The Walking Dead: Rock in the Road (7x09)

This episode was one of those that could so easily have been a total flop, because there is indeed a lot of silly contrivances, unbelievable conveniences that we're supposed to accept, and some cringe-y lines of dialogue. But after watching Rick and the others spend a whole half season demoralized and subservient, it's such a release to see them start to fight back. For that reason alone, I found myself enjoying this episode, despite its flaws.

Cons:

I don't want to harp on the small stuff too much, because as a whole I actually did have a good time with this episode. That being said...

This is the episode about gathering allies. The Hilltop, Alexandria, and the Kingdom. But there's a big problem here. Gregory of the Hilltop is comically annoying, to the point where he doesn't even make sense as a human being. We have the predictable moment where the people turn to Maggie, ready to believe in her power to change their fortunes, since their official leader isn't doing anything for them. And then over in the Kingdom we've got that CGI tiger from hell. I mean I don't actually mind Ezekiel that much - at least he' unique. But the tiger? I'm never going to be able to take that thing seriously.

Back in the early days of this show, any time the characters were traveling somewhere it was very tense and scary. We didn't know if they were going to make it to their next destination. Nowadays, our group easily hops from location to location, conveniently traveling in fully-fueled vehicles. It takes away the sense of desolation and emptiness in this world. The episode ends with yet another community that we didn't know anything about, showing up and surrounding Rick and the gang. This is another problem - why are there so many survivors around this area, anyway? It seem just a wee bit implausible, doesn't it? Are there communities like this all over the country? It feels ridiculous that it's taken our core group of characters this long to suddenly start bumping in to all of these people.

There was this weird moment when Sasha tried talking to Rosita about something, and she was really rude to her, saying that just because they had sex with the same dead guy didn't make them friends. It felt completely out of nowhere, especially since in the mid-season finale they made a big point of showing us that the two women were on the same page. It was a small moment, but it really irked me.

We also have a scene between Aaron and Eric, his husband. Eric tells Aaron not to go with Rick and the others on their quest to find Gabriel, who apparently took off with all of their supplies for some reason. I'd ordinarily be thrilled to see a hint of this relationship, which gets no screen time, but it seemed like a shoe-horned conversation, the kind of talk you make sure to give a couple in a show like this so we remember to be sad when one of these two men gets killed off. I will riot if The Walking Dead kills another lgbt+ character.

Pros:

I like that we're starting to consolidate our core characters, and get the sense that they could be victorious against Negan's huge forces. Although Ezekiel hasn't agreed that the Kingdom will fight, he did offer asylum to Daryl, who is on the lamb from the Saviors. There are plenty of other Kingdom members who probably would be able to fight. Similarly, Hilltop isn't officially in with the plan, but several of its members are. And then this new group shows up, adding a big up-swell to the numbers as long as they agree with Rick's way of thinking. Things are coalescing quite nicely.

Benjamin, a member of the Kingdom, has a brief scene with Carol. We're reminded that Carol isn't with the Kingdom, but she's not far away. We also get the sense that Ezekiel cares for Carol beyond how a ruler might care for a subject. Like I said, Ezekiel is interesting to me. I'd be down to see more development with him and Carol. Since Daryl is in the Kingdom right now, he is as close as he's been to Carol in a long, long time. I'm so excited to see if they reunite next week!

There was one scene that was admittedly very silly, but also enormously fun: Rick, Michonne, and the rest of the gang all go to steal explosives from the Saviors, who have a big trap rigged for Walkers. Rosita, apparently quite the expert in this area, instructs them on how to dismantle the bombs, and on which explosives to take and how to take them. However, they're on a tight schedule - a large horde of Walkers is approaching. Rick and Michonne take two cars that were being used as part of a blockade, tie barbed wire between them, and then drive them on opposite sides of the road, cutting through huge swathes of approaching Walkers. They then make it back to their van - barely - and the group all gets away, explosives and all. It was one of those over-the-top ridiculous moments that you know logically shouldn't work, but for some reason was still a lot of fun to witness.

I'll admit I'm interested in this whole Gabriel development, which is the first time anything about Gabriel has interested me. The episode starts with him sneaking out of Alexandria and driving away. He took all of Alexandria's food with him, but left a note saying "boat" for the Alexandrians to find. I don't really know what's going on with all of this, but I'm actually curious. Is Gabriel in contact with other people? What's his plan?

Then we should talk about this episode's ending: when the group of strangers emerges and surrounds Rick and the others, we see Rick smile. This is paying off an earlier moment when Michonne told him he was allowed to smile after their success with the explosives. As I said, it's still annoying that these people keep coming from nowhere, but I liked that moment.

That's all I'll write here. I don't want to go on too long. This episode was a lot more hopeful than anything we've seen from The Walking Dead this season. Despite some clumsy aspects, I'm pretty happy with the less dour story being told.

7.5/10