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The Walking Dead 11.22 Review – ‘Faith’
Image Credit: Jace Downs/AMC
Loading...Tonight on The Walking Dead, a kangaroo court tries Eugene while Negan and Ezekiel clash while trying to build a worker uprising. Let’s dive in!
The plot: In and around Alexandria, the prisoners work to gather information on the guards, their shifts, and positions, but Negan is distracted when he sees Annie struggling. It leads to another beating from the guards and, later, an attempt to by the warden to get info from him on who’s behind the map they found. Negan plays dumb, but later it leads to an argument with Ezekiel. Ezekiel is frustrated by having to work with Negan, as he refuses to let the man move on from his sins and what he took from him personally. Negan’s fed up as well, but in a bid to get the pressure off the others, ends up offering himself up as the ringleader to the warden, with the agreement that only he will be killed for it. But when Annie is pulled in front of the firing range as well, things shift and Ezekiel steps in front of them both, quickly by his fellow former Alexandrians, and speaks with enough sincerity that the firing squad lower their weapons and turn on the warden. Just in time to be joined by their friends from outside the wall who’ve made their way in through the sewers! However, not all of the children have been located and when the warden taunts Rosita that “You will lose everything,” she lets a walker eat his face. Meanwhile in the Commonwealth, Eugene’s trial has begun. It’s clear the verdict is pre-determined, but as Yumiko points out, it’s not the judge they truly need to way but the people. While she’s unable to get Mercer to testify, Eugene makes his own moving and honest speech on how he’s been one to stand idly by before, but he learned that even one person can change things. This seems to be enough to finally sway Mercer, who arranges for Eugene to be brought to him and set free, declaring it’s “Time to fuck shit up.’ Hell yeah! Also, Aaron’s group finally finds Luke who tells them Oceanside has also been taken over, and it looks like they’ve got at least one more ‘climber’ aka smart walker to deal with as well as the troopers.
“This world is broken, but we don’t have to be.” When you come down to it, this line is a thesis for the entirety of The Walking Dead. Sure, it’s a show with zombies and action and a hell of a body count, but it’s ultimately always been about showing this: that the world is broken, but we don’t have to be. The survivors have struggled physically, emotionally, mentally, and now even politically! They’ve fallen down, they’ve been broken themselves at times, but they’ve found hope, found reasons to go on, to fight, found one another and perhaps that’s the most important thing: it’s through others, through supporting them, having faith in them, and vice versa, that they’ve clung to the hope for a better tomorrow.
Ezekiel’s a perfect character to deliver this line, of course. It’s short but to the point, and so perfectly placed it kind of rivals his “And yet I smile” speech. But it’s also showing how Ezekiel’s changed since then: once he was a more proud, boisterous and brash king. He had things to lose, yes, but he hadn’t yet had so many deeply personal losses. He’s ditched the kingly persona, the over the top speeches and manners, but deep down, he’s the same man, still a leader, still someone others can believe in and look to, and still someone who believes the best is possible. Which is why pairing him in these last few episodes with Negan has been so interesting. He’s got every right to hate and doubt Negan, to even tell him he doesn’t deserve to be a father. How can he not hate a world where Negan gets to a have child when his own was taken from him in such a horrific way? It’s as clear a sign as any that the world is broken. But to give in to that hate, that despair, to not think things–or people–can get better is to deny something else he believes: we don’t have to be broken with it. I don’t see Ezekiel and Negan being buddies, but he just stood in front a firing squad for this man. Yes, it took Annie being dragged in to spur him into action, but that action was still for the both of them. Ezekiel has to believe that even Negan can change and that he deserves the chance to for him to do what he did, and to inspire others to join him.
It’s a hell of a thing. The whole windmill execution so perfectly echoes Negan’s circle where he bashed in Abraham and Glenn’s heads in front of most of these people. Where he did exactly what the warden now tries to do to him, their plays came from the same book to the letter. Those people do hate him, and always will on some level, and yet…they chose to stand up and save his life, to the surprise of pretty much everyone. And like Eugene says, miles away but ultimately giving the same message of hope as Ezekiel, one small effort by just one person can, in fact, change the world, change he hearts and minds of others.
Eugene, of course, is a much less likely source of this sort of inspiration, unlike Ezekiel, and yet it works surprisingly well for exactly that reason. Eugene’s largely always been aware that he’s no hero, he’s not brave or charismatic or a leader. He’s smart but disposable, and he credits his survival to those around him–hell, it’s by making himself seem invaluable to Abraham that he was able to gain the man’s protection in the first place, specifically so he could survive. And that survival is again why he joined Negan’s team for a time. And this is why it works here, because despite that he’s facing an unjust death, he’s not pleading for his life. He doesn’t ask for mercy or talk about the case. No, instead, he talks about his own experience and what he’s learned from it. He has faith that maybe, once again, he can perform some small act that can make a difference and change things for the better. He’s speaking to the people…and the people are listening.
These last few episodes really have been all about seeing the main characters come full circle, and for Ezekiel and Eugene, I love how that came together tonight. Ezekiel stepping up as a leader once again, not as full of fun pomp and fire as he once was, but with as much honesty and optimism all the same. Eugene, on the other hand, having gone from someone who survived by lying and puffing himself up to be important, has come around to being nothing but honest and not touting himself as being any more important than anyone else, because it turns out anyone can be important, and we’re all equally so.
Which pays off, cause finally Mercer is getting off his ass and getting on board with toppling Pamela Milton! Hell yeah! Took you long enough, dude! I would’ve liked to see a little more of Mercer getting there, though, in the last few episodes since the riot happened. Why did he drag his feet? Where’s he been? What made him go back to thinking Pamela couldn’t be stopped no matter they did?
That’s indicative of a minor gripe I have with these final few episodes–things are a little rushed. Not that they aren’t done in a way that defies belief, or leaves me not buying into how they unfold or where they end up, but I wouldn’t mind getting a little more time to let them breathe. Seeing the build-up of resentment in the guards at Alexandria, for example, instead of only getting the one guard who stands in as an example for all of them. Not getting to see more of the court case play out, get to see both Yumiko in her element while also seeing Pamela’s grip puppeteering the judge. Seeing more of our usual cast of side characters who’ve been underused lately–Princess, Kelly, and Connie, for example–getting to be part of the action as more than just folks who were also there. It feels strange to feel like we could stand to have a little more time when we’re wrapping an 11-season run of a show, and yet!
But for the main cast, the ones who’ve been here longer, we have been getting some really solid moments. I really enjoyed Carol and Maggie’s moment in the pantry, with Carol reassuring Maggie of her very justified fears and anxieties about her child and what kind of person and mother she is. As seen above, I’ve loved the Ezekiel and Negan stuff and Eugene’s moments, and we’ve gotten some good moments with Gabriel and Rosita, too. I just wish we could be having those for the others, too, because they are great characters played by talented actors and generally always written really well, too. What can I say, I’m going to miss these characters when they’re gone from our screens!
Except Oceanside, because I keep forgetting Oceanside is a thing and the show practically does, too! Joking aside, it’s nice Luke is alive, but it felt a little anti-climatic that the cliffhanger of Hornsby’s coin toss to decide their fate, after all this time, was just ‘yeah, we’re fine, no one died there, but then a few days ago a lot of troopers showed up and we kinda scattered’. I was really expecting Aaron and company to find a ravaged and slaughtered Oceanside! But instead, they’ve got to deal with some of their own troopers and now some more of the ‘climbers’, our new term for smart walkers who can use tools. Wonder who that one with Lydia’s knife is going to stab next week!
What did you think of tonight’s episode? Of Ezekiel, Eugene, and Negan’s journeys to get where they ended up? Was there anything you wished we were seeing more of too? How’d you like Rosita feeding that warden’s face to a walker? Where are the other kids? Are you, too, ready to fuck some shit up?! (I know I am.) And hey, what are you going to miss about the show when it’s gone? Sound off in the comments and see you back here next week!
