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The Walking Dead 11.19 Review – ‘Variant’
Image Credit: Jace Downs/AMC
Loading...Welcome back to the final episodes of The Walking Dead! Tonight, we focus on Eugene, on when to fight and when to run, whether people born brave or become brave, and walkers who can climb walls and open doors!
The plot: In the aftermath of the riot, Eugene is now the Commonwealth’s patsy for what happened–if they could find him. Daryl and Rosita have helped him to hide in the church, but he repeatedly refuses to leave without Max and questions his own value in both the past and the present. When the time comes to go, he chooses to make a stand here and turn himself in to save her, even though it may mean his death. Meanwhile, Princess has also decided it’s time to leave, though Mercer tries to ask her to stay, arguing things are worse out there than in here. But after explaining her past of suffering abuse for just that reason, she refuses to stand by when the truth is it could be better. He doesn’t stop her, and she’s not the only telling him he could be doing more–Max tells her brother much the same. Pamela, meanwhile, has her own strange way or mourning and dealing with grief, which includes offering Hornsby some weird sort of salvation by sticking him in a cell with her undead son, a fresh dead body, and a machete. Elsewhere, Aaron, Jerry, Lydia and Elijah take shelter for the night in an abandoned ren faire, only to encounter a pack of walkers that include one who can climb walls, open doors, and even fight back and use rudimentary weapons. The encounter shakes them, but they live to continue on their way to Oceanside, and Lydia overcomes her fear of loss and shares a kiss with Elijah.
This week, Judith’s opening narration has visuals that are all about Eugene’s journey while she wonders if it takes more courage to live or die, and if, while the choices made along the way made us who we needed to be, is it who we are now and the choices we make now that matter more? It’s a very relevant question when it comes to Eugene, who by his own admission has largely survived this long by having a gift for lying. His lies and a certain flexible morality have gotten him far, though it’s always been clear that Eugene doesn’t enjoy doing these things. But he became who he needed to be, and hasn’t he always tried to do the right thing in the end, and make up for his failings? I would say yes, but especially in this dark hour, it’s not surprising that Eugene is his own harshest critic, coming down on himself for cowardice and sometimes only getting by on those lies.
But this time is different. This time, he’s not running, because he won’t leave Max behind to suffer alone when he could take that burden from her. And it’s saying a lot–Eugene, who’s so often logic-driven, goes against all logic here. The episode shows us that Max is being given a chance to avoid harsh punishment in the trumped up confession letter (which is both so awful and so typical for the fake excuse to try and blame it on mental health instead of the institution owning up to the truth of what it’s done wrong!). Even if Max didn’t take that out, which it looks like she wouldn’t, I think Pamela might still be persuaded to be lenient and not execute her. Point being, even if found guilty, Max would more than likely survive, whereas Eugene’s chances of that are significantly reduced here. But he doesn’t care, because if he runs now, there’s no life worth living for him. I sure hope he isn’t put to death, but let’s hear it for Eugene finally finding his courage! It’s an appropriate peak to his seasons-long character arc, though. While he’s had brave moments before, more than he’s giving himself credit for, this is first time I think we’ve seen him walk so boldly and unflinchingly into such a situation for the sake of another like this. He was even ready to engage in fisticuffs with Daryl over it! (Which was adorkable.) In answer to Judith’s question, for Eugene, it takes greater courage to choose to die.
On the flipside of that, in a more minor but no less on-point subplot, for Lydia it takes greater courage to choose to live. Not shockingly, as so much of her life has been literally draped in death, choosing to embrace the good in life doesn’t come naturally to her. Her first venture into young love ended so horribly and graphically when her mother killed Henry, it’s no surprise that the prospect of romance with Elijah has her skittish. But with Aaron’s encouragement and story about Eric, and the chilling night they all pass with these freakish new walkers, she has both the reassurance and motivation she needs to choose to live, to take whatever time she and Elijah have together and enjoy that.
Princess, too, is finding the courage to walk away, which for her is choosing to not simply to live, but to find the better life by leaving the Commonwealth. The tale of her past and the abuse she suffered from her dad, stepdad, and stepbrother, and the neglect of her mother on top of that, is as heartbreaking as it is unsurprising. She’s given hints about this sort of past before, but hearing the details hits hard, and it makes her points hit hard as well. It’s not about how things ‘could be worse’, it about the fact that they should be better, and that she deserves better. If she stays and just accepts the systemic abuse that the Commonwealth has chosen to embrace through Pamela Milton’s leadership, she’s doing exactly what her mother did: staying with her abuser out of fear of being on her own. I also liked how she didn’t flinch from telling Mercer her reasons, or from pointing out that while she knows he’s not a bad man, he is not actually doing everything he could, and he in turn didn’t try to dismiss her experience, her reality, her accusations, or her choices. I’ve got hope that it could yet work out for these two, but for now, they’re respecting one another’s choices even if they don’t agree with them.
Also, I was grateful that they didn’t make any of the abuse she suffered sexual. Doing so would’ve been gratuitous, and felt like it was thrown in because it was ‘easy’ to do so. It also would’ve contrasted with her personality and actions so far, in my opinion.
Max, too, had harsh words for Mercer, though since she’s his sister, she doesn’t need to take the gentle but firm route. She lays it down harshly that not only is she disappointed in him, but that she thinks their father would be downright ashamed of him for helping Pamela at this point. We don’t get much of a chance to see how that hits for Mercer, the man’s got a hell of a poker face, but from a few lingering camera shots it’s clear that he isn’t shaking these things off. Mercer seems to still think there isn’t anything else he can do, especially with Pamela make thinly veiled threats against Max’s safety if he doesn’t find Eugene. It may be more accurate to say he’s still clinging to that idea, actually–he never tries to refute what Princess says about not doing everything he could, about that this place could be better. He barely pushes back against Max’s accusations, either, and most of his arguments are about keeping her safe rather than saying she’s wrong. Mercer doesn’t believe in the Commonwealth like he used to, but he’s still not sure how to do anything about it. Or maybe unsure if he wants to. Perhaps he’s stuck in that position of Princess’s mom–scared to leave, scared to stay, so why not stick with the devil you know? I hope we get a Mercer-centric episode soon, or at least an arc in an episode that focuses on him. He’s in a unique position to change things if he wanted to, but he either doubts his own power to do so, feels he lacks the back-up needed to do so, or both. To use the show’s language, I think being brave has come easy to Mercer for most of his life–at least, what he thinks of as ‘brave.’ But now is when he has to actually choose that path, and I want to know what will finally push him to take that step, get some more insight on what’s going on for him right now.
With all this going on, it’s easy to almost forget that we also saw a new kind of walker show up! These kinds of walkers showed up in season 2 of World Beyond, I believe, or were at least mentioned, and we have had some implications of them since the very first episode of the show. Aaron reminds us that some walkers return to places they knew in life, and if you recall the first episode 12 years ago now, Morgan’s undead wife was trying to turn the door knob of their house to get inside. It goes back that far, even if the show has admittedly not touched on it really since then. It’s interesting to get this sort of twist so late in the game, though, and I have to imagine this is something that will come up and be dealt with more in the spin-offs than it will be here. That one advanced walker certainly had a lot more fight in him that I was expecting even given the hints we got in the previews.
Finally, I think it’s time to start talking about who’s going to live and who will die. That we know of certain spin-offs already spoils some of this, but even ignoring that, right now the two characters who I think are most likely to die dramatically and poignantly are Eugene and Ezekiel. They currently have noble sacrifice written all over them, in my opinion.
Another thing that’s been sticking out to me lately is how split up the cast seems to be in this episodes. While the middle episodes of an arc do typically do this, more recently the absence of some characters has felt more conspicuous. My guess is it might be due to COVID precautions of only having the strictly necessary number of people on set at a given time, though the lack of even a passing line from Carol to say she’s dealing with something else, etc, has stuck out.
What did you think of Eugene’s decision? About Mercer’s decisions, or lack thereof? What’s going to happen next for our Survivors in this political game? Is anyone in Oceanside even still alive? And who won’t make it out of the season alive? Sound off in the comments and I’ll see you next week!
