The Walking Dead: Out of the Ashes (11x05)

I wouldn't say this episode was some fantastic gem that made me invested again, but it did feel a little more attention-keeping than some of the others.

Cons:

While there were good things about seeing Alexandria and the kids, and seeing the impact this way of life has on people, I did think some of the Judith stuff was a little cheesy. Rosita telling Judith that everyone she loves is still with her in her heart or whatever... give me a break.

I'm a broken record on this, but Negan and Maggie just aren't keeping my attention this season. I'm not invested in this conflict, because it's not nuanced or interesting. Either Maggie kills him or she doesn't, and I don't care enough about Maggie as a character, or Negan and his redemption arc, to feel invested in this. When some of Maggie's people showed up at the rendezvous, it was clearly supposed to be a big moment of relief, but I don't know or care about any of those characters, so...

Pros:

The biggest compliment I can give this episode is that it provided variety. We checked in with Maggie and Negan, which isn't my favorite, but we also had Alexandria with the kids' drama, and we had Aaron with his trauma about the Whisperers, and learning what had become of the rest of their scattered group. And we had Eugene and Yumiko trying to learn more about this whole Commonwealth situation. So if one story is boring you, at least it's not the entire forty-plus minutes.

Breaking these down specifically: I liked the stuff with Aaron, Carol, and Lydia, as it gave us a chance to see how Carol has started to heal from the way she behaved after Henry's loss, and also shows how the post-traumatic stress affects people differently. Lydia being an advocate for former members of her mother's evil cult was an interesting idea and one that I really liked. Lydia was forced into timidity and subservience with her mother, and now that she's free, she's allowed to say what she really feels, even though some people aren't going to like it.

While I thought some of the Judith stuff was kind of cheesy, I did like the contrast, where we see Judith training other children how to stab zombies in the head, but we also see how much of a little kid she still is, when someone breaks the board with her and Carl's handprints and she's forced to contend with the loss of so much of her family.

Then there's the Commonwealth! Seems pretty culty to me, but at least in a different/interesting way that's not predicated on obvious and overblown brutality. This is a community where there are cute bakeries and ice cream shops, and where children go to school, and the whole community contributes to a peaceful society. It's also a community where you're not allowed to leave or call home without permission, and that permission seems hard to come by. So... mixed bag, to say the very least!

I love how Eugene's lie from a couple episodes ago comes back to haunt him here. In order to get into the Commonwealth to begin with, he had to lie and pretend he wasn't with a community of people. That worked, now he's inside, and calling home to tell Rosita that he's okay is what gets him into trouble.

Yumiko finds her brother, who seems to be utterly content living this simple life here, and says he sometimes forgets about the apocalypse. I really like Yumiko, and it's interesting to get to see more of her and flesh out her backstory a bit. All this stuff with the Commonwealth has the potential to be really interesting; I'm just biding my time to see what exactly they do with it. Obviously there are going to be dark hidden truths about this place, which has been done before, but maybe they'll find a way to make it interesting? I don't know.

We also learn that Connie is still alive! I mean, duh, but still, I'm glad we got that confirmation at last! I'm excited to see her again next week.

I'm going to call it there - I definitely had a more engaged viewing experience with this one than some of the others, but I wouldn't exactly call it a rousing triumph all the same!

8/10