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EPISODE 14: Spend
THE HOOK: Betrayal is brewing in Alexandria as Glenn and his crew deal with a run that turn bloody.
The following contains MAJOR SPOILERS, so I don’t recommend reading this if you haven’t watched this episode
THE LOWDOWN: Father Gabriel. I liked his character in the comics, but from day one, I loathed him on the show. As we open tonight, seeing him rip pages from the bible in frustration, part of me felt for the guy. A zombie apocalypse would be much harder to take for a man who dedicated his life to preaching the word. How do you explain it? How do you justify it? It would certainly explain why the dude seems off his rocker. That said, lest we forget he’s a coward who let his own people die, and then almost got Carl, Judith and Michonne killed. This group saved his pathetic ass more than once, and I get that he may not agree with their methods, but you do owe them. And how to you repay this debt? You try to sell them out to Deanna. Nice. Suddenly I’m getting a flashback to the engraving on the Church—you’ll definitely burn for this one, brother, and I can’t wait to see it.
Now speaking of useless characters, we have the run. First, I’d like to point out that putting the same group together after what happened those two dolts, Aiden and Nicholas, last time just doesn’t seem logical. Flashing Glenn a smile and thanking him for knocking your son on his ass isn’t enough. There should have been a clear conversation before they left—in Aiden’s slight defense, he did seem like he was starting to appreciate Glenn’s input, but that guy’s still oozing stupidity. Let’s start with the raging techno music. Seriously, who the f*ck blasts techno in the zombie apocalypse, unless you’re a diversion car, which of course, they were not—until Eugene’s daring escape/rescue. Moving beyond that, how the hell do you not see grenades strapped to the walker in riot gear? Okay, I get it, it’s a tense moment, it’s dark, but dude’s in full riot gear and the grenade was on the front. You have to love Glenn, despite all this raging incompetence, he still tries to save Aiden (who was well beyond saving I might add), which is more than we can say for his buddy Nicholas. What a douche, but we’ll get to him in a second. It just sucks that it was Deanna’s son that had to die out there, because that doesn’t bode well for the group—especially after Gabriel’s betrayal.
Back in Alexandria there were some interesting developments. I liked Abraham’s moment to shine, dude’s a true hero and he ended up getting props for it too. It almost looked like those guys were going to turn on him at one point, glad I read that wrong and they didn’t. Pete’s visit to Rick was probably one of the coolest, yet most awkward conversations ever. He’s really going out of his way to look like an asshole in Rick’s eyes, it’s almost like he wants Rick to hate him. And Rick’s the wrong guy to play that game with, especially after Carol fills him in on what’s going on behind closed doors. That was an extremely humanizing moment for Carol, seeing her revert back to original Carol, then switch to protective mother and finally, judge, jury and potential executioner. Oh Carol, how I love you. Finally makes sense though, I was starting to wonder why Sam was so damn obsessed with cookies.
THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 5’s fourteenth episode quickly reminds us what show it is we’re watching—in case these past couple episodes somehow made us forget. Poor Noah, from taking the initiative with Reg in hopes of making a difference, to being ripped apart right in front of Glenn—talk about an insane moment that will remain transfixed to the back of my retinas forever. Eugene went from being a complete waste to saving the day (not a moment too soon either). He’s still dead weight, but he’s the lesser of the evils tonight. And dammit Glen, why couldn’t you just leave that dumbass Nicholas there? But then again, that’s what separates the good from the bad…and they’re going to need a scapegoat. That said, it’s still going to be an uphill battle with Deanna, and with Rick and Carol plotting God knows what, I think we’re heading toward one hell of a season finale.
ZOMBIE KILL OF THE WEEK: Abraham swinging a flail looking weapon around, lopping walker head’s off until it broke, nailed it for sure.
BLOOD AND GORE: There was more than enough to make up for the lack over the past couple weeks. We got plenty of headshots, stomps, decapitations, explosions, impaling and a couple guys got their insides ripped out—Noah’s death, being one of the most gruesome we’ve seen thus far.
COOLEST SCENE: Again, it may not be cool in the usual sense, but that scene on the way back from the run where Eugene sees Noah’s book open to the first page reading; “This is the beginning.” That was nuts, and clearly has a double meaning, implying that this is all the beginning of the end for Alexandria.
FINAL VERDICT:
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