The Walking Dead Review – “Crossed” S5E7

So here’s the deal. I didn’t write a review for this episode last week because it felt like incomplete filler.

While the majority of the season has been split between different groups (i.e.: Beth, Glenn et. al., Carol and Daryl) and we have had 3 whole episodes without Rick, it was nice to see what each individual group was doing all in one hour. However, it felt disconnected. Nothing was deep.

Daryl proves he looks good in any lighting.

Here is what happened to each group:

Beth, Carol, and the hospital group:

Beth got mad about no one saving Carol. Then Dawn mysteriously gave her a key to the medicine cabinet to get medicine to save Carol. There is a clandenstine exchange of strawberries for diversion with another “patient” while Beth steals medicine. Beth gives medicine to Carol.

Eugene, Abraham, and Maggie:

Maggie almost killed Abraham for getting a little too mad at Rosita. Then they were stuck together for a few hours while the rest went fishing. Maggie covered up Eugene so he wouldn’t get sun burned.

Glenn, Tara, Rosita:

Rosita proved she stays so clean because she can filter water. Glenn and Rosita go fishing. Tara delivers some amazing jokes, then finds a yo-yo.

Carl, Michonne, and Father Gabriel:

Father Gabriel tries to scratch the blood out of the floor from the cannibal murders. Carl forces Father Gabriel to choose a weapon. Michonne delivers one line, and it’s forgettable. Father Gabriel gets scared and breaks out of the church. He gets a nail in his shoe. Let’s hope he got his tetanus shot.

Rick, Daryl, Sasha, Tyreese and Noah:

The fearsome fivesome go to Atlanta, take some cops from the hospital hostage and then promptly lose one of them. There was the best zombie kill thrown in there too. Although this story seems short, it has the most consequence out of all them.

Rick is not to be f***ed with.

Where did all this leave us? Pretty much nowhere. The entire story revolving Eugene and the group who followed him has added nothing to show. Which is pretty disappointing because at this point in the comics Glenn and Maggie are pretty B.A. (and bald), so for seven whole episodes, to not get any depth on them is a shame.

Additionally, Carl and Michonne have had very little screen time. They are two of the best fighters in the series and we get nothing of value. Pfft.

Beth’s story seemed to be pretty intriguing. Dawn the evil dictator of Grady memorial hospital have Beth the key to the medicine cabinet, and Dr. Edwards tells Beth it’s a trap. It would have been interesting to see what angle that part of the story was leading up to, if not for the mid-season finale. C’est la vie.

And then the bulk of the story was dedicated to holding cops hostage in exchange for our girls. Rick was gun-ho on killing everyone in the hospital, and although because I’m a viewer, I agree with him, it was good that he was finally called out by his group for wanting to commit mass murder. Overall, there was nothing as memorable about the entire thing as the napalm walkers. The people who were still in the city when Atlanta was bombed became the grossest walkers we have seen yet. And best of all we got this: Daryl grabbing one such napalm walker by the eye sockets, ripping its head off its shoulders, and beating a man over the head with it. I really hope you weren’t eating pizza when that happened.

Hush Comics gives “Crossed” a C for packing too much with no consequence in the episode before the finale.

All images belong to AMC.  They are credited to Gene Page.