The Walking Dead: Time for After

December 5, 2017 1:17 PM - Season 8, Episode 7

Negan has to enlist the help of his lieutenants in solving a huge issue facing the Sanctuary; Rick and the group continue to enact the plan.
posted by LizBoBiz (2 comments total)

This was the best episode of the season so far and while that is the very faintest of praise I would be happy if they continued along this path. There were stakes, problems, attempts at creative solutions to those problems, setbacks, some character development and a few action pieces. That’s what we want. That’s all The Walking Dead needs to give us to make us happy.

It has not escaped my attention that once again my enjoyment of an episode has a measurable inverse relationship to how much Rick and/or Carl is in it. It was nice to focus on Eugene; he works well in solve-the-puzzle stories and the poor decisions that he sometimes makes usually feel true to his characterization. Characters not being written consistently is probably always going to be part of the price of admission for this show (Rosita declaring her faith in Rick this episode felt particularly unearned), so I appreciate it when they get a character right. Even Negan worked better this episode; they backed off some from his usual routine of being vaguely menacing and bafflingly crude and instead showed us a guy who you could imagine people actually following. You’d still have to have a generous imagination, but it was a vast improvement on the guy we had been shown thus far.

Also, it was nice to see them finally acknowledge that covering yourself in rotting human entrails is a good way to get yourself really, really, really sick. It remains on the table in the event that the alternative is getting eaten alive in an otherwise hopeless situation, but I appreciate them showing why people do not walk around wearing walker guts at all times.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 1:55 PM on December 5, 2017 [5 favorites]

At the end of the previous episode I was annoyed by Daryl and Tara apparently having a plan to break into Sanctuary to kill Dwight, possibly ruining Rick's plan. I was gratified to learn that 1) It wasn't just to kill Dwight, it was to force a quicker surrender by the Saviors, which makes sense and was established by Daryl wanting to use the explosives in an earlier episode; and 2) Both Rosita and eventually Michonne decided it was too risky and tried to talk Daryl out of it. Looking forward to finding out next week whether the walkers vanishing from around Sanctuary was a direct or indirect result of Daryl and Tara's push.

On the other hand, Rick's plan of walking into the Scavengers' lair alone looked stupid before and still looks stupid now, which makes it infuriating that it worked. But since Jadis is my current favorite character, I'm glad to have her in the mix again. She seems to be the only surviving person who still makes art, she's unapologetic about wanting to bang a guy that she's thrice attempted to kill, she doesn't mince words (she hardly even uses them), and she doesn't give a fuck about anything. Jadis for post-apocalyptic queen of America!
posted by ejs at 10:27 AM on December 7, 2017