11x13 Warlords

[6.5/10] I admire the structure here. Writing an episode where you start off in one place, go back a week to play the “This is what really happened!” card, go back even further to play the “No, this is what really happened!” card, and then jumping back and forth in the timeline even more to try to tie it all together for the present is a tricky business. “Warlords” doesn’t quite pull it off, but there’s ambition there, which I can appreciate.

But ultimately it’s a gimmick, and the story told isn’t particularly exciting even if you chop it up into pieces like that. I’ve run out of interest in the likes of Maggie, Aaron, and Gabriel, so maybe it’s just who’s in focus here. Still, we’ve done this “Reach out to another camp, and it turns out they’re assholes” kerfuffle so many time that it’s lost all meaning.

Though hey, Michael Biehn joins Robert Patrick in 1980s action tough guys who joined The Walking Dead just to meet their untimely deaths in a single episode. He’s the best part in this, as he breathes life into the same sort of jerkass camp leader we’ve met a hundred times at this point. He’s scary and intimidating, in a way that makes his big scene tense despite the fact you just know our guys are getting out unscathed.

All that said, I like the twist here. Aaron and Gabriel believing they’re on a mission of mercy, only to find out they’re stalking horses for an ex-CIA assassin to ply his trade, only for the audience to find out he’s been put up to it by Hornsby as part of the shady, off-the-books shit Lance is involved with is a decent rug-pull. The problem is that Carlson is a stock military nutter, and the actor who plays him doesn’t have Biehn’s experience to make him more than that with the performance.

It’s a shame because it didn’t have to be like that. Carlson would be a lot more interesting as someone more like Mercer, who genuinely doesn’t want to revert to his assassin roots but feels compelled to like the other addiction he can’t resist. Instead, he’s a cheesy, snarling bad guy who dispenses cruelty for the sake of cruelty and flattens the ethics of the situation.

Nevermind the fact that of course we run into Negan again, who just happens to be affiliated with the camp that the Hornsby’s goons are attacking. I like Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and the rules of television gravity said Negan was going to enter our heroes’ orbit again sooner rather than later, but it still smacks of convenience. Him showing up and being the hidden force that freed Gabriel was the part where it became one twist too many.

All that said, I like it as a wake-up call for Aaron and Gabriel, who seemed to find their place working with The Commonwealth. Aaron is back to helping people with invitations to join the community. And Gabriel’s homily is genuinely moving, to the point where he seems to have found comfort in his faith again. The two of them realizing that the people they’re in bed with are just as crappy and blood-thirsty as the other bad crews they’ve come across works as the scales falling, even if the nature of The Walking Dead makes it seem inevitable to the audience.

We also get to see Maggie’s parable in action. The whole idea of toughing it out to preserve your independence and not get in with the bad people just because times are hard is a little pollyanna. Still, her story about Hershel letting feed rot rather than accept the help of corporate types, let alone sell to them, because then they know you need it, comes to fruition here.

The Commonwealth has been leaving MREs for Michael Biehn’s crew as a goodwill gesture. Aaron even brings it up when Biehn gets suspicious and jumpy. What would they have to gain? But those “gifts” turn out to be part of a trojan horse, to get the right folks in the crew’s doors so that they can take it down from the inside. Maggie’s worried about the same thing, and even if the speeches are too heavy-handed here, and ignore how genuinely, desperate their situation seems to be, I can appreciate the parallel.

Overall, the nonlinear gimmick here can’t save some cheap storytelling, but there’s material worth salvaging from the wreckage of it all.