Title: The Walking Dead “East”
Air Date: March 27th, 2016
Network: AMC
Genre: Serial Drama, Horror
Wow, talk about a cliffhanger at the end this week’s episode of The Walking Dead titled “East.” Following the airing of the episode twitter lit up with questions and speculation about the fate of Daryl. Did he get shot in the head or in the shoulder? Is he just wounded so Negan can arrive and beat him with a bat in the finale episode? At the moment one can only speculate but Daryl definitely seems to be in trouble. Norman Reedus himself said we should be worried about Daryl following the end up the episode. Aside from that cliffhanger moment, The Walking Dead left me pretty frustrated with the episode “East.”
At the end of last week’s episode we saw Carol leave a note for Tobin stating her intention to leave. She is done with having to kill and if she stays in Alexandria she’ll have to continue to do so. With the world they now live in there will always be some threat at the gates that needs to be defended against and fought off. I feel like I can sympathize with Carol no longer wanting to kill but as I said last week, I feel it is somewhat inevitable at this point in the world. More so if Carol leaves the safety of the group and goes out on her own where she most likely face considerably more dangers. Sure enough shortly after leaving she ends up killing three saviors and fatally wounding a third which Rick dispatches later. I just don’t understand the story arc with her trying to run away to avoid killing and after this episode it makes even less sense to me. Despite Carol’s intentions it is a pretty sweet scene when she takes out the Saviors and i’ll get more into those goofs shortly.
Carol had left Alexandria in the night while everyone was asleep giving her a solid head start. As soon as Rick if informed by Tobin of Carol leaving he immediately set out to go find her and I understand that given how much of an asset Rick sees her as. Not only does Rick go looking for Carol but Morgan decides to join him. Shortly after that a very angry looking Daryl takes off on his motorcycle without even saying where he’s going. Michonne, Glenn and Rosita see this and almost immediately try to follow him to bring him back. The Saviors know where Alexandria is as they told Daryl last week. Dwight and several others at the very least are still out there along with who knows how many others. Why would five key members to Alexandria up and leave putting not only themselves but the rest of Alexandria in even more danger? Rick and Morgan come across the Saviors Carol killed while searching for her and right then it should be at the very least speculated that plenty more are out there.
What was up with those Saviors Carol killed anyway? They told Carol they were on their way to Alexandria which I hope wasn’t to do anything other than spy on them. The Savior have already suffered significant loss and have been shown no mercy from the residents of Alexandria. One member in the truck had a spear from the Hill Top Colony. The Saviors lost an entire armory to Alexandria, I can’t imagine it’s a good idea to head in their direction with a member of your party armed only with a spear. What about the other Saviors that were conveniently in the woods that ambushed Michonne and Glenn. They were pretty much in the exact area where they ambushed Daryl, Rosita and Denise in the last episode. Are they camped out there and what happened with Dwight and getting his…D bitten? It’s not that these issues are necessarily game changing but I just didn’t jive with how things played out in this episode.
Rick during the episode eventually find out about Morgan keeping one of the Wolves in Alexandria. To me this is something that’s been forgotten recently since it happened so long ago. Remember that no one knew about that outside of Carol, Tara, Eugene and Rosita who all swore or agreed not to say anything. Morgan came clean and told him straight out but what I did find interesting was in the way in which he explained it. Morgan has came across this guy before when he was looking for Rick and didn’t kill him. He came across him again in Alexandria when they attacked the compound and…still refused to kill him, instead making him a prisoner. Morgan believed that this Wolf could still change despite all the evil things he’d done. The Wolf escapes and takes Denise hostage and eventually sacrifices himself in a way to save her when they get surrounded. Now maybe the Wolf didn’t care whether she lived or died and his interest was purely the use she could provide but never the less, he saved Denise. In doing so, Denise was then able to help Carl after he was shot in the eye and save his life. Upon hearing all this you can see Rick begin to crack just a little bit with how he views things now and I liked that.
Things didn’t fare well for Michonne and Glenn as they were captured by the Saviors helping Daryl look for Dwight. Not only is Glenn in trouble but it seems Maggie is as well. Maggie enlists the help of Enid in this episode to cut her hair and immediately following that event Maggie falls to the floor in pain. One can only imagine that a complication with the pregnancy has presented itself and the audience is only left to wonder from there what happens.
The Walking Dead “East” leaves us with some frustration, a few decent moments and a big cliffhanger. What will become of Daryl and will Carol be found and convinced to come back to Alexandria? What will become of Michonne and Glenn and what is going on with Maggie? The 90 minute finale airs next week and all indications point to the fact that there will be blood. Someone from Alexandria is going to be on the wrong end of the stick (Lucille), and we’ll have wonder and speculate who it might be until then.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTF7joRS2Ug[/embedyt]
[gap height=”15″]
What did you think of this week’s episode of The Walking Dead? Did you have any questions or concerns following the episode? Be sure to let us know in the comments below and check back next week for the review of the season finale.
- Acting/Actors: Nice performance from Melissa McBride with a good moment between Lennie James and Andrew Lincoln
- Story: I’m not on board with Carol leaving the group and why did so many key characters leave the compound?
- Cinematography: You’ll no doubt want to watch the camera work in slow motion in the episode’s cliffhanger ending.
- Organization: The Walking Dead was a little scattered here trying to set up for next week’s finale.
[review]
