The Walking Dead Review: Episode 808 – How It’s Gotta Be

TV Description: Every story and battle from the first half of the season comes crashing together.

[Warning: Spoilers Ahead and Violent Language]

PREVIOUSLY ON THE WALKING DEAD

The Sanctuary is suffering from the horde of walkers outside. Dwight is confronted by Eugene, who reveals his knowledge of Dwight’s betrayal. Later Eugene attempts to lure the horde away with a unique contraption only for Dwight to stop in. Daryl opens a hole in one of the walls with a truck, causing Eugene to craft a mountain of bullets to wipe out the walker horde. Rick escapes death and brings the Scavengers to the Sanctuary, only to find out to his horror that the horde has been wiped out completely.

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Okay… this has to be the hardest fucking episode I’ve ever had to review, and that’s saying something. We did have some fantastic moments in this mid-season finale, but the bad moments, plot holes, lack of payoff, and loss of one of the biggest characters on the show almost makes me wonder if The Walking Dead is worth watching anymore. It makes me wish I had new episodes of Fear the Walking Dead or Preacher to keep me company during The Walking Dead’s haitus. Something, anything to make me want to pick up a remote and watch a TV other than just for movies on HBO. So let’s start off with what moments made this episode bad. This time I’ll be doing big sections for this review to better organize everything.

What Went Wrong?

So the first things that stuck out that hurt this episode were the plot points that were left too open to interpretation. The first one really early in this 90 minute episode with the appearance of Oceanside. Enid and Aaron go to the Oceanside community for no real reason and during the night their leader of Oceanside, the old woman Natania, tries to kill Aaron. Enid shoots her without know who it is and for ten seconds we see a large group of the Oceanside community on screen. Then we never see them again for the rest of the episode. What the fuck?! Not even in the final scene showing headshots of all the characters, so why even have that scene?! It was utterly pointless and did nothing for the episode’s story!

After that we are left with the fate and appearances of several characters being just up in the air. The first one to hit me was Carol and Jerry suddenly, out of nowhere, rescuing Rick after he finds out about the walker horde. How did they get there? How did they know to rescue him? And they’re leaving the Kingdom unprotected? Ridiculous! Then soon after that their ride gets hit and Carol and Rick escape unharmed while Jerry is totally beaten up. Both Rick and Carol get to Alexandria and the Kingdom respectively without any screen time of their traveling and Jerry has a gun to his head most of the episode, yet we never see what becomes of him in the end. So yeah, we got some bad story telling very early in the episode.

There are also plenty of small problems that just hurt the episode. First we have a Savior finding out about Dwight, is able to run back to the Saviors, yet we see in trailers for the second half of the season that Dwight still among the Saviors like he hasn’t been found out. Second there is a final scene with Morgan outside of the Kingdom’s walls with Ezekiel trapped and in grave danger, which I feel could have had more payoff if that was solved. Plus Carol just stood there while Ezekiel closed the gates to save his people when she could have tried to save him or do something other than cry out! And third, and probably the biggest one for me, is that Daryl doesn’t recognize or can’t comprehend that his actions got the Saviors out. He should have shown a bit of distress after his actions brought more harm than good. He did so when he got Glenn killed, so why not here?

So yeah, lots of problems in this episode. But now we have a scene that is both good and bad, the part that commercials said would be the part that everyone will be talking about.

The Big Death

Ever since season 2 of The Walking Dead, every mid-season finale has had a big death to it. In season 2 we had Sophia, in season 3 we had the Governor’s daughter, in season 4 we had Hershel Greene, in season 5 we had Beth Greene, in season 6 we had Deanna Monroe, and in season 7 we had Spencer Monroe. These deaths were of character that had great story to them and whose deaths brought about big changes for the show and its cast of the characters. So who dies in this mid-season finale: Carl.

You heard that right, Carl Grimes is dead. When he was saving Siddiq during The King, The Widow, and Rick he got bitten by a walker. This choice of who dies this episode is interesting and one that I both love and hate. Mostly hate though. I have several reasons for this: First, Carl is still alive in the comics and has done a lot of great growing of the plot in the comics; second, he was a very unique character to the series, a hardened child who was well knowledgeable on how to survive, how to work with others, and how to lead; third, and probably the one that brought about his death, is that he had become the moral compass of the show and as it has been shown so many times, being the moral compass on The Walking Dead will get you killed.

All these parts, along with me thinking that the writers wanted him gone because he was getting too old for his role, makes really damn pissed off about his death. However, his becoming the moral compass in this season is very off with his character. Last season we saw him gunning down Saviors easily and only wanting to kill Negan and in a few days in the show we see him preach that anyone can be good. He was a huge causer of conflict with the Saviors and now him trying to fix things up with the Saviors is very off. I did originally write he was becoming a good moral character, but I soon realized that this new Carl is a lot different from the Carl we had before. It doesn't fit. It's like the creators of the show were in a pickle and forced Carl to be a moral compass when he clearly is a character who just tries his best to be like his father and bring justice in his own way.

Saying all this I can give a few positives to Carl’s death. First off, it was unexpected in a good way, in that it wasn’t really dramatic and it was a death by normal circumstances in this world. No head bashing in from a barb wire wrapped bat or decapitation from a katana or final stand against a large group of walkers, just a simple bite. Not every character on a show gets a dramatic, over the top death on screen, some just die simply. Also, I can say that Carl dying was a huge twist compared to the predictions of many fans. I, and plenty of others, expected characters like Morgan, Tara, Judith, and Daryl to kick the bucket in this episode, especially since their roles and actions are putting them up for death. If the show continues on after this season there might be some interesting changes going on with the story to fill up what Carl was supposed to do.

In the end though, I find this to be a bad move from the show runners. A unique character with tons of personality and a great moral compass to them gone. We’ll never get a character like Carl again because Enid and Judith will never be able to live up to the potential of what Carl has done. Not just that but with further research I learned that Scott M Gimple in an interview basically said that Rick should become more conflict as to kill or not kill Negan and only by killing Carl can Rick be like that. It's like he believes only death can make people change. Well there's so many more ways people can change other than a somebody close dying and the comics do the transition well. This is bad writing, story, and decision making for this series and it's going to cost a lot of fans and views.

So What Was Done Right?

With all this bad that’s happened, what has kept me from saying this was an absolutely terrible episode? The Saviors. They did phenomenally in this episode, bringing in some epic moments for our main heroes by going back on the offensive and bringing some great fearful moments to the show. While definitely not the biggest moments for the Saviors, they were pretty damn epic. We see them put the fear back in Rick and the group just like from their first grand appearance, with tons of bombarding shells from grenade launchers, trapping convoys on the road, and threatening mass executions for any who resist. Not just that though but the Saviors prompt a few great responses out of some of the characters, from Maggie who declares to Jesus that the Hilltop must be quickly turned into a well-stocked fortress, to Ezekiel’s rescue and self-sacrifice for his people, to Carl giving Negan an absolutely emotional speech on being willing to die for others despite him being scared to die.

Overall Analysis

Now while I can say How It’s Gotta Be is the weakest mid-season finale for The Walking Dead, it wasn’t totally bad. There were some definite problems and to many the death of Carl was a big mistake for the show, but the Saviors had some epic moments that kept it from becoming total crap. However, that decision to kill of Carl has made me think that The Walking Dead might not get another season. With such a big character loss, especially for one that, once again, is still alive and doing a lot in the comics, and with the most likely chance of the war ending at the end of this season, there’s not much left to keep fans of the television show interested. And so I want to propose my theory on who caused this finale to suck when it could have been epic as hell: It’s most likely Scott M Gimple’s meddling.

From what I’ve learned in the past hours since the mid-season finale, Chandler Riggs, who plays Carl, was told by Scott Gimple he was getting at least three more seasons (if the show lasts that long) on the show, but was told a few weeks before his birthday that his character was going to die. His father revealed this knowledge on Facebook soon after the episode ended and that, along with Gimple being the main show runner of The Walking Dead and the decline in good episodes with this season, have made me furious as to how this show could spoil in such a way. Fans are really getting pissed with how the show has been doing, especially now with how this episode went and while I love The Walking Dead franchise to death I have to agree that things are looking bad for The Walking Dead TV show. And what’s worse is that Gimple will be also now working on Fear The Walking Dead as it starts to head towards a fourth season. If Fear starts to get bad as well I will then clearly know who is (mostly) bringing the series down.

Mid-Season Analysis

This has been a bad season for The Walking Dead so far and it’s clearly showing. We’ve have more bad episodes than usual with too much artsy stuff, poor plot and character decisions, and not much tension as the trailers made us believe. Instead of All Out War being he slogan for this first half of the season we should have had something more like, “The Fight Begins.” It was only one day of fighting after all and most of it was from Rick and the rebellion. Not just that but I feel that if the season started off with a discussion on “The Plan” and having characters set up and discuss what has to be done we would have had much better set-ups and character choices. So many bad decisions made in creation and character, something I really think a new show runner or people working on the show could help fix. It wasn’t fully bad, but we definitely could have had better and even with how this season has gone so far it’s definitely not enough to make me abandon The Walking Dead franchise. So for a final score for this mid-season finale, I give How It’s Gotta Be a 5 out of 10 and this first half of the season a 7 out of 10. My favorite episode so far for season 8 has to be Some Guy with its great story telling, exciting character interactions, and a death that while big is not despised by most of the show’s fans.

Now with all this bad though for The Walking Dead I do have some good news relating to the franchise. On Sunday, along with the mid-season finale, we also FINALLY got a long awaited update for OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead, an FPS of original survivors in The Walking Dead universe trying to stay safe in the areas around Washington DC. And it’s first character trailer looks great! I highly suggest giving it a view here:

This will totally make you feel better after watching that stupid mid-season finale. Also a friend of mine is working on this game and you can see her in the team introduction video linked in that video. Can't wait for more news on this game, it's finally coming out!!!