[7.6/10] This was pretty good! I’ll admit, given that it’s been six months since the penultimate episode of season 10, a lot of the build up to this was pretty fuzzy. But that’s OK! The Walking Dead has always played fast and loose with plot points anyway, so it’s not a big difference!
But this episode had three major set pieces -- each of which was good -- and a paucity of dialogue, which is usually a winning recipe for The Walking Dead. What’s more, each of those three set pieces included some solid character beats, which I approve of.
The first is a collection of our heroes drizzling themselves in viscera to make it through the horde of zombies surrounding their compounds, in the hopes of using a speaker cart to lure them away. You’d think that with all the times this show has had our heroes have to sneak past zombies, this would be old hat. But it was surprisingly tense!
Maybe you can chalk that up to the wrinkle that you had whisperers skulking around within the horde. It adds an extra layer of suspense: not only do the good guys have to hope that the real walkers don’t notice them, they have to hope that no zombie-imitating whisperers emerge from the crowd to shiv them either. The only casualty is Beatrice of Oceanside (who I have some appreciation for given her turn on Agents of Shield), but it’s still a tense escape, replete with Lydia popping out of nowhere to save the day and some cool bow-and-arrow saves from above.
The other big set piece is Gabriel and the kiddos holding off the Whisperers. There as well, there’s a certain tension to Gabriel encouraging the youngins while he and the otters have to barricade the doors to keep the Whisperers from breaking in. He puts up a good fight, and Maggie and her mysterious ninja dude saving the day is a solid beat, even if Maggie’s return is pretty well wasted here.
The final set piece is pretty great too, with the good guys luring the horde away with their speakers, only to get attacked by the Whisperers and have to strike back. I have to admit, there was something strangely great about watching the crew fight walkers and Whisperers to the tune of “Burning Down the House”. I like that Negan got a little moment of redemption in keeping Beta from Lydia, and Daryl’s ensuing kill was solid. Hell, I even thought Beta got a good out, dying happy at fulfilling his purpose in some way. His weird “Jesus of the zombies” routine was at least colorful at the end there.
Lydia and Carol’s moment with luring the remaining zombies off the cliff was solid. I don’t know if they really earned the emotion of the two of them holding one another and crying, but it was a good way for both of them to exorcize Alpha’s death and everything that came with it. That said, the zombies falling off the cliff looked a little janky.
That just leaves the teases, which were both a bit undercooked. Connie being alive is a positive thing, though her running into the guy from Michonne’s misadventures doesn’t do much for me. Eugene and his little strike force running into a phalanx of wannabe Stormtroopers is visually interesting, but it’s more of a prelude than anything solid. (That said, I continue to like Princess as an ingredient in the show’s stew.)
Otherwise, this one works as a somewhat rushed but still quality finale. Maybe I’m projecting, but some of it feels cobbled together, given the production difficulties that made it tougher to finish the season on time due to, ironically, a global pandemic. Still, this works as good pulp, which is about all I ask for from The Walking Dead these days.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-10-06T22:09:59Z
[7.6/10] This was pretty good! I’ll admit, given that it’s been six months since the penultimate episode of season 10, a lot of the build up to this was pretty fuzzy. But that’s OK! The Walking Dead has always played fast and loose with plot points anyway, so it’s not a big difference!
But this episode had three major set pieces -- each of which was good -- and a paucity of dialogue, which is usually a winning recipe for The Walking Dead. What’s more, each of those three set pieces included some solid character beats, which I approve of.
The first is a collection of our heroes drizzling themselves in viscera to make it through the horde of zombies surrounding their compounds, in the hopes of using a speaker cart to lure them away. You’d think that with all the times this show has had our heroes have to sneak past zombies, this would be old hat. But it was surprisingly tense!
Maybe you can chalk that up to the wrinkle that you had whisperers skulking around within the horde. It adds an extra layer of suspense: not only do the good guys have to hope that the real walkers don’t notice them, they have to hope that no zombie-imitating whisperers emerge from the crowd to shiv them either. The only casualty is Beatrice of Oceanside (who I have some appreciation for given her turn on Agents of Shield), but it’s still a tense escape, replete with Lydia popping out of nowhere to save the day and some cool bow-and-arrow saves from above.
The other big set piece is Gabriel and the kiddos holding off the Whisperers. There as well, there’s a certain tension to Gabriel encouraging the youngins while he and the otters have to barricade the doors to keep the Whisperers from breaking in. He puts up a good fight, and Maggie and her mysterious ninja dude saving the day is a solid beat, even if Maggie’s return is pretty well wasted here.
The final set piece is pretty great too, with the good guys luring the horde away with their speakers, only to get attacked by the Whisperers and have to strike back. I have to admit, there was something strangely great about watching the crew fight walkers and Whisperers to the tune of “Burning Down the House”. I like that Negan got a little moment of redemption in keeping Beta from Lydia, and Daryl’s ensuing kill was solid. Hell, I even thought Beta got a good out, dying happy at fulfilling his purpose in some way. His weird “Jesus of the zombies” routine was at least colorful at the end there.
Lydia and Carol’s moment with luring the remaining zombies off the cliff was solid. I don’t know if they really earned the emotion of the two of them holding one another and crying, but it was a good way for both of them to exorcize Alpha’s death and everything that came with it. That said, the zombies falling off the cliff looked a little janky.
That just leaves the teases, which were both a bit undercooked. Connie being alive is a positive thing, though her running into the guy from Michonne’s misadventures doesn’t do much for me. Eugene and his little strike force running into a phalanx of wannabe Stormtroopers is visually interesting, but it’s more of a prelude than anything solid. (That said, I continue to like Princess as an ingredient in the show’s stew.)
Otherwise, this one works as a somewhat rushed but still quality finale. Maybe I’m projecting, but some of it feels cobbled together, given the production difficulties that made it tougher to finish the season on time due to, ironically, a global pandemic. Still, this works as good pulp, which is about all I ask for from The Walking Dead these days.