SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Sunday's episode of The Walking Dead, don't read any further!
What started off as a seemingly calm episode of The Walking Dead quickly escalated into one of the most gruesome in the show's entire six season run. I wholeheartedly was expecting a slow-paced character driven episode focusing predominately on the show's secondary cast in Alexandria, especially after the show's cinematic season premiere. I was pleasantly surprised that the action-packed opening spilled over into the second episode.
What did you think of Sunday's episode? Talk the Walk. zombiewalker
What started off as a seemingly calm episode of The Walking Dead quickly escalated into one of the most gruesome in the show's entire six season run. I wholeheartedly was expecting a slow-paced character driven episode focusing predominately on the show's secondary cast in Alexandria, especially after the show's cinematic season premiere. I was pleasantly surprised that the action-packed opening spilled over into the second episode.
The Wolves Are Here: After several episodes without a wolf sighting, they finally made their brutal appearance known in Alexandria. They were the ones responsible for setting off the horn in last week's final minutes and out of no where they just started hacking away at the innocent and defenseless citizens of the safe zone. There was no rhyme or reason for the wolves actions and few of them even spoke except to say that the Alexandrians "didnt belong here." I think that the wolves are so far gone because of the events of the post-apocalypse that they have become completely unhinged from reality and have been driven to insanity. The extreme of what some of our protagonists have been able to recover from. Furthermore, those words of not belonging represent that in order to survive in the world, one must be utterly and totally insane. Interestingly enough, I kept thinking of Nick's words from the season finale of Fear the Walking Dead that everyone is finally catching up to the insanity that he was experiencing due to his drug addiction.
Anarchy: If the Alexandria safe zone represents civilization at its best, then the wolves represent anarchy. The wolves clearly don't care about anything or anyone which is why they went on a killing spree to eradicate the rest of humanity. I feel that the purpose that drives them is to end what began with the walker apocalypse. For them, the only ones that should be left are the lawless and the insane because only these kinds of people can survive in this type of world.
Carol is a Ninja: Carol was left behind to defend Alexandria in the wake of Rick's plan to get rid of the hordes of walkers threatening to take down their newly acquired sanctuary. She quickly dropped her facade and went full on ninja, killing every wolf she came in contact with even donning a disguise to do so. Like a sheep in wolf's clothing, Carol hacked away at the hackers single handily saving the town. What was interesting about Carol in this episode is how she was juxtaposed to Morgan's character who was close enough to the town to assist in tacking their community back. He refused to stoop to her level of killing, letting a few wolves escape. I feel like this will come back to bite our survivors as he has left them open for future attacks. It is unclear though as to whether his final encounter with one of the wolves led to his first human kill. The show cut to black and were left hanging as to whether or not he committed murder. In the show's final moments, Maggie and Deanna walk back into town walking past several bodies. The question on their minds MUST be how will they recover? can they recover? Who I felt the most sorry for had to be Aaron who found his backpack that went missing several episodes back with one of the deceased wolves. In the backpack was a map of Alexandria and a whole bunch of pictures that he had taken. Is he responsible for leading the wolves straight to their gate?
Mother of the Year: Jessie, who struggled throughout this episode to protect her children and bond with eldest son after Pete's death went mama bear on one of the walkers, killing the intruder with a pair of her hair cutting scissors. She kept stabbing away as her eldest son stood by watching in absolute horror. Is Jessie starting to understand Rick's motivations? I see a future relationship blooming between those two and it would cause the perfect amount of tension for her and her children being that Rick killed their father. It will also undoubtably cause some drama for Carl since he seems to be in an adolescent love triangle with Jessie's son and Enid. Speaking of Enid...
JSS: The title of tonight's episode was also the message that Enid kept writing everywhere as we finally got her backstory. We finally got to understand why she seems so messed up - she witnessed her parents brutally getting eaten by walkers and then she was forced to wander for weeks on end, all alone before winding up at Alexandria. She even had to eat a turtle. I hate it when they kill animals on The Walking Dead. That scene was just as upsetting as the horse scene from season one and the dog death on Fear the Walking Dead. Since Enid lost the only people she ever loved, she refuses to get close to anyone including Carl, whom she left behind by the episode's end, leaving him a note that revealing what JSS stands for, "Just Survive Somehow." No doubt the motto she's been living since her parents were killed. I have a sneaking suspicion though that Enid's story is far from over and there's more to her story. For starters, her departure coincidentally coincided with the wolves' exit from Alexandria. Is she a wolf? That's my theory anyway.
Anarchy: If the Alexandria safe zone represents civilization at its best, then the wolves represent anarchy. The wolves clearly don't care about anything or anyone which is why they went on a killing spree to eradicate the rest of humanity. I feel that the purpose that drives them is to end what began with the walker apocalypse. For them, the only ones that should be left are the lawless and the insane because only these kinds of people can survive in this type of world.
Carol is a Ninja: Carol was left behind to defend Alexandria in the wake of Rick's plan to get rid of the hordes of walkers threatening to take down their newly acquired sanctuary. She quickly dropped her facade and went full on ninja, killing every wolf she came in contact with even donning a disguise to do so. Like a sheep in wolf's clothing, Carol hacked away at the hackers single handily saving the town. What was interesting about Carol in this episode is how she was juxtaposed to Morgan's character who was close enough to the town to assist in tacking their community back. He refused to stoop to her level of killing, letting a few wolves escape. I feel like this will come back to bite our survivors as he has left them open for future attacks. It is unclear though as to whether his final encounter with one of the wolves led to his first human kill. The show cut to black and were left hanging as to whether or not he committed murder. In the show's final moments, Maggie and Deanna walk back into town walking past several bodies. The question on their minds MUST be how will they recover? can they recover? Who I felt the most sorry for had to be Aaron who found his backpack that went missing several episodes back with one of the deceased wolves. In the backpack was a map of Alexandria and a whole bunch of pictures that he had taken. Is he responsible for leading the wolves straight to their gate?
Mother of the Year: Jessie, who struggled throughout this episode to protect her children and bond with eldest son after Pete's death went mama bear on one of the walkers, killing the intruder with a pair of her hair cutting scissors. She kept stabbing away as her eldest son stood by watching in absolute horror. Is Jessie starting to understand Rick's motivations? I see a future relationship blooming between those two and it would cause the perfect amount of tension for her and her children being that Rick killed their father. It will also undoubtably cause some drama for Carl since he seems to be in an adolescent love triangle with Jessie's son and Enid. Speaking of Enid...
JSS: The title of tonight's episode was also the message that Enid kept writing everywhere as we finally got her backstory. We finally got to understand why she seems so messed up - she witnessed her parents brutally getting eaten by walkers and then she was forced to wander for weeks on end, all alone before winding up at Alexandria. She even had to eat a turtle. I hate it when they kill animals on The Walking Dead. That scene was just as upsetting as the horse scene from season one and the dog death on Fear the Walking Dead. Since Enid lost the only people she ever loved, she refuses to get close to anyone including Carl, whom she left behind by the episode's end, leaving him a note that revealing what JSS stands for, "Just Survive Somehow." No doubt the motto she's been living since her parents were killed. I have a sneaking suspicion though that Enid's story is far from over and there's more to her story. For starters, her departure coincidentally coincided with the wolves' exit from Alexandria. Is she a wolf? That's my theory anyway.
What did you think of Sunday's episode? Talk the Walk. zombiewalker
