The Walking Dead: The Damned (8x02)

Unfortunately, I didn't think much of this episode. Last week's premiere was more successful, in my opinion.

Cons:

Here's why this week didn't work: it was just more of the same. I know I spent last season bemoaning the lack of action, but now this week all we got was action. We're still seeing the plan play out, but there is no discernible progress or sense of the whole. You've got a small contingent searching for weapons, you've got Ezekiel, Carol, and others planning an assault, and then you've got Jesus, Morgan, and Tara undergoing their own operations, with mixed results. There wasn't much of a sense of cohesion, and we had very little in the way of good, solid character building moments to break up the monotony of shootouts and blood and death and screams for vengeance.

Jesus' sudden appeals for mercy made no sense and seemed to fly in the face of a carefully constructed plan. We've already done this whole "killing people is bad" thing with Morgan, and now we see him fully committed to the plan to slaughter the Saviors, but Jesus steps in and starts talking about sparing lives. Obviously in the grand scheme of things I agree with Jesus... it's not like I want innocent lives to be lost, here. But his sudden mercy is going against the established plan, and he almost gets himself and Tara killed protecting a guy who ends up being evil anyway. I don't understand where this is coming from, and it pretty much comes across as sabotage.

The episode ends with Rick getting a gun pointed to his head. The man holding the gun? Morales. Now, if you're like me, this big reveal was completely and totally lost on you, because who the heck remembers this guy? He was part of the original gang that Rick found when he was reunited with Shane and Lori way back in Season One. Was I supposed to be surprised to see him? I had to go read up on his character to remember who the heck he was supposed to be. I'm not sure it was wise to bank on Morales being memorable enough for a true cliffhanger. I mean, sure it's always cool to bring back elements from earlier in the show, but this one felt a little weak to me.

Pros:

Carol and Ezekiel had some fun moments. Ezekiel's attitude of "fake it til you make it" has lead him to the absurd affectation he takes on in order to give his men confidence. But there's something undeniably precious about it, and Carol actually smiles at Ezekiel at one point in this episode, so something must be going right for the dude. I'm nervous for Carol, being part of such a dead-on assault of the Saviors, but I'm also excited for the possibilities here.

Eric gets shot and we get to see a frantic Aaron help him away from the scene of the shootout. Now, you'll notice that I've put this in the "pros" section. If Eric dies, I will do a 180 on this so fast you'll all get whiplash. If this show kills another queer character I'll be devastated and furious. But the fact remains that the moment when Aaron found Eric and discovered he was injured was one of the only moments in the whole episode when I felt totally invested. I'm scared for Eric. I don't know him much, but I do know Aaron and I don't want him to lose his boyfriend. I'm hoping we get to see some frantic life-saving measures and desperate medical miracles in next week's episode. If Eric dies, we can go ahead and retroactively move this paragraph to the "cons" section.

This ended up being kind of a short review, but that's because the episode, while undeniably active and busy, doesn't have a ton of stuff to talk about. You could sum it up in one sentence: the attack on the Saviors continues; results are still pending. We'll have to see how things shake out next week!

7.5/10