6x07 Heads Up

I don't care about the battle for Rick's soul. I just don't anymore. Rick's been good. He's been bad. He's been crazy. He's been sane. He's been all too trusting and all too vicious. Sure, in better hands, there would still be places to take the character, but right now it seems like The Walking Dead has exhausted the possibilities with Rick.

So what we have is a slight rehash of the Ricktatorship that began at the end of Season 2 of the show. Rick trusts his people, and dismisses the Alexandrians. In case you miss the subtlety of that, the episode hammers it home with Mischonne questioning Rick making plans without the help of the folks outside their group and Rick brushes her off, while making it explicit later in the episode when he tells Tara not to risk her life for one of "them."

And of course he gets pushback from Mischonne, from Morgan, from Tara, in addition to little reminders from Deanna and the guy who helps him put up the brace that even if the Alexandrians are still a bit green and naive, they're hopeful, helpful, and willing to learn. The obvious trajectory is that at some point, like the literal walls around their compound, the walls Rick has erected around himself and his ground will come tumbling down, and he will accept that the locals are worthy of his trust and acceptance. But I just can't be bothered to care about it. We've seen him do this dance a dozen times over the course of six seasons, and there's just not enough shades to Rick or Andrew Lincoln's performance to make this go-around stand out.

And hey, Glenn is alive! And just in time to have a tedious discussion about what they're living for with Enid! His survival is a complete and total cheat, that doesn't match up with anything we know about the zombie hordes in this behave. But you know what? It doesn't really bother me. This show has always been remarkably inconsistent with how the walkers function, and has used more than a few narrative loopholes to handwave the survival of important characters. At this point in the series, you're either on board with it or you're not. I'd be lying if I said I liked that tack, but that's what the show is, and I've come to accept it.

What I struggle with more are the endless, repetitive, never-ending conversations between characters about what use there is living in this shattered civilization. Sure, Enid's feelings are completely justified and motivated by what she's been through, but just like Rick, we've seen distraught and fatalistic characters so many times that just having those same sentiments come from a young girl without anything to distinguish them doesn't render them new or different. It just makes them a dull rehash with a new, preteen coat of paint.

Thankfully there's Lennie James as Morgan to raise the quality of the episode with the quality of his acting alone. Morgan joins other characters like Mischonne and Carol as being able to convey a conflicted and compelling inner life even when the characters aren't vocalizing their thoughts, or worse yet, are having to spit out the show's frequently clunky dialogue. Lennie James portrays Morgan's inner turmoil so convincingly--a man caught between the philosophy that saved him from madness and the necessities of the moment--that it elevates any episode he's in.

By the same token, Carol has less to do, but her brief conversation with Jesse's son Sam was also quietly revealing of Carol's own concerns about whether she's turned into a monster, whether she's hewed too far toward hardness she embraced after the deaths of her husband and daughter, of what she believes is required to survive in the new world. It's a character beat the show touched on in "JSS", and Melissa McBride does a great job at selling both Carol's steely determination and her silent self-questioning.

Then there's Ron, who has been very blatantly set up by the show to be seeking revenge against Rick and Carl, and the show all but attaches a flashing neon sign to that effect in this episode. I don't particularly care for Ron. The kid has Dawson's Creek-level acting skills and his storyline is a little too written-on-the-screen for my tastes.

But it does have one interesting angle to it. The Grimes boys almost have it coming. I'm not saying they deserve to be shot or killed or anything, but Carl acts like a superior prick during the shooting lesson, whether he means to or not, and Jesse was right when she told Rick that it's overstepping his bounds to take a paternal role with Ron after he killed Ron's father, whether or not Rick means well or Ron's dad deserved it. If there's one interesting new place the show could take with Rick, it would be to make him an out-and-out villain, but this is, sadly, the closest we're likely to get.

The episode touches on other stories here and there. Rosita goes drill sergeant on Eugene at the Alexandria machete class in a scene that was fairly cliche but at least dovetailed with the episode's theme of why we live and why we fight. Father Gabriel's cold war with Rick continues, and is sure to come to some kind of head--perhaps as the focal point of RIck's inevitable turn to learning to trust others (including the Alexandrians) again--but for now just sits in the background. Denise is growing in confidence in her medical practice, and the feint toward her helping Morgan with her skills as a therapist has promise. And Maggie stands vigil for Glenn, just in time for the lead into the next episode.

But this is a scattershot episode of The Walking Dead. It's squarely average for what this show is in its sixth season. There's still a bit of the bad, a bit of the good, and a lot of the middling and repetitive. It's a slower, workmanlike episode, with the only major fireworks being Spencer's little jaunt. It didn't give us much insight into the character, but instead circled around the theme of finding a reason to live and finding the people to do it with. Unfortunately, those are themes the show has hit more than a few times over the years, and it doesn't have much more to say at this point.

Yay! Glenn is alive! Good to know that being positive paid off LOL. Okay, seriously now, I like how they made Glenn escape from his demise by crawling under the dumpster, and kudos to the director because I really had a sense of being in a very small and confined space.
I can see how from now on Glenn and Maggie will be taking care of Enid in a fostering way, but she is an annoying character. Yeah, yeah, she lost everything and had to live by herself for all that time, but still her rebel teenage act got old when she was still living in Alexandria.
Which brings me to Alexandrians, good to see that some of them are trying to learn how to defend themselves, and I also liked seeing Tobin talking to Rick asking him not to give up on them, but c'mon they give one step ahead and 500 back. Spencer was ridiculously idiotic! Even though he meant well, but still an idiot! Ron is another moron! And now Denise is going to help out that guy because Morgan asked her?!?!?! UGH!!! STUPID people that really shouldn't be alive.
And Morgan is pushing it... I get his "all life is precious" which was beautifully shown in 6.04, but it's like Michonne said, it's a too simplistic thought that didn't even apply before the world went to hell. And now not only he is keeping one of the bad guys inside the walls, but also is going to waste medication with him!?!? The same guy that showed no remorse at all for his actions?!?! Saint Morgan is in a serious need of getting hit in the head by the hard cold reality.
I have to say that I LOVED Tara giving Rick the finger LMAO He was kind of rude even though I do think he was right in what he said... but then again it's like she said, they do look out of themselves and she should know being one of the latest addition to the group.
It's time for Eugene to step up too!