The Walking Dead: For Blood (11x08)

Well, for a midseason finale I'm a little bummed we didn't spend any time with the most interesting characters or plot threads... let's dive in.

Cons:

So like. I'm not invested in Daryl and Leah. So when Leah does her whole double-cross thing and I think we're all supposed to be like oh no, poor Daryl, I'm just like... yeah, dude, you have a family and it's not her and it never has been. We saw them sharing a life together in one episode forever ago, and it wasn't exactly a convincing portrayal of love ever after. I also thought Daryl was kind of a dumb dumb about this whole situation, like, did he really think after seeing all the fanaticism that Leah was going to just come with him? He should have run without waiting for her to cross him.

I'll also just say as a more general note that nothing is new under the sun, so even elements of the story that feel perfectly adequate, where I can't point to it and say "this is stupid and here's why", still aren't grabbing my attention in a meaningful way. Like in Alexandria, I wanted Virgil and Judith to talk more about Michonne: that's interesting, that's character-driven drama and intrigue. But instead the bulk of the story there is dealing with inclement weather and a Walker breach, so we've got all the cute kids in peril and Carol, Rosita, etc. running around trying to save the community from crumbling entirely. I get that the stakes need to be high, but sometimes the stakes are boring because we've seen them over and over again.

Also, I'm annoyed that we didn't check in on Eugene's storyline. It's the best one.

Pros:

I did feel a lot of excitement when Daryl was sneaking around and helping his friends with their infiltration. It was cool to see Daryl successfully pull off being a double agent. There were some sticky moments, but ultimately Pope and the others couldn't pin anything on Daryl. He acted his way through a really intense situation. I also liked the creativity of Negan and Maggie et. al. using the hoard, and seeing how their enemy's tactics can be useful to them in sneaking close to their target, and artificially inflating their numbers as well.

The moment that caused me the most excitement in the whole episode was definitely Leah killing Pope, and then radioing her friends to say that Daryl had been the one to do it. Like I said, I don't feel invested in the emotional stakes of Daryl and Leah's relationship... but I was curious as to what Leah was going to do with her growing doubts about Pope, and I wasn't expecting him to get killed off in this moment, and for Leah to essentially take his place as leader by pinning the blame on Daryl. That was a twist I legitimately couldn't have predicted. So now we've still got the Reapers, who are pretty boring, but at least Leah, who seems like a normal human being, is their leader now and we might get some juicy conflict with that moving forward.

Back in Alexandria, I will admit that those kids are pretty cute... the style of The Walking Dead script requires you to set aside realism somewhat, and with the child actors it can be even more grating. But something about the girl who plays Judith really works for me: she plays the worldly wise precocious child who grew up in an apocalypse and can't be easily scared, but then she has these moments where she shows what a little girl she still is. She has to be strong for the others, but it doesn't mean she's infallible. Since this franchise seems determined to limp along forever more, I could see future spinoff series starring Judith as a teenager with a younger group of heroes adventuring to find safety and prosperity... not saying I would watch it necessarily, but some people sure would!

So that's it for now... see you back in February!

7.5/10