The Walking Dead Review: Episode 802 – The Damned

TV Description: The plan involving Alexandrians, Kingdommers and Hilltoppers unfolds; as Rick continues to fight, he encounters a familiar face.

[Warning: Spoilers Ahead]

PREVIOUSLY ON THE WALKING DEAD

Alexandria, the Hilltop, and the Kingdom start their war against the Saviors! The plan to lead a massive herd of Walkers into Negan’s Sanctuary is a success, but Gabriel gets left behind after Gregory steals his car. In an attempt to hide from the walkers Gabriel gets trapped with Negan. With the Sanctuary overrun by walkers, the three communities start their next parts of the attack against the Saviors.

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While the premiere episode started the war, this episode started the battles with the Saviors. We see four groups this episode, each with their own conflicts: One lead by Aaron, another led by Tara, Jesus, and Morgan, then another group led by King Ezekiel, and lastly a two-man group of Rick and Daryl. All four teams are on the attack by going after smaller Savior compounds before news of the attack on the Sanctuary spreads. However we see nothing of Negan or Gabriel, which is disappointing because even if they just chat or something it would bring out some great character development. Instead this episode is mostly battle, which isn’t all bad, but could have been better.

In the premiere episode I complained how the time just kept changing and how that could possibly confuse viewers and I’m was so happy that while multiple people had their stories told in this episode they kept everything in the present. But what I didn’t identify it in the first viewing was that maybe this idea of going “balls to the wall” in action for the first few episodes might not be what’s needed. The plot of this episode wasn’t well done, with slow story and some scenes that forced something onto the protagonists in a less than appealing manner. One particular scene involving a Savior who tricks and almost kills Tara and Jesus by peeing his pants, while addressing the idea of a balance of morality, just didn’t feel right. We’ve covered this enough in previous seasons, and while I do side with Jesus on trying to be a bit more peaceful than outright murder the fact it’s being argued is a bit iffy. I still hate that one Savior a lot, especially with his cowardly asshole personality, but I feel that many viewers, including myself a bit, will see that scene as unneeded.

Now I cannot deny some of the action was just plain awesome. Morgan takes the crown for most cool kills this episode as he marched through hallways, hunting down Saviors with a grim determination that almost made me think Morgan has gone crazy again. And he almost got to kill that guy who killed his Kingdom disciple, Ben. Plus there were some other cool kills like two arrow headshots, hitting Saviors with a car, and of course Shiva the tiger pouncing on and going for a Savior's throat. God I love Shiva, so cool and so well designed. I’m very glad The Walking Dead crew were able to get her in. The normal shootouts were pretty good as well, but they weren’t grand. One thing I did like about a few of the battles though is the use of walkers. With Morgan, he groups some walkers by rattling a fence, which distracts the Savior guards long enough for a Kingdommer to put arrows through their heads. Aaron uses them as a finishing weapon, keeping the Saviors trapped in his location long enough for walkers to come in and overwhelm the last of them. That makes the fights pretty neat.

Though he wasn’t in this episode much, I did like Ezekiel and his pep talks with Carol. His lesson on learning to smile, even when the odds are against you, reminded me a lot of a character named All-Might from the anime, My Hero Academia. While it kind of was already apparent, having it explained to Carol was pretty cool. It’s these small things, these talks that are not just on morality, that give characters detail and more appeal, something I kind of want to see more of, even in war and even if it’s a negative realization or reveal, which is what happens with Rick this episode. He kills a Savior and next discovers that the Savior was protecting a sleeping baby. Wow was that bombshell for me, it was a moment of horror and disgust for both me and Rick. And then to make matters worse he encounters an old acquaintance of his: Morales

Many fans and viewers of the TV show probably cannot remember who this character is at a glance and have to check the web for who they are. That’s understandable, we only saw him for just over half the episodes in the first season, which is something since the first season is only six episodes instead of sixteen. It’s not a happy reunion of the two, with Morales telling Rick he’s called the Saviors to tell them to come back, clearly showing he’s in support of Negan. What happened after he left Rick and the group in Atlanta and how he got in with the Saviors remains a mystery as the last scene in the episode ends with him cocking his pistol as it points at Rick’s shocked face. With Rick mental hurt by his latest kill, Morales showing up now might make Rick more uncertain with himself. We’ll have to find out next episode.

Overall Analysis

As I said at the start, the premiere episode of season 8 was awesome, but the shifts in time were unneeded and confusing, especially with how many groups the characters are split in. This episode had tons of epic action, a great character return scene, and an epic Shiva kill, but the conflicts weren’t done well enough and that there were too many happening in one episode. I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t like this episode, I thought it was pretty descent. Definitely not amazing, but not terrible, just descent. I’m glad I took another look at the episode instead of going all, “THIS IS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE AND I HARDLY NOTICED PROBLEMS,” in this review because action doesn’t always make good story. So in the future I’ll use my first viewing to get all the fun out of me and the next viewing I’ll be as critical as possible, even though it’ll definitely make me feel out of character with myself.

Looking through these two episodes, maybe instead of the season immediately starting out with several episodes of action instead we could have the first season or the first few episodes of this season be more on the planning their first attack on Negan. I know the show creators wanted to really blow us away with something epic, but action isn’t all we want. Alexandria, the Hilltop, and the Kingdom have gotten together for the first time, surely some of their planning should have been shown. With how this has been done so far it feels this plan of theirs will fail or at least not fully go well. It also is a better buildup to the confrontation with Negan, as well as better character interactions. I mean Negan couldn’t have just sat in his room after his defeat by all three groups in Alexandria, right? It wouldn’t make sense. Though with what’s going on, maybe Negan has been planning in case Rick did something to screw with him. We’ll find out next episode hopefully. Or soon enough.

Next review on Halloween night will be on the original Blair Witch Project! See you then.