OK, so “Slabtown” kind of sucked. The Beth-entric episode
from last week (which I didn’t recap because I’m the worst, I know) was
generally pretty repetitively doomy and gloomy until the last-second Carol
reveal, so I had higher hopes for this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, “Self-Help.” “Self-Help”
was better, I think, but mainly because of that reveal: Of COURSE Eugene is a
liar! Duh!
Solid step forward, Walking Dead; if this season has been
doing anything right, it’s the pacing of these episodes, which are moving along
pretty nicely. Gareth and his people—dead! Beth—hopefully about to get rescued
by Carol and Daryl! And now we have Eugene, admitting that his entire story is
bullshit. And we’re only five episodes into the season! I’m overcome with
happiness, guys.
But, did Abraham’s back-story in “Self-Help” work? I’m not
entirely convinced; I think there was a vagueness that was ineffective. Maybe I
wasn’t paying full attention—totally a possibility—but in the comics (SPOILER
ALERT) it’s very clear that Abraham had a wife, daughter, and son, all of whom
were hiding out in the grocery store together. But his wife and daughter were
raped while his son was forced to watch, and then when Abraham beat the
perpetrators to death with canned goods, his wife and children run away from
him (hence the note “Don’t try to find us), only to die a few steps outside of
the grocery store. Traumatizing shit!
And I don’t think the flashbacks here fully conveyed all of
that; we got the Abraham beating people to death and we got his family running
away from him and then him finding their bodies, but without the
precursor—without them being terrified of how he was protecting them—I don’t
know if it had the same impact. Because the point here was that Abraham
thinking he’s doing the right thing can very easily turn into the wrong thing, right? But that wasn’t so
clear.
Anyway, let’s talk about some other things that happened in “Self-Help.”
(Yes, we’ll get to the sex eventually, you perv.)
+ “I’m not a
scientist! I don’t know how to stop it. I’m not a scientist. I know I’m smarter
than most people. I know I’m a very good liar. And I know I needed to get to
D.C.” For all of you that have been thinking, “Uh, that guy with the awful
mullet and the hick accent cannot be
our only hope,” good job, you were right. Which makes you smarter than
practically everyone on this show! But when you’re desperate and when you’re
looking for absolution, I guess you’ll go with anything. So after weeks of
dragging Abraham and Rosita along with his scheme, and then involving Rick et
al., and watching people die to protect him, Eugene finally comes clean.
Was it his burgeoning friendship with Tara that did it?
Abraham’s increasing violence and determined craziness? A mixture of both?
Regardless, Eugene is now revealed as being full of shit, which puts the group
in an awful position. Do they continue on toward D.C., even though there is
nothing actually for them there? Do they turn around and try to go back to Rick’s
group? Do they stay put, hoping that Rick’s group will catch up with them in
time? Is Maggie ever going to acknowledge that her sister Beth is still missing? Lots of questions to
consider.
+ “I know it sucks
and it’s scary, but it’s time to be brave.” I still can barely remember
Tara’s name, but I liked her in this episode as a parallel to Eugene. She too
once aligned with someone she thought could protect her (the Governor), only to
realize that such an alliance didn’t entirely sap her of responsibility in this
new world order; I think the show has done a nice job aligning her storyline
with Eugene’s, someone who has also made poor choices to protect themselves.
Granted, I thought it was strange that she would agree to keep his secret of
blowing up the school bus since that almost got them all killed, but I like
whatever weird burgeoning friendship the two of them have. It will undoubtedly
get affected by Eugene’s telling the truth, but for now, I think it works as a
way to develop both of them a bit further.
+ “I just need to
know you’re good.” So I guess this season so far has been positioning Glenn
as the cool-headed second-in-command for any leader that comes along? Because
back when he was with Rick, he was consistently concerned about where Rick’s
headspace was and how that would affect the group moving forward, and now he’s
doing the same thing with Abraham—checking up on him as a way, perhaps, to
ensure that he and Maggie won’t be in danger moving forward. But ultimately I
think it’s a disappointing way to use Glenn as a character, since he used to be
such a resourceful badass. His relationship with Maggie changed him in the
comics, sure (especially because in them, Carol’s daughter Sophia is still
alive, and when Carol dies, Maggie and Glenn basically adopt Sophia as their
own child, which is clearly a storyline that has been scrapped for the show
since Carol is so amazing now and Sophia is dead), but I don’t know if this
particular use of Glenn is the best. He could be more of a take-charge guy, not
the one who checks whether the real take-charge guy is actually going to take charge.
Blergh.
+ “He’s harmless.”
Um, how is Rosita so OK with Eugene watching her and Abraham have sex? Granted,
this episode gave Rosita a lot more to do than ever before—She can speak! She isn’t
afraid to argue with Abraham! She knows things about cars!—and now she finally
has a more reasonable outfit. But I still shudder at the pathetic creepiness of
Eugene watching them going at it. How could you stay in the mood? How many
times has that happened before? THIS IS A TERRIBLE RABBIT HOLE OF GROSS
QUESTIONS, I WILL STOP NOW.
+ “About time things started going our way.” Yeah, I would
say Eugene using the pressurized water to essentially liquefy all those zombies
is a pretty solid win for our group. Definitely one of the most solid examples
of zombie-gore effects so far this season.
And finally, some
odds and ends:
+ “Maybe I’ll let you shave me down all over.” Real sexy,
Abraham.
+ “We’re friends. We have each other’s backs. That’s it,
that’s how it works.” Tara is so optimistic; eventually it has to bite her in
the ass.
+ And here, have a bunch of Eugene’s interactions with other
people, because they are great:
Tara, about Eugene’s mullet: “Is it your source of power?”
Eugene: “That’s classified.”
Glenn: “Why the hair?”
Eugene: “Because I like it.”
Eugene, discussing his mullet before he tells the truth: “T.
Brooks Ellis, director of the The Human Genome Project, he told me my hair made
me look, and I quote, ‘like a fun guy.’”
Eugene, discussing the mullet after he tells the truth: “I
also lied about T. Brooks Ellis liking my hair!”
