For everything that this season hasn't been, I thought this episode made up for a whole lot of mistakes that the show has made, even if there was still some frustrating Rick moments in last night's arc.
The thing I loved about this episode was how well it broke down each focused character in a way we haven't seen in quite some time (or in some cases, ever). In Rick's case, it was him deciding to once again go against Carl's non-violent wishes, before finally sitting down and reading the letter he wrote his father. I'm not sure the last time I was as stunned as I was when Rick turned on the Saviors in the warehouse. The fact that he killed some of them in cold blood after they kept him alive was almost as bad as some of the things that Negan has done to the Alexandrians. It sure seems like they are bringing Rick and Negan's likability to around to the same level, almost as if to throw a wrench into everything we thought we knew about the last few years.
On that note, we finally heard why Negan calls his bat Lucille, which somewhat expectedly, is named after his dead wife. But it's not just that revelation, but the way he said it and the other worse he expressed to Jadis pleading for his life. I'm not saying Negan will ever be a character I can root for on this show, but there's no doubt that they are positioning him as a fully real human being with flaws, rather than a caricature as he sometimes was last year.
Carol and Morgan were also at the center of this episode as Morgan continued to go off the rails and Carol finally opened up a bit about Sophia, something we haven't heard her reference in long time. Both of which were well acted by Lennie James and Carol McBride respectively.
Overall, it wasn't an overly action-packed episode, but it may have been this season's most emotionally draining episode, save for maybe Carl's death episode. But these are the episodes I tend to gravitate towards more so than the tense action filled weeks.
8.6/10
The thing I loved about this episode was how well it broke down each focused character in a way we haven't seen in quite some time (or in some cases, ever). In Rick's case, it was him deciding to once again go against Carl's non-violent wishes, before finally sitting down and reading the letter he wrote his father. I'm not sure the last time I was as stunned as I was when Rick turned on the Saviors in the warehouse. The fact that he killed some of them in cold blood after they kept him alive was almost as bad as some of the things that Negan has done to the Alexandrians. It sure seems like they are bringing Rick and Negan's likability to around to the same level, almost as if to throw a wrench into everything we thought we knew about the last few years.
On that note, we finally heard why Negan calls his bat Lucille, which somewhat expectedly, is named after his dead wife. But it's not just that revelation, but the way he said it and the other worse he expressed to Jadis pleading for his life. I'm not saying Negan will ever be a character I can root for on this show, but there's no doubt that they are positioning him as a fully real human being with flaws, rather than a caricature as he sometimes was last year.
Carol and Morgan were also at the center of this episode as Morgan continued to go off the rails and Carol finally opened up a bit about Sophia, something we haven't heard her reference in long time. Both of which were well acted by Lennie James and Carol McBride respectively.
Overall, it wasn't an overly action-packed episode, but it may have been this season's most emotionally draining episode, save for maybe Carl's death episode. But these are the episodes I tend to gravitate towards more so than the tense action filled weeks.
8.6/10