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Effectively, it’s taken some time, however The Walking Dead appears to be getting on observe. In tonight’s episode, it choo-choo-chooses to assemble its characters (properly, most of them) for a single, coherent plotline that can lead on to the ultimate battle with the Commonwealth. One might even say the present is working at full steam towards the top. Did I point out a prepare was on this episode?
All that positivity apart, should you have a look at the person scenes of “Outpost 22,” it’s form of a large number. There’s a variety of lifeless weight (not a zombie pun, imagine it or not), and little or no of the episode has these aforementioned stakes throughout its runtime. After everybody was captured and shipped out of the Commonwealth last week, Maggie, Rosita, and Gabriel—who’re helpfully separated from everybody on the bus and guarded solely by a sleeping Commontrooper—simply handle to flee. They get separated, however that’s nice, as a result of they rapidly run again into one another with none significant incident. And Carol and Daryl present up, too!
Everybody remaining on the convey is taken to both a jail camp, resembling Ezekiel, Carrie, and Negan, or the titular and mysterious Outpost 22. The jail camp scenes are there primarily as filler; the “exiles” are advised they will’t use names, some random characters we’ve by no means seen attempt to escape and get shot, gruel is served. However there’s one exception right here, and it’s when Negan sits down subsequent to Ezekiel, they usually have a chat.
It seems absolutely impossible to me that the two characters have never shared a scene together, at least since Negan was imprisoned, but that’s how it’s played—and for the life of me, I can’t remember any others. At any rate, it turns out Ezekiel has purposefully avoided Negan in fiction and on the show because he’s still completely furious at everything he did to the Kingdom and its people. But Negan is so desperate to escape and rescue his wife Annie, he asks Ezekiel to lead a “hope”-inspired mass uprising of the prisoners, something he cannot do. Negan can, however, be the “spark” that ignites that hope, which will likely end up with him being savagely beaten. It should go without saying this is saved for a later episode.
Meanwhile, Daryl, Carol, Maggie, Rosita, and Gabriel follow the train, discover Connie’s been put on it, and follow it some more. It takes some time, but it poses an interesting dilemma: If they rescue Connie, the Commontroopers on board will radio ahead to Outpost 22, whose soldiers might hurt the children and anyone else who’s been sent there. It’s a quandary, one that they solve by just… attacking the train and rescuing her anyway. It’s stealthy at first and then turns into a major gunfight, but luckily, uh, none of the guards ever think to radio in. One of the Commontroopers even gets away on a bike which, I shit you not, he crashes into a tree off-screen, allowing Daryl to do a sick slide under a half-fallen tree and into the dude’s legs.
So, yeah, despite The Walking Dead’s insistence to the contrary, the whole train/Connie situation isn’t an actual dilemma, and we know this because that evening, Rosita radios into Outpost 22 to ask for directions by saying she’s a Commonwealth trooper who was on the train when it was attacked. I imagine all the guards there will helpfully forget to do anything in retaliation. There, by the way, is the Commonwealth-conquered Alexandria, meaning when the five attack, they’re going to have home-field advantage. And once their people are free, they’re going to take the fight right to Pamela.
For a season that has so severely separated its characters, and for a glut of episodes where everyone seemed to be working at cross-purposes, giving five core characters a very clear set of stakes—return to Alexandria, save their people, then fuck Pam’s shit up—is pretty satisfying, even if we’ll have to wait until the final three episodes for it all to take place. But “Outpost 22” had other charms! Maggie’s freak-out when being forced to kill the little boy zombie, Gabriel praying with the dying Commontrooper instead of brutally finishing the job himself, the Negan-Ezekiel scene—there were good moments in there amidst the plethora of busy work.
Maybe that’s all we’re going to get for the remaining three episodes: a clear conflict, a few good moments, and some more busy work. It’s a shame for a series that used to be bigger than professional football, but it’s hardly surprising at this. “The end of each story is important,” Carol tells Maggie at one point. She’s right, of course. But clearly “important” doesn’t necessarily mean “exciting.”
Assorted Musings:
- Seriously, I was shocked when Gabriel didn’t murder that guy who asked him to pray with him. This sort of sums up most of my problems with The Walking Dead over the years, I think.
- Why did the Commontroopers put bags over everyone’s heads when 1) they were already drugged and 2) could pull them off themselves the minute they regained consciousness?
- Whoever was in charge of making it look like Maggie stabbed that kid in the head blew it. It’s so clearly under his neck.
- Between the motorcycle and the jeep from the opposite week, Commontroopers can drive about in addition to Stormtroopers can shoot.
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