The Walking Dead: The Cell (7x03)

I'm going to sound like a broken record, here. Unfortunately, this episode took the problems I had with the first episode, and combined them with the problems I had with the second episode. That doesn't mean I hated it, though.

Cons:

As you'll remember if you read my previous reviews, my problem with the premiere was that it was just too much in its gruesomeness. The impact was dulled by all the disgusting imagery and brutal treatment of these characters. The second episode was a narrowly focused character episode, with Carol and Morgan meeting a bunch of new people, and no look at all at the rest of the ensemble. And then here we see what Negan and his people have been doing to Daryl, and we've got the brutal nature of episode one plus the ignoring of the ensemble and narrow character treatment of episode two.

I want to see Rick and the rest of the gang, dang it! I love Carol. I love Daryl. They're probably my favorite characters at the moment. But I don't want to keep things so isolated! And I don't much want to see Daryl getting tortured continuously. It's not fun, and it doesn't really add much to the story, either. I think they've done enough to convince us that Negan is bad news, haven't they? I mean, yeesh.

Pros:

There are real advantages, however, to doing a character-focused episode like this. We really got to see what Daryl was going through. We got to understand how difficult this was for him. The plot is fairly basic: Daryl is locked up. He is forced to listen to the same annoying song again and again. When he tries to escape, he is beaten soundly. Negan says that he can become one of his guys, and live like a king. All he has to do is answer the question "who are you?" with the same answer as everybody else: "Negan." When it comes down to it, Negan asks Daryl the question, and he says his name is "Daryl."

There's a part of me that just wants to yell at Daryl for being so stubborn. Couldn't he just pretend to submit to Negan, try to gain some trust, maybe some information? But it's not Daryl's way. He's an honest guy. He would never pretend to be something he's not. It was pretty cool to hear him say his own name there at the end, in defiance of everything Negan wanted. It must feel good to be able to say screw you to that guy, even if it's ultimately pretty pointless.

The most effective moment of the episode was when Dwight brought Daryl a picture of Glenn's bashed-in head, and Daryl looked at it and wept. This is what I mean when I say that less is sometimes more. Unlike in the first episode, where we saw Glenn die  in a disgusting and prolonged series of shots, here we just see a grainy, dark picture of the end result, and we see Daryl slowly begin to sob. I really felt Daryl's grief and guilt in that moment.

We also learn about Dwight, and what happened with him, his wife, and his sister-in-law. Turns out, Negan is married to Dwight's former wife, now. She agreed to give herself to him in exchange for Dwight getting to live. This was all in punishment for Dwight stealing medicine that his sister-in-law needed, and trying to run away. We also get a scene of Dwight going out to get another of Negan's men back, since he tried to run away. The man refuses to go back at first, telling Dwight to just shoot him. In the end, he does start to walk back, and Dwight shoots him through the back in an odd act of mercy.

It was interesting to get a closer look at Dwight. Rounding out this character is an excellent idea. Negan, for all that he's scary, is relatively one-note. I can't imagine them giving him much of a compelling backstory or a sympathetic angle. But with Dwight, we see how a desperate person did some desperately terrible things in order to protect the people he cared for. Any one of our main characters can sympathize with that attitude. I thought it was really effective to hear Negan tell Daryl all about Dwight's story. Instead of seeing the whole thing in flashbacks, we just get Negan's take on it. He frames the entire thing as a motivational story - Daryl too may be able to earn Negan's trust, just like Dwight did after losing his sister-in-law, getting his face burned, and being forced to let his wife be serially raped by Negan. You too could have all this and more, Daryl! What a great deal!

One of the best moments in this episode was the bit at the very end where Dwight brings Daryl back to his cell, and yells at him that he was stupid for not taking Negan up on his offer. Daryl says he understands why Dwight took the deal, because he was thinking about somebody else. Daryl says that this is exactly why he can't give in. The two share a look of understanding, and Dwight leaves Daryl locked up. There's so much subtlety in that little line. What did Daryl mean, exactly? He can't give in because he has nobody to protect but himself? Or he can't give in because he believes in the people he loves to rescue him, or knows they wouldn't want him to give up? Or is he thinking of Glenn? There's a lot going on here, and I want to dive further into Daryl Dixon's head.

I suppose that's where I'll stop. Next week it looks like we're finally getting back to our ensemble. We've got Carol off hanging out with King Ezekiel, we've got Daryl locked up and at Negan's mercy, and we've got Rick and his people utterly defeated and subservient to a new master. We may be at an all time low, hope-wise. How will this season progress?

7/10