10x05 What It Always Is

[6.1/10] Another episode where The Walking Dead is exploring story ideas I like, but in a way that feels god awful.

There’s something to be said for Negan being free and having to reconcile the man he is with the man he was. But man, the Savior fanboy is a pretty lame device of a character, with too much metatext for my taste. And while I appreciate the show trying to do a vignette here about why Negan isn’t that guy anymore, both Brandon and the mother and son he and Negan encounter are too rapidly introduced and dispatched for any of it to matter. Hell, even Jeffrey Dean Morgan, one of the show’s best actors when it comes to spinning straw into gold, can’t make his scene with the little kid pass muster. I’m intrigued by him intersecting with The Whisperers, but this whole plot feels like someone tried to dramatize a Medium essay about Negan fanboys.

Don’t get me started on the Ezekiel thing. I am, again, intrigued at the idea of someone being killed my a disease in this world that would have been treatable before the fall of civilization. But the “terminally ill former leader guy trying to stay strong” thing is such a cliché, and means another one of my favorite characters is getting kicked off the island. I hope there will be meaning in his eventual goodbye with Carol (and it at least helps explain his suicide thing in the prior episode), but it it’s a stock storyline in a show that’s not shown an ability to elevate those.

We also spend a decent amount of time with Magna here, which has yet to prove a recipe for success. That said, we also spend a lot of time with Daryl and Connie as buddies, which has been one of the more successful things in the new era of the show. I like the opening setup with Kelly losing her hearing and having it put her at risk, but the rescue party business only goes so far. When it’s used to show Daryl and Connie feeling conflicted but protective, it’s interesting. When it’s used for a Magna “burnt out and don’t trust these people” thing, it’s rote.

The same goes for her tortured conversations with Yumiko. You can see the show grasping for something worthwhile in these scenes, of people worrying that they’ll always be looked down upon no matter what they do, a theme that’s suffused this whole season. But Magna’s hastily-delivered backstory about killing her cousin’s killer, and Yumiko’s response, is soap opera cheese.

It doesn't help that Yumiko has basically become the Hilltop leader out of nowhere. That only half-worked with Maggie because we knew the character and knew what she was capable of, and even then, it took a while for it to happen. But here, while I haven’t been as a rapt a viewer of TWD as I once was, I’m not sure I could tell you a single thing about Yumiko as a character beyond the fact that she’s Magna’s partner and a member of last season’s newbie quintet.

We at least get confirmation that the mysterious challenges the good guys’ communities have been facing were, in fact, caused by The Whisperers. I like the implication that Alpha’s plan is to shake things up and show everyone, especially Lydia, that the security and justice that places like Alexandria and The Hilltop and Oceanside claim to provide are a falsehood, in the hopes of shaking her daughter loose from them. The ambiguity was nice to toy around with for a while, but I appreciate how that plan algins with Alpha’s character and seemingly her principles, while secretly betraying a sentimental attachment.

Overall, this is yet another TWD episode that tackles a handful of interesting ideas, but which feels like a chore to get through thanks to some bad writing and bad narrative choices.