Episode Title: Now
Original Airdate: 11-9-15
The Group is slowly starting to come back together. The episode opens with Deanna looking at the mess that Alexandria has become in just a few short hours. In the background we see Michonne telling Maggie about Glenn’s plan to save everyone else. Suddenly everyone hears Rick yelling to open the gate, as he’s headed toward town with half the horde right on his heels. (Wait, how did he escape the completely surrounded RV? Then run that far, through that many Walkers unscathed? Just because he’s Rick Grimes? Um, no. Unacceptable. I was highly anticipating that escape scene, and I feel cheated.) Suddenly hundreds of Walkers surround the walls, leaving the remaining Alexandrites terrified and convinced they won’t live through the night. They go to raid the pantry and start to turn on each other, until Deanna’s son, Spencer, steps in and tells everyone to go home because they don’t want to look back on this day as the one that tore them apart. Really he just wanted to sneak some hooch and crackers, so he could get drunk and blame his mom for all the town’s problems.
Meanwhile, Maggie decides to go looking for Glenn. Aaron decides to help, hoping to alleviate his guilt over the belief he led the Wolves to Alexandria by losing his pack with the town’s pictures. He shows her an underground passage out of town, through the sewers. After encountering a couple of severely deteriorated Walkers underground, the two finally come to a grate that still deposits them too close to the herd. Aaron is ready to give it a try, but Maggie puts an end to the mission, deciding it’s too dangerous. She reveals that she is pregnant, and Glenn knew, which is why she didn’t go out with the others to divert the horde. She says she feels that Glenn is probably gone because he would have sent her some kind of signal by now if he were in trouble.
Jessie starts burying the dead. She then comes across a Walker neighbor and puts her down as others look on in horror. She gives a moving speeches about how they all need to toughen up to survive. Her eldest son, Ron, and Carl get into a spat about Enid. Carl thinks she hopped the wall after the Wolves attacked and is worried about her being out there with the horde. He wants to go look for her, but Ron stops him, convinced more people will die if he leaves. The two get into a hilarious slap fight, with a pouty Carl stalking off and Ron going to Rick to tell him what happened and asking the new leader for shooting lessons, but his intentions feel quite ominous. The episode ends with Rick and Jessie sharing a kiss at the end of a long day, as the walls around Alexandria start to bleed.
So no word on Glenn…again, and definitely none next week according to the previews. It’s turning into the Sophia storyline of Season 2. Of course it would be realistic, not to mention ballsy, to never reveal what happened to him, leave us in the dark, like his family would be if he never returned. Though that might be an interesting idea in theory, I wouldn’t want that kind of ending pulled for Glenn, or any other major cast member. While I don’t believe characters deserve “better deaths” (dead is dead, y’all), I do think the writers owe us a resolution. As for Maggie’s pregnancy, I feel the timing is a bit melodramatic, but it does add a layer of sadness to Glenn’s (potential) death scene since he knew he’d be leaving a child behind.
Other than the Maggie and Aaron search party, this episode didn’t hold my interest too much. Deanna is not a good character. I find her and (what’s left of) her family annoying, so her journey of self discovery, or whatever that was, this week was cumbersome. It was mainly just her staring at stuff, then failing to take down a rogue Walker with a broken bottle, because she is literally the only person who two years after the zombie apocalypse doesn’t seem to know to aim for the head. Of course, this is fitting. Her inability to properly kill one of them only further reflects her naive leadership of Alexandria. Still, I am completely indifferent to her and her declaration of her will to live, which is far worse than hating a character, as I honestly don’t care what happens to her. Live or die, just don’t get in the way. Also, I can’t help but think Cherry Jones would’ve have rocked this role much better.
If any Alexandrites further their time on the show, I’m throwing my support behind Dr. Denise and Jessie. Tara and Denise’s relationship feels a bit rushed and random, but Tara has been very supportive of Denise’s new position as the town doctor, when Denise didn’t even believe in herself. So maybe they’ve only been flirting for like a whole day, and over dead or dying bodies, but hey “It’s the end of the world,” after all.
As for Jessie, I jumped on her team when she took down the Wolf with her styling sheers. I think that whenever they have to eventually vacate Alexandria, she will become a major asset to the Group. When it comes to her relationship with Rick, I’m not particularly moved. I’m glad he’s finally found someone since it’s been awhile since Lori died and I’m happy she’s found someone who won’t beat her and her children. It’s been obvious they were heading down this road since last season, but the timing just left me lukewarm. There are bigger things I want to see at this point, you know, LIKE GLENN’S FATE.
This wasn’t a bad episode, but just didn’t live up to what we’ve been given so far this season. Plus, there were far too many speeches: Rick, Aaron, Spencer, Jessie. For people who are trying to pretend they’re not there, they made a lot of loud noise to rile up the flesh-eating monsters on the other side of the tin walls. And things felt too rushed. It is still the same day as the events of the season premiere, and everyone is acting like weeks have passed. Did the writers forget their own timeline? Major points for those sewer Walkers though. That was awesomely disgusting.
Channel: Superhero 