The Walking Dead: Some Guy (8x04)

I feel like this was good, but I'm not sure I really liked it all that much.

Cons:

This episode was Ezekiel-centric, and while I don't have a problem with his character, I've also never really gravitated towards him much. The only characters to survive the Saviors' slaughter are Ezekiel, Carol, and Jerry, which means this is yet another example of a bunch of nameless fodder getting the axe, while the characters we actually know are protected. It takes away a bit of the urgency, don't you think?

Shiva dies protecting Ezekiel one last time, and is devoured by a swarm of Walkers. I'm really sorry, guys... I saw a lot of people freaking out about this online, but that tiger looks fake as shit and I never formed any sort of emotional connection to it. It didn't feel like there was really a tiger there, and I couldn't see past that.

The pacing of this episode was a bit off. We spent way too long with Ezekiel being the captive of some random Savior none of us have ever seen before. He speechified, he was mean to Ezekiel, and then Jerry showed up at the eleventh hour and killed him before he could behead Ezekiel. Felt like a lot of time wasted.

Pros:

Despite never finding Ezekiel to be all that interesting, I think it was important to break down his character a bit and get to the insecurities behind the persona. For a person like King Ezekiel to work in this story, there had to be the moment when he stops being the king, and that's what this episode was. One of my favorite moments was when Jerry calls him "your majesty," and Ezekiel responds: "you don't need to call me that," and Jerry answers: "Dude, yes I do." Because his status as the king isn't for himself - it's for everybody else. Powerful stuff.

I'm glad to see that Carol survived, and I really loved the moment when she managed to get the best of that entire group of Saviors. She's so cool, and she uses false innocence and weakness to her advantage in such a powerful way. I'm enjoying the developing relationship between Carol and Ezekiel, even if I am team Carol/Daryl for life.

Speaking of Daryl... he and Rick got to be bad-asses this week. They only appeared for a few minutes of screen time, but they made it worthwhile - Rick pulled some Indiana Jones moves, jumping from one moving vehicle to another and overpowering the driver. I liked watching these two work together, as they each have a moment where it looks like the other one may have been hurt, but they stick to the plan and wind up victorious. Rick now has the guns! This is a huge victory for them, but of course they don't yet know the fate of Ezekiel's group.

This episode was important because we needed a moment where Rick's assault on the Saviors took a turn for the worse. In the first three episodes of the season, despite some devastating losses, ultimately Rick, Ezekiel, and Maggie came out on top. Now we've got shots fired and losses suffered on both sides, and it's a little less certain who's going to wind up victorious in the end.

I come back to the same thing again and again with this show... it's repetitive. I'm not sure it has enough life left to sustain itself much longer. But I still somehow care about these characters...

7.5/10