The Walking Deadpulled no punches in Sunday night"s shocking, violent second episode "JSS."
All I can say after finishing this one is "Holy crap."
In the season premiere, we followed one half of the survivors as they led hundreds of zombies from a quarry to a location far away from Alexandria. Led by Rick, this group included most of the best fighters, leaving the Alexandria Safe Zone...less than safe.
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At the over of the season premiere, a horn goes off, leading the zombies off the planned course và back toward Alexandria.The Walking Dead, it turns out, aren"t quite so easy lớn herd about.
In "JSS" we see the remaining survivors and Alexandrians coping with day-to-day life. Carol barely managing lớn hold her tongue chatting it up with the soft, silly women.
The Wolves attack out of nowhere. One second, Carol is staring out the window at her annoying neighbor as she smokes a cigarette (outside, thanks to lớn Carol"s chiding) and then suddenly a huge guy with a machete is hacking her lớn pieces.
Like I said. Holy crap.
The Attack of the Wolves
What follows is a bloodbath, as a horde of Wolvesare quite suddenly over the walls, tossing firebombs & chopping Alexandrians khổng lồ pieces. Carol takes quick action, disguising herself as one of the bad guys and taking out Wolves one by one, as well as making sure the armory is protected.
Morgan returns shortly after the attack, just after a semi crashes into the Safe Zone"s walls, causing the blaring horn to lớn sound. It"s a good thing, too. Once again the Alexandrians prove lớn be entirely incapable of protecting themselves. Rosita, Maggie, Carol & Carl are the only real fighters the town has. Nameless Alexandrians are being cut down lượt thích wheat. Deanna and her son are hiding outside the walls. Father Gabriel and Eugene are both useless.
Interestingly, we see
Morgan"s philosophy of "every life matters" put lớn the test. As he tries to lớn subdue và capture Wolves---going so far as khổng lồ scare them off, telling them if they stay they"ll be killed since the survivors have guns & the Wolves don"t---Carol doesn"t waste breath or time in killing whoever she can. She"s right, too. At the over of the episode, even Morgan realizes that the Wolves need lớn be put down, or at least the one super creepy wolf he encountered last season. "I"m sorry," he says, but he still makes short work of the creep.
I"m not sure why the Wolves don"t have guns. It seems lượt thích they would by now, given they"ve been killing off other groups of people for a long time. Maybe they just prefer to hack và slash. Certainly chopping corpses limbs off seems to lớn be a big part of theirmodus operandi.I suppose we"ll learn more about this in coming episodes, since plenty of Wolves vì chưng escape.
Throughout all of this, we never see Rick"s group. I assume next week the zombies will show up all around Alexandria, & Rick & co. Will return lớn see the fallout of the slaughter. Deanna, who proved as cowardly as her surviving son, Spencer, will have to come fully onboard with Rick"s diagnosis of the world. It"s nasty, brutish & filled with terrible people that make Rick at his worst seem like a saint.
Betrayal!
After the mayhem, Aaron also discovers that the Wolves had photographs of all of Alexandria"s defenses & layout.
We"re left lớn assume that Enid, whose "JSS" obsession at the opening of the episode means "just survive somehow," was a spy for the Wolves. She lets a stray "we" slip when speaking Carl that I think was her referring lớn the Wolves as her people, và then she leaves after the massacre. She musthave been sneaking out last season to feed intelligence to the Wolves.
That"s weird, và we don"t have enough puzzle pieces to put the mystery together just yet. But it seems like the truth of things, however puzzling.
Why would she be helping such awful people? Apparently lớn "just survive somehow" but is that really enough of a reason khổng lồ help such monsters?
Update:So it"s been pointed out that Aaron actually lost that backpack last season when he & Daryl were trapped and rescued by Morgan. I had forgotten that, but it makes perfect sense. I still think Enid is a Wolf spy. She acted guilty as sin in that episode; she"s been sneaking out of the compound; and she let slip the "That"s how we..." line when telling Carl the place was too big lớn defend. So she"s been feeding hãng sản xuất intel to the Wolves---just not the pack with the photographs. They were Aaron"s. (P.S. Paul Tassi goes into greater detail on why Enid is a spy here.)
Digression.
(I was also a bit surprised that so many women were part of the Wolves---not because women can"t be terrible, murderous monsters just lượt thích men, but because I vày think it"s less likely khổng lồ have such a violent culture when both sexes are present. There"s a regulating process that occurs that"s thrown off when too many men are in a group---sort of a "bare branches" phenomenon, if you will. I guess it"s nice to lớn have equal opportunity psychos, but it surprisesme.
Yes, the Termites & the Woodburians had both men và women, but the group of roving bandits that took in Daryl for a while were all men. Woodbury was a "working" society, và the Termites---well, I found that a bit far-fetched too. That such a large group could all turn to cannibalism seemed a bit absurd. Likewise, that such a large group as the Wolves, with both genders in ample proportion, could turn to lớn such savagery seems off, though maybe we"ll find out what"s going on soon.)
A return lớn form.
This was a very tense, very exciting episode from start lớn finish. The attack comes out of nowhere. We have no idea how it"s all going to play out. The Alexandrians fall so quickly, or turn & run, & the fighters remaining seem vastly outnumbered.
Guns are what really turn the tide, và Morgan"s awesome staff-work, but either way I was riveted. I thought for sure that Morgan or someone lượt thích Maggie might walk into the armory và get shot by the Alexandrian Carol left there with orders khổng lồ "just start shooting" anyone who walks through the door.
But every moment held some suspense. Jessie fighting off the female Wolf & barely winning; Carl almost getting suckered; the final ambush when you think Morgan might actually not make it.
What glorious tension! In many ways, what a return to size this was forThe Walking Dead, all juicy kích hoạt and suspense.
Killing the extras.
But in the end, only Alexandrians perish. Nameless, faceless characters are killed off in the battle, but nobody of consequence khổng lồ the story dies. I"m relieved by this. I don"t want any of the main characters lớn die! But it also felt a bit lượt thích an easy way out, likeLostkilling off fresh extras each week.
We"re introduced khổng lồ a new character, Dr. Denise Cloyd, played by Merrit Wever, but that entire story line felt a bit out of place during all the excitement. Why were so many people standing around trying to lớn save one person"s life while they could (and should) have been out fighting off the Wolves? Just didn"t make a ton of sense khổng lồ me.
Of all the Alexandrians, only Aaron has any mettle whatsoever. We feel the absence of Rick và Michonne & Glenn và Abraham big time. I wonder if they bởi vì end up returning next episode or if they manage khổng lồ wrangle up the walkers and get back on track.
Rick still has a lot lớn learn about leading people.
A lot of people were critical of my đánh giá of last week"s episode because they see me as being overly harsh on Rick Grimes. Và many will see tonight"s episode as vindication of Rick"s philosophy.
But I think many will miss a larger point: Rick may be right---I think he"s right about the world và about the hard work necessary khổng lồ stay alive---but he"s been a poor leader nonetheless. If Rick hadn"t gone so far off the deep kết thúc last season, if he hadn"t let Jessie get in the way of his good judgment, and if he"d instead worked to gain the trust of the Alexandrians and begin training and preparing them, perhaps this massacre would never have happened.
Instead, Rick left the town nearly defenseless while he took off with most of the best warriors lớn undertake a pretty bad plan lớn rid the area of zombies. It"s another reckless move that makes me question both his judgment & his leadership. I don"t question whether he"s right. He may be too trigger happy, but Morgan is too quick khổng lồ let bad people quite literally get away with murder.
There has to lớn be a balance between being right and actually carrying out the right plan & being a good leader, and Rick is still too caught up in his own head and his own arrogance to strike that balance. This will almost certainly be a wake-up gọi for Deanna and the Alexandrians, but it should also be a wake-up call for Rick, who needs lớn understand what being a leader truly means.
After the previous episode's teasing, this week's The Walking Dead is a feast of violence...
The Walking Dead‘s best character has been Carol Peletier, and it’s been that way for a couple of seasons now. She started out as the happy homemaker—the very role she’s playing around Alexandria—taking canned food or raw game & making it palatable for finicky modern taste buds. Carol is consistently showing off the skills she learned in the years before the apocalypse, from making cookies without refined sugar khổng lồ turning celery soup into something edible via the magic of paprika & water chestnuts. She’s worked a little of that kitchen magic on herself, too, transforming from a meek mouse into a wolf in sheep’s clothing, as dangerous and deadly as the gang of attackers scaling Alexandria’s walls.
After Carol’s impromptu cooking lesson, the episode lingers on some domestic drama. After all, Rick executed a guy in front of the town last season, & they haven’t seen that type of behaviour at all. Jessie is dealing with a cranky teenager with a knit cap, Eugene and Tara are hanging out with the new doctor Denise Cloyd (Merritt Wever), & Maggie và Who The Hell Is Deanna are discussing expanding the town, planting crops, & restoring some normality lớn the town. Then Molotov cocktails start flying over the grate và everything quite literally devolves into screaming, stabbing, và shattering. Thanks khổng lồ good luck, careful wall manufacturing, và skillful diplomacy, Alexandria has been spared conflict, but they’re about to get their first bloody nose, & it comes at the hand of a group of survivors so horrible that even Rick & his gang will be hard-pressed khổng lồ handle them: the Wolves. Or, Rick and his gang would be hard-pressed lớn handle them, if they were there. Instead, it’s Rick’s B-team, plus Carol, who have to lớn turn back the attacking horde of raggedy rapists and limb-choppers.
Splitting Rick’s group up usually pays dividends, và this episode is no different. You separate the folks up a little bit & give them some new Alexandrians khổng lồ play off of, & you see what happens. After all, Rick’s mission is really important, so it makes sense there wouldn’t be a lot of other people left behind. Having untested Alexandrians left Rick’s group vulnerable; being outnumbered leaves Carol’s group vulnerable. At any point in the first episode, someone other than Ethan Embry could have died; this week, anyone from the group of Carol, Eugene, Carl, Tara, Rosita, or Maggie could die. Fortunately, they have Carol, & that’s all you really need.
First Time Again was a lot of teasing. Zombies shuffled on & off the path, and at any moment you felt lượt thích everything could boil over. The sounding horn was just the thing needed to lure thousands of undead khổng lồ a delicious dinner of canned Alexandrian. JSS is a feast of violence. From the moment the Wolves show up to vì chưng their thing, there’s nothing but fight scenes, building up to fight scenes, or fleeing from fight scenes while people get chopped up. It’s awesome, because Carol gets to vì chưng the thing she’s best at and Morgan gets lớn put his stick-fighting skills lớn good use (plus a bonus Carl not staying in the house).
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In the hands of director Jennifer Lynch (who worked with Seth Gilliam on Teen Wolf and directed episode 5.14 Spend from last year), Carol becomes the lead character in an action video game. She skulks behind coverage, watching chaos all around her, but only striking when the time lớn strike is right. She’ll gun down four Wolves in a row while on the move, stab another Wolf from behind, and much lượt thích she did in last season’s staggering premiere episode, No Sanctuary, she does it all from behind a disguise. Sure, the Alexandrians might be figuring out that Carol is a bad-ass in disguise, but she needs the element of surprise, particularly when Morgan is doing dumb things like letting raiders live.
I’m not sure what Morgan’s game is, và Seth Hoffman’s script doesn’t make it clear, either. He’s all about giving people second và third chances. I’m not sure if that’s because of his time as a crazy person or because he needed a second chance after that, so he’s giving other folks an opportunity lớn redeem themselves. There seemed khổng lồ be some kind of recognition between Morgan và some of the Wolves, though. Their paths must have crossed at some point, aside from finding the occasional severed zombie head with a W carved into it. Morgan’s kindness is weakness, và I think we’ve been through enough khổng lồ realize that letting anyone get away from Alexandria is probably a bad idea, but… maybe it’s also a good idea?
Consider it: if you send a force of troops out & they never return from the target, maybe they mutinied, maybe they got eaten by zombies, maybe they just all caught dysentery from bad canned goods. If you send out a force và a few stragglers return, beaten và bloodied with tales of the black Shaolin monk & the middle-aged Housefrau Rambo who killed or clobbered a dozen hardened killers between them, what’s more likely lớn have you sending out reinforcements or another raiding party? A clean sweep might bring doom; survivors might bring a little respite.
Of course, looking at this through the lens of television, I know that survivors alive means the Wolves will come in force and attempt lớn take (or just take) Alexandria, assuming the horde of zombies doesn’t get there first. That’s the best thing about how this season has been unfolding. All the while Rick and company are struggling to keep the town safe, it’s getting attacked. Just when Carol feels lượt thích it’s safe khổng lồ exhale, there’s a horde of thousands of zombies headed right towards them. Tension, explosion… another explosion? Out of the frying pan & everyone’s on fire?