The Walking Dead: Do Not Send Us Astray (8x13)

This show frustrates me to no end. There are so many things that just don't make sense, which I wouldn't mind so much if it weren't for the fact that a lot of the characters just bore me nowadays.

Cons:

Okay. The big one? Apparently the Saviors have infected their weapons with Walker blood which means that anybody who gets cut or hit ends up infected and they turn into a zombie. The inconsistency in this show as to how the Walkers work is... infuriating. I remember in the early days, when everybody was terrified to touch the Walkers. But now? They get up close and personal with those things all the time! Also, it's been an established fact in this world from very early on that if you die, no matter how you die, you get turned into a Walker. So is the idea that the Walker blood is infecting them and turning them, or that they died from the infection and then woke up as Walkers? And if just that much contact with Walker blood is enough to turn you... well, then I'm sorry, but literally everybody should be a zombie by now. The lack of consistency makes me furious.

Tara gets hurt, and is apparently at risk of becoming infected and dying. I'm not Tara's number one fan or anything, but this show has GOT to stop killing all of the queer characters. I'm about fed up with it. Seriously.

The little kid, Henry, I think his name is, ends up making a huge mistake that costs Hilltop a ton of their prisoners. I get that he's young, and grieving his brother, so I'm not actually mad at him... I'm mad at the adults who weren't watching him to make sure he didn't go off the deep end! Yeesh!

Remember how Carol was kind of in a relationship with that one guy? I don't even remember his name, I barely remembered that he existed. Well, the two of them have some conversations about what might have been, but then he dies and Carol is forced to stab him in the head. I've missed Carol recently, but this was a weird way to bring a focus to her character.

Pros:

As much as Tara kind of irritates me, I do like the stuff with Tara and Daryl, as they discuss how they feel about Dwight and what they should do going forward. It's interesting that Tara seems to have forgiven Dwight, or at the very least she considers them even now. Daryl, on the other hand, can't let it go. And while I think part of it really is about Denise, since Daryl considered her a friend, I think there's a little bit more to it than that. Daryl and Dwight had something of a connection when Daryl was Negan's prisoner. They hated each other, but there was something undeniably similar about their situations. And Daryl was defending Dwight from Tara earlier. It's interesting that their positions seem to have switched, and I'm intrigued by what will happen next.

For the first time in a very long time, I actually enjoyed the action scenes on this show. Simon is kind of an idiot, isn't he? It was beyond satisfying to see all of the various groups swoop in and attack, seemingly with minimal injuries to the good guys. There was one really bad-ass tag-team moment with Michonne and Ezekiel, we saw Jesus get some swipes in (I miss that guy!) and Daryl rush by on his motorcycle. All really fun stuff.

So, by now it's an open secret that Morgan is leaving to join Fear the Walking Dead. This episode features him having visions of the man that the kid Henry killed, which I thought was interesting. He's been pretty unbalanced for a while, but we're seeing a new aspect to that. I don't know that I'll miss Morgan all that much when he jumps ship, but I'm glad we can get some interesting material from him before he goes.

Over the years, I've continually noticed that while The Walking Dead gets more and more repetitive, the one thing they are continually good at is finding new creative uses for the Walkers. When patients started dying and ambushing other people, it reminded me of what happened in the prison so many years ago. But this was worse, in some ways, as I was not expecting it at all. They did a great job of ramping up to the scene in such a way that all of a sudden you're watching multiple Walkers fall on a group of innocent sleeping people in the foyer of one of the houses... and you're just right in the thick of it! Great pacing, great scene, lots of good tension.

I think that's what I've got. Looks like Jadis is being an IDIOT and not killing Negan immediately, so we're probably going to have to suffer through scenes of her talking like a crazy person and him answering in long drawn out speeches. I can't say I'm looking forward to that, but I am looking forward to anything that gets us past this whole Negan mess as soon as possible.

7.5/10