking Dead has a very good episode here that works to follow up events from the last few and starts to push us towards some actual hope and change for the dynamic overall with what’s coming. We’ve seen a few communities along the way, and there have been some from the comics that didn’t make the transition to the show, but this one is really going to start opening us up to something bigger and more interesting with what’s in store. With Aaron and Eric in the picture now and Rick having to let go of some of his fear and tension, it’ll be interesting to see how they handle discovering what the Alexandria community is like. But the prelude to it is spot on and shows Rick the way he’s been handling things since it all went to hell with the prison and the Governor, which now allows his character to start growing again.
Grade: B+
