Series Issues: The Walking Dead 6×15 – East

Spoilers will be required.

I think we all understand that when someone has a breakdown, the timing is never right. The middle of the zombie apocalypse is perhaps the worst, specially when we have very organized and ruthless enemies about to poke their heads through the fence. So I get that on such a situation of high stress, where you are one of the best fighters in your group and everyone looks up to you for their safety, you’d feel a lot of pressure. So even the best of the best would crack.

The situation is not completely desperate. There are a lot of weapons available. Alexandria has fended off invasions before, albeit usually undead or just the frantic but barely armed Wolves. Carol seems to have gotten in touch with her humanity, something that probably can be chalked up to the influence of Morgan. For whatever reasons, she’s begun to have regrets about taking human lives and decides to run.

On the other side of the spectrum, Daryl has mostly been level-headed. But after Denise’s death, we’re seeing him on edge. All of sudden he’s gone lone wolf and taken off to dispense with the Saviours responsible for her death. Mainly Dwight, I suppose.

There, we’ve lost two of our best warriors. Now, I think that if everyone stays put we still have more than enough kickass characters, including most of the top billing cast to survive the oncoming enemy. The worst thing to do now would be to leave your posts, so don’t –

Goddamit.

Yeap, they went after them. Rosita, Glenn and Michonne go after Daryl. Morgan and Rick go after Carol. And I got left cursing at the screen. Seriously, this is the survival of the fittest. If our survivor team has gotten too much of an ego, they almost deserve what’s coming to them. Ok, they don’t deserve it, but they certainly should not be surprised. When the smoke settles more than a few heads are going to roll.

You already know how it went because you should really have watched that episode, but Carol is still a badass. The problem is that she’s kinda lost her way and now she’s a malfunctioning missile without a guiding system, a Jason Bourne level threat without a cause to protect. On the other hand, Daryl almost took out Rosita with a bolt. He still had a chance to redeem himself. However, when Glenn and Michonne get captured by Dwight and Daryl circles in with Rosita trying to get the jump on them, they’re both captured as well.

Oh, and we got some last minute shot scene with blood splatter and fade to black. I know people think that the “he’ll be alright” line was added in post production, but I think that was planned that way all along. Even the showrunners make less than stellar choices.

Highs/Lows/HandsUp:

Did we just reunite Daryl with his crossbow just to get him shot? Also, how did someone got the jump on backwoods-redneck-tracker-extraordinaire Daryl Dixon? We really should’ve played the brother-sister angle with Denise a lot more often than just a couple scenes if we wanted to show his motivation. Instead, it comes off as an immature spat.
Carol’s breakdown or crisis of faith might come up at the worst possible time, but still feels more realistic than Daryl’s brash lone wolf episode.
Captain Obvious moment: not only going after Carol and Daryl seems like a terrible choice at a terrible time, but you could almost consider them as good as captured and should be bracing to deal with a possible hostage crisis against Dwight or Negan himself.
Second Captain Obvious moment: Wait a second, that still might happen… Except that it now involves a lot more hostages.
Are we headed for a top cast member’s death? If so, can we make it less of a cheap ploy and more of an intricate thing? Yes, the show has lost some edge that it needs to get back, but let’s not become desperate. Just because you kill someone whose name appears on the credits, it doesn’t mean the writing will improve.
Finale next week. I’m thinking death, cliffhanger or both.

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