10x06 Bonds

[7.8/10] This episode gives us four stories, and each of them is pretty good! I’ll take it!

My favorite of them is the Eugene story of searching for connection at a desperate moment and finding it in the form of his new Skype girlfriend. It seems obvious that this is a ploy by whomever he’s speaking to on the other end. That said, I like how the show dramatizes his loneliness through him trying to get others to interact with him, especially after Rosita burned the romantic bridge with him. His efforts to communicate with his radio girl are sweet but sad, and Josh McDermitt does a great job of selling the character’s inner life and turmoil through all of this.

You also can’t go wrong with a Carol/Daryl pairing. The setup, of these two who have shared so much and care so much about one another, while also having a hint of mistrust for one another given recent events, is superb. Their mission to track The Whisperers, with Carol wanting to take out Alpha, and Daryl worried about starting a war, makes for a nice conflict. But better yet, I really enjoy the scenes where they’re just sitting and talking. For however much trouble this show has when it defaults to overwritten two-person conversations, it’s not a problem with Carol and Daryl, who have such a natural rapport that you almost can’t mess it up.

I’m intrigued about where they’re going with it though. The prior mentions of New Mexico feel like the show gesturing toward a potential spin-off centered on the series’ two most longstanding characters. And I may be out on a limb here, but it seemed like the unspoken subtext of the pair’s conversation regarding Daryl and Connie is that Daryl is carrying a torch for Carol, unwilling to do anything that would break their bond. This duo are the two I’m most invested in for the whole series (give or take Michonne), so color me fascinated to see where things are headed with them, with or without their Whisperer hostage.

Hell, I even enjoyed our interlude with The Whisperers this week. As Beta notes repeatedly, Negan’s loquaciousness makes for a weird mix with a group whose very name means speaking softly. But I enjoy his initiation routine here. It’s not perfect. There’s a little too much of Negan’s old, crass dialogue at play, and you just know that this whole thing is a scheme for him to ingratiate himself to the Whisperers before he turns on them to save the good guys. But I still enjoyed the montage where he’s forced to do harsh Whisperer labor and clashes with the gruff, skeptical Beta. The return of a faux Savior-era Negan isn’t something I particularly welcome, but I do like his inherent tension with Beta and the implicit plot to bring the “skin freaks” down from the inside.

Last but not least, I like Siddiq’s story here too. I’ll admit, I don’t really know where they’re going with the PTSD angle, but the sound design and visual shift when he goes from looking into his daughter’s eyes to fearing a walker attack is really good. I’m not enthused by the prospect of the show reviving some kind of love quadrangle shtick with Rosita, but I do like the prospect of Alexandria being threatened by a bug (one somehow sent by The Whisperers?) with Siddiq at the center a la Herschel at the prison. Plus, Dante and his “discount Ryan Reynolds” routine has really grown on me over the course of six episodes.

Overall, I’m still skeptical as to where this season’s headed, but this episode was a big step in the right direction.