by Steve Tenney
(Insert snoring sound)… Huh…. What’s that? The Ranting Dead recap is about to start? No thanks, Ill pass…. What do you mean, “But YOU write the review!” Wait, so you’re tell me I am responsible for providing content on a weekly basis? Weekly?!?! Shit.
I guess lets just jump right in….
The first and most important thing about this episode is that half of it is devoted to one of the most well written characters to ever grace the television airwaves. No, I’m not talking about Daryl, I’m talking about everyone’s favorite redheaded sociopath, Abraham. Since his debut, his character has proven his badassery over and over and over. Not only is he adept at surviving in the new “economy” but he LITERALLY does it with a smile. Abraham, like Morgan and Rick, has gone to the dark place but unlike the others, he has made his peace with it instead of rejecting it. He accepts his animal side and seeks to wield it like a weapon. He hungers for the chaos and the war and what that brings, but more on that in a bit…
Most of the episode sees our ginger warmonger holed up in an office building with Sasha following an ambush that separated these two from Daryl. Sasha appears to be the somewhat peaceful yin to his gratuitous bloodstain powered yang. She spends a majority of the episode questioning why Abraham feels the need to throw himself into the chaos. Why he needs “THE WAR”. This stirs up some very unsettling feels in our intrepid destroyer. Sasha decides to take a catnap and leaves our hero to work out these feels however he sees fit.
Well, in true Abraham fashion, he decides to go take out his frustration on some walkers. One specifically that he spies hanging precariously from an impalement through the shoulder. Abe saunters out this Biter-kabob and stumbles across some very nice military booty, a box of RPGs and a box of cigars. It’s hard to tell which one he is honestly more excited to find. He also realizes that the launcher to these RPGs is around the back of the walker satay (google it). He tries to reach the walker to end him and take the weapon but he is confronted with the fact that any way he can possibly get to the zombie-on-a-stick will put him in harms way. His murder lust is putting him into unnecessarily dangerous situations… Wait, was Sasha right? Does Abe require the violence and action in order to fight off the raging fear and loneliness that threatens to drown him every time the shooting stops?!?!?! He takes a step back, chomps on a cigar and contemplates the fact that Sasha may know him better than he knows himself. As he sits back and debates how to proceed, the roamer-pop begins to slowly slide off his pole, leaving the RPG launcher within easy reach. Instead of acting… his inaction lead to him achieving his goal… I’m sure this is important somehow, but I don’t pay Abraham to philosophize or wax poetic about the nature of being. I pay this monster to MESS. SHIT. UP. I swear to all that is good and holy in this world, if they turn Abraham into a soft, Morgan-esque, peacenik I will lose my shit. Not in a neat and calm way, more like a Real Housewives of Atlanta way.
Anyways, Abraham returns to Sasha with his loot and expresses a new found love interest in his new soul Sherpa. I seriously doubt this is going to sit well with his current love interest, Rosita. For all of us who have read the comic, there is a pretty famous love triangle that this will undoubtedly turn into. Lets just say this triangle has seriously bad psychological effects on one of its members…
The other half of the episode is devoted to Daryl who escapes the aforementioned ambush into the woods. While strolling jauntily through this hellscape of a burned out murder forest, Daryl makes three new friends who instantly beat him senseless and take him prisoner. These three are on the run and think Daryl was sent to find them. Daryl attempts to explain that hes not who they think he is but it’s hard to speak the truth with a gun effectively in your mouth. Daryl decides to play the roll of the prisoner and bide his time until an escape his possible. Since these newbs have all the guile and street smart of kindergartners, this moment comes quickly. Daryl grabs the bag holding his gear and beelines it back into the forest. When he stops to get his gear out of the bag and untie his hands, a moldy walker gets the jump on him. He scrambles to pull his cross bow and is able to deliver a bolt straight into the fuzzy green walkers head. As the walker lands he reveals a bit of an easter egg in the form of a Cherokee Rose…
Daryl also discovers that the bag that held his gear also holds something else… A cooler full of insulin intended for one of his would be captors. Mr Dixon, being our resident heart of gold character, decides to return the insulin. He does so and almost gets ambushed AGAIN! Daryl is straight up bad luck… They avoid this ambush and try to make it out of the forest, together. Along the way, the diabetic female whom Daryl returned the insulin too meets her untimely demise at the teeth of two presumed inactive walkers. Sad, sad, sad… just kidding. Do they really think we care about this chick? We’ve only known her for 35 minutes and most of that time she was acting as a co-jailer of the shows most likeable character. When she kneeled near the carcasses of the walkers she thought were inactive, I found myself rooting for the walkers! If they hadn’t chewed her up like day old beef jerky, I would have been upset…. I needed a kill, what can I say.
The other two and Daryl, now best friends, head to Daryl’s bike. Daryl has the full intent of taking them back to Alexandria only to have them steal his bike and crossbow. Daryl is less than pleased. They scoot off and Daryl threatens retribution. Ever so conveniently he finds a truck and heads back to the town to find Abraham and Sasha, which he does. and they head back to Alexandria together. It should be noted, the truck he is diving is full of gasoline, gasoline that could be used to burn all of the walkers surrounding Alexandria. Like I said, CONVENIENT.
As they head back they hear a voice on the walkie talk say a single word, “Help.”
And Fin.
So a few final thoughts… I liked this episode. Bringing Abe back to the forefront is a good call. He is a fun character to watch and involving him in a love triangle will undoubtedly give him more screen time. Daryl was yet again confronted with the futility of his good deeds. Sure he took the insulin back to his previous captors, but she died a few scenes later. He got his gear stolen and left for dead because he tried to do the right thing, which proved ultimately futile. Daryl has a surprisingly bright outlook, but I can’t see this not changing him. He’s had a lot of crap in his life the last few seasons. I think this may prove to be the penultimate incident that swings him way dark. I also loved the use of color in this episode. Lots of juxtaposition between life (color) and death (black and white), it was great.I’m not sure who the “help” was. I know it wasn’t Glen, WHO WE STILL HAVE NO ANSWERS ABOUT, but other than that I’ve got no clue. My theory is that it was Daryl’s MALE captor from earlier in the episode. We know that someone was after him and we also know he has Daryl’s walkie talkie. My guess is that the ambushers…. Ambushites…ambushmen (?) finally found who they were looking for and have them pinned down. It reminds me of trying to put the figure fourleg lock on Mike “The Food Nerd” Quezada. Sure it took me a couple of attempts to figure it out, but eventually I wrapped his little spindely cross country legs up in a knot….
Do you have any theories? I personally don’t care, but I’m sure Bryan would love it if you left a comment positing your theories. I would prefer it if you just left a comment telling me how awesome I am, but to each his own.
Alright, welp…see ya.
Article Credits
Author: Steve Tenney
Editor-in-Chief: Bryan Scheidler
Editor: Trisha Quezada
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