The Walking Dead Review: Episode 804 – Some Guy

TV Description: A new weapon in the Savior arsenal proves to be a giant hurdle as fighting continues between Rick's forces and those of the Saviors.

[Warning: Spoilers Ahead]

PREVIOUSLY ON THE WALKING DEAD

With Daryl’s help Rick is able to escape Morales and the Saviors that intend to take them hostage. In the fight at this location Aaron’s boyfriend, Eric, dies from his wound, leaving Aaron in a damaged state. On the trip back to Hilltop with the captured Saviors from the satellite station, Morgan gets in a fight with Jesus, leading to Morgan leaving the group to try and find definite answers to his unstable state of mind. Gregory returns to the Hilltop, apparently having learned his mistake and giving full support to Maggie. And lastly, after several successful attacks on the Saviors, Ezekiel and his company are ambushed by a hidden, mounted machine gun.

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Well it looks like fans of The Walking Dead are getting what they’ve been really wanting, as this newest episode was even better than the last one. No more artsy stuff, no arguing over the same moral dilemma we’ve seen so often before, and a good mix of action and character development! There are a lot of losses in this episode, including one of my favorite characters on the show, but these work well into affecting Ezekiel and the survivors of his army. This episode had much more solid story to it, an ending to keep people coming back for the next episode, and most of all made us feel scared and tearful over the fates and deaths the episode brought us.

Ezekiel was the main guy this episode. A flashback of him before meeting up with Rick starts off this episode gives us another one of his “And yet I smile” speeches, which feels odd since that speech was mostly focused on at the end of episode two this season. Even so though it felt charismatic and uplifting and just plain awesome, especially when the whole kingdom gathers around the king as he proclaims they are all one. But then the scene changes to the where the previous episode ended with almost all the Kingdomers dead. The same camera angle that ended the scene were the Kingdom was together in a moment of hope of unity is used at the start of this scene of loss, hopeless, and death. I was over the moon with happiness and to have it dashed away so quickly just hurt. When Ezekiel, who was shielded by the barrage of bullets, notices that all his friends are dead I couldn’t help but feel distressed, especially when he begins to believe he was the one who brought this upon them. What is worst still though is that all his dead friends start to reanimate and he’s all alone in a field of walkers. All of this before the intro of the show started to play.

While Ezekiel is fleeing from all these Walkers we see Carol at one of her bests in the show. We see her capable of fighting off a group of Saviors, distract them in times of crisis, and struggle with choosing between the mission and the lives of her friends. It was a good balance between the super badass we saw in the first episode of season 5 and the caring, peaceful person from the second half of season 6 and most of season 7. In the end she does choose to save her friends and it does fit with her character, especially when we see another flashback of Ezekiel with Carol with him asking her how she was able to change. She used to be such a weakling and did suffer quite a bit after being abused by her husband and losing her daughter early in the show. Carol has gone a long ways since then and this episode really shows it. I remember in the after show Robert Kirkman, the main creator of the series, even admitting the show did a much better job, especially in this episode, at portraying Carol as a character. With this praise though I can say that her being able to survive a fight with multiple Saviors and walkers does hurt her in making her seem invincible because she’s a big character of the show. I mean we just lost of ton of people, she could have at least taken a hit or two.

Now before Carol does rescue Ezekiel we do see him captured by a lone savior. This guy is more demented than Jared, that jerk who Morgan really wants to turn into a shish kabob. He takes Ezekiel’s cane, beats him while dragging him about, and is always demoralizing towards him by mocking Ezekiel’s title. To be fair it feels fitting for what King Ezekiel just went through, making him further question his leadership skills and his ability to protect others. Yes, this Savior was like the worst of the worst (even the actor for that guy said he wanted the character to be looked at like he was a complete monster), but his mocking felt just right for the occasion. Still, it felt so heavenly to see Jerry come out roaring and cleaving the Savior in half in one of the most gory and beautiful kills in television.

Jerry also got a great bit of character this episode. All the cast members of the show just look at Jerry like he’s always the fun, friendly giant. I mean he is played by Cooper Andrews, who is a very funny and enjoyable person. But that was it for such a long time. Then this episode came out and got some more on Jerry. We see him be a badass and holding off a bunch of walkers with Ezekiel, talk about how Ezekiel means so much to him, and just prove himself to be a strong character, both physically and mentally. Even when Ezekiel tells him that his weak leg is holding them back Jerry refuses to leave them behind. Cooper Andrews in the after show talked about how Jerry’s life before the Kingdom was one he never wants to return to, making his bravery more understandable in this episode.

I have two last things to discuss before wrapping this review up. First is Rick and Daryl, who were small in this episode in terms of story, but wrapped up the plans of the alliance in one fell swoop. There was good tension in their chase of the Saviors that Carol let go in order to save the king and Jerry, though we the audience knew these two were going to win and get the guns back. Their scene was short, got to the point, and had some good action in it. After that though we got one of the biggest losses I’ve had with this show: Shiva. I said earlier to somebody the day this episode premiered that as long as they don’t kill her off I’d be happy. She went out like a badass, but still watching her die was heartbreaking. The music, the walkers covering her up, Ezekiel’s distress at losing his closest friend in the apocalypse, all of it made a lot of people cry over the death of a CGI tiger. That loss though has broken Ezekiel, as we see him return with a similar camera shot as when he walks out to meet his people before the war. The difference though is that while Ezekiel is full of hope in the beginning, his return is wordless as he hobbles back to his apartment under the distressed eyes of his people. A massive change of character such as this made me just worry if he’ll ever be able to recover from Shiva’s death and how the Kingdom will survive without their charismatic and majestic leader.

Overall Analysis

This is the type of episode that I and other fans have been wanting. There is a good balance of story, action, and character development, all of which match what fans consider better episodes of the show. With the additional deaths of a majority of the soldiers from the Kingdom and Shiva the tiger, there’s a dark and dangerous future for this community. Now the loss of so many soldiers of the Kingdom and how Carol managed to survive this confrontation without a single scratch on her might be a down point on this episode, but with the positives of this episode and how I’ve seen people react, it doesn’t hurt Some Guy that much. If the rest of the episodes this season have the same formula as this episode I think the fanbase will be able to forgive how the first few episodes went. This is especially since now that Rick’s first plan was successful we don’t know what’s going to happen next and all the crazy action has calmed down enough that we can get more character development and appealing story.

I am so glad next episode is all about Negan, Gabriel, and the troubles at the Sanctuary. Finally we get to see what’s happened with them all.