“Say Yes”
[rating=2.00]
This week’s episode of The Walking Dead once again relied on the show’s evergreen premise — scavenging for supplies. The primary focus is Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) combing the Georgia countryside for weapons so they have a chance at taking down The Saviors.
It’s vaguely reminiscent of the season three episode “Clear,” which was the same basic premise, if you add Carl (Chandler Riggs) and replace The Saviors with Woodbury. The similarity of these two episodes that seems to bring up the larger issue: Rick is a terrible leader.
For the show’s first five seasons, the group’s survival depended on the plot device that a group of people had to leave their camp, venture out into the unknown, score some canned goods and a few rounds of ammo, then make it back without getting eaten by a horde (or hordes) of zombies. Aside from the season-and-a-half where the group was occupying the abandoned prison, the closest they got to be semi-sustaining was when they attempted to raise pigs for slaughter, which mostly just gave a bunch of people a brain-exploding case of the flu.
That aside, it was the closest Rick and company had come to rebuilding a community before being led to Alexandria by Aaron (Ross Marquand). Of course, Rick’s assimilation into what was then an idyllic, suburban normalcy was a rocky one, with his bearded survivalism at odds with the grossly unprepared and inexplicably sheltered residents holed up behind a wall.
Then, after a sudden uptick in death by both zombie bite and fellow residents, Rick resumed a leadership position, but one that was still predicated on a hunter/gatherer mentality. All of this led up to the group’s clash with The Saviors, who had done far more with their time in the apocalypse than Rick had ever managed.
Sure, their methods may be brutal, constantly threatening communities with death (or worse) while these smaller communities dutifully turn over supplies at regular intervals, the simple act of scheduling was all but a lost art in Rick’s world — unless you count Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) regularly winding his watch, a conversation that goes all the way back to a pitifully vulnerable collection of RVs around a campfire.
Now, with Rick preparing to go to war with The Saviors, he and Michonne once again raid the countryside for any available weapons, part of their agreement with the members of Rhythm Nation to join their fight.
After gleefully grinning their way from one piecemeal acquisition to the next, they run across the apocalypse jackpot: an abandoned amusement park, complete with several undead, but still well-armed, members of the military. While this entire sequence was (I assume) meant to showcase the effortless zombie-killing proficiency of the Richonne the power-couple, it quickly turned into a slapstick-laden fiasco, capped off with the worst CGI deer imaginable.
Seriously, that fucking deer only existed for a momentary fake-out of Rick’s “death” after he fell from his his vantage point on a Ferris wheel. A fake-out where Michonne sees a horde gathered around, tearing away at newly killed flesh, with the thought of her newfound love rendering her completely helpless to the point she dropped her sword.
Of course, Rick was fine. Everyone watching knew Rick was fine (although I can’t begin to explain how much I would’ve loved him dying in such an unceremonious matter), and he leapt out of his hiding place in just enough time to valiantly toss Michonne her sword so the two can finish up the episode’s requisite zombie-killing quota.
The scene, just like the episode that surrounded it, was little more than tensionless filler, culminating with his return to the junkyard to further negotiate the terms of the alliance with Rhythm Nation through their leader’s use of modified baby-talk (just… why?)
It isn’t until the show’s final moments that has Rosita (Christian Serratos), still spouting off her bad attitude to anyone who’ll listen — including a scene with Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) that made no sense whatsoever — who takes off to the Hilltop.
Looking past the fact that every community seems to be a 40-minute walk from the other, Rosita recruits Sasha (Sonequa Martin) for their “one-way ticket” mission to take out Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Hopefully they know better than to just try it with one fucking bullet this time. Though given these characters, that’s in no way a guarantee.
