The Walking Dead: Resisting Temptation!

To begin reviewing this half of TWD, I gotta first give props where props are due. After the disastrous season 5A, I was having my doubts about the quality of the show. Not unlike season 3B, I thought the show had jumped the shark, going from character-centric apocalyptic drama to Robert Kirkman's mindless zombie killing madness. However, both times that I had doubts, the show went ahead and saved itself, delivering fantastic followups to shitty finales. Thus, after season 5A, the show rebounded with a great 5B. We observed how Rick and The Gang dealt with a society that hadn't been outside the walls of civilization. We saw just how much our central cast has adapted to the wilderness of outside. And of course, in the distance, there is the looming darkness of those with "W" carved into their foreheads. Finally, there was the re-introduction of Lennie James's Morgan!  

Let's start out with our characters. Throughout the season and in the finale, there were quite a lot of swings, hits, and misses. Let's start with the good before we move onto the Gabriel.

Rick, Carol, and Daryl - wow. The three most badass members of our central cast all shined in the last half-season. First of all, there was the introduction of another leader, directly contrasting the way that Rick chooses to lead. Deanna Monroe, de facto leader of The Alexandria Free Zone, the place that Rick and his group come to live, is a reasonable woman. She is kind, caring, and in a regular society, would probably be a fantastic leader. However, in the world of The Walking Dead, she's weak. Yes, the world would be a nicer place under Boris Yeltsin, but sometimes, when the going gets tough, a Vladimir Putin has to come and take charge. This is the scenario Alexandria is put into. As nice as it'd be for an idealist like Deanna to lead, the sad truth of the matter is that Rick is correct in his ways. Thus, when we see Rick explode on the residents of Alexandria, challenging Deanna's leadership, attacking (and later killing) a local abuser named Pete, and stealing guns from Alexandria's armory, it makes for wonderful contrast. Rick has been in the wilderness too long to immediately adapt to society again. 

Carol is the midway point between Rick and Deanna though. As I've said since this blog started, Carol is the best character on the entire show. Upon entry into Alexandria, she immediately disguises herself as a helpless housewife who was lucky enough to be brought along by Rick. In reality though, she's more ruthless and survival-minded than anyone. For being a short, older woman, Carol is more menacing than the aforementioned "W" people. Unlike Rick though, Carol knows how to hide it. She still gets to have some of the greatest lines of the show, ("These people are children and children like stories.") but the ostensibly kind woman takes out the guns when she needs to. The way that she quietly but effectively plans for the group in Alexandria is masterful. Behind every great man is a great woman. In this case, behind every battle-hardened lunatic, there's a great female battle-hardened lunatic.

Finally, there's Daryl. The longtime warrior of the show, Norman Reedus's crossbow wielding, motor-cycle riding, long-haired badass seems straight out of a comic book. Ironically enough, he's one of the few TWD characters not based off of a comic book character, but that's beside the point. Daryl seems as unrealistic as they come, but when developed alongside Aaron, a homosexual scout for Alexandria, really continues his character's realism. At entry to Alexandria, Daryl is hesitant about getting back into society. He's a loner. However, when he strikes up an unlikely friendship with Aaron and his boyfriend, they begin scouting together. No - it's not some kind of brokeback mountain scouting, but for The Walking Dead, Daryl's acceptance of Alexandria and its customs is pretty shocking in itself. Whether he views himself in this way or not, Daryl is a good guy - straight to the core. He could never be like The Sons of Anarchy from last season. He could never be like The Termites, The Wolves, or any of the other villains of the show. Daryl's place is as a tough, good guy. His plotline in this season only proves it further.

But, for every well-done piece of characterization The Walking dead produces, there's some less-than-great plots as well. Let's start out with our last remaining Wire actor, Seth Gilliam's Father Fabriel Stokes. When he was introduced at the start of the season, we saw him as a coward who hid behind God as an excuse for locking his congregation outside of his Church. He was afraid of Rick, he was afraid of Gareth and the Termites, and generally dumbfounded the audience as to how he was still alive in the world the show created. As the show progressed though, Gabriel was lost in the plots of others. As Beth, Tyreese, and Noah died, Alexandria was found, and The "W" people came on the rise, Gabriel was forgotten. Thus, when he randomly warned Deanna about the ruthlessness of Rick a couple episodes ago, it seemed a bit out of nowhere. All of a sudden, in the finale, Gabriel is suicidal, antagonistic, and acts as if we've been paying attention to him all season. In addition, one of the stupidest scenes of the show comes when an Alexandria resident asks The Father if he can shut the door to the town and then leaves as the disillusioned Gabriel does no such thing. You, Mr. no-name Alexandria guy, are fucking terrible. 

Anyway, the entire debacle with Gabriel is somewhat nonsensical. I get that he's scared of Rick and doesn't really connect with the group, but my God! (pun intended) The dude saves your life multiple times, you don't get developed, and then all of a sudden you're a focal point of the finale. Get it together, TWD.

The other plotline I wasn't too keen on was Sasha, the woman who was close to almost every deceased Wire actor on the show. In the latter half of the season, she begins going a bit crazy. She lays down in a pile of walkers, she sleeps in a watch tower, and she almost kills Gabriel. ("Ya know what Seth? Lawrence Gilliard Jr. AND Chad L. Coleman are already dead! You're next bitch! And guess what? When this show inevitably gets Lance Reddick and Wood Harris to join the cast, they're screwed too!") However, though I understand that she's sad, Sasha suffers from the same lack of development that so many others have. We knew she loved Bob and Tyresse, but aside from that, her character has very little depth. This PTSD-ridden, psycho-killer Sasha seemed a little out of nowhere. Once again, in the supposed-to-be-climactic scene wherein Sasha points a gun at Gabriel in the finale, I had a hard time being too up in arms. If Sasha dies, I wouldn't be uber sad. If Gabriel dies, I'd probably just be relieved.

Lastly, let's touch on the closing moments of the finale. Morgan, Aaron, and Daryl return to Alexandria, just in time to see Rick executing Pete after Pete drunkenly kills Reg (another wise older man to be killed too soon.) As happy as Rick is to see Morgan, it seems that Lennie James's character has turned into a guardian angle for humanity. He wants to "preserve human life," even if that means not killing some "W" people. 

Side note: The "W" people are called The Wolves... though isn't it funnier to think of them as big fans of George W. Bush? I believe he was the president at the time of the zombie apocalypse, right? Maybe these guys just haven't gotten over the Iraq war? Maybe next season there'll be another group of hooligans with "H.W." carved into their foreheads? Gang war? I can dream, can't I?

Anyways, when Morgan sees Rick shooting a man in a headlock in the face, his facial expression goes from one of sheer joy to one of shock. Has the man that Morgan's been searching for for years turned into a raving lunatic? The answer is kind of a yes... but we'll have to wait to see exactly what Morgan's reaction is until next year.

Overall, season 5B of The Walking Dead delivered on most fronts. Though it had a couple of missteps, the quality shot up shockingly well from the catastrophe of 5A. It'll be a long time to wait until season six begins, but The Walking Dead companion series will air in the interim, hopefully filling the zombie gap in the next six or so months.