SPOILERS FOR SEASON 6, EPISODE 14 FOLLOW!
By: Tyler Miller
This season has been pretty strong for The Walking Dead so far, with a good majority of the episodes being hits, and very few of them being misses. This is even more notable in the back half where we tend to get slow, boring episodes back to back after the midseason premiere, something that’s been avoided so far. That streak unfortunately came to an end though with last night’s episode.
That’s not to say that last night’s episode was bad or horrible, because it wasn’t. It was just a slow, boring episode (for the most part) that had a couple missteps. The episode started off with us seeing life in Alexandria and it’s pretty peaceful. Daryl and Carol have a short talk about the Dwight’s group that Daryl met earlier in the season, with Carol saying that it’s good he saved them while Daryl says he should’ve killed them.
Jump to the next day and we’re really starting the episode up. Denise wants to go to an apothecary that’s nearby to get some drugs for the town, and she recruits Daryl and Rosita to go along with her. Right here is the big first misstep of the episode: Denise leaving Alexandria. She’s the only doctor that they have which means she’s pretty damn important and absolutely shouldn’t be going outside the walls. She says that Daryl and Rosita won’t know what to get, but she could’ve easily told them what to get. But we need the plot to move along.
Having this trio go out together seemed like a great opportunity to give Rosita and Denise some much needed development to their characters, especially in Rosita’s case. She’s a character that hasn’t been used anywhere near as much as she should be, so it seemed like she would be getting a fair amount of focus this week, but instead Denise did. And we all know what happens to side characters on The Walking Dead when they get some character development in an episode..
At the same time, Abraham and Eugene are going out on a patrol together and they come across a foundry that Eugene had been looking for. The reason? He wants to use the place to make bullets, a hot commodity in the zombie apocalypse. It’s an idea that excites Abraham and makes him proud of Eugene. All that happiness and respect goes away though when Eugene calls dibs on a walker and has trouble killing it, prompting Abraham to jump in and do it himself. Eugene gets mad because he claimed that he could handle it and says he doesn’t need Abraham anymore, causing the big guy to storm off and leave Eugene to walk to Alexandria himself.
This was the second misstep/stupid character decision of the episode. Yeah Eugene grew a pair and contributed to the Great Alexandria Zombie Massacre, but he’s not the zombie killing badass that he believes himself to be in this episode. I get that he was upset with Abraham in the moment, but essentially telling him that he’s not needed anymore is such a stupid move. Not only do you have the walkers to worry about, but you still have the Saviors to worry about as well. Even if he thinks that all the Saviors are dead, there are still people out there in the world and people are more dangerous than walkers. Sorry Eugene, you got some respect for the bullet making idea, but immediately lost it with this stupid outburst.
Back with our Daryl/Rosita/Denise trio, they’ve found the apothecary and all the drugs. Then as if to just show how pointless it was to bring Denise with them, Daryl and Rosita just end up taking all the drugs that they can get. At this point, there really was no reason for her to be here. They hear a sound in a nearby room, and Denise decides to investigate it although Daryl and Rosita ignore it. What she finds is the most disgusting walker the show has ever had and a very disturbing sight (more on that below), leading her to step outside and compose herself until the others come out.
Having gotten what they came for, the group starts to head back to their truck by following the train tracks instead of going the way that Daryl and Denise did before because the tracks are faster. They come across a car with a cooler and a walker in it that Denise just has to get because she believes there could be something useful in it. Daryl and Rosita have the right mindset and say to leave it alone and keep walking. Denise with the final stupid character decision of the episode decides to try and get it herself. This predictably leads to her almost getting killed, but she manages to take out the walker on her own. And hey, inside the cooler was that orange soda Tara wanted! So that’s a win for her.
This leads to Denise proceeding to yell at Daryl and Rosita, explaining how her going out with them and her getting the cooler were ways for her to become stronger and face the outside world head on. She’s tired of being afraid and wanted to be stronger like Rosita and not have to rely on protection from Daryl like she did with her older brother. All this is making us feel bad for Denise and understand where she’s coming from (although she could do this without yelling in the open) when out of nowhere she takes an arrow to the eye.
At this point the episode finally heats up, as we see a big group of Saviors come out of the woods with Dwight (the man Daryl encountered earlier in the season) leading them all with a nice burnt face. And he has Eugene as a hostage as well to make matters worse. He demands that the group take them back to Alexandria or everyone dies. Luckily Eugene spots Abraham watching them in hiding (turns out he was following Eugene) and distracts them long enough to bite Dwight right in the dick (good job Eugene!). A firefight breaks out between the two groups, with the Saviors retreating, Eugene taking a hit, and Daryl getting his trusty crossbow back.
Back at Alexandria, Eugene is in the doctor’s office resting up. Him and Abraham patch things up, with Abraham having a lot more respect for Eugene because of what he did. Abraham then goes to talk to Sasha and it looks like they’re about to finally be a thing. We then see Daryl and Carol burying Denise, followed by a voiceover from Carol. It turns out that left a letter for Tobin and decided to leave Alexandria because she loves the people there and can’t kill for them, although she knows she has to. This is the weirdest part of the episode because it’s just a giant change in her character.
Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been seeing Carol change from someone who has no problem killing, to someone more like Morgan who doesn’t want to kill anyone. That’s a character change that’s made sense and has been interesting to follow. But her leaving the group entirely because of this is (at lest to me) way out of left field. I’m not too sure as to whether or not this is a stupid character decision or not, so we’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out next week, which will be about the group trying to find her and bring her back.
Other thoughts:
- Morgan was making a cell! Now Rick has an alternative solution in the future that he probably won’t use. Shoot, even he knows it.
- I wonder what the Alexandrians are going to do now that they don’t have a doctor in their community. Someone better start reading those medical books Denise had.
- Tara’s reaction to losing Denise is going to be an interesting one. This is the second girlfriend that she’s lost, and it seemed like this was going to be a better relationship than the last. Please don’t kill her off anytime soon writers. We need her to grow some!
- Eugene and Abraham consistently have some of the best dialogue on the show, especially with each other. I demand an episode about just the two of them!
- The walker that Denise found was definitely gross, but what’s worse is the background of the room. The words “hush hush hush” written on the wall with the drowned baby in the sink made that scene incredibly depressing and disturbing. I never thought the show would do something like that.
- Does Morgan feel guilty about Carol leaving? I would certainly hope so since he kind of led her to do this.
This wasn’t a terrible episode for the show at all, not by a long shot. This was just one that could’ve been better and definitely would’ve been filler had it not been for the ending and Eugene’s decision to use the foundry to make bullets. Outside of those moments this was a pretty disappointing episode, especially since the past few episodes have been pretty good ones. Losing Denise was a shock for sure, but it’s sad to see her character go. She definitely had potential to become an even bigger member in the community than she already was, but that’s all gone now. The Saviors aren’t gone though, and with even more of their crew dead, Negan is definitely going to be pissed come the season finale.
TheComfySpot 