Let’s start this by saying I hate the new trend of “Mid-season Finales”, I get it…anticipation is key to building buzz, not to mention that you get to have two finales each season, but I’m not a patient man and would like to have continuous entertainment.
‘After’ picks up after the apocalyptic events of the governor’s assault on the prison. The survivors are scattered and without the safety of the prison fences and each other. I wanted to start this by complaining about the fact that we don’t see a lot of the group in this episode, only Rick, Carl, and Michonne are featured. I mean, Game of Thrones has no problem following 12 storylines each episode so why can’t the writers here take a tip from them in their story structure? Then I realized that there may actually be a method to their madness. Jumping from story to story doesn’t allow you to fully appreciate just how alone everyone is at this point, how dire their chances of survival have become. So, with that in mind, I can say that this method is definitely effective.
We start with Rick and Carl making their way away from the prison. Rick, who was beaten to within an inch of his life by the governor, is struggling to keep up and Carl doesn’t seem to care. He’s seeing his father as the reason for all of their suffering and the fact that his little sister is no longer there with them. It’s really well done, credit to Andrew Lincoln for being able to act through the amazing make-up he’s coated down with. He’s able to show this almost pathetic and definitely defeated side that we’ve yet to see from him, not only has he lost so much but is desperate for his son to show him some compassion, which he does not get. The two find their way to a house where they can hold up and after securing the house they get some sleep. In the morning Carl wakes up, still not wanting to so much as look at his father, makes himself breakfast and goes to read a book. After not hearing Rick for a while Carl goes down to find that his dad is not waking up, what follows is the biggest moment for Chandler Riggs (the actor who plays Carl) in the series so far, acting wise. The trailers did not do this scene justice and actually made Riggs look like he was unable to carry an emotional scene alone. While not award worth Carl’s heart wrenching monologue declaring that he doesn’t need his father anymore and that he can go ahead die, is tremendously affecting. Carl’s moment in the spotlight isn’t done here though, after hearing some walkers at the door Carl sneaks out the back and lures the walkers away from the house before killing them. He’s a little reckless as he’s doing it and is almost bitten when he backs into another walker. After falling to the ground he is literally being buried in dead(er) walkers killing one after the other and coming inches from being bitten. Pulling himself out and catching his breath Carl moves to find food, which leads to a great scene where he traps a walker in a room and writes on the door outside “Walker inside, got my shoe but didn’t get me”, a great little insight into the mind of a budding psychopath. Then we get a nice moment of peace as Carl eats a giant tub of pudding on the roof of the house while looking out at the oddly serene neighborhood. Up to this point Chandler Riggs paints a great picture of a kid that is, for lack of a better term, an unappreciative dick. We soon find that it’s all a show when Carl returns to the house to check on Rick. When his Dad begins to move and moan, thinking he’s turned, Carl raises his gun…but is unable to pull the trigger. The hard shell crumbles and Carl breaks down, he begs his dad to just kill him and end it, then we hear the moaning turn into words. Rick is alive!
Elsewhere, Michonne is once more all alone. We see her head back to the prison to find it in flames, fences torn down and not a single survivor left. What we get is, in my Herschel loving opinion, a completely gratuitous scene of Herschel’s reanimated head and Michonne hesitantly stabbing it to allow Herschel to finally rest. The rest of Michonne’s story is rather uneventful, save for an awesome scene wherein she annihilates a dozen walkers in an emotional rage. The real meat of Michonne’s arc in this episode is an amazing flashback where we get the most insight into who Michonne is, or was, that we’ve seen yet. What we find is a happy, professional, and social women. The scene, which ends up with a rather disturbing revelation as to the origin of her “pets”, shows Michonne talking and joking with her boyfriend and a friend while holding her baby. Seeing her so normal, so happy, really makes your heart break when it flashes back to present day, knowing what she’s had to do to be there and what she’s lost along the way.
The episode ends on a cliffhanger with Rick and Carl hearing a knock on the front door, Rick checks the peep hole and says to Carl “it’s for you”. Given that the entire episode showed Michonne tracking footprints and ending up at places we previously saw Rick and Carl I’m going to place a safe bet that it’s her on the other side of the door.
While it is disappointing to not see the rest of the crew I feel safe in saying that, character wise, this is one of the best episodes of the last two seasons.
A Dash of Dissent: Rocky’s Thoughts on “After”
Welcome back, all! Months after we left The Walking Dead behind and with the Governor finally dead, we’re back with winter premiere “After.” Let’s talk about this episode, which hooked me in the beginning, lost me in the middle, and then brought me back around at the end. So many emotions! OK, not that many. My emotions were mostly “pleasantly intrigued” and “expectedly irritated.” But still! Let’s talk about some stuff I liked and some stuff I didn’t, not that we’re back with Rick and Co.
+ Good stuff: YES to giving Danai Gurira more stuff to do as Michonne, and YES for finally giving her some backstory. Her background is pretty tragic in the comics, but tonight the show got some of the basics right—independent woman, stable romantic relationship, a kid. In the comics, she’s a divorcee who had a new boyfriend and two estranged daughters when the zombie overthrow went down, but I think the important thing here is, Michonne has lost a lot. Michonne is a survivor. Michonne is a badass wielding a katana but she’s also more than that, and her relationship with Carl means a lot to both of them. I really, really liked seeing Gurira have her time in the spotlight, and those final few seconds—when she’s holding back tears upon seeing Rick and Carl, and that small, affirmative nod that she deserves this reunion—were really affecting.
+ Also good: The definitive end to the prison plot, with Michonne seeing the prison going up in flames, more and more zombies converging on the location, and the Governor’s dead body. And, of course, her stabbing Herschel’s decapitated, reanimated head was pretty declarative, too. Don’t look back, indeed.
+ Meh: None of the other characters appear? NO DARYL DIXON? Cue up my anguished sigh, guys.
+ Ugh: Oh, that black female walker with the long braids reminds Michonne of herself? So much so that she has to kill her? That wasn’t heavy-handed at all, guys. Not. One. Bit.
+ Ultra-ugh: And speaking of heavy-handed, can we cool it on the Carl-is-an-asshole jets? Carl is my favorite character in the comic books because he is such a sociopath, but look, that’s the exact kind of mentality you need to survive in this world. So he’s killed other kids in the comics; so what? Maybe they shouldn’t have stepped to him. But because of how rapidly Chandler Riggs has grown up, they’ve had to age up Carl into what seems like 13- or 14-year-old territory, and his angst this episode was just not tolerable. I liked the little touches (him ignoring the video games to pilfer the TV’s cable instead; him creating his own version of Don Draper’s hobo code to mark the door with the walker trapped inside), but ultimately, I’m getting sick of this petulant bullshit. Wasn’t he this whiny and stupid a couple of seasons ago, when they were all stuck on the farm? Hadn’t he made some headway with Rick in the prison? Where did all of those good vibes go? Oh, it’s all so tedious. I need level-headed, ruthless Carl back, and maybe that giant tin of chocolate pudding will help move things in the right direction. Or Michonne could give him a swift kick in the ass. Now that she’s a more developed character, I’m fine with whatever.
