User Reviews

"Self Help" is a great plot driven episode that intelligently explores and develops the characters as they make way for Washington. It was one of those episodes which kept me intrigued to the characters from start to finish.

The episode kicks off with Abraham and his group set out to Washington to find a cure with Eugene's help. Right off the bat, I knew Eugene was going to be a interesting character. However, I wasn't expecting the flashback scenes in relation to Abraham in which I thoroughly liked and explored how messed up he must really be. Abraham and Eugene were the clear standouts of the episode and were really well developed. It seems that the narrative of the story was solely based on the two's background and their misconceptions. As they near Washington it feels as though the group is falling apart. Especially considering the shocking revelation at the end, the group has probably lost their hope. The episode did a great job of showing how broken and troubled Abraham's group was. They were all making sacrifices for a cause and after the episode, it all just disappeared like a breath on a mirror. Season 5 has done a remarkable job of showing the change and development of the characters and this episode does that same job and does it incredibly.

Overall a solid episode filled with intriguing characters. I cannot wait when they finally reach Washington. +With well developed characters, +Abraham's background explored through flashbacks, +Eugene becoming more and more intriguing, +A shocking revelation at the end which destroys the group.

Verdict: 8.6/10

What I initially believed would easily be the worst episode thus far of this season managed to redeem itself through its use of character development and (thankfully) lack thereof.

The use of flashback coupled with this episode's use of Abraham's wound(s) leads to an overall very impressive episode. Through each of these devices we learn more about Abraham and see that he's not as one-dimensional as (I had) originally believed. In addition, this episode explores Eugene's character and we discover quite a blood-boiling fact. Just to be clear, I never liked Eugene to begin with: perhaps it's his pragmatism or perhaps it's his cold, sociopathic nature which repulses me...but I digress.

The first fifteen minutes were incredibly slow, leading to my low-expectations of the episode. Watching the scene in which the bus flipped over and (shocker) zombies appeared to surround the bus and the dazed passengers I couldn't help but cringe at the excruciatingly basic turn of events for our dearest survivors. Surely the writers could have thought of *something* more innovative than that? Surely they've not run out of ideas so soon? But needless to say, the episode only improved from there as a crucial element of this episode's high quality was introduced: the recurring wound.

Throughout the episode, the focus always manages to return to Abraham and his wounded hand. With the aid of exposition, we see that Abraham once had a family, yet with the outbreak and what it does to people, his family was horrified by Abraham and left him. It is from this point, when his own family were so afraid of him and what he could do that they left him, that Abraham's wound surfaces. And it has continued to exist (and perhaps worsen) until present day as we can see in this episode.

Despite Rosita's best efforts to help Abraham's wound heal, his driven, brash and explosive nature do not allow him to do so. This leads to him pushing those who care for him the most away from him, only isolating himself further and surely only leading to this wound deepening. We see this frequently throughout the episode: after Rosita has bandaged his hand, and the blood seeps through, his wound surfaces once more. And then in the final scene with the big-reveal we've all been waiting for (or more likely dreading) Eugene finally spills the beans and quits biting his tongue. This marks character development for Eugene, as his willingness to confess *all* of his lies suggests he trusts the group he's with (something which we suppose must be difficult for someone of his social calibre) - either that or he's just bewilderingly foolish to think that having lied about something so significant for so long would go by without consequences. Although, that being said, he states himself that the reason he confesses is because he no longer sees a need to lie, for it would ultimately do him no good - yet again highlighting Eugene's pragmatic nature, yet also his desire to survive and also adapt.

This begs the question of what we will see from Abraham in future episodes. One of the major themes within The Walking Dead is adapt or die: survivors can continue to survive by adapting, or they can refuse to adapt and in the event of which they inevitably die (e.g. Lizzie and Mika, the two little girls whom by far had the most tragic demise of any character thus far). If Abraham is unable to adapt and heal his wound - and soon - then he will inevitably have the same fate as so many before him. In this episode he failed to adapt when he could have, and instead he relapsed, perhaps beginning his cycle of stubbornness and plight for a purpose once more. On the other hand, Eugene did adapt, and as such one would expect him to survive, no? Well we'll have to wait and see, as Abraham (*thankfully*) whacked him three times in his smug face and if he hasn't suffered some sort of damage from those blows I'd be (un)pleasantly surprised.

I previously stated that I thought the lack of character development (in regard to Abraham) was crucial to this episode's success in reception. The reason for this is that it is the relapse of Abraham which makes this episode so entertaining. We are not spoon-fed a happy ending in which all the characters are on the same page and are given neatly intertwining personalities. No: instead we witness the breakdown of a character (and surely his total isolation from the rest of his group - as witnessed with Rosita reaching for her gun when Abraham approached Eugene to finish him) and the breakdown of the morale of the group. Where will this lead them next?

And how could anyone forget that flawless final flashback? Just when I thought it was over and the episode had been perfect, it managed to amaze me one last time and outdo itself. We learn from the flashback that it was Eugene who gave Abraham purpose when he was at his lowest point (when he was about to commit suicide, Eugene's cries for help drew Abraham to his assistance - further underlining Abraham's purpose-driven nature) and somewhat paradoxically, it is Eugene who has now caused Abraham to relapse and turn on the one person he has fought his hardest to protect for so long.

All in all, an excellent episode which should not be missed; my favourite of the season so far!

There were a lot of intriguing things to enjoy about this episode, but then it again, it resembles the Season 4 routine of sticking with one group for one whole episode before moving on to the next. In hindsight it can be a little repetitive, but there were a lot of new elements to enjoy in this latest instalment.

Particularly there were some new details about Abraham. Evidently he is a troubled soldier who's previous experiences in the walking dead world are the deaths of his wife and children - quite a traumatic experience to have and one that has probably shaped his feelings so far. The recurrence of his bleeding hand was a nice touch to show how his character is quite vulnerable to his stubbornness.

Eugene also gets a little back story with their involvement in the show going full circle, with a neatly correlated explanation for their reason to journey north to Washington D.C. Eugene's decision to tamper with the engine of the Church Bus was a little confusing at first, but we soon realised that his whole plan to get to D.C. was a scam from the beginning in order to get to a safe place. He may have been a scientist, but he had different intentions in the end.

The wide shot of the Walkers was impressive near the end, and really showed how this series had progressed and how widespread this infestation really is. At the best of times, overwhelming opponents are the scariest opponents - we all remember what happened in Beside the Dying Fire!

I enjoyed this episode. Group dynamics, new characters in the weave. However I still am amazed by the simplicities of human error. The bus crash? Seems it was too easily avoidable. Was he not looking? Unconvincing.

More so: the reality of the lie of our little mullet man. He evinced a seeming pathos of lie and deceit from the get go. Was that on purpose? His revelation to me was just a sort of flaw or irritation. To confirm what one suspected. Seemed obvious to me, why not to the people in the show? I dunno...

I am still amazed at how easily the biters sneak up on people who are 'saved' by one another. In the midst of this chaos to not maintain 360 degree rotation, awareness. Just simple problems of my own curse and habit.

Moving slowly, where too next. Seems like the show is floating now. No hope or horizon again. No prison, no sanctuary, no Washington. Now what? better luck next time

Season 5, Episode 5: a powerful episode provided insights into Eugene and Abraham's past. About halfway through this week's episode of The Walking Dead, we saw Eugene (Josh McDermitt) engrossed in HG Wells's 1933 novel The Shape of Things To Come, a "future history" which predicted the outbreak of the Second World War and envisaged the eventual triumph of rationality and science. It felt like an apt choice of reading material. By promising that he could rid the world of Walkers via a mysterious cure or technology located in Washington, the socially awkward, mullet-sporting Eugene had assumed the position of a game-changer – a man who would make history. But by the end of the episode, we found out that Eugene had been lying all along: he was no scientist, and there was no cure. He was just a nobody, swept up in the same cruel chaos as everyone else, doing whatever he could to survive.

It was a devastating reveal, which was given the space and build-up it needed by the decision to devote an entire episode to the Washington-bound group. Fans desperate to see more of Rick and Daryl, or discover the payoff to last week's hospital cliffhanger, may have been alienated by the move. But it felt like the right choice, giving us time to fully understand Eugene and his motivation, and absorb the impact the brutal stripping-away of purpose would have on the group. Top episode 10/10

The episode focuses on the group that goes to the past of Wahisngton and Abraham.

The episode maintains a slow pace, but delves into the characters, has some interesting action scenes and an interesting plot.

The crash scene took me by surprise and I liked the direction of the scene. Abraham wants to get to Washington but the others convince him to rest.

Abraham's past is very interesting and progresses along with the plot, and he makes us empathize with him.

Eugene as the pervert who looks at Abraham and Rosita having sex.

Eugene reveals to Tara that he damaged the bus engine and therefore crashed.

Eugene killing the walkers with the hose of a fire truck was badass.

and the best of the episode was eugene saying he lied. the characters lost something, the hope that the world they had would return.

the episode was better than I expected but even so, I hope that the pace of the following episodes is higher.

The decision to hive off this group hasn't worked for me. There are 2 parts to the group. First we have Maggie and Glenn. Does anybody care for these two? A settled couple in this show goes against the grain. I'm sure this won't last for long. Either one (or both) are heading for trouble - sooner rather than later I hope.

The only other question is whether we've seen the end of the Eugene plot. Was he fatally injured? Let's hope so. Abraham and Rosita could still be of interest though. But let's hope there's a big change soon with this group. Amen. Oh, and yes, after seeing this episode I am now rooting for Beth big time.

This was an awful episode, which I could barely make it through. I Was worried last week that Beth wouldn't be able to carry her own episode, but honestly that episode was 10 times better than this. I already didn't like any of these characters going in, with the exception of Glenn and Maggie, and this episode just reaffirmed those feeling.

Eugene and Abraham are just so stereotypical. They tried to act like Eugene's a deep character and like the audience is going to care about his secrets, and want to better understand him, but me and everyone else I know who watches this just can't wait for his scenes to finally end. His acting is terrible, but I can't really put all the blame on the actor because there really isn't much he could do to compensation for the terrible writing he gets. There's just no real depth there. It's really the same problem with Abraham. He's just like a Duke Nukem-esque video game character. They tried to give his some depth by showing us glimpses of his back-story but it really didn't do much for me. I was thinking they would show what made him how he is, but instead they just showed me a tragedy from his past which didn't really explain anything since at the start of the flashback he was already really violent and seemingly the same guy, so it just didn't really seem to fit.

I'm just happy it's finally over, and I really hope there are no more episodes completely dedicated to that group. They're tolerable in brief moments but they really just can't carry an entire episode alone. Especially when Glenn and Maggie are barely used.

I really liked the flashbacks to Abraham's life before during this episode. I didn't know how they fit into the story, but now we see why. Self Help is really a well made episode. It was shocking, well directed, and had fantastic character development. We all kind of knew Eugene wasn't really who he said he was but the way they revealed it was just phenomenal. When we see Rosita's hand on the gun telling Abraham to stop and then see his hand all bloody just like in the flashbacks was the best scene in the episode. The acting, directing, writing, and music were all awesome. Self Help is one of my favorite Walking Dead episodes yet. 9/10

Another top episode of #TheWalkingDead really good back story for both Abraham and Eugene and emotional scenes with great progressing characters & good adaptations from the comics! Yeah I'm a nerd with this but it makes me happy and I don't give a crap :) Overall for me Self Help gave Abraham and Eugene their first real character- building/revealing story since they came into the series last February. Eugene was using Abraham to survive and, despite the big betrayal, Abraham was using Eugene's lie to help facilitate his own subconscious denial. An inner pain that manifested itself physically through his own never-healing bloody hand.The twist was something viewers may have been able to spot coming, while comic readers knew for sure would come, but it was still all handled really well here. With very great performances from Michael Cudlitz and Josh McDermitt. McDermitt may have even had the trickier time, perhaps, since Eugene often sticks out as having a somewhat mannered, cartoon like delivery style compared to the others around him. It was Brilliant "I'm smarter than you"

The Walking Dead - Season 5 Episode 5 - "Self Help"

Episode: Self Help

When I found out from the promo after the previous episode that this was going to be about Abraham's group and there whereabouts, I did start to feel a little nervous that they were following the same structure as the second half of Season 4 after the prison battle. However, this episode was acting as if it was "taking a break" from all the action and happenings going on with the other groups. This episode was the introduction and conclusion of this group's travels due to what happened with Eugene. I did enjoy this episode as a whole but I thought that it was all going a bit too fast considering I'm a reader of the comics. It was filmed very well with the different stunts they had to construct and the narrative was different than the usual "fight to survive" aspect which consistently runs through the episodes, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing. In this episode, Abraham's group are continuing their travels to Washington D.C, but when their vehicle breaks down and the truth spills, they find that their journey might not be worth persevering.

Every time I pick a scene out of an episode, I always try and pick the scenes that benefit the audience or play a vital part to the narrative of the episode or maybe the season rather than the scene that contains the most action or commendation to the directors. However, the scene that I chose was Eugene's confession that he wasn't a scientist and didn't know how to cure the disease. It was great to finally see Eugene, a weakling that can't protect himself, rise up and be the dominant person in this scene. Seeing him restraint by the truth was all thanks to some superb acting by Eugene and I loved watching it. Not only did this surprise the audience and the group for that matter, but it completely changed the atmosphere within the group and I was nervous about what would happen to Eugene, whether they would abandon him or maybe kill him. This scene affects everyone in this show as they were all counting on him to make Washington the end but it made the audience eager to see what the group would do next, especially me.

Eugene impressed me this episode in terms of characters. His development in not even half a season has grown on a large scale. I enjoyed his shyness and liability act from when he was first introduced to now as it made the audience wonder how he had survived this long without having the attributes that can kill walkers. The exposure of his secret, the only thing keeping him alive, suddenly made his character unknown and have no purpose which was a sudden conversion for him. The most important thing about Eugene was what would happen next for him as that kept on running through my mind as the narrative continued. Would Abraham abandon him? Or would they keep to the "code" of surviving together and forgive him? All these questions were left open for an answer as they weren't answered in this episode. The brainy scientist who had the world at his feet due to his intelligence of the disease suddenly became a worthless and unforgiving character which the audience had to handle and the portrayal of this conversion was done very well. I'm very excited yet nervous to find out what the rest of the group make of this character's confession.

"Self Help" was filmed more outdoors than indoors which was a change of scenery for the audience as the only main location they had seen so far was Father Gabriel's church. I enjoy episodes that are filmed outdoors as they are oppose more of a threat from the walkers due to no walls being hid behind. The stunt that was constructed with the bus breaking down and crashing was precise and realistic and developed the audience's fear of them not making it. During Eugene's confession, the group was rarely filmed as a whole but rather individual mid shots of characters expressions and reactions. Not only did this create a similar feeling between the group but it produced more sinister angst in the atmosphere and this is the sort of atmosphere this show is renowned for when it comes to cinematography, very enjoyable to watch as a viewer.

This episode was a good hiatus from the rest of the season as well as seeing the future of Abraham's group. It was comical, such as the sex scene with Abraham and Rosita which relaxed the audience from the high tension. It released a lot of answers with Eugene and the cure which were certainly needed to be answered and this was presented in cooperation with the cinematography that produced an atmosphere that the audience get nervous about as its unexpected and doesn't give anything away to what might happen next, a feature I certainly enjoy watching with The Walking Dead. A good episode to watch and I'm looking forward to the repercussions this will have on the rest of the season as we're nearing the midseason finale.

There are a few things to say in favor of this episode. The first is that it is extremely hard to write forty minutes of drama only focusing on the same setting (in this case, a moving setting), and this episode accomplishes that much better than "Slabtown" did before it. The second is that The Walking Dead isn't usually rich with plot twists by any stretch of the imagination, and this one felt almost refreshing. In addition, this particular twist makes one give up hope. For a minute there, we actually thought that this all could end. We though Judith could grow up in a world not quite like ours, but closer to it. And then in one brawl, the truth comes out, and it is hard to hear. And I respect that film making.

However, there are a few things to say against this episode, and they are more prevalent. The first is the flashbacks. They are neither interesting nor relevant, nor do I have any reason to care, as they never even attempted to make Abraham a likable character and it's too late to try now with a tragic backstory. The transitions to these flashbacks aren't bad per se, but could've been so much better. My parting criticism is that the acting, not in the main plot but in the flashbacks, was just plain atrocious from everyone. The episode could've been very good if AMC didn't insist on a backstory for every character.

I repeat, just as I did after Slabtown: Bring back Season Five.

This show is beyond amazing!

This episode is literally the mastery of the script. Like the first episode of this season is the mastery of cinema.

Abraham's story just breaks your heart. Circumstances, Eugene, made him find himself hoping to continue.

The wound that will never heal is the loss of his family.

He, although this world never defeats him, he's actually lost in it.

I loved the performances of all the actors here. This episode is perfect. The Walking Dead has been doing 10/10 episodes since S. 3 E. 14 Prey.

I don't think the quality of the TV show will drop from now on.

Actually, I have to say, the next episode is also 10/10!

This is the worst episode I have seen in this season so far. I can't help but question why this show started out so good but now is taking a quick slip down the slope. Where do I start...Horrible introduction to the back stories of both Eugene and Abraham, to the absolute lack of intelligence that these survivors are all of sudden indulging in, when it comes to "fighting" walkers. I am so disappointed, this used to be a show that I can strongly recommend...And I do not read the comics, yet I still care just as much for the story (for all you HARDCORE nerds out there). The way Abraham suddenly erupted into madness and misery could have been executed way way better. Seemed as if the director was like "Act from the heart....but do not act from the heart...You know what I mean?"

"I've been to 8 county fair's and 1 goat rodeo, and I ain't seen nothing like that" -Abraham Ford. Another sh***y episode of season 5. This episode is about Glenn, Maggie, Tara and Abraham's group heading to Washington. Of course none of them question the fact that something happened to the bus. Then, after the group kills a bunch of walkers for the 112th time, same boring plain action every episode, the bus blows up. And it's as soon as Abraham needs a first aid kit too. Half of this episode is just Abraham yelling. We learn about Abraham's back story and how he met Eugene. Eugene technically saved his life because he was about to commit suicide. 1 whole episode and the only thing that happens is that they find out Eugene lied about the cure. Man, I thought he would stop it and this would be the last season of this mess of a show. Abraham is very strong. He knocks out Eugene in 2 punches. I'm aware he punched him 3 times but he was already knocked out after the second one. This episode is so bad that I prefer the ones with Beth.