The Walking Dead: Heads Up (6x07)

What the heck? What the what the what the what? I'm just... what?

Cons:

Why did they even bother to try and fake us out with the Glenn death thing? What a cheap marketing ploy! Like, I figured what with all the hoopla surrounding his death that he had probably miraculously survived. But to tell us that just a few episodes later makes no sense. Why even bother to do any of this? Why did we have to think that Glenn was dead? I mean, nobody believed it, first of all. And second of all, it's just such a slap in the face to the audience to pull a "just kidding!" that's so uncreative that literally every single fan of the show had already predicted the exact outcome. Nicholas' body was the one being torn apart, Glenn gets under the dumpster. Uninspired to say the least.

Maybe I'm just pissed because usually I'm a good predictor, and I would have bet real money that they'd drag this out a little longer at least. Maybe bring him back in but totally changed in some way. Like what if we didn't see Glenn until the end of the season, and he had reason to believe that Maggie and all his other friends were dead for some reason, and he had fallen in with another group to survive? And then that group came in to conflict with Rick's group? And then Glenn's loyalties are divided because of course he loves Maggie and Rick and all of them but these other people took him in and protected him. Or what if he was out there on his own for such a long time that he started to go mad like Morgan did? Or what if a thousand other things more interesting than what we got?

Ugh. Setting that aside, there's also the fact that this episode once again felt like mostly filler. There were a few exciting and interesting moments, but mostly it was all just buildup. I don't like it when you can tell that the season is dragging its feet. It's like they're constantly holding out a hand to ward off impatient viewers, saying "wait for it, wait for it..." well I don't want to wait for it. Not every episode needs to be the most dramatic and intense and action packed thing ever, but it would be nice if each episode felt like it was doing something unique and on its own, instead of just limping along to the next time we get something super exciting.

Enid is unlikable. And I mean I know that's sort of the point of her character, but it's just not that interesting to watch a teenager with a chip on her shoulder because her parents died. There's almost nobody in this damn show who hasn't lost their parents. Very few people have even one remaining family member from before this whole crisis started. I'm not belittling Enid's pain, because I know everybody grieves in their own way. But as we watch Glenn and Enid make their way back towards Alexandria, I found myself entirely uninterested in Glenn helping Enid find her way back to herself. The character just doesn't do anything for me as of yet.

Pros:

Despite the sort of "wait for it" atmosphere of this episode, there were little things here and there that I enjoyed. Some of those moments include Rick and Carl starting to teach Ron how to handle a gun. Later, we see him stealing bullets. For what? We don't know! Another great moment was when Carol went over to drop baby Judith off at Jessie's house. She and Sam have a conversation about how to avoid becoming a monster. Carol says that the only way to not be a monster is if you kill people, while Sam wonders if killing people is what makes you a monster. I also loved the scene of Rosita teaching Alexandrians how to kill Walkers. Eugene is extremely reluctant to handle a weapon, but Rosita is harsh with him, forcing him to start learning.

This episode had two larger themes in it. The first is Rick's attitude about the Alexandrians. He sees his people as being separate from the larger community, while Michonne, Tara, and the others have started to see them as one big group. This fact is hammered in when Tara risks her life saving Spencer, who was trying to leave the community and get to a car to help drive the Walker hoard away. He nearly dies, and when Rick sees that Tara has risked herself to save him, he's furious, yelling at her for taking unnecessary risks for "one of them." Rick, sort of like the audience, is treating all of these Alexandrian characters as red shirts or Night Vale interns or something. Dispensable, in other words. Will that change? If so, when?

The other theme here is the Morgan vs. Rick ideological debate. Rick asks Morgan if he let some of the Wolves go, and Morgan admits that he did. Despite the fact that these men tried to kill Rick, and despite all the harm they have done, Morgan defends his decision to spare their lives. If Rick had made the decision to kill Morgan when Morgan was in a bad place, then Morgan wouldn't have been around to save all of the lives he's saved since. It's not his place to play God and decide who should live or die. Morgan himself is proof that people can change. His perspective is important, and it's good to have somebody voicing these concerns. But then on the flip side of that you have Rick and Carol, who are playing with the "kill or be killed" rulebook. I think we're already starting to see some factions develop among our core characters. Daryl has expressed interest on giving people the benefit of the doubt and recruiting instead of killing. If it comes down to it, will he side with Morgan over Rick? These are the kinds of conflicts I want to see escalating through the rest of the season.

Then there's the episode's ending. As Enid and Glenn approach Alexandria, they see the hoard of Walkers and know that it's going to be virtually impossible to get back inside. They use helium balloons to alert the Alexandrians of their presence. When Maggie sees the balloons, she realizes right away that they must be a signal from Glenn. But before the good news can fully sink in, the church tower starts to fall, crashing through the fence and leaving a wide opening for the Walkers to come through. Uh oh!

So... how do I rate an episode like this? I'm happy that Glenn's alive, but I feel totally insulted by the marketing and the trickery surrounding his supposed "death." I'm happy to see the building blocks of interesting character development and conflicts, but I'm frustrated with these "wait for it" episodes, and wish we could just get wherever we're going with all of this. Enid is boring and unlikable, but many of the other Alexandrians are starting to become more defined and interesting in my mind. It's a tricky episode to judge. Next week is the mid-season finale. I suppose we can probably expect big things to come!

7.5/10