The Walking Dead Review: Episode 809 – Honor

TV Description: Rick faces new difficulties after a battle. Meanwhile, the fight continues in other communities as core members face hard decisions.

[Warning: Spoilers Ahead with Violent Language and an Angry Rant]

PREVIOUSLY ON THE WALKING DEAD

Due to Daryl’s attack, Eugene helps the Saviors escape the Sanctuary while eliminating the attacking horde of Walkers. With the Saviors free, they begin their counterattack against the resistance. The Hilltop is stopped on their way back to their base, the Kingdom is taken over by, and Negan comes personally with an army to Alexandria to capture Rick and bring down their rebellion. Anticipating the attack Carl helps his people escape detection by the Saviors. However, when Rick returns and meets up with his son he finds out that Carl has been bitten by a walker.

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After the memorably awful mid-season finale of this season, part of me was wondering if The Walking Dead was worth watching anymore. I love the comics, the games, and of course the show. But somehow, in just half a season, The Walking Dead has turned from an incredible, unique drama in the zombie apocalypse to a poorly written, poorly directed, and widely despised television show. There already felt like a decline in good episodes ever since the start of season 6, but this started off with the episodes so bad it felt like the show was jumping off a cliff. Fans, including me, were furious and frustrated over the choices made by the creators, as they turned fan favorite characters built over time and development into almost complete opposites of what they are remembered for. It’s almost disgusting just remembering some of those previous episodes. So as you can tell I was mostly nervous and worried about this mid-season premiere.

However, it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be. In fact I quite enjoyed the episode. There were definitely problems I’ve later noticed with future viewings, but even with them the episode is pretty good. Not great, but definitely not terrible. At times I could tell what parts came from Scott Gimple’s vague and uncaring head (which I still wish I could smash with Lucille), but overall I felt at the end of the episode that some of my hope for the show had returned. So let’s dive into this episode, starting with the death of our main cast member.

Rest in Peace Carl Grimes

At the end of the last episode we learned that Carl Grimes, the son of my main protagonist, was bitten by a walker in a previous episode after he saved the life of a random survivor. As I said in my previous TWD review I mostly hated it, but also stated that having him die because of random chance in a non-dramatic way was appealing to me. I still mostly hate it and wish with all my heart it didn’t have to be this way, but in this episode, as I watched Carl slowly dying, a part of me felt strangely at peace with this. His death was handled quite well, with him having time to properly say goodbye to his father and Michonne, who he admits in this episode is his best friend. That right there was super touching and when I later watched this with my girlfriend I had to give her a digital hug at that scene. Chandler Riggs, Andrew Lincoln, and Danai Gurira give 110% in their interactions with each other, making almost all their scenes engaging and heartfelt.

Another great moment in this episode while Carl is slowing dying comes from Avi Nash as Siddiq. He wasn’t on screen that much in this episode, but everything he did on screen he did perfectly. This episode made me go from liking his character to absolutely loving his character. Siddiq comforts Rick and Michonne, who would in most situations despise him for (in a way) bringing about Carl’s bite, in a way that shows he really feels sorry for what happened to Carl because of him. Not just that, but his last words to Carl explain how he will do whatever it takes to survive because Carl decided that not just saving him, a nobody, but honoring his beliefs. I can understand if people find this scene cheesy and I too find it a little cheesy, but mostly I find that Siddiq is an honorable man and has a good sense of morality to him, making this scene heartfelt and almost tearful. If he dies this season I, and probably many others, will go absolutely ballistic against Scott Gimple and the show.

Additionally with Carl, at the very end of his life, he decides to kill himself rather than let Rick or Michonne kill him. That was a great move from the creators, as it not only doesn’t give either of the adults the guilt of having to their child (or in Michonne’s case, best friend, but she was almost a parent to Carl), but it also gives these two the equally balanced job of having to bury him together. It was both really touching and in character with Carl, not just with this season’s version of him, but as an overall character of the show. As I said before the changes made this season with him are bad, but what happens in this episode with him are all things I think the “normal” Carl would still do and say.

Granted, as much as I approve of how this was handled, there were definitely some big problems for me with Carl’s death and the reminders/ lessons he gives Rick before the passes away. These problems are the majority of why I can’t fully love this mid-season premiere.

The Dream and A Very Angry Rant

So throughout this season we’ve seen these flashes into the future, showing a future where life is at peace for Alexandria, Hilltop, and the Kingdom. In this episode we learn that it’s not actually flash forwards into the future, but Carl’s visions of what the future could be like for Rick and the communities. That, I have to admit, is a great twist. Saying that it does fit more towards this season’s version of Carl more than the “normal” Carl, which brings me to a number of problems. I’ve said it before (if I am correct), but I’m going to say it again because this shows the bad writing of the show while disguising it as something nice to fool those of less experience in character and story.

Firstly, throughout this episode and through the dream Carl reminds Rick of old times at the prison, where they both learned how to farm peacefully. That there is nice and one of the things I did approve of in Carl’s talk with Rick. It is a great reminder that peace can be obtained, that it is possible. Before he gets to that scene though Carl tells him about the kid he shoots at the end of season 3, when the Governor’s people flee the prison. While Rick is told by Hershel that Carl gunned that kid down when he was handing over his gun, I saw the kid walking slowly forward with the gun facing sideways and his other hand reaching forward. When I saw that scene I had a strong feeling he going to take Carl’s gun away and then him kill him with it because the guy could have just put the gun down and raised his hands over his head. It also fits that this dead kid’s father was aggressive in how he handled situations. If I was Carl back then I would have immediately threatened the guy to put the gun down and back away instead of letting him get closer and take my gun. In this episode though Carl believes he did the wrong thing back then, which I think is bullshit and bad writing. This is me on this though, if others believe otherwise they can freely do so. But to me this just painful to hear from Carl.

Next off, at the end of the episode, we see the last of the dream, with little kid Judith running up to a smiling Negan who is picking tomatoes from the farm. At first I thought that was touching, showing that Carl does have in a small part of him belief that Negan can be good again. But then I realized that just like most of this season of Carl it doesn’t fit with his character. Last season we see him catch a ride on a Savior truck and gun down a number of them when he reaches the sanctuary. Once there he demands Negan, saying he is the only who he wants to actually kill. He has that belief all of that season, and yet in this season the last we see of his dreams of the future is a perfectly nice and friendly Negan. I call bullshit on this!

And lastly, and definitely the biggest problem with Carl’s last episode is what he is trying to teach his father. Relating to my first reason, he tells Rick that peace is possible, that you don’t have to kill all the Saviors for things to go well, that in fact it’s better to try and save most of them instead of kill them. But here’s the thing though: In the very first episode of this season we hear Rick, multiple times, say that only Negan has to die. He says it to the rebellion, he says it Negan, and he says it to the Saviors. And yet Carl thinks that Rick has forgotten this when in the end this was the whole point of the rebellion against the Saviors. This is why they didn’t try to flat out kill all the Saviors, even the innocent ones, at start of the season. They could have, but they didn’t. Why? Because Rick, Maggie, and King Ezekiel believed that all the Saviors didn’t have to die, only Negan and the ones that caused the most trouble had to die.

[Here comes the angry rant]

So why do we have most of this scenes with Carl and Rick have Carl talking about why Rick has to try and save the Saviors? Because the Scott Gimple said that this was the most effective way for Rick to realize not kill the Saviors, to have Carl die while telling his father this. And to that I say, “Get the fuck out of this series Gimple! Get out of The Walking Dead, get out of Fear the Walking Dead, and get the fuck out of AMC!” It was clearly said at the start of this season what the goal of protagonists was: To only kill Negan and from there try to have all of them and the Saviors get along. The only reason it’s actually important to our main character here is because it’s being said by his dying son! If you actually understood how intelligent and complex humans are or even bothered to read or get to know the source material you would know how to run this show and not give us shit like this. Instead you simplify and don’t give us anything challenging or valuable to come back to! And not just that, but you force this all in in order to easily explain things when you should have treated us fans like intelligent human beings. If you’re not giving us any effort in making this show, why should we give any effort to watch it?! I wish I could spoil what happens in the series to fully explain what happens at the end of this arc, but that would ruin the season finale for those who are reading this review. Part me wants to say, “Screw it, just so they don’t have to watch this crap I will tell them,” but no, that too would give away answers when we should be thinking over the decisions made for this show by the creators. Even so, I have a strong feeling the season finale will be hardly as impacting as its comic book counterpart.

Okay, I’m done venting my frustrations against Gimple. My god that was just full blown wrath coming out of me there, which hardly ever happens. I’m calm now though… let’s talk about some nice stuff from this episode.

The Fate of the Kingdom

I’m glad that this episode wasn’t just around Carl dying as I had originally predicted, as we see Morgan, along with Carol, sneak into the Kingdom to free Ezekiel. After the previous episode the Kingdom heads to Carol’s cottage to hide while Carol decides to go and save Ezekiel. She meets up with Morgan who was already planning to do so and the two quietly and expertly eliminate a majority of the Saviors in the community. This eventually leads to a gunfight in the throne room where the two kill all the other Saviors expect their leader and one of Negan’s lieutenants, Gavin.

Watching two of the biggest badasses on the show saving one of the leaders of the rebellion and one of my favorite characters on the show was just awesome! They performed their jobs well, with both Lennie James as Morgan and Mellissa McBride as Carol really nailing their characters and actions throughout their attack. The gunfight in the throne room is a bit iffy with how both character hardly take cover on an open stage yet still don’t get any gunshot wounds, but I wasn’t that unhappy with it. Though to me this is because Morgan/ Lennie James is going full-on Rambo throughout the episode.

Since his breakdown in the last season he’s both conflicted with himself yet stronger than ever. I love how he still is in debate over who must live and who must die, but it’s almost turned his character into an unstoppable force of nature. When Gavin is the last living Savior in the Kingdom and is trying to flee Morgan tracks him calmly, yet determined to kill the man who is partially responsible for the death his former student, Ben. My eyes were continually glued to the screen whenever Morgan was the focus. We see him kill Saviors with his staff, with guns, and even by ripping out a man’s guns with his hand, resulting in one of the best human kills on the show up there with Rick ripping out a man’s throat with his teeth and Jerry cutting a man clean in half with an axe.

The conclusion of Kingdom battle can be expect, but still, in my opinion, makes sense and is appealing. Henry, the younger brother of Ben, sneaks after Carol and is seen early in the attack against the Saviors. He doesn’t appear until the end when Morgan is about to kill Gavin in order to try and finally put his last source of revenge down. Just before Morgan finishes off Gavin, Henry stabs the man in the back of the throat. In the next scene we clearly see Henry in shock over killing another man, meaning this wasn’t just blind revenge as he understands what he did and feels some shame over his actions. Ezekiel also does a great job in this scene, assuring Henry that while he doesn’t approve of what Henry did, he still understands that he is just a kid and knows that he is shocked by what he did. To me that was proper way of handling this situation and good point for Henry to learn and develop as a character.

Not just that, but this also shows Morgan a bit of himself as he sees another student of his turned into a killer, which in a way mirrors himself. We don’t see Morgan fully come to grips over this happening, leaving this up to interpretation over what Morgan should do, what should be done with Henry, and how this could affect Carol and Ezekiel and possibly the rest of the Kingdom. That to me felt like smart writing and storytelling, something that I and many others were hoping to see return in this second half of the season.

Overall Analysis

In the end this episode started off like a mid-season premiere should start off. Maybe it was a bit weaker in areas, but in other areas it was stronger. To me it’s definitely one of the weaker mid-season premieres of The Walking Dead, but that doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable. Carol and Morgan are fun to watch and the moments with Rick, Carl, and Michonne are really touching and make you really feel for the characters. Siddiq especially was fun to watch in this. However, we do have the problems with the writing and storytelling brought about (most likely) by Gimple and they really hurt the episode. That and I feel the episode, which was almost an hour and a half long with commercials, could have been shortened down some. I know it’s the mid-season premiere, but still I’m getting a bit sick of these longer episodes. If you’re capable of compacting an episode into an hour while not taking away from needed elements of the story and characters, then do it! No need to fluff it up. That’s what we don’t want, unneeded artsy stuff and exposition.

So in the end, I’m glad I saw this episode. Maybe not the best episode, but it made me feel the excitement for the next episode, something I didn’t think I’d get again as strongly as before while the show was hiatus after the terrible first half of the season. I give this episode of The Walking Dead a 6.5 out of 10 (just barely). I would have given it at least another half a point if it wasn’t for the stupid writing and storytelling of Gimple.

On a brighter note, the trailers for the next season of Fear the Walking Dead look interesting. Part of me wishes to skip ahead to that instead of worrying over this season.