Self Help

Honestly, I wasn't really feeling this week's episode of The Walking Dead that much. It was decent enough, I suppose, and (though you'll probably get tired of me saying this) better than the Governor stretch. But it had a number of strikes going against it.

First, the timing of it seemed bad to me. Two weeks ago, we were left with a cliffhanger about Daryl returning to the group at the church. Last week, were left with a cliffhanger about Beth at the hospital, and Carol's arrival there. And while I do of course understand that the writers want to milk the suspense of those moments by making us wait for the resolution, the fact is that I really don't care much about Abraham, Eugene, and the "journey to DC" storyline.

True, this installment was trying to make us care about those characters by building the episode around them. But it misfired for me in a few ways. First, Glenn and Maggie are long established characters, and were right there, so I think they could have been more effective tools in making us care about the "new guys." Instead, they were just along for the ride. I feel like the writers could have at least given us a moment at the end where Maggie is crushed over having abandoned her sister for a pipe dream gone bust, but this episode simply wasn't interested in how the longest running characters were feeling.

Second, I found conspicuous the use of the interwoven past/present flashback structure to let us in on Abraham's past. True, Lost isn't the first place to use flashbacks to reveal character history, but it's a recent enough example to color the perception of any other TV show that tries it. This isn't The Walking Dead's normal approach, and it felt to me like too jarring a break from format.

Third, Eugene's revelation hardly seemed like a revelation. That guy was sketchy from the moment he showed up, and was extra sketchy throughout this episode, as though challenging the audience not to guess he was full of crap. Even the people not thinking ahead that much would have to know, I think, that they're not just going to get to DC and cure the zombie disease.

But I suppose while they didn't exactly get me loving the newer characters, they did at least make me appreciate what a demoralizing turn of events this was for Abraham. Actor Michael Cudlitz played his final scenes so well that you almost didn't need any of the flashbacks; you could see how Eugene's lie had completely destroyed all Abraham had left to keep him going.

I also have to admit, much as I normally dislike an awkwardly inserted zombie kill scenario, watching that fire engine hose destroy the already decaying walkers was a moment of disgusting genius.

I think I'd call this episode a B. Perhaps if Abraham and Eugene (and Rosita) live long enough for us to develop more of an attachment to them later, we might look back on this episode as a pivotal and memorable one for them. But for now, I see it more as a distraction keeping us from other characters we're more invested in.