This week’s The Walking Dead “Alone” continued to set up for our survivors to find the Terminus camp. With the absence of Rick, Carl, Michonne, Tyreese, Carol and the three girls, and only three episodes left, it left one to wonder how epic this Terminus place is going to be. Clearly it won’t happen in the next episode, which leaves two possible episodes to wrap up all this set up. Let’s hope all this build up is epic. The only way for that to happen is for Terminus to NOT be the answer to the comic’s Alexandria compound. It would be to predictable for comic fans, and a let down for television audiences in the long run. What do I think it should be? Give me a week to answer that question.
The episode begins with the story of Bob. Before the prison, he had survived the death of two previous groups, was alone on the road and got drunk off of Nyquil. Times are tough when the apocalypse happens. In his travels, he built a little house, found a truck trailer to sleep on top of, and eventually is picked up by Daryl and Glenn. Daryl asked him the all informative three questions, “How many walkers have you killed?”,”How many people have you killed?”,”Why?” Bob tells him he killed one person because she asked him to. This intro was very short, but it’s hard not to care about Bob. He is a man just trying to cope. The lack of dialogue was great, because for once, TWD was able to show instead of tell. When he is asked if he has any questions, he tells them it doesn’t matter who they are. In the end, no one wants to be alone.
The convenience of the Bob getting bitten over his bandage on his shoulder was a little irritating. As was Maggie overhearing Bob and Sasha’s conversation about Glenn being dead. Also, wasn’t it nice that the one town Sasha decided to stay in, Maggie was also there? It seemed too tidy considering how long everyone else has been separated.
Then there is the heart wrenching stuff. Beth and Daryl. Daryl and Beth. Baryl. Yeah, fan fiction with that little name will be crashing the net in a few hours to days here. And I don’t mind. Has Carol been getting hotter every season? Yes, but she also kinda killed some people, or at the least burned their bodies. She is no longer the woman who needed a Cherokee Rose. And Beth kinda saved Daryl. So yes, I will be a fangirl for those two. This episode did a wonderful job of making us invested in them. Turns out he likes her singing. And he likes her. She changed him, which he proves when he stares into her eyes when she questions why he changed. Their scenes also gave the best line of the season. When they find a stash of food in a mortuary home they stumble upon, Daryl says, “Peanut butter and Jelly, diet soda, and pig’s feet. That’s a white trash brunch right there.” If someone isn’t going to market Daryl Dixon’s Pigs Feet, I will. All their scenes were very sweet.
But nothing is permanent. After a scare of walkers that turned out to be a one-eyed dog (if you don’t watch The Talking Dead, the dog only has one eye because he lost the one saving his owner from a carjacker), walkers really do invade the home. In the wake of the scare, Beth runs and Daryl leads the hoard to the basement morgue. In one of the stirring moments of this season, Daryl used the examination tables to block the walkers into the room. It is many a close call. Does it seem likely that a table with wheels would hold a large group of zombies off? No, but it does seem likely that Daryl would be able to get out of it. But the big “What the fuck?!” moment came when Daryl runs outside, finds Beth’s bag and sees a car peeling away. Who kidnaps people in the apocalypse? Who would ruin BARYL?! WHY???
Ahem, anyway, the other plot of the episode was mediocre at best. Sasha acts like a bitch about finding Glenn and Terminus. She argues and mopes. Bob is a good guy trying to cheer her up, but there is only so much he can do. Maggie leaves them behind to find Terminus and eventually the others follow her. Maggie had a major gross out moment where she killed a walker and used its guts to write a note to Glenn on the side of a shed. It dawned upon me this episode that nobody uses hand sanitizer. They all touch really gross things and then eat with their hands. Ew. Too much time was spent focusing on Sasha. She may be a tool, being used to make us to like Bob, but on the flip side, I already liked him. He kisses Sasha to show her that there is hope in a world that she is afraid of. She is really just afraid of finding out Tyreese is dead, which is understandable, but she reacts in such an adverse way. More time could have been spent on Glenn, Mullet-Boy and friends, or even the show-runner, Rick, Carl and Michonne.
The most important scenes came at the end of the episode. In the town Sasha decides to settle in alone, she finds the best loft apartment in Georgia. Then she finds Maggie (coincidently). Sasha and Maggie have their own zombie hoard to fight. Armed with a sharp stick and a “No Parking” sign, the women easily defeat the walkers. It was a little Buffy-esque and a reminder of the Buffy/Faith tag team. No doubt I was lovin’ that.
However, once Sasha saw the walkers outside and away from where she was, why should she run outside, and she had none of her bags? She is a woman who acts before she thinks. It is amazing she survived this long with that train of thought. Maggie gives the speech to Sasha that finally turns her attitude around. The moral being that hope still does exist. They catch up with Bob, who really isn’t alone anymore, which was a nice little wrap up to the beginning.
Daryl continues to look for Beth and sets down in the middle of a fork in a road. Not to mention right by the train tracks. Then the same biker gang Rick ran into surrounds him. Daryl is forced to join them, but probably had a better chance of doing so then someone who wasn’t wearing biker attire. I think it is of note that the actor who plays Joe the leader, Jeff Kober, rarely plays a good guy. Perhaps this is the group the comic book fans have been ready to eat. I mean, meet. *wink*
Finally, we see Glenn. And he sees the map to Terminus. It all starts to come together. What can all this lead to? Thoughts for the remainder of the season wonder if this will culminate into something worthwhile. Who will die? Will it be Daryl with the foreshadowing of him sleeping in a casket? Or, will he survive in the biker gang and never look back? Is Beth a goner? Where the heck is Rick? There are still a lot of questions without a single answer of where we are heading.
Hush Comics gives “Alone” a B. It was slow beginning with too much emphasis on Sasha rather than Bob. The perk was the chemistry between Beth and Daryl as well as the real terror of the walkers entering their new found sanctuary. But it still seems so far away from a way to wrap up the season with them all in the same group again.
All images belong to AMC.
written by Adrian Puryear
Hush Comics 