*Spoilers Ahead*
The focus is once again on Carol this week as we move away from Rick and the others to focus on her and Maggie as they attempt to escape from the Saviors who have captured them.
Carol’s still having doubts about her methods and those doubts continue throughout this episode. We get some introductions to the Saviors taking them hostage, namely the one leading this small group, Paula (played to sneering perfection by Alicia Witt.) Paula is rough and is unconcerned with Carol or Maggie’s general safety, they’re only around as insurance against Rick. Outside of Paula, the group is pretty much one dimensional which doesn’t do a lot to make us care about their eventual deaths when the first half mostly focuses on them being nasty and threatening.
The show manages to succeed with Paula, however, by setting her up as a mirror of Carol and revealing exactly what she is afraid of. Like Carol, Paula was a wife and mother who was changed by the end of the world, she quickly realized what she needed to be to survive and filled that role without hesitation, just as Carol fills the role of a frightened housewife to lull her captors into security. Carol doesn’t want to become the cold, calculated survivor Paula is but she also can’t go back to who she was, even if she wanted to. She’s stuck in the middle of these two paths and it’s what causes her to hold back once she finally escapes.
Maggie, on the other hand, goes into full on search and destroy mode as soon as she’s free. In a nod to Carol’s role is “JSS” Maggie goes about murdering their captors and it’s only when Maggie almost suffers a cut to the abdomen, when her unborn child is in danger, that she holds back. Carol gracefully steps back into the role but it’s with a newfound reluctance, even as she’s trapping the people who came to provide backup in a room and lighting them on fire.
The show treads on some familiar territory when Paula says Rick and the others “aren’t the good guys,” it’s a point that has come up before, specifically at the beginning of last season when Rick and the group slaughtered the Terminus survivors. Here, it feels less like set up for the future and more like something that is suppose to make us think twice about the Saviors and if they’re bad. It’s an interesting idea but one that falters if you have a sense of where they’re going with this story. Our cast will never truly be the villains but it will be interesting to see how far the show will take them to that edge.
The rest of the group arrives just as the carnage ends and their captive claims to be Negan, something a lot of the Saviors have been claiming, and Rick wastes no time murdering him. Carol fears that she’ll become a senseless killer but that fear shouldn’t be just for her, the whole community might be heading that way and that’s the truly frightening thing.
Bits ‘n Pieces
- If this episode is any indication we need more lady centric installments of this show.
- The “we are all Negan” thing is interesting but I’ll be a bit surprised if Rick just falls for all that.
- I wonder if Carol is going to start coming around to Morgan’s way of thinking, if she survives the season that is.
- “You know those’ll kill you right?”
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