‘The Walking Dead’ Episode 5.7 “Crossed” (9 out of 10) Created by Frank Darabont; Starring Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Danai Gurira, Chandler Riggs, Steven Yeun, Lauren Cohan; Sundays on AMC.
“The Walking Dead” has traditionally made good use of its episodes that lead up to its mid-season finales—they like to swirl some flecks of optimism in with the doom and gloom that we know and love. Three different narratives—some more subdued than others— occupy tonight’s episode, which catches us up with our heroes thus far.
Spoilers ahead!
Team Rick
Even though it took a zillion weeks, we finally see that Daryl (Norman Reedus) has brought Noah (Tyler James Williams) with him after their less-than-successful trip into Atlanta. With Noah’s knowledge of Grady Memorial Hospital and Rick’s (Andrew Lincoln) strategic planning, they make a plan to bust Beth (Emily Kinney) and Carol (Michelle McBride) out of the hospital.
Since the beginning of the season, we’ve seen Rick develop more of an edge—as evidenced by his scraggly beard and matter-of-fact death threats. Along with Rick’s mounting intensity, there appears to be a redemptive undertone to this season thus far—almost as if our heroes are questioning the often knee-jerk response to meet uncertainty with violence. Take the rescue plan for example. While Rick conceives a quick and dirty infiltration plan, Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman) offers a plan that involves a hostage exchange. When Daryl sides with Tyreese, it seems like a win for compassion—until the very last scene of the episode in which Sasha’s (Sonequa Martin-Green) compassion for the captive officer ends up getting her head smashed into a window, which is a hell of a way to end the episode.
Of the three narratives, this one brought the highest level of zombie grotesquerie and character drama, both of which are exemplified in Daryl’s (Norman Reedus) confrontation with one of the Grady Memorial cops. It’s a tightly shot melee that takes place amid splatters of pizza-fied zombies—later explained to be victims of a napalm strike after the initial outbreak. As Daryl’s fingers wander dangerously close to a melty zombie face, that moment when he yanks off its gross head to bludgeon his opponent into submission was disgustingly awesome. Not only did this scene provide several tense moments, it served as a testament to the show’s ability to depict the undead in new and disgusting ways, which I’ve really come to appreciate.
Team Abraham
After Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) beats Eugene (Josh McDermitt) within an inch of his life for lying about the whole “I’m a scientist!” thing, their subgroup has been moping around an abandoned fire truck. Despite the fact that Abraham seems to have suffered a mental break—he spends the entire episode on his knees, staring intently into the woods behind them—this narrative veered into territory seldom tread by “The Walking Dead” by giving characters a moment to enjoy themselves. It’s not much, but it serves to break up the tension created by Rick’s rescue mission and Michonne’s (Danai Gurira) interactions with Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam)—which we’ll discuss right now!
Team Michonne
Dipping back into the conflict between compassion and ruthless pragmatism that we saw with Rick and his group, the scenes with Michonne and Father Gabriel back at the church are infused with tension. Michonne seems to be concerned with the priest’s mental well-being—especially after he gets schooled by Carl (Chandler Riggs) about how to properly kill a walker with a machete. It’s interesting to see this type of emotion from Michonne, whose character has evolved from a zombie-exploiting killing machine to a woman who no longer sees the world in shades of living death.
The real enigma during this narrative is Father Gabriel. Seth Gilliam plays the character with what could be construed as crippling guilt or crippling cowardice—it’s sometimes tough to tell what exactly is eating him. He seems to be so stuck in the world that existed before the dead started getting up and eating people that he can’t function properly any more. His decision to sneak out of the church was odd—I doubt anyone would have really cared if he just said, “You know, I think I’m going to take my chances out there without all of you highly-trained zombie assassins,” but that could just be chalked up to his extreme cowardice. Every so often, I get a whiff of something sinister from this guy, but it’s been tough to get a bead on him ever since we first saw him this season.
Verdict
Tonight’s episode definitely set up all kinds of interesting conflicts that could take place during next week’s midseason finale. I’m looking forward to see how Beth and Carol will find a way to mess things up within the hospital—those weirdos have it coming.