‘The Walking Dead’ Episode 6.5 “Now” (8 out of 10) Created by Frank Darabont; Starring Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Danai Gurira, Chandler Riggs, Lennie James, Lauren Cohan; Sundays on AMC.
As the episode’s title suggests, our two divergent storylines have been properly synched up—but our players are understandably stretched thin. If anything, tonight’s episode was a stark reminder that everybody’s hands get a little bloody in the zombie apocalypse. Spoilers ahead!
Damage Control
The Alexandrians aren’t doing great after getting raided by those sadistic Wolves. Their general state of listless depression is perfectly exemplified by the expression on Deanna’s (Tovah Feldshuh) face as she wanders through town like a lost soul. Her people’s morale is broken, and she realizes that her leadership as a fair-weather matriarch has officially come to an end. There’s a moment in which she officially passes the torch to Rick (Andrew Lincoln), though there are a few Alexandrians who blame him for the giant herd of walkers that are now at their gates. Despite this division, the few Alexandrians who toughen up enough to realize that Rick is the leader that they need at this moment deliver some excellent scenes tonight. Aaron (Ross Marquand) owns up to the fact that if he had listened to Daryl (Norman Reedus) while out recruiting, the Wolves wouldn’t have stolen his backpack and found their way to the town. Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge) delivers a rousing speech about seeing the world as it is directly after gouging out the eye of a stray walker. Most surprisingly would have to be Spencer’s (Austin Nichols) move to convince the survivors to continue rationing their food because the town will have a future. After his scene, we learn that he’s stolen some food and liquor for himself, an action which I believe damns him at the end of the episode. See, there’s this tiny trickle of blood that stains the inside of the wall during Deanna’s last lap around the town, and I think our boy Spencer has cracked under the pressure and has taken his own life. His death would mean that every last member of Deanna’s family will have perished since the arrival of Rick and his crew, opening her up to either a major freak out or a moment of zen-like clarity.
Glenn?
The other reason that I believe Spencer has met an ambiguously filmed death scene is because the show continues to tease us with Glenn’s alleged death. Maggie (Lauren Cohan) teams up with Aaron to hit the road via an old sewage tunnel beneath the town in order to confirm Glenn’s death, but we still get no hard confirmation. On a side note, this sewer trip was home to one of the most gruesome zombie scenes of the season—two waterlogged and squishy zombies burst out of the muddy wall, and we can actually see Maggie’s fingers enter into one of their ribcages and wiggle around beneath its rancid skin. Loved every minute of it. While this is a ballsy direction to take, it was a bit anticlimactic to see Maggie and Aaron just turn back before they even leave the city limits.
At this point, I’m having a huge problem with the Glenn thing. Up until this point, TWD has pulled no punches when a character dies. In fact, I can’t think of a major character who died without some sense of glory or beauty attached to their final moments—which is what makes it digestible when one of our favorite zombie killers goes down for the count. Glenn is arguably one of the most popular characters on the show, so making him into some kind of Schrodinger’s Cat this season smacks of prime time click bait.
Rick Makes It Weird
There has been some obvious chemistry between Rick and Jessie ever since the two met, and tonight they take it to the next level with some makey-outey action. As much as I wanted these two to hook up towards the beginning of the Alexandria era, there was something a bit unsettling about this moment—something akin to an alpha wolf absorbing a few new members into his pack after bringing down a rival alpha. Both Jessie and Ron (Austin Abrams) seem to have accepted Rick as a more powerful and suitable alpha, and we don’t blame them, really. But with all of this wolf imagery getting thrown around, it’s tough to overlook this miniature power struggle behind the walls of Alexandria.
Verdict
This was probably the weakest episode of the season. A large part of this comes from the fact that it’s functioning as a transition between storylines, but there was a bit too much moping for me tonight. I thought Tara’s (Alanna Masterson) scenes with Denise (Merritt Wever) injected some positivity into the episode, but overall, we were looking at a master’s thesis in grief and loss this evening. And could we please just get some closure on Glenn? I’m sick of seeing his face superimposed on Jon Snow’s body.