On tonight's season finale of The Walking Dead, our group meandered in the woods again and then came face to face with Negan and his friend Lucille. My thoughts on the episode are after the jump.
Uuuuugggggghhhhhh. Why do you make it so hard for me to love you Walking Dead? I want to love you! We were promised an extra-length ultra-brutal season finale. What did we get? Well, we got a lot of wandering around. In fact, other than the lackluster side plot with Morgan and Carol, we got a whole lot of nothing until the final ten minutes Granted, those last ten minutes were tense and great, but then it left us on yet another lame cliffhanger. They built up this tension for so long and they do not even provide us with as answer for any of it. This lack of pay off is incredibly disappointing. While it was awesome to finally meet Negan, this final ambiguous note left a really bad taste in my mouth. It is the worst kind of audience baiting and manipulation and it is an incredibly cheap plot device. This show has a very strange way of ending its seasons and mid-seasons right before the big finale or pay off to a current situation. Every time the new half starts up again, we get an awkwardly paced big episode that we should have gotten months earlier and then we switch gears completely with the actual first episode right afterward.
So the new season is going to open with a gruesome death of a main character and then... what? What a strange storytelling choice. Frankly, it is frustrating. It was a total cop out, just like last week with Daryl (who barely got any screen time this week) and just like earlier this season with the infamous "dumpergate" fake out with Glenn. It makes me wonder if the showrunners even had an idea of what they wanted to do. Sigh.
I actually feel like there is not much to talk about here. There was a lot of treading of water for most of the episode. Lots of driving, turning around, driving, turning around, and etc. Though, we did get the actor who played Trevor Phillips in GTA 5 teleporting everywhere our group drove to. I like him. I hope he sticks around. Oh! We also got more of Abraham's trademark WTF dialogue. This week, we got goofy variations on phrases using the word "bitch" whenever the RV reached one of the many roadblocks that padded out the episode. That is also disappointing. If we are going to get inappropriate reactions from Abraham, at least make them hilarious. (WHY ARE DINGLEBERRIES BROWN??) I guess I can talk about Morgan and Carol, which was also in itself a disappointing reveal. They set up this side plot over a few episodes now and it ultimately led to Morgan finding Carol and killing that creepy dude that we knew was going to find her from last week. That is it. We got some stuff with them talking but it amounted to:
"You got to survive!"
"But life sucks!"
"But... you got to survive!"
"No!"
"Sigh... but you got to!"
So, you know. Every single conversation ever on The Walking Dead.
Let's get to the good stuff then. We got 10 minutes to meet Negan and he sure did leave a great impression. Jeffery Dean Morgan was an excellent casting choice and his charisma felt very fresh in a show where many of the characters feel the same. There was an intelligence and confidence to his snarkiness that was really entertaining. He had this nonchalant and terrifying way of threatening everyone but staying charming as hell. It was fascinating to finally see someone who could bring Rick back down to Earth quite literally onto his knees after being so confident and self righteous for so long. If the episode instead spent its unearned hour and a half with Negan taunting the group the entire time, I would have been happy. Negan is a great screen presence so far and I am actually excited to see more of him in October(!).
All in all, there was a lot to like this season on The Walking Dead, especially the back half of it. The show shifted gears and tone and I legitimately loved the direction it took for the majority of it. Things were happening. The plot was moving forward. There was a new sense of life to the characters and their interactions felt more human. However, the final three episodes of the season resorted to old tropes of having characters separate and wander around randomly just to have random skirmishes and minor character deaths. There were some stand out moments, sure. Not nearly enough. Also, where did our new characters from Hill Top go? The show found Jesus and then forgot him! (Such sinners!) Those characters were a lot of the reason why the show felt so fresh during these last few episodes. Honestly, I hope Scott Gimple and the rest of his team take some time (again) to look at this back half of the season so they can start season 7 on the right foot. There is an amazing show in here somewhere and we saw some major hints of it a few weeks ago. We need to get back to a place where the plot is progressing in a major way and characters are having legitimate growth. To put it simply, the show needs to rediscover its humanity. Since the Frank Darabont era of the show ended, the writing has become increasingly repetitive and shallow. This is a show that I used to love over everything else. I am willing to love it again. Once the show figures out how to be human again, I'll be ready. Best of luck in October everyone.
If Daryl dies, we riot!
Grade: C-.
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