9x11 Bounty

[7.8/10] I don’t know when The Kingdom became my favorite part of The Walking Dead, but I do know why. It’s a place of hope, and occasionally even fun. So much of this show is about the grim grind of the new status quo, with little bits of hope and heart peaking through. The Kingdom is one of the few locales where the reverse is true. It is, true to its leader, a place striving for optimism and light, where at times you can see wisps of the darkness creeping in.

That’s what “Bounty” gives its audience when we follow Ezekiel, Carol, Jerry, and their allies on a theoretically simple quest to retrieve a movie theater projector bulb. It is, on the surface, one of the lighter adventures in TWD to date. There is a kickin’ soul soundtrack, replete with Jerry’s fun-as-hell lip-sync and Carol’s sideye. There is a rousing speech from The King himself. And there is the sort of, “I guess I’ll go along with your zany” plan vibe between Ezekiel and Carol that makes this portion of the plot feel a little like a zombified take on Home Improvement.

Except that there’s much more depth here than that. The otherwise light escapade doesn't just give way to an inevitable undead-related complication. The show connects it to a deeper insecurity within Ezekiel. He gives a stirring statement of purpose for the mission, talking about art’s deeper impact. He talks up the way that whimsy and joy are the glue of a community, the things that make children believe what they have is worth preserving and fighting for. He offers one of the best defenses of art’s role in society that I’ve heard.

And yet, it’s masking his own worries. We know that Ezekiel’s mantra is fake it till you make it. But here, we see him hiding his own worries that times are tough for The Kingdom, despite his smile, and that they might have to pack it up and move on. He sees the fair as a backstop against that, the prospect of films and the charter that Michonne once wrote as a chance to make things right again. If he does, “The Bounty” implies that maybe this fragile little lightbulb can help him hang onto what he has, rather than feel like he’s failed again.

That’s where Carol comes in. The post-time jump Carol is different and brighter than the character we knew before, but still practical. She joins the mission because she wants to keep her husband safe, not because she thinks it’s a good idea. She’s reluctant but supportive for most of the way. But then she realizes what it means to her husband and why, and suddenly she becomes the catalyst for seeing things through.

In an episode where she talks about empty nesting, where Ezekiel himself worries about Henry, where we get glimpses of the start and the blossoming of Jerry’s family, “Bounty” is an episode about doing things for the sake of others, particularly for children. Ezekiel wants to inspire the next generation of The Kingdom, to make them love this place like he does, in the hopes that he, and they, can preserve it.

If only the rest of the episode were that good. Instead, “Bounty” also picks things up at The Hilltop, where we get the second half of the stand-off with Alpha. That part too plays with the same themes. Alpha is theoretically making bargains for the sake of her daughter. Connie risks her own life and safety to risk a baby she doesn't even know. Daryl wants to protect Lydia given the understanding from his own abusive childhood. But he eventually gives in for the sake of his two countrymen and the people who love them. Even Henry puts himself at risk to save Lydia, and Enid goes after him in the hopes of being able to save Alden. It’s an episode full of people braving those risks, taking those chances, on behalf of someone they care about.

If only they could do it without Alpha. Look, I don’t want to judge a character too harshly whom we’ve only seen for two full episodes and one stinger, but maaaaaan am I not on board with The Whisperers or their leader. Samantha Morton’s mustache-twirling delivery is pretty awful, at the level of a Power Rangers villain, and I don’t know whether to attribute it to the script, the performance, or the painful southern accent that Morton is attempting.

Then you add in the fact that she’s craven enough to leave a baby to die at her orders. It just seems cartoonishly, over-the-top evil. Unless you’re MASH, I don’t trust you to pull off a mother having to silence her baby in a life-and-death situation, and it comes off tone deaf on a show with a pulpy bent like this one.

Nevermind the fact that, like last week’s episode, the entire standoff leads to another one of those tortured “what do you do when bad things have to happen” moral quandaries. As I’ve said before, shows start repeating themselves by season 9. But we’ve just done so many iterations of the “how do you live with it?” conundrum on The Walking Dead that the dilemma just has no impact anymore.

That said, the episode is buoyed by any number of superb visual sequences with excellent cinematography and sound design. The aforementioned song cue stakeout is bookended by a lovely slow motion zombie fight in the movie theater. It uses that unique soundtrack to put a different spin on the usual hack and slash. The same goes for Connie’s infant rescue and undead escape, which uses point of view shots, stellar sound design, and tight close-ups in the cornfield to evoke Connie’s perception of the world and claustrophobic space to spice up the usual run and hide routine. And the final shots of Ezekiel and Carol, bathed in the light of the rescued projector, standing over the charter that could be a step to something greater, is one of the show’s most evocative.

It’s powerful imagery because in an episode that is self-consciously about living with the bad in the world, it offers that aspirational vision that’s missing so often. We’ve heard time and time again, and been shown over and over, why you shouldn’t let this brutal state of nature change you. But we’re not told or shown enough about people actually finding those reasons and way to go on.

Carol and Ezekiel found each other. They found a balance between the practical and the idealistic. They found a way to match the brash and bombastic with the quiet but deadly. And most of all, they found the support that let’s them plan for when things go wrong, but hope that things might get better. It’s a mixture The Walking Dead so rarely gets right, but which is so invigorating and cheering when it does.

Jerry tells Ezekiel and Carol that he's having a baby. Jesus and Tara find them, exchange goods and leave them with a treaty for all the communities to sign one day in the future. In the present, Ezekiel, Jerry and Carol go out to retrieve a movie projector for their fair. The fight through Walkers and get what they need successfully and return home to the Kingdom. At Hilltop, Daryl approaches Alpha saying he won't hand over Lydia. Alpha reveals she has Luke and Alden and is willing to trade two for one. Daryl goes to find Lydia and she's gotten out of her cell. Outside, one of the Whisperer's baby starts crying and Alpha tells her to leave the child. Connie runs out to save the child and runs through the corn field avoiding the Walkers before Daryl and some others save her. Enid goes to look for Henry and Lydia; Henry is reluctant to hand over Lydia but Lydia decides she must be back with her people. The exchange goes fine and the Whisperers leave. That night, Henry leaves. Daryl reads a note he left behind and goes to find him. Connie offers to join Daryl on his journey. Such an interesting episode as it finally makes one realize how dangerous this world is if you're trying to navigate it deaf. Intense and horrifying to imagine what could have happened to Connien and the baby.

Well, I think this show has a secret agenda against kids. Except for the fact that as a viewer they make fell awful for wanting every every kid that is not a Grimes to begone, this episode they even tried doing it themselved, and with a baby no less (!).
As I said before, I believe that they're trying to express that TWD world is not a place for kids and their viewing of the world. Furthermore, they trying to challenge the moral compass of us the viewers and the adult characters on the show. I know they I love this show because I keep finding myself asking "pffff. What would I do in this situation". It's really easy sitting on a couch and dictating "I don't like him, he ruins everything. They should just kill him in the next episode." Or "she is so stupid for believing it's going to happen".

You can see, that this is exactly the conflicts the show's 'heros' are dealing with, and it's always emphasize that it's sitting hard on them. As an evidence Henry maybe was the one who wrote "I can't live with it" as an answer to Daryl and Enid's phrase, but it appears none of them could.
This is just not the way the logic of a social human beings work. If you give it another thought, it's not that hard to see this "strong survivor" logic as a psychopath's view. And, well, unfortunately a psychopathic logic will probably be quite useful during the zombie apocalypse. And eventually, you'll become just a lone walker too. Maybe not dead, maybe not literally by yourself, but a lone one. Just like the walkers.

Hey, it's just the description of the walkie talkies dudes.
My God, a full circle. (°ロ°)