The Walking Dead: Walk with Us (10x12)

Ohhh boy. I have some stuff to talk about with this one. Putting the whole thing under the cut for spoilers.

Cons:

The moment when Negan threw Alpha's head down at Carol's feet was poetry all on its own, but this brings up so many issues for me. For one thing, if Carol and Negan had this secret plan all along, why did either of them behave the way they did? If Carol wanted Negan to kill Alpha, why did she endanger everyone's lives going after Alpha by herself so many times, instead of waiting for her sneaky plan to pay off? And if Negan was never really going to bring Alpha to Lydia, why capture her and tie her up? It's so strange. I also felt like the Negan and Alpha scene, leading up to the moment he killed her, went on a beat too long. It was very typical of this show - a drawn out speech, too many moments where the tension had a chance to build and then fall. Someone needs to take a red pen to so many of this show's scripts.

I'm glad Alpha is dead, really - it's exciting, I wasn't expecting it, things are finally changing in a big way. But hear me out on this one: Negan, a known rapist and murderer and all around evil, evil guy, lures a woman with whom he's been intimate, with the promise of seeing her child, and then kills her. Elsewhere in the episode, Gamma (Mary), after having a chance to bond with her nephew and regret the loss of her sister's life, is brutally murdered by another murderous man- Beta. The optics here are that two different female characters spend the episode focusing on children with whom they feel a close family bond, and they are then murdered by big, strong, monstrous men. I just don't trust this show to be respectful of the optics here, and I thought I'd point it out.

And more directly - Mary being killed off at this point is stupid. The Walking Dead has too few new-ish characters who I actually give a damn about, and Gamma's journey was actually fascinating to me. Why kill her off when there seemed like there was so much more story to tell there?

Also, I'm totally in agreement with Aaron that Negan is a dick, and I understand his instinct to kill him on sight... so explain to me why Negan didn't say: "I'm working with Carol, I'm under cover." This is one of those moments where the writers wanted to save the surprise, but it made Negan seem like an idiot in the meantime.

Pros:

I yelled out loud in excitement when I realized that Alpha was really dead. Next week is the season finale, I think, so I wasn't necessarily looking for any status-quo shifters to happen right here in the penultimate installment. I was wishing Alpha could have just been killed off a couple of weeks ago during her fight with Daryl, but this was better. It also makes me retroactively much less frustrated with Negan's character and all of his shenanigans. I still didn't like the pacing and it felt too long-winded, but at least he was a double agent! And I liked Negan's speech about his wife, and about how it's bullshit to pretend it's better not to feel anything.

Poor Judith is forced to witness the death of another friend - Earl, who ends up with the children of Hilltop as everyone is forced to flee after the battle. He gets bit on the arm, and kills himself to prevent becoming a Walker and attacking the children. I love how Judith has been forced into this position of authority with the other kids, and her bravery in checking up on the Earl situation. She has to kill the Walker that was once someone she knew, and it obviously rattles her badly.

On the flip side you have Daryl and the others frantically looking for the children, who are not waiting with Ezekiel where they first expect them to be. It's obviously moving to see Daryl and the others all freak the fuck out when they can't find the kids at first, and the reunions are sweet too.

So... Hilltop is destroyed. Obviously a lot of the inhabitants got out free and clear, but losing the location is a big blow for the survival of all our favorite characters. There's still Alexandria, but without the Kingdom, and without Hilltop, things are looking a little grim. This is the kind of big shake-up we maybe needed after things have felt stagnant for a while. Alpha is dead, and Hilltop is gone. Who knows what happens next with the Whisperers? Does Beta take over and things continue on as usual, or was Alpha necessary to keep that cult of personality going?

Speaking of Beta... when part of his mask comes off after he kills Gamma, another random Whisperer sees him and remarks that he's familiar to him in some way. Beta kills the man for recognizing him. There's been speculation that he's some sort of a celebrity - a singer, perhaps? But the full truth of why Beta is hiding his identity is still not clear. I'll admit, it's the tiniest bit intriguing to me. I also can't wait to find out what his reaction is when he learns Alpha is gone! Yikes!

So yeah - this episode was ultimately a successful one. I'm thrilled that Alpha is dead, because it really elevates the potential chaos to the next level. I'm curious to see Michonne's final regular episode next week, too... but at the same time, there's so much about this show that doesn't work for me anymore, and even in good episodes, some of those problems are still sadly in evidence.

8/10