6x11 Knots Untie

6.5/10. In the distant, far of year of 2008, an ambitious (and ultimately disappointing) game entitled Spore was released. Nicknamed "SimEverything," the game was meant to capture the progress of civilization from single-celled organisms to space-faring intergalactic communities. Part of the idea was to stage the game using that progression, with parts that let your character evolve individually, and eventually form collectives that trade and war with similar neighboring groups on the way to a more united front.

I like the idea of The Walking Dead taking the same path. For several seasons, we've seen the core group of TWD expand and seek stability. In the beginning, it was all about Rick surviving on his own and finding his family. Eventually, on Hershel's farm and afterward, it became about the group, and finding safety and survival in bigger numbers. This continued with more permanence at the prison, which continued the theme of the group finding temporary safety and trying to protect it from enemies both dead and alive.

Then, with the advent of Alexandria, the show began to pivot a bit. It started to tell a story about building civilization back up again, about creating something sustainable for the foreseeable future, not just until the prison fence collapses. Deanna had her ups and downs as a character, but she was the anchor that held this idea in place, and despite the story of whether or not Rick's battle-scarred compatriots could settle in with the very green and sheltered Alexandrians, the conclusion was the two groups becoming one, and building for the future.

Now, with the idea that Alexandria is a more permanent home, a foothold back to civilization, the reveal that there are other, neighboring groups who are also self-sufficient, who trade and war and have, for lack of a better term, international relations with one another, is an interesting development in the expanding scope of the show and the way it's exploring the way the society is rebuilt after the zombie apocalypse. I don't expect the show to continue this trajectory forever necessarily, and its facility with political ideas has been broad and shallow at best, but it's a worthwhile direction to move after the end of the first major Alexandria chapter of the show in "No Way Out."

The future has been very much on the show's mind since the end of that episode, and the theme continues here, especially with Abraham's story, which was the highlight of "Knots Untie." I've gone back and forth on Abraham as a character. There's a distinctiveness about him, obviously in his look, but also in his demeanor that makes him stand out in a series where it feels like a good percentage of the cast is, by fiat, intended to be little more than bland zombie food. And I'll admit that as tired as I grew of his doublespeak in "Always Accountable," there was something irresistibly enjoyable about his turns of phrase here, whether it be his Bisquick/pancakes metaphor, or his galoshes comment, or simply his standard poetic drawl. Having been raised on a steady diet of Whedon and Tarantino, it suckered me in.

But more than that, what I liked about Abraham's story is that it conveyed his conflict and his decision without either making them too explicit or taking refuge in inscrutability. It's clear that for him, Rosita represents the vagabond, just keep moving and fighting ethos that gave him direction in a directionless world after the reaction and deaths of his family in Season 5's "Self Help." And Sasha represents the idea of putting down roots and trusting that things will be steady for a little while. It's clear that Abraham is nervous about the latter idea, that he's hesitant to make himself vulnerable like that once more, in his colorful conversation with Glen about he and Maggie's child. To have a child is to predict some measure of safety and stability in the near future, and that's clearly an idea that he has trouble with.

But then, still recovering from his PTSD, Abraham nearly strangles one of the men from the neighboring camp, and in a moment of recovery later, the man talks about seeing his wife and children, the people in his life that really matter to him. Somewhat conveniently, Abraham himself is nearly strangled later in the episode, and in artful moment, he hears Sasha's voice in that moment of heightened focus, eventually laughs, and leaves Rosita's necklace behind. His decision is made, and as seen in his little crooked smile at Maggie's sonogram, he's willing to look to the future with a measure of hope again.

What kind of future will that be? That seems to be the question at the heart of "Knots Untie". Negan and the Saviors' outpost seems to run on violence, threats, and intimidation. Gregory and Jesus's camp appears far more docile, but it's run by an obvious creep and seems ill-equipped to defend itself. Alexandria appears to be the pragmatic middle ground, with values of community and kindness du jour, and yet as much as the audience is supposed to recoil at the revelation that Negan is essentially running a protection racket against Gregory's group, our heroes are just as willing to step in and receive the same benefits in exchange for taking out that threat.

It's a move that posits Alexandria's value to the wider world being as fighters and strategizers. Rick points out that their value is themselves, their ability to surivive and the fact that they've made it this long while wandering through the desert, so to speak. In her scenes with the uncomfortably slimy, entitled, self-important Gregory, Maggie uses that as her leverage, and puts up their crew as not only the lesser of two evils, but the best chance Gregory has to keep his people together over the longterm.

The execution of all of this is far from perfect. The dialogue is clunky throughout, the ending conflict feels like a contrived and convenient to throw in some more action and move the plot forward in a less-than-organic fashion, and having a guy named Jesus who's constantly trying to keep the peace and find a better way (replete with Rick's crew telling survivors "we're with Jesus") is on the nose in a way that feels like a bit much even for the fairly blunt stylings of this show. To the same end, Maggie's pronouncements that there will be a cost to going to war makes me think that she and her child are likely casualties meant to show some error or guilt for the rest of the group, and her scenes with Gregory didn't necessarily communicate the power or savvy from her that seemed to be intended.

But again, I like the idea that the show is exploring a wider world beyond the walls of wherever Rick & Co. have holed up for a while this time. I like the idea of different groups out there, with different ideas of how to run their collectives and different strengths and weaknesses being measured against one another and forced to do business. The show's attempted this sort of thing before with The Governor, but that was little more than a rote, separate build to an obvious conflict rather than equal civilizations figuring out how to interact with one another. The Walking Dead could go down that same path again in the lead up to the fight with Negan, but as the series seems to be looking to the future, I hope it spends as much time examining where Rick, and his group, and Alexandria fit into the broader landscape of The New World.