[7.3/10] This is the definition of a mixed bag episode for me. It does a lot of the things I ask for from The Walking Dead, and it mostly does them competently, but with a few snags or hiccups that throw me off.
Let’s start with the easiest. I’m one of like twelve people who enjoyed the flashback episode which explored Daryl’s relationship with Leah. I’ll confess to not really recognizing her when she took off her helmet (it had been a while, and she looked a bit different), but it’s a nice thing to have resurface in Daryl’s life and throw him off balance a bit.
That said, while that episode could be on the nose at times, there was subtlety and joy in the pair’s steady path to growing closer. Here, there’s just a bunch of blunt comments and laden exchanges about the two having love and finger-pointing over who left whom. I’m still invested in the two of them, since I find their dynamic intriguing, but their connection here didn’t feel as convincing or lived-in as it did in the prior episode.
Still, I like the idea that Daryl is claiming that he always told Leah the truth, while lying to save his friends. It’s an interesting set of competing priorities that we don’t often see on The Walking Dead. Daryl wants to be emotionally honest with someone he clearly still cares for, but not at the expense of his people. His effort to walk that line makes for a strong, tense idea, and the script and the character find unique ways to toe it. Coming up with new angles for survivors to relate to one another and deal with other crews is always welcome, especially for a show in its eleventh season.
Some of that repetitiveness is what gives me pause, though. The Reapers/Chosen Ones (I think they’re the same thing?) are interesting enough as a concept. There’s a lot of places to take a group of veterans-turned-mercenaries who have become religious fanatics. From their waterboarding Daryl, to one of their leaders speaking in tongues (I think?), to insisting that God himself spared them in the “Valley of Death”, they could be a powerful avenue to make social and religious commentary, particularly given current events.
And yet, they seem very familiar as antagonists despite some differences in their gimmick. Ritchie Coster does good enough work as Pope, the militarized Gandhi-looking leader of the crew. (Hello Civ V fans!) I don’t really buy his southern accent, but he acquits himself solidly playing the true believer who treats his charges with believable love and rough justice. His stunts are a touch absurd, and his monologues are overwritten, but this episode smartly focuses on introducing him, reestablishing Leah, and setting the term for their group.
The catch is that we’ve seen this sort of thing before. Pope isn’t all that different from The Governor, or Savior-era Negan, or Alpha in terms of his presence and style. The grimdark nonsense like torturing Daryl or throwing a subordinate into the fire feels of a piece with Negan doin the same to Daryl and others he suspected of not following his orders. There’s plenty of room to differentiate, and the presence of Leah adds something, but this episode drips with the struggles of trying to do something new and compelling after ten seasons of a particular setting and form of storytelling. At the end of the day, I still like this one well enough. It’s good to explore a new set of players. It’s good to spend a whole episode on it, rather than having to split time with something else. It’s good to see a little bit on how they work and what it takes for Daryl and his allies to fail or succeed in their eyes. But this one never quite finds that extra level of emotion or intrigue, possibly because of good old fashioned overfamiliarity, but also possibly because the execution of these ideas isn’t as great as it could be.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-09-07T22:44:32Z
[7.3/10] This is the definition of a mixed bag episode for me. It does a lot of the things I ask for from The Walking Dead, and it mostly does them competently, but with a few snags or hiccups that throw me off.
Let’s start with the easiest. I’m one of like twelve people who enjoyed the flashback episode which explored Daryl’s relationship with Leah. I’ll confess to not really recognizing her when she took off her helmet (it had been a while, and she looked a bit different), but it’s a nice thing to have resurface in Daryl’s life and throw him off balance a bit.
That said, while that episode could be on the nose at times, there was subtlety and joy in the pair’s steady path to growing closer. Here, there’s just a bunch of blunt comments and laden exchanges about the two having love and finger-pointing over who left whom. I’m still invested in the two of them, since I find their dynamic intriguing, but their connection here didn’t feel as convincing or lived-in as it did in the prior episode.
Still, I like the idea that Daryl is claiming that he always told Leah the truth, while lying to save his friends. It’s an interesting set of competing priorities that we don’t often see on The Walking Dead. Daryl wants to be emotionally honest with someone he clearly still cares for, but not at the expense of his people. His effort to walk that line makes for a strong, tense idea, and the script and the character find unique ways to toe it. Coming up with new angles for survivors to relate to one another and deal with other crews is always welcome, especially for a show in its eleventh season.
Some of that repetitiveness is what gives me pause, though. The Reapers/Chosen Ones (I think they’re the same thing?) are interesting enough as a concept. There’s a lot of places to take a group of veterans-turned-mercenaries who have become religious fanatics. From their waterboarding Daryl, to one of their leaders speaking in tongues (I think?), to insisting that God himself spared them in the “Valley of Death”, they could be a powerful avenue to make social and religious commentary, particularly given current events.
And yet, they seem very familiar as antagonists despite some differences in their gimmick. Ritchie Coster does good enough work as Pope, the militarized Gandhi-looking leader of the crew. (Hello Civ V fans!) I don’t really buy his southern accent, but he acquits himself solidly playing the true believer who treats his charges with believable love and rough justice. His stunts are a touch absurd, and his monologues are overwritten, but this episode smartly focuses on introducing him, reestablishing Leah, and setting the term for their group.
The catch is that we’ve seen this sort of thing before. Pope isn’t all that different from The Governor, or Savior-era Negan, or Alpha in terms of his presence and style. The grimdark nonsense like torturing Daryl or throwing a subordinate into the fire feels of a piece with Negan doin the same to Daryl and others he suspected of not following his orders. There’s plenty of room to differentiate, and the presence of Leah adds something, but this episode drips with the struggles of trying to do something new and compelling after ten seasons of a particular setting and form of storytelling.
At the end of the day, I still like this one well enough. It’s good to explore a new set of players. It’s good to spend a whole episode on it, rather than having to split time with something else. It’s good to see a little bit on how they work and what it takes for Daryl and his allies to fail or succeed in their eyes. But this one never quite finds that extra level of emotion or intrigue, possibly because of good old fashioned overfamiliarity, but also possibly because the execution of these ideas isn’t as great as it could be.