Unreliable narrators. Daryl having more lines. Even Henry making sense. This episode of The Walking Dead really shows that The Walking Dead has revived itself in this latest season and continues to unmask several new interesting stories.
SPOILERS AHEAD
This episode was building up to those last few minutes. Lydia confusing events about what happened and her sudden grief about civilisation lies when she heard the baby crying. That realisation that what her mother told her was a lie was such an awesome and heartbreaking reveal. Last episode and earlier parts of this episode, she is seen as untrustworthy. She still is, but we understand her better and she is much more interesting. And, we understand Henry better! He is a teenager. His reactions are that of a hopeful teenager and the fact that he said ‘you could have asked me to Daryl’ shows he is thinking about his actions.
Daryl has become much better this season thanks to some proper dialogue and it continues now. His motivations are super clear, his character isn’t just broody and his manipulation tactics are awesome!
Magna’s Group are a bunch of characters who I love. Their dynamic, especially all knowing how to speak in sign-language shows to actually be useful as they can quietly talk about their plan. I think Connie will be okay, just because Luke is already in a sticky situation and having two new characters at risk may break the whole dynamic of this new group acting as a marker for a new age of the walking dead. I have to say, I love the deaf community representation with these two characters and Angel Theory’s acting in particular feels very real to me, kind of like Alanna Maestrons in her initial introduction.
Although last episode we saw a hint of Alpha, this unmasked version of Alpha was such a beauty to behold. It wasn’t as clean as Charlie Adlard’s work in the comics, but I absolutely love this character’s design in the show probably better. It just makes sense. She feels dirtied, torn and she even looks to be an abusive character, especially considering what Lydia said she has done.
There’s more I’d like to talk about with the episode but a lot of other walking dead creators have covered it.
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Christos Floratos 