11x09 No Other Way

[7.1/10] This is one of those Walking Dead episodes that feels like a season finale, except it’s placed randomly in the middle of the season. Or maybe it just exposes the fraud of this being a “final season” split into eight episode chunks. But either way, it’s odd to have this batch of episodes begin with what is, more or less, a climax and capstone to the last batch, with only a quick gesture at the end for what’s to come.

Despite that weirdness, some of this is good. I particularly like the stand-off between our heroes and the Reapers. There’s a good back and forth sense of escalation. Daryl uses Carver as a hostage to try to get Leah and company to clear out without violence. Leah has a sniper who turns the tide in who has the advantage, which makes the good guys (so to speak) vulnerable. Only then, it’s Gabriel behind the sniper rifle, not her man, so Daryl and company are back to having the advantage. And yet, even when Leah and company are ready to clear out, Maggie can’t stand the people who took their land and butchered their friends getting to walk away scot free, and kills as many of them as she can (with Leah escaping with her life, of course).

The tension of the scene works. The twists and turns do a good job of making the stand-off feel exciting. The internal conflicts over how to handle the situation, with Daryl trying to respect that they’re all just trying to protect their people and Maggie out for vengeance and blood for blood have bite to them. It is, once again, convenient that the well-known named characters all escape unscathed, while the random mooks bite the dust. (Though there’s an irony for fans of The Wire that Gabriel helps take out a guy named Carver.) But while it’s not the most amazing thing the show’s ever done, it pays off the Maggie quest and double agent Daryl storylines well.

That said, the action and dialogue in this one is the pits. Maybe I’m just inured to what TWD has to offer on both fronts at this point, but good lord, Daryl saying “choice, just wondering if they even matter” scans like dialogue a middle schooler would right. Throw in the ridiculousness of Negan doing a pocket sand sneak attack and closing with “ding ding” as his action movie bon mot, and you have a recipe for a lot of rough sledding.

At least the stuff with the Reapers matters. Alexandria continuing to deal with the storm should be exciting, but it’s more of the same old zombie fighting we’ve seen a million times by now. The only glimmer of hope is Aaron jumping in to rescue his daughter. There’s emotional oomph to a father putting himself in harm’s way to save his daughter, and the imagery of the underwater walker is pretty cool. But even there, Lydia nigh-magically rescuing him with a conveniently-placed rope seems almost absurd. The storm goes away and the fenceline is fixed off-screen, leaving the whole thing feeling almost perfunctory.

I suppose the point is for the Commonwealth’s pitch to join them to have more appeal since Alexandria’s on hard times, even with Maggie and company returning with a food resupply. It’s good last minute twist, pointing to some seeming benevolence from the crowd Eugene and his crew hooked up with. But I’m already exhausted by the “six months later” chyron that mortgages drama from the future rather than building to it in a natural way. TWD’s already done beaucoup time jumps, so there’s not a lot of juice left in that orange.

It’s also hard to care about the deaths and other departures here. Alden barely had a personality, even if he’s been around for a while, so it’s hard to connect to Maggie’s intense pain over his loss. If you believe Negan won’t be back despite his speech about Maggie always being ready to do what she did to the Reapers, I have a Rick Grimes-supervised bridge to sell you. Carver the Reaper just arrived, and gets one cheesy hallway fight to his name before he’s out. And I’m already exhausted by Gabriel’s spiritual journey, so of course just when he finds someone who might challenge it in an interesting way, Gabe kills them off. Great, more of the same from him, I guess.

All that said, “No Other Way” does that thing The Walking Dead has done over and over again, but still always works on me, at least a little bit. After a season of everyone being separated and put through harrowing challenges, most of the group reunites and hugs it out. Daryl’s reaction to Connie, Maggie embracing her son, all the general merriment and welcoming back is a nice note to play, even if it’s an old favorite.

On the whole, there’s some good material here, chiefly in the stand-off between our heroes and the Reapers and in that warm reunion. But it’s largely sandwiched between a heap of indifferent action and bad dialogue. The potential link-up with The Commonwealth remains an intriguing development, but the time jump nonsense at the end plays as really cheap and takes some of the excitement out of the possibilities. Overall, the mixed bag you’d expect from this show.