This episode was quite clearly setting the groundwork for the coming episodes. But the first fifteen minutes or so - I felt - dragged on fairly slowly.
It started off by focusing on a character we're now all very familiar with: Abraham.
Abraham is broken. We've seen it before, and it was emphasised again in this episode. Heck, just look at the necklace Rosita made for him: it's a shard from a broken car headlight - the perfect encapsulation of Abraham's character on a necklace. He's a man who - on several occasions - lost the will to live. He has been searching for meaning and purpose, and he thinks he's finally found it. But with Rosita or Sasha?
He seems to have finally committed to the idea of living when Daryl comes over and asks if he is alright after the altercation, to which he responds gleefully that he is. We know very well how powerful Abraham is, and if he had truly wanted to overpower the man strangling him, he absolutely could have. He chose not to because he wasn't sure if he wanted to live or die. In fact, if you go and rewatch that scene, it almost looks as though he's squeezing the man's hands around his throat even tighter.
What was more peculiar, though, was that after he pulled himself up, the necklace Rosita made for him was left behind in the dirt. And we all know how TWD likes a bit of foreshadowing...
Once the episode started to draw similarities between our survivors and the ominous "Saviours", that's when I found that it really started to get interesting.
TWD highlighted several parallels between Rick's group and the Saviours: both deal in violence, both have killed Gregory's people, and both have demanded half of their supplies. In next week's episode I'm sure we'll see even more parallels, and will be forced to challenge ourselves: are our survivors good people? What truly separates Rick's group from the Saviours?
Honestly though, let's recap: someone said that the first thing Negan did when he came to their camp was kill somebody, and then demand half of their supplies in exchange for not attacking them again. And what does Rick do? He comes in, kills one of their people, and then actually takes half of their supplies! One of the randoms even comments something along the lines of, "Wow, this is even more than Negan got," suggesting that Rick's more like this mysterious Negan character than he'd like to think. One can only imagine how their first meet will be...comic book readers know what I'm talking about.
Also, Abraham had a great line in the RV when he asked Glenn: "when you were pouring the Bisquick, were you trying to make pancakes?"
And how good a negotiator is Natalie? I mean Maggie? Talk about a poker face.
Rick's reaction to everyone staring at him in horror after he essentially just bathed in someone's blood was great too: he takes a look around, sniffs, then sort of just shrugs his shoulders and asks incredulously, "what?"
Unfortunately, once again there was no Carol in this week's episode. An episode without Carol will immediately struggle to be a top-notch episode. Bring back Melissa McBride!
Oh, and do you think someone could maybe give Carl a haircut? That'd be a real plot twist!
It started off by focusing on a character we're now all very familiar with: Abraham.
Abraham is broken. We've seen it before, and it was emphasised again in this episode. Heck, just look at the necklace Rosita made for him: it's a shard from a broken car headlight - the perfect encapsulation of Abraham's character on a necklace. He's a man who - on several occasions - lost the will to live. He has been searching for meaning and purpose, and he thinks he's finally found it. But with Rosita or Sasha?
He seems to have finally committed to the idea of living when Daryl comes over and asks if he is alright after the altercation, to which he responds gleefully that he is. We know very well how powerful Abraham is, and if he had truly wanted to overpower the man strangling him, he absolutely could have. He chose not to because he wasn't sure if he wanted to live or die. In fact, if you go and rewatch that scene, it almost looks as though he's squeezing the man's hands around his throat even tighter.
What was more peculiar, though, was that after he pulled himself up, the necklace Rosita made for him was left behind in the dirt. And we all know how TWD likes a bit of foreshadowing...
Once the episode started to draw similarities between our survivors and the ominous "Saviours", that's when I found that it really started to get interesting.
TWD highlighted several parallels between Rick's group and the Saviours: both deal in violence, both have killed Gregory's people, and both have demanded half of their supplies. In next week's episode I'm sure we'll see even more parallels, and will be forced to challenge ourselves: are our survivors good people? What truly separates Rick's group from the Saviours?
Honestly though, let's recap: someone said that the first thing Negan did when he came to their camp was kill somebody, and then demand half of their supplies in exchange for not attacking them again. And what does Rick do? He comes in, kills one of their people, and then actually takes half of their supplies! One of the randoms even comments something along the lines of, "Wow, this is even more than Negan got," suggesting that Rick's more like this mysterious Negan character than he'd like to think. One can only imagine how their first meet will be...comic book readers know what I'm talking about.
Also, Abraham had a great line in the RV when he asked Glenn: "when you were pouring the Bisquick, were you trying to make pancakes?"
And how good a negotiator is Natalie? I mean Maggie? Talk about a poker face.
Rick's reaction to everyone staring at him in horror after he essentially just bathed in someone's blood was great too: he takes a look around, sniffs, then sort of just shrugs his shoulders and asks incredulously, "what?"
Unfortunately, once again there was no Carol in this week's episode. An episode without Carol will immediately struggle to be a top-notch episode. Bring back Melissa McBride!
Oh, and do you think someone could maybe give Carl a haircut? That'd be a real plot twist!