Gautam Anand
*This article contains spoilers !
The moment you thought what else could be done in a rogue world with zombies around and a couple of survivors running for their lives, the writers of The Walking Dead would give you something new and compelling. Be it character development, acting or the thrilling part, TWD again stood tall in all segments. Although few episodes in this season were comparatively poor than the rest , but overall until mid season finale it was pretty good on average.
Episode 1 (First Time Again)
This season opened up with a non-linear first episode , starts quite abruptly but gets clearer and intriguing as it progresses. The episode depicts how Rick proposes the plan to clear out the walkers around their neighborhood in Alexandria but things go south. There are couple of subplots included where Rick and Morgan still contradicting the about the killing of Pete. Overall, the episode is a solid start to this season. They manage to keep the pace, thrill intact which is the best part of the show.
Episode 2 (JSS)
Well, this is the second time when Carol turned into the beast mode after the first episode of the 5th season which even surprised many of the fans at that time. A pleasant one off course. It depicts the time when a big noise distracted the walkers and Rick plan was about to fail to draw the walkers away from their homes. It was actually an attack by the a group of people(wolves) to their homes and the noise was of a truck hitting their fence. This is one of the gruesome & chilling episode in the whole series that will keep you at the edge of your seats. As all the key people in Rick’s group were busy in their plan , that leaves Carol, Maggie & Rosita from them to fight with these threats. Carol takes charge and kills most of the wolves in her style, mercilessly. Later, Morgan joins them and fights with these threats but incidentally leaves a wolf alive for his ideals.
Episode 3 (Thank You)
This episode mostly shows the time after that big noise breaks out and walkers get distracted when Rick and his team tries to draw them away. Realizing that the noise is coming from home, Rick parts his group and sends Michonne , Glenn with some of the people to back home home in Alexandria. Meanwhile, Daryl, Abraham and Sasha are still leading a group of walkers to a distant place. This episode is a fine balance between thrill and intensity. It eventually shows Glenn to be attacked by walkers and how only Michonne and Heath manage to reach back home.
Episode 4 (Here’s not here)
It’s a flashback episode focusing on Morgan. It depicts the time when Morgan was struggling with his complex emotions and fighting for his survival. There he met a person in the woods, named Eastman, apparently a forensic psychiatrist whom he first tried to kill but failed. Later, Eastman captured his as his prisoner, helped him to fight his inner self and find the peace within. He taught him Aikido, a Japanese form of martial art to save people and defend himself and also made him realize that all life was precious and they were not meant for killing under any circumstances. All in all, this episode adds a feather into it’s cap. It’s perceptive, engaging and most importantly teaches what it means be a human and the value of a human life. But do this perceptions have any relevance in a wasteland that we’d have to wait and watch in coming days.
Episode 5 (Now)
This episode is mostly emotional, no such thrilling incidence has been portrayed. Maggie seemed a bit disturbed and frustrated regarding the Glenn’s whereabouts but still being hopeful. It’s a bit downer compared to the first 4 episodes but again you cannot expect every episode to be a thrilling one either. The different human emotions plotted in this series has also been a key to it’s success story.
Episode 6 (Always Accountable)
‘Always accountable’ is again a good episode. It depicts the time while Daryl, Sasha and Abraham were drawing a herd of walkers, they got attacked by a group of armed people in vehicles. Although, Sasha and Abraham killed the attackers, Daryl got parted from them in the process. Daryl hid somewhere in the jungle where he encountered another group of 3 people who captured him. Sasha and Abraham also hid in a building waiting for Daryl to return. The episode is insightful, thrilling and have some very intense moments when you can feel how a little things can make you happy and special when your basic instinct comes down to only survival.
Episode 7 (Heads Up)
The worst episode in this season so far. In episode 3, Glenn was nowhere likely to be alive with a hundreds of walkers around him. And many viewers even reluctantly accepted the hard fact that Glenn might have died. But, guess what! He’s not. He managed to survive by crawling under the dumpster when walkers were busy eating his friend Nicholas who fell above Glenn when they fell off that dumpster. This is not the only stupid thing you’d see in this episode, there are many. Meanwhile, back home, while Rick and Tobin was busy fixing the damaged wall, a tower besides it falls , breaks some part of it and walkers get in.
Episode 8 (Start to Finish)
The mid – season finale episode is okay but not up to the mark. After some part of the walls fall down, the walkers get in and Rick and his group try to protect the people. Dianna gets bitten in the process. Meanwhile, there is an ideological battle going on between Morgan and Carol when Carol finds out that he captured the wolves leader in one of the buildings and trying to cure his wound with the help of Dr. Denise and again things seem to be getting worse here. This episode can decide the fate of Morgan in Rick’s group and staying in Alexandria in coming days.
As a whole, this season has been very good so far. The things I like about The Walking Dead, it’s pragmatism with a humanly approach, small happy moments in a apocalyptical world which we tend to ignore in our normal lives , Intense bits, Insightful , thought-provoking perceptions and off course the thrilling, bold, gruesome bloodshed throughout the series which are so far present in this season too.
P.S.:The rest of the episodes in this season will premiere in February, 2016. The most feared villain of this comic book series , Negan (starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan) will storm in towards the end of this season as per sources. We’ll be back with the overall review of this season of AMC’s magnum opus by next year.
