Another episode that has 10 mins of usefulness & 50 mins of nonsense taking. Boring. I hope episode 3 is better.
I actually really liked this episode. Maggie's storyline is very interesting, Darly is having lots of plots so far and we are finally seeing all the characters having interactions again. Also, it's so good that they are putting the zombies as a threat again, because The Walking Dead is still about zombies, but since season 7 became the Negan show. So, thank god they are making this show about the dead again. But I need to say, I agree with Darly and Maggie. Not everyone can be saved. Rick and Michonne have to understand that. Not every one out there can be redeemed. Some can, some don't and they can't save everyone. It's about time Rick understands that.
YAY for weirdos in love!!
Whoa.... Negan just reminded Rick he's still his little bitch! Freaking awesome! One scene, and the character still shattering Rick's dream in two phrases loooooool! It was worth the wait!
[7.1/10] You don’t get much truth and reconciliation on television. The current form is setup for conflicts to end with an exclamation point and then move onto the next thing, even with serialized storytelling. Maybe you’ll get half an episode or so to reflect on where you’ve been, let things settle, but rarely do T.V. shows undertake the hard work of showing how people come back from those big conflicts, how life is able to get back to normal without the aid of a time jump or quick line of exposition or a blind return to the status quo.
Kudos, then, to The Walking Dead for not just sweeping everything under the rug after The Saviors have been defeated. The war with Negan was arguably the biggest arc that the show had even undertaken, and the fact that the fallout isn’t swift, that relations are not miraculously hunky dory, and that our heroes are having to figure out how to forgive and move forward after all of that is laudable.
That’s the major theme of “The Bridge,” which asks what’s the path by which people make things right, which lets societies move on, after a transgression. The most personal of these is Maggie’s who keeps the man who tried to kill her locked up after the events of the last episode. The show tugs at your heart strings a bit, showing his wife cajolling and begging Jesus to let her see him. When he tells her that he can’t under Maggie’s orders, she says that Maggie can’t take away her rights.
It’s an interesting choice of phrase, especially in an episode where Maggie goes back and forth with Michonne over whether there can be some set of common laws for their little collective of communities. Thus far in The Walking Dead, there hasn’t been much talk of laws. There hasn’t really been the time or security for it. Sure, we’ve had councils and the equivalent of verbal war treaties, and dibs-based groups, but the world of the show has been one of expediency, where decisions are made by those whom the people will lead on a case-by-case basis.
That’s no way to run a society though. Societies need more predictability. Societies need more protection. And societies need ways for people to pay their debts and earn second chances. “The Bridge” doesn't pretend that these things come easy, but it shows a penitent blacksmith, who takes the blame for his actions, and who wants a path to forgiveness, to become a full citizen again, with no system in place to decide whether or not he deserves one.
That’s complicated by the fact that he has a skill The Hilltop badly needs. He can fix the plow, which could let them grow their crops and increase their yield, which could let them help feed The Sanctuary, which could strengthen their workers to help rebuild the bridge, and so forth and so forth. That’s what adds a new wrinkle to the considerations of what it takes to recover here: what do you do when someone has done wrong, but you need them?
That’s the issue that Rick, Daryl, Carol, and others debate with regard to The Saviors as a whole, exemplified by one Shane-resembling brute. The former Saviors do not necessarily blend easily into the larger group. The brute is rough with Henry, gets into scraps with Daryl (that Daryl is far from blameless for), and mouths off to Rick. As a group, plenty of them are going AWOL, even if the show implies that there’s a more sinister cause than desertion. The integration of Negan’s subjects into this society has been a rocky one.
But they also outnumber the rest of the survivors. The brute is strong, and his work is good. If Rick is going to make good on his much ballyhoo’d promise of a better tomorrow, he needs to bring them into the fold, and that means looking the other way when they cause trouble, when the transition isn’t as smooth as everyone would like.
That path is just as fraught though. There’s a sense of optimism but also Pollyanna-ism to Rick about this. He’s too focused on the idea of the immediate goal -- build the bridge, feed the people -- that he might be missing the cracks in the foundation. He may send the brute away, but he brushes off when one former Savior warns him about what’s going on with his countrymen. He and Daryl can’t seem to talk about how hard it is for Daryl to accept these new people, to believe that they could be a part of that better tomorrow. Even Negan, in a fairly cheesy pronouncement, declares that all Rick’s doing is building a monument to the end of the world.
That’s the thing about “The Bridge”. As much as I’m intrigued by the ideas that The Walking Dead plays with here, there’s a lot of the show falling back into its old habits. Every notion in the episode is conveyed by a pair of characters having some heavy-handed one-on-one conversation. Negan and Rick in particular have the same basic type of exchange they’ve had ten times over already. And we end up with another fairly contrived zombie attack, because amid the doldrums of the usual colloquies, you have to show people being eaten to keep the action quotient up.
Granted, while contrived as all hell, the “logrolling for walkers” routine skates by on sheer coolness. The special effects team deserves credit for finding creative ways to crush zombies after all these years. And the sequence delivers the most intense and tension-filled moments in the episode, when Enid (who’s been apprenticing with Siddiq) has to amputate Aaron’s arm and cauterize the wound. It ends up being more fuel for the fire of Daryl’s enmity for the brute and the Saviors in general, but it feels earned in a way much of the rest of the episode doesn't.
That said, the show does earn its change of heart from Maggie. Sure, when she goes to talk to the blacksmith, it results in a long, writerly monologue about why he drinks and the grief of his situation. But the whole time I was watching I thought to myself, “Hershel drank! There was a whole episode about it!” And the show remembered it! It used that fact (a little bluntly) to justify Maggie finding a way to grant some clemency, to understand someone. That is, for once, the show using continuity to motivate and justify character decisions, and it really strengthens an otherwise somewhat stock story.
It also points a way forward for the show. Reconciliation is not going to come easy. In addition to whatever is lurking in the woods and nabbing people, in addition the hordes of man-eating monsters that lurk around each corner, there is the danger that comes from one’s fellow man, from scarcity, from need, that threaten to cause divisions and hatred among the faithful.
And yet there’s also joy and comfort and peace. At some point, it starts to feel like the show is going overboard in trying to pair everyone off (a malady affecting plenty of long-running shows). But it gives us those moments of happiness. Every main character has been through the worst the world can throw at them, and managed to find something worth hanging onto on the other side. That’s not a panacea to the problems that arise when you’re building a new society out of a civil war, but it’s something to hang onto, a way to understand when others falter, and still hope that there can be something better on the other side.
Rick works to get everyone to help restore the bridge. A plan to keep a herd of walkers away goes sideways and as a result, Aaron loses his forearm and is amputated (like Rick was in the comics). Tensions are high with the Savoirs, Maggie has a change of heart and odd romances start up. Am I the only one excited for the Whisperers to come into the show?? How else would the Saviors have gone missing?
Even though this episode was good I have a bad feeling about this season. Already the Saviors have to much attention, the dialogue with Negan was great but it gives me the chills thinking about going back to the whole "we are all Negan" BS. I really really hope that's not going to be a thing again!
Daaaaame. That moment when Daryl went "sshit, hold ma' beer" and double knifed the zombies. Woo, sweet baby Hershel that was awesome. Norman Reedus for the Wolverine reboot (only if HJ doesn't want it back of coarse).
2nd episode and already someone familiar got amputated.
Extra credit for the zombie bowling.
Is it just me, or since the rumors of the whisperers to be in this season, every time you see a Walker you're getting closer to the screen and try paying extra attention?!
I like the road the show decided to - walk in -. I like the internal conflicts they're go through because it's making me think what I would do.
"You're not saving the world, Rick.
You're just getting it ready for me."
The way togetherness and leadership (Rick) are expressed in 'The Bridge' is a little cheesy but overall, the episode is good and shows more signs that Angela Kang, the brand new showrunner, is taking this season in a much better direction than the last.
This season has already done very well with introducing new characters and romantic relationships (Carol and Ezekiel really works), and this episode spends a lot of time building these, but that's not all. There's some action and certainly some tension too. Zach McGowan (Jody from Shameless) had a huge role in this episode and the whole thing managed to jump through different locations and characters without seeming messy. The main shock would be Aaron getting his arm amputated, but my personal favourite scenes were the alcoholic prisoner at the Hilltop, and the conversation between Rick and Negan (where the episode peaks).
Not as strong as last week's premiere, but a good episode that felt worthy of my time.
I don't care how Eugene came around in the final hour. He still turned against the team and should be let go. I don't trust him.
The lengths Rick will go to prove a point to Negan is scary. The savior that took a shot at Daryl should be dead, not free.
I have more faith in my earlier prediction that Negan will breakout of jail and take control of the remaining saviors.
I'm definitely loving all the interracial relationships that are happening!
Shout by DeletedBlockedParent2020-03-27T02:46:40Z
Having read the comic this does not surprise me. However, I want to know what direction it is going to take.