The Walking Dead: Open Your Eyes (10x07)

So obviously a really shocking thing happened in this episode, and I wanted to be totally impressed and on board and all that, but I have some problems.

Cons:

Siddiq was actually a super interesting character and I really wanted to explore his PTSD and get in to his role in the community. So, predictably, he now must die. I'm going to praise some aspects of his death in the "Pros" section, but for the most part it just doesn't track for me. There are so few genuinely interesting characters left on this show, why kill this one?

Also, Dante being a secret Whisperer doesn't make any sense at all. I wanted to be pleased with the twist, because it was certainly unexpected and that can be refreshing, but here's the problem: I thought one of the big tensions going on here is that Alpha's cult of personality would be ruined if anyone knew that Lydia was still alive. Dante knows, and is still loyal to the Whisperers. Who is this guy? We have no investment in him as one of Alpha's loyal followers. I liked Dante and found him interesting on his own merits, but now I'm having to deal with the fact that he was just there to be a setup for a twist!

More than anything else, though, the thing that annoyed me about this episode was Lydia's behavior. Carol takes her along to confront Gamma, as part of a trap. Gamma sees Lydia and runs off, crying. Lydia is extremely upset with Carol for "using her" in order to upset Gamma. She says something about how Carol is just the same as Alpha, and runs off by herself. What a weird, pointless, over-sized reaction! I could see Lydia being a little annoyed at the slight manipulation, but for her to run off on her own like that? What the heck? That felt so contrived, like it was just there to add further complications.

There are other nits I could pick, like inconsistent character work (Aaron was interesting in this episode so I don't want to complain, but all of his anger issues from earlier this season seem to have vanished??), and the lack of characters like Michonne and Negan. It's frustrating for key story beats to remain on hold for so long in between the episodes.

Pros:

I will say this for Siddiq's death. I genuinely did not see it coming. It's been years since the death of a main character on this show genuinely surprised me. They always follow the same pattern of building it up and telegraphing the coming end way too strongly. But this is episode seven of the season, and Siddiq's role has grown a lot over the entire course of Season Ten. I thought he was sticking around. And even when Dante started to choke him, I kept waiting for him to get out somehow, or for someone to come along and rescue him. And when he didn't I was genuinely astonished.

I also liked that Rosita and Siddiq got some screen-time together. We haven't seen a lot of them as co-parents, and now we're going to have to see Rosita dealing with his loss, after having suffered so much already. It was nice to have such a strong reminder of their friendship and affection for each other, right before the tragedy. That's effective story-telling and makes me feel invested in the characters! Who would have thought!

Even though Dante being a Whisperer doesn't make a lot of sense when you think through all of the implications, I also appreciated that surprise as well. It sinks in slowly. Earlier, when Dante "accidentally" kills the captured Whisperer and pins it on Siddiq, it seems plausible that in Siddiq's messed up, traumatized mind, he might have inadvertently given Dante the wrong medicine. And then as the truth starts to become clear, it makes sense that Dante would kill the Whisperer to stop him from giving any information away about the hoard. So that was a cool way of doing that reveal.

I appreciated Carol trying to get information by being kind, and then switching to torture when that didn't work. Also, it was kind of bad-ass that Daryl stepped in and threatened the guy after he started saying some nasty shit to Carol. On the one hand, she definitely knows how to look after herself. But on the other, it's still nice to know that Daryl has her back.

One of the highlights of the episode for me was Gamma and Aaron's conversation. Gamma is there specifically to gather information, and Aaron probably knows that. But Aaron's words to Gamma are working to get under her skin (so to speak). Alpha encourages Gamma to remember her priorities, to put all thoughts of her dead sister and the baby that Alexandria saved out of her mind. For Gamma to then see Lydia, and realize that her Alpha has lied to her... that's such a pivotal moment. It was framed and acted very well. This season has done an excellent job of setting up the stakes and the rules of the Whisperer's organization. It makes perfect sense to me why Gamma would be so devastated at the sight of Lydia. It means Alpha lied, and it also brings up her feelings about her dead sister, the one Gamma killed in order to save Alpha. The whole reason she was given a title in the first place. This is delicious drama that is obviously going to have big ramifications moving forward.

I think I'm going to stop there. I'm annoyed that Siddiq died, because I thought he was interesting and that there might have been more we could have gotten out of his character. But I do have to praise the twists and turns here, because real shocks are few and far between on this show these days!

8/10