The Walking Dead Review – Episode 815: Worth

TV Description: With the threat of the Saviors still looming, Aaron continues searching for allies; Daryl and Rosita take action and confront an old friend.

[Warning: Spoilers Ahead and Some Swears]

PREVIOUSLY ON THE WALKING DEAD

Jadis almost kills Negan, but lets him go after coming out about the truth of his former wife and the origins of his bat. Before this though a helicopter flies over the junkyard and misses a desperate Jadis trying to signal for help. Meanwhile Rick and Morgan massacre the escaped saviors after Rick lies to keep them safe. Elsewhere Carol finds and saves Henry, bringing him back to the Hilltop and teaching him a powerful life lesson.

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Even though there are still problems with this episode, this has been the best episode to watch in this second half of season 8 of The Walking Dead. We still have the finale to go through, but I’m not going to lie, this might end up better than the finale. We’ll have to see. We do have some bad scenes with Carl’s letter and Aaron with Oceanside, but the sanctuary scenes with Negan, Simon, Dwight, and Eugene were so good and made this episode not very painful to watch.

Carl’s Letter

I know not a lot of time has passed since Carl’s death, but it surprised me that it took this long for Rick to sit down and fully read Carl’s letter. Yeah, he never reads it until now, the second to last episode of the season! Something he should have looked at as soon as he could in a safe environment and he waits until the end to do it? Shows how much you really cared for your son, Rick! Okay, that’s a bit harsh actually, but even so it’s not right for him to put off doing that until now!

The letter itself though wasn’t that touching to me. It mostly consisted of Carl reminding his father of when he was little and the life before the walkers came. He writes of pizza parties, Friday night movies, school, holding hands, and more, giving us a fun little reminder of life before shit happened. I guess it was an attempt to remind him of the way it used to be, but that’s not much to say in my opinion. A request he makes to his father is to try and make people as safe as he can while trying to show that you don’t have to kill to live in this world. He mentions how he changed and how he changed his mind on killing Negan, but even then it was such a change of character that I just can’t believe or approve of this letter. All of it was stuff that Rick should have known at the start of the season! But I’ve beaten that horse for so long I don’t think it’s worth talking about again.

There are some good moments in this scene though, despite my criticisms of the letter. First off the music used for this part is spot on, using soft and quiet notes to bring out the emotions in the audience. I also like at mentions of certain parts such as holding hands with infants as they learn to walk we see Michonne doing just that with Judith. It’s a sweet reminder that there is a future still possible for these people despite all this death and violence. In the end it this moment with the letter definitely wasn’t bad, but I felt that the story from earlier this season and the problems it has obtained throughout each episode damages something that could have been really heartfelt and emotional hear. Instead it just didn’t have that impact I was hoping for and it really didn’t leave much of an impression on me. Unlike the next character I’ll be talking about.

Eugene and His Capture

I know there are a lot of people who hate Eugene and I understand that; he’s a coward, has become drunk on power and wine in Negan’s service, and doesn’t have much leadership or charisma to him. I can agree with all that, but I love him still because of his attention to detail, ability to survive through his intellect, his incredible resourcefulness, and of course the struggle he’s been going through for the past season and a half. Even with this episode showing him at his meanest I can’t hate him like others do. Not just that, but people have forgotten his sacrifices and bravery in previous seasons like biting Dwight’s crotch, giving himself up to save Rosita, and saving Tara during his first resource trip from Alexandria. That’s definitely worth remembering and something that definitely shows he’s not a full villain.

But I mention before, this episode definitely shows him at his meanest on the show. Now I can understand why he’s so mean, Gabriel screwed up his chance to get to Hilltop, which was a big gamble for Eugene. That, along with his new position and all the wine he’s been drinking, turns him pretty sour that I wanted to hug Gabriel close. Gabe was a tearjerker this episode, with him still broken over what happened and all his past mistakes rushing back together to haunt him, making him so miserable I was almost crying myself. Eugene though doesn’t care, instead noting a flawed bullet Gabe had getting him to back to work. His bullying doesn’t last very long however as Daryl and Rosita silently capture him and head off to the Hilltop with him.

Now, even though Eugene is with the Saviors, the way Daryl and Rosita treat him is disgusting. Daryl wants to cut his tongue out after Eugene tries to make polite conversation and Rosita wants him locked up forever, only to be used to give them information and nothing more. I’m putting this lightly though, Rosita and Daryl are much more hostile when they say these things to Eugene. Guess they didn’t read Carl’s letters either. Makes me wonder though, did Carl write a letter to Eugene? Wonder what it would say? Either ways, they drag him along for a while until Eugene gets his chance to escape. Now this is one of the most incredible escapes I’ve seen on this show because first Eugene barfs up some anchovie and garlic mac n’ cheese on Rosita and while she’s disgusted he hides in a pile of Ash next to a burnt building. I applauded loudly for that disgusting stroke of genius because that was just incredible to watch! Though wait a minute, isn’t Daryl and expert tracker? How did he lose him so easily? DAMN YOU BAD WRITING!!!

Despite that error, Eugene’s part of the episode ends strongly with him getting back to his workshop and return to working on bullets for the Saviors. When he gets back he’s resolute in his decision to help Negan defeat Rick, knowing now he has no future with Rick’s group and he’s best off with the Saviors. He’s found his place in the world despite all that has happened and his section in this episode felt like the final nail to show the audience who he will stand with. With such a great part of the episode though we got something bad to talk about next. Really bad. Really, really bad.

Aaron’s Desperation

I’ve said this before in previous reviews I’m saying it again: The Oceanside scenes are weak! I honestly wanted to skip these scenes, if not have them completely removed from this season, because they’re boring and set up what’s going to happen next so obviously that I wanted to bash my head against a wall instead of watching these scenes. I played The Walking Dead mobile game my phone though while watching these scenes, which in the end after rewatching these parts was a better choice. I couldn’t treat these seriously because the writers couldn’t treat us fans seriously by just shoehorning this scene into the episode. Looking back at Oceanside it might have been better with they were never introduced this season, they haven’t been on screen enough to make them interesting or worth remembering.

Not much even happens with Aaron in this episode, he just kills a few walkers and begs for Oceanside to help. Literally just that, nothing more. The fact he has no protection from the elements yet he remains out there to convince Oceanside to fight is quite something, but as I said before it just badly sets up what’s going to happen. It would have been more interesting if Oceanside started to attack Aaron for staying near them for too long, try to scare him off to convince him and Rick that they aren’t helping. All they got are spears after all, Rick took almost all their guns so they don’t have much to them. They are so many ways this could have been better presented than this! It’s just plain terrible.

If you’re thinking this episode is a complete bust, don’t worry because we’re about to hit a major plus in this episode because the “Big Scary U” is back in the sanctuary!

Negan, the Genius

There is no questioning it, Negan was the best character this episode! We’ve see Negan be strong, we’ve see him kick ass, we’ve see him be a figure to follow, but we needed more of a confirmation on his intelligence, showing that he can plan and prepare for battle and taking care of problems within his community. This episode shows it. Now I will say it is a bit stretched out and I would have shortened it some, but beyond that it’s done really well.

First off is the handling of Simon. Negan knows of him killing the garbage people and he’s going to put him down for that. But he handles it cunningly, firstly by forgiving him for taking over for him in the Hilltop fight. This then allows Simon to find people who follow him more than Negan and prepare for a coup. Dwight, being against Negan, yet trying to keep under cover, rats Simon out to Negan and all of Simon’s followers are shot dead. Simon though is given a chance to prove himself and he and Negan have a fair fist fight to determine who will lead the Saviors. The fight was great, with an excellent use of camera shots and just the sounds of them fighting to build good tention. In the end, Simon losses and is strangled to death as Negan shouts that because of Simon he has to kill Rick and all his people.

I am very sad that Steven Ogg’s character is dead, he was a fan favorite and provided something new to the table and it would have been so interesting if he was left on the show, even if his character changed a bit. He reminded me a bit of Daryl’s brother, Meryl; both were asses, but a fun asses and had beliefs that conflicted with a majority of the cast. Not just that, but his violent, yet cunning personality was interesting to watch and see effect other characters. In this episode particularly we learn it was Simon who killed all the men and boys in Oceanside, which honestly matches his personality more than Negan. His talks with Gregory were especially interesting, though that could be me enjoying watching Gregory being put in his place. It won’t be the last time we see him though because he’s not a walker on the fence. Not much comfort in that, but it’s still cool I guess.

Then comes Dwight because Negan knows who Dwight really stands with. How? Laura, that one Savior who found out about Dwight’s betrayal, was the person who Negan picked up last episode. I could kind of see this coming, but even so it was clever and well done. Using Dwight to rat out Simon was very well done, making Dwight confident that he was still in the clear. Now I didn’t enjoy how Negan continually seemed to tease Dwight as it was a bold wink to the audience as to what was going to happen next, that could have been cut or shortened down to bring the episode into the one hour mark. Still, I thought Negan’s planning was well done.

Negan has another big reveal for Dwight though: The plans for the next attack that Negan wrote up with his lieutenants, they’re fake. Negan tricked Dwight into having Gregory deliver them to the Hilltop and there’s no way to warn them of this deception. And that right there proves how cunning Negan can be, that he’s not just a big, scary man with a bat. To leave a finally shock for Dwight, Negan isn’t going to kill him. Instead he has “plans” for him. Man did that give me the shivers, though I kind of wanted Dwight to react a little more horrified to all this news. But that’s me, it was still a really great scene.

The last scene of the episode ends Negan’s part and the episode very well, with Michonne taking Carl’s letter for Negan and reading it to him through a walkie talkie. She was the best character to do that in my opinion since she was the closest person to Carl, besides Rick, and is probably the character who has taken Carl’s advice the most out of anyone else. Negan’s reaction too was just right, with him not going all mushy at hearing this, but standing firm in his beliefs and saying that Rick crossed the line and because of that he sadly has to kill him and all his people. And just nail how powerful of a response that is he smashes the walkie with his boot, showing that there is no going back now. The war must go on.

Last episode I talked about how I couldn’t support Rick anymore. Now I want to support Negan. I want to support the antagonist because this is what a great leader should be like. His ideas that humans are resources are at first menacing and tyrannical, but now they’re more caring and concerning towards the future. Sure he has to kill people every now and then, but he doesn’t overdo it because he knows the value of human life. If only though he could get out of the God complex he’s in and work together with the other communities and he’ll be perfect.

Overall Analysis

Negan and Simon made this episode feel better than most of the others this season, with Negan especially proving himself as a leader with strong motivations. Aaron’s part and the letter could have been executed better, but then we have Eugene in some crazy scenes, strangely balancing out the good and bad. The ending made me excited for the next episode, something I never fully got this second half, it feels so weird to even think I’m pumped for the big finale. Like most of the episodes this season it has problems, but this one has the least amount of problems (at least in this second half of the season), making my experience watching it just wonderful. It’s a great episode overall. I do wish it could have been condensed into the one hour mark instead of being 75 minutes long, so it was not fantastic, but by no means terrible. I give Worth gets an 8 out of 10. Next is the finale, so let’s hope it ends on a strong note.