“They can’t be trusted. They’re dangerous.”
RIP, Noah; welcome to crazy-land, Father Gabriel! God, what
a brutal, gory episode “Spend” was, full of an insane amount of blood and a respectable
amount of tension.
Things have escalated quickly, haven’t they? The people in
Rick’s group have continued to ricochet their way into positions of power. The
awkwardness between Rick and Jessie’s husband Pete reaches a head on its own
thanks to an uncomfortable confrontation between them, and then Carol further
stokes the fire by recognizing the signs of abuse in the
just-shutup-about-the-cookies-already Sam. And most importantly, there was that
horrendously failed supply run, which leaves Deanna’s exceptionally douchey son
Aiden dead, along with Noah, who had just begun to find a way under Deanna’s
husband Redge’s wing – oh, and it doesn’t look like the group came back with
the batteries needed to restore power to Alexandria’s generator, either. So things
are going to crap exceptionally fast, and Father Gabriel’s guilt-crazed speech
to Deanna couldn’t come at a worse time.
Let’s look at the five most impactful things that happened
in “Spend”:
+ “Where’s Noah?”
We’ve seen some terrible deaths on this show before, but was anything worse
than this? A totally cognizant Noah, being torn apart – his jaw! Oh my god, his
jaw! – while stuck in the rotating door jam, with Glenn looking on, after
Noah’s last words of “Don’t let go” (I think to the dream of Alexandria,
right?) … if that doesn’t cause post-traumatic stress, nothing will. I’m
interested in the fallout from this, not only for Rick’s group – who sacrificed
so much in losing Beth while gaining Noah – but also for Nicholas, whose
cowardly bailing essentially caused Noah’s death. Would Alexandria hold
Nicholas accountable? Would Rick or Michonne, as the new constable? Interesting
to see what the society’s “rules” could do to react to this.
+ “You leave people
behind to die?” OK, this is a line from Abraham to the leader of the
construction crew who is willing to sacrifice Francine to save his own ass
after putting her in jeopardy in the first place, but I’d say Abraham’s
indignation is applicable for Deanna’s son Aiden, too, who admits to Glenn in
his dying moments that he was responsible for his fellow supply runners dying.
No one is surprised by that, right? Although now we know for sure that no one
in Alexandria, neither Aiden or Nicholas, really
knows what they’re doing, at least not in the methodically efficient way
that Rick, Glenn, Michonne, Carol, and the rest do. It seems like they’ve
gotten by on luck this whole time – note that Aiden’s father Redge talks about
how surprised he was that their power grid and generator have lasted this long
– and when that luck runs out, well, it’s not good.
+ “You’re gonna have
to kill him.” So yeah, Jessie’s husband Pete is an abusive douche. Duh! The
show introduced him as a growling, shadowed menace in the dark for a reason,
and it follows up on that promise tonight through a variety of storylines: a
confrontation between Rick and Pete about Jessie; a conversation between Carol
and Jessie’s son Sam about wanting a gun; and a visit from Carol to
Jessie’s and Sam’s house, where Pete won’t let her in. I think each of these conversations
was pretty well-written, but I especially liked Pete’s thoroughly disingenuous
“Let’s be friends, man” and Sam’s pleading “Can I have a gun?” Are things really going
to come to a head between Rick and Pete this
quickly, though? I understand Carol’s need to protect runs deep, but I
don’t know how their plans to eventually
take Alexandria by force necessarily sync up with this Pete-should-die-now storyline.
+ “You didn’t get us
here. We got you here.” Well, I suppose if Eugene were going to finally man
up and save someone, that person would be Tara – possibly the only person who
is a. still being kind to Eugene and b. simultaneously willing to call him on
his shit. We haven’t really seen much of Eugene since Abraham beat the crap out
of him before they got to Alexandria, but this episode was great character development
for him, taking him fully out of “weirdo with mullet” territory to “weirdo with
mullet willing to acknowledge that these people are his friends.” The writers did a thorough-enough job with Eugene during the first half of this episode that for every move he makes in
the second half – spilling his fear to the unconscious Tara,
but shooting his way out of the warehouse anyway, making sure to shoot the
zombies in the head no matter how many bullets it took, and then using the van
as a distraction to try and save the rest of the group, and then asking
Nicholas where everyone else was and refusing to leave without them – you really feel the effort it took for him,
the depths from which he had to pull to become this person. Well done. (I wonder
if Tara will live through next week, though.)
+ “You want a future,
you need us for that.” Maggie has vaulted quickly into the position of one of Deanna’s
closest advisers, which puts her in a precarious spot now: she helped vouch for
Abraham to take over the construction gig, which means if anything goes wrong
with the wall, she might get blamed for making that recommendation; she’s
involved with Glenn, who Deanna might blame for her son Aiden’s death; and she
overhears Father Gabriel’s crazed speech to Deanna and will probably share it
with Rick and Co., and if that gets back to Deanna, then she’ll know Maggie
eavesdropped and then talked. Lots of ways for Maggie to get burned here, I
think, and it all depends on Deanna.
And some final
thoughts:
+ No Daryl this week; he left on his new motorcycle with
Aaron to do more recruiting for Alexandria. Come back soon, Daryl! Bring your
leathers.
+ “You think they could fall?” Redge asks of Daryl of
Alexandria’s perimeter walls. Why yes, foreshadowing, I think they can!
+ Of course Aiden would listen to that terrible raver music
before going on terribly planned runs. Of course.
+ Carol has absolutely no patience for Sam, and I have to
say I love it: “None of these are problems!” is her exasperated response to his
continued complaints about the lack of cookies; and her “because I don’t want
to” when he asks why she won’t make any more is perfect. And, of course: “Sam,
we’re not talking.”
+ For my comics readers: Francine is going to take the place
of the Holly character, right? I mean, she has to.
+ “Mother dick!” “Pull the cobwebs out of your ass and
move!” Great lines for Abraham tonight! Now let’s see if they ever give Rosita
her own episode …
+ Here, have more of Father Gabriel’s “warning” to Deanna
about Rick and the group: “Satan, he disguises himself as the angel of light.
I’m afraid that false light is here inside these walls … You made a mistake
letting in the others. Rick, his group, they’re not good people. They’ve done
things – they’ve done unspeakable things … They can’t be trusted. They’re
dangerous. … The day will come when they’ll put their own lives before yours
and everyone else’s, and they will destroy everything you have here, everything
you’re working so hard to build.” As I keep saying, I’m pretty bummed by how
little they’ve given Seth Gilliam to do with the Father Gabriel character, but
he plays this scene so perfectly that I guess I’ll deal with it.
+ Anyone else notice in the preview next week that Rick and
Deanna are standing in front of four graves? Two people definitively died
tonight: Aiden and Noah. But does Tara die next week, too, finally succumbing
to that head wound? And maybe Rick executes Nicholas for being cowardly? Just
an idea.
