10x13 What We Become

[7.5/10] I want to like this episode so bad. It does so many things I like: trippy psychedelic moves, “What If?” type stories, putting a great actor at the center of the story. But it’s just one that’s hard for me to warm to. As much as this is the show trying to be avant garde and lean into its more artistic side, so much of what the show does here, it’s already done before. Even filtering it through Michonne, probably my favorite character on the show, doesn't seem like enough to overcome a certain tiredness to The Walking Dead as it repeats itself in its tenth year on the air.

But let's start with the things I liked. I appreciate the message of the episode, however reheated it may seem. The notion that showing mercy to someone gives you peace and strength, while apathy and revenge just turn you into a miserable monster, is a good one. We’ve seen characters on this show face that sort of decision a million times, but it’s still good to see Michonne come out reaffirming the need for compassion, even when she’s haunted by survivor’s guilt and has every reason to kill Virgil.

I also like the idea, if nothing else, of how that was illustrated. I’m a sucker for a good “for wont of a nail” story. So the idea that if Michonne had chosen to just ignore Andrea rather than help her, or if Daryl had chosen not to pick her up, or if Negan had found her before our heroes did, she might have become a brutal monster, is a compelling one. There’s the sense that cruelty and indifference only spawns more of it, and leads you to bad places.

The catch is that I just didn’t get the charge from seeing Michonne’s past recontextualized in the way I might have hoped. Maybe it’s just because it’s been so long, there’s been so many different eddies along the way, that it’s hard to remember a lot of the context around some of these important moments. Maybe it’s just that we breeze through so many of those moments and progress through them so quickly that it’s tough for me to invest in them and the story they tell. Maybe it’s because there’s something about marshaling all those familiar faces that feels a little cheap.

Still, I do like the psychedelic stuff, even if it’s a little easy. The floor going multicolored, the viewing window with Virgil rotating, and particularly the specter of Michonne’s former self as a grim doppelganger were all very effective images. The notion of that angel of death handing Michonne chains once again felt very Dickensian, and I liked Saddiq’s return most of all as it had an intensity to it that worked as Michonne worked through her guilt over the family she’d lost.

Still, a lot of the details in the present didn’t work for me. We’ve seen the crazy guy who lost his family shtick before, and it was a lot better when Morgan did it. The imprisoned people that Michonne couldn’t hear before felt pretty convenient, and her even getting stuck in that cell felt rather contrived.

I’m also conflicted about all of the Rick stuff. Danai Gurira is such a good actress that she totally sells the emotional distress, the changed affect, and the catharsis and anger that comes through all these experiences and discoveries. But man, I am so over Rick as a character at this point, that even the admittedly impactful act of finding signs that someone you love and thought dead might still be alive just landed with a thud for me. Gurira does her best, and it adds stakes to whether she might snap and kill Virgil, but it’s still a bit more ho-hum than me or the show would want.

I also find the show’s excuse to have Michonne go hunting for Rick pretty thin. I know Gurira’s career is having a (richly deserved) moment and she may not want to be tethered to a series entering its eleventh year. But still, the idea that she would leave Judith and RJ behind to go look for someone who’s been gone for six years just doesn't click. The show tries to sell it with Judith telling her to go, but it plays like something borne of availability and necessity rather than choices the characters would make. It’s hard to blame TWD’s writers for that, given how much of that availability is outside their control, but it still doesn't really work.

Still, there's something meaningful about Michonne convincing her new friends not to kill Virgil, starting a new adventure and, when remembering Rick’s kindness to her, showing it to somebody else. The visual shorthand casts it as a deliberate rejection of her descending back into her old ways, slashing her pet zombies as she did once before.

I love what the show’s trying to do here, the message it’s trying to send, and the way it wants to dramatize that. I especially like letting Gurira carry the weight here. But the results are good rather than great, and great is what you want when you’re taking a big swing like this. Ah well.