‘The Walking Dead’ Episode 5.15 “Try” (8.5 out of 10) Created by Frank Darabont; Starring Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Danai Gurira, Chandler Riggs, Steven Yeun, Lauren Cohan; Sundays on AMC.
Our relationship with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), and, by extension, his whole group of survivors has taken an interesting turn tonight. The tension between them and the Alexandrians has intensified with the deaths of a few characters last week, and it’s becoming unclear as to what the end result will be. Spoilers ahead, folks!
The Rift
In the pre-credits scene, we see Deanna (Tovah Feldshuh) and her family mourning the loss of their son (which they do by sitting around and listening to Nine Inch Nails—cool song, but an odd way to incorporate it into the show). Deanna’s prompt incineration of Carol’s (Melissa McBride) sympathy note reveals a lot about her current opinion of their visitors. Their philosophical differences have finally reached ground zero, and the time for ultimatum is quickly drawing near. Ever since Rick and his buddies made it to Alexandria, I’ve been a stout supporter of their often ruthless pragmatism. They do what needs to be done, and I’ve always respected that. Seeing them try and force that attitude into a community with vastly different backgrounds and ideas has made me call some things into question—and that’s what I’ve loved about these last few episodes.
The best example of what I’m talking about is Rick’s confrontation with Pete (Corey Brill). It starts off in the right direction when he brings his suspicions up with Deanna who then confirms them—he’s been getting away with being an abusive scumbag because he’s the town’s only surgeon. It’s Deanna’s uncertainty with what their course of action should be that gives Rick the ground to suggest a prompt death penalty if he’s found to be guilty. This scene is fascinating to watch, as we can see Rick shift into alpha male pack leader—the argument becomes less about who’s right and more about who’s going to back down first.
Rick’s inevitable altercation with Pete is yet another attempt at pack dominance. After telling Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge) that he wouldn’t pursue an abuse case so aggressively if it were anyone else in the town, Rick’s motivations with this whole thing are called into question. He’s clearly attracted to this woman, and his crusade to stop an abuse cycle could just be an excuse to remove his competition for Jessie’s affections. One thing that I noticed during the surprisingly bloody fight was that Rick pushed Carl (Chandler Riggs) away from him just as violently as Pete pushed Jessie away when the two of them were trying to break up the fight. When Michonne (Danai Gurira) knocks Rick out in the middle of an insane rant, it gives us the signal that there might be some division within his own group, which will be interesting to see pan out later.
Verdict
There are two interesting things that have happened with our group. First, Rick seems to have become Shane (Jon Bernthal) circa season two. He’s asserting his own ideas of survival into a community that isn’t ready for them, and he’s willing to get violent about the implementation of these ideas. Second, the supporting cast members seem to be addicted to zombie slaying. We’ve seen Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) come down with the shakes right before flinging himself into a zombie horde, and the same set of symptoms seem to have taken Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green), Rosita (Christian Serratos), and Michonne. It’s been extremely interesting to see these people who are total badasses in the zombie world become kind of dicks in the not-zombie world. I still love them, and it sucks that the horrors of the zombie apocalypse have made them into wolves right before they find sanctuary.
But perhaps wolves will be exactly what the Alexandrians need when Negan and his crew show up. All those zombies that have a “W” carved into their foreheads? Yep. That can’t be good.