The Cure: Your Weekly Fix of “The Walking Dead”
509 “What Happened, and What’s Going On”
First things first; the Tyreese problem. He was a great character and his death was dignified, but his arc was pretty terrible. Grappling with whether or not to allow yourself to change and adapt in the zombie apocalypse is something all of the characters dealt/deal with and that is fine. What isn’t fine, is showing how successfully one can be savage when needed and still have a heart (Rick, Sasha, Bob, Carol) but not have Tyreese eventually make that breakthrough. NO ONE can live as Tyreese did (in the show) and survive. Martin even told him as such in the cabin last half. What was great, was that there were clear consequences to his (in)action. If there is anything to take away from Tyreese’s character, it was the positivity he held onto and the lesson he (hopefully) taught others in not straddling the fence and being naïve. Also, don’t call that man a “mammy.”
What was up with the emphasis placed on Noah’s barbed wire scratch? Only way it makes sense is if he got an infection or that was a real-life accident and the actors kept rolling with it.
Anyone catch the graffiti in Noah’s neighborhood? “Wolves not far.” New group of psycho survivors to contend with, perhaps? If this is an actual gang, I’m loving the lean towards old-school naming conventions. If the Jets and Sharks pop up, they better leave the dance moves and finger-snapping back in the time before civil rights and female condoms.
Doing what he does best; Tyreese consoling Noah during his ugly cry
Michonne is continuing to be a strong voice of reason. Her warning of “you can be out here too long” is evident in Rick’s beard, Tyreese’s extra heft, and Maggie completely forgetting she had a sister until she got murdered (yea, I’m still on that).
I’m calling shenanigans on Tyreese’s initial walker bite. The way the scene played, I figured he was putting it all together that only one of the pictured twins was accounted for in the room. All of the photos were of them together. So, with each close-up and face shot of Tyreese, I just knew he’d spin around and take care of the errant walker. Instead, he was apparently thinking of Double Mint ads and if he and Sasha could pull off matching outfits and not his own survival.
For all the comic readers: Who else’s heart skipped a beat when Glen picked up that baseball bat?? Kirkman and co. already teased us in episode 501 with the slaughterhouse scene. I’m not sure I can handle another cruel trick like that.
“I feel like this bat was a good find!”
“It’s not over!” I’m sorry, Tyreese, impassioned and optimistic speeches are not antibiotics. For a second, I thought he was about to will himself better… aaaand I was about to be done with the show.
Don’t be so accusatory, Tyreese. You were caught slipping and got GOT
Nice to see Tyler James Williams (Noah) channeling Steve Urkel again hiding under scant lumber while walkers try to eat him. I’m not sure if Father Gabriel or Noah is more annoying in the “can’t-take-care-of-themselves” department.
Who the hell rounded up a literal truckload of zombie torsos in a subdivision? Great to see the source of all the discarded limbs that sunk Michonne’s nesting aspirations, but this was one of those cases where the truth is gonna be something we probably don’t want to discover.
Yea, you know what the better question is? What the hell made someone LEAVE a literal truckload of zombie torsos in a subdivision? I can’t imagine something as trivial as a whistling kettle forced a person or persons to just leave freshly butchered living dead things. Let’s just say nothing short of Jesus returning or a 2-for-1 on Whoppers is going to make me forget I was trucking reanimated corpses, bruh.
The cavalcade of dead folks ushering Tyreese towards the light was cool, and aside from having to see the Governor’s face again, I thought it was handled well.. Having Karen among the faces visiting would have toed the line between heavy-handed and sweet, but still something I wanted to see.
One of these things is not like the others…
I really, really liked a lot of the artistic choices of direction and editing in this episode. Opening with Gabriel eulogizing over random shots of a makeshift funeral was a good “I thought this was for Beth” fake out. The best sequence had to be Tyreese’s ride with Bob, Lizzie, Mika and Beth. Seeing Tyreese slowly drift away combined with the distant shot of the van stopping with everyone spilling out (some sobbing) and removing Tyreese’s body really hit home and added some emotional punch to a course of events that I was not happy with, but accepted.
“Being part of it is part of it.” Say word, Martin (..you asshole).
