There is, at this point in The Walking Dead, never no way out. There is always a way out, depending on what you want to sacrifice -- or who you want to sacrifice. And sometimes you end up sacrificing your crush whose husband you executed and whose kid just got eaten, so your own kid can live. Choices! Rick Grimes has them.
With "No Way Out," The Walking Dead returns after a few months away, and here we are again in Alexandria, with the walkers overrunning the place after the Wolves attack wiped out a solid chunk of hapless, useless, pantry-bickering citizens. What were the five best moments of this episode? Let's get into it.
+ "Dad?" YUP, this is it. If you're a reader of the original Walking Dead comics, recreated plot points didn't get much more accurate, and executed better, than the Carl-getting-shot-in-the-eye moment tonight. That thing that should have happened to Rick that one time never materialized in the show, irritatingly, but how this episode recreated everything about what happens to Carl -- even mimicking the starkness of the reveal of what happened to his eye, a majorly gripping panel in the comics - was well-done. Say bye to your eye, Carl. You can still shoot with one, right?
+ PEACE OUT to the entirely useless Anderson clan, from mom Jessie to sons Ron and Sam. Now, obviously, what happens to this woman who dared to get involved with Rick, against her better judgment, is terrible and awful. Getting eaten alive while you just watched your younger son getting similarly chomped upon is not fun! But at the same time, get out of here, Jessie. You were the worst! Ron was also the worst! Sam was completely the worst! This family was an utter suck of show time, and it was clear from the beginning they were never going to survive. What, Rick Grimes, happy? Get the fuck out of here. The Andersons had to die; bye, guys.
+ "What a bunch of assholes." Daryl gets handsy with the rocket launcher and ends up saving Abraham and Sasha by blowing Negan's henchmen away, but this is so clearly not the end of Negan that it's pointless to say much more here, except for that watching the main minion's head burn to a crisp right before the intro credits was a nice touch. (And "There's more. There's always more" was a solidly ominous line, too.)+ JUDITH WAS JUST UNDER CARL'S GORE PONCHO THE WHOLE TIME? REALLY? HOW HAS THAT CHILD STAYED ALIVE THIS LONG?!
+ "I'm sorry." Well, Morgan, you being sorry to the Wolf who ended up killed and turned into a zombie because of you, and whose friends broke into Alexandria because of you, and whose friends' destruction then sparked the onslaught of zombies into overrunning the town because of you, DOESN'T REALLY FIX MUCH. I've always enjoyed Morgan as a character, and while his role as a foil to Rick is clear, the storytelling has to get more sophisticated with him in the back half of this season. He can't just keep being this naive, can he? It's not believable at this point.
