*Spoilers Ahead*
After a middling mid-season finale last year that ended with more of a shrug than a bang, I wasn’t really looking forward to starting back up with our zombie-slaying pals on The Walking Dead. Thankfully, the show returns with a sense of purpose, most of the time.
At certain points, mostly in the first half of the episode, “No Way Out” feels like an episode that has to pick up the slack of the previous one. “Start to Finish” accomplished very little for the show and because of that this week it feels like the show is trying to accomplish too much at once. It needs to wrap up Daryl and his group’s run-in with some men working for the mysterious Negan, develop Rick’s relationship with the Alexandrians, wrap up the story with the escaped Wolf and finish off Jessie and her family. The episode mostly accomplishes this feat but it gets sloppy with some of it’s endings.
Take the deaths of Jessie and her family for instance. It’s a scene straight out of the comics, Jessie’s younger son attracts the attention of the zombies and as they close in Rick makes the quick decision to cut off Jessie’s hand to free Carl and essentially dooms her and her son. That still happens here and it’s impact is arguably the same but it becomes bogged down because the show also has to wrap up Ron and Carl’s plot. How you ask? By having Ron threaten Rick with his gun, get stabbed by Michonne and accidentally shoot Carl in the eye. That actually sounds fine when put to paper but the directing of the scene tries to both showcase the emotion in Rick’s decision to cut off Jessie’s hand and show that this is all happening very fast and it ends up being a bit of a mess.
All that said, aside from the aforementioned scene and a couple boring conversations between the Wolf and Denise the episode mostly does what it set out to do well. After all, we get to see Daryl blow up a whole bunch of guys with Chekov’s Rocket Launcher (that thing sure came in handy!) and Carol finally got to finish off that Wolf, just as it looked like he might be having a change of heart, naturally.
The saving grace of this episode is the second half where everything comes together very nicely, even if setting a lake on fire to lure the zombies in is kind of ridiculous. With Carl’s life on the line Rick goes back out to take down the zombie in what appears to be a foolish move. That is until the Alexandrians finally rise up and help him save their town. The scene with all the Alexandrians battling the zombies, complete with shots of them slashing at the camera, is cheesy but it works because it feels earned. Rick finally sees that he can make this group of “softies” into survivors just like his group.
He essentially says as much in the, nicely acted, final scene that sees Rick telling his unconscious son about the new world he wants to start. It’s the closest this show has ever gotten to being hopeful and it’s refreshing. Even if we know Negan and his boys are right around the corner, ready to burn that new world down.
Bits ‘n Pieces
- I loved Daryl with the rocket launcher but I’m thinking Negan might want some payback for it. Watch out, Daryl!
- Glenn almost dies AGAIN this week, okay show you can stop toying around with Glenn forever.
- I admit to not knowing a whole bunch about how long gasoline usually burns but that lake should at least still be burning by morning, right?
- The comics never did a great job of showing the trauma Carl’s injury caused so I’m hoping the show can run with that a little more.
Jesse Swanson is a would-be writer, podcaster and funny guy who covers TV shows of all shapes and sizes. You can find him on Twitter @JesseSwanson