This episode kinda shows up abruptly. I even forgot that Tara and Heath were going outside.
Tara is an underdeveloped character; while it might be a nice idea to give her some spotlight, giving a whole episode to her seems a bit too much. I get the impression that this episode tries to do two things: 1) playing the allegory on what is necessary and what is evil (as seen through the Heath and Tara dialogue at the beginning of the eps and Cyndie and Tara later) on WD's apparently moral dilemmas; 2) setting up new community for a backup army against Negan later. However I feel like it doesn't get it right.
The former, to me, is presented in a rather in-your-face way, as if the audience isn't smart enough to realize it. Even more, this problem is brought up to the screen without the necessary buildup. It seems like something's lingering in the character's head but not in audience's. As for the latter, while I think showing this up sooner is better than jotting them up randomly in the heat, I'm not sure how would the series handle it with the already too many communities present at the same time. Each we have seen only the surfaces, with its superficial character (Kingdom being feudalistic and Hilltop being gullible). The challenge would be how to present those as a real, thriving community, not just bunch of people who gather in one spot for the sake of plot progression. This episode itself seems to be already showing this superficiality: look at how the conflict is managed about Tara's coming to the community. People were getting along together so quickly (offering her a place just because she spared someone's life there? While still being deeply suspicious?), conflict is resolved only by a handful of people so quickly.
With only two episodes left for this season, I'm not sure where it's going, but I hope it would still be enough before we go to the main event in Season 8.
Review by Pradipa PRBlockedParentSpoilers2016-12-01T17:26:16Z
This episode kinda shows up abruptly. I even forgot that Tara and Heath were going outside.
Tara is an underdeveloped character; while it might be a nice idea to give her some spotlight, giving a whole episode to her seems a bit too much. I get the impression that this episode tries to do two things: 1) playing the allegory on what is necessary and what is evil (as seen through the Heath and Tara dialogue at the beginning of the eps and Cyndie and Tara later) on WD's apparently moral dilemmas; 2) setting up new community for a backup army against Negan later. However I feel like it doesn't get it right.
The former, to me, is presented in a rather in-your-face way, as if the audience isn't smart enough to realize it. Even more, this problem is brought up to the screen without the necessary buildup. It seems like something's lingering in the character's head but not in audience's. As for the latter, while I think showing this up sooner is better than jotting them up randomly in the heat, I'm not sure how would the series handle it with the already too many communities present at the same time. Each we have seen only the surfaces, with its superficial character (Kingdom being feudalistic and Hilltop being gullible). The challenge would be how to present those as a real, thriving community, not just bunch of people who gather in one spot for the sake of plot progression. This episode itself seems to be already showing this superficiality: look at how the conflict is managed about Tara's coming to the community. People were getting along together so quickly (offering her a place just because she spared someone's life there? While still being deeply suspicious?), conflict is resolved only by a handful of people so quickly.
With only two episodes left for this season, I'm not sure where it's going, but I hope it would still be enough before we go to the main event in Season 8.