What a great episode. Nah, I’m kidding, it really wasn’t. This week’s episode of THE WALKING DEAD, entitled ‘Twice as Far’, detailed two separate but connected journeys as Daryl and Rosita babysat Denise, and as Abraham babysat Eugene. Both their journeys involved learning to survive in the new world. Both journeys were pointless and the episode suffered because of it. There’s no point beating around the bush here. We are way past that now.
These two missions showed Denise wanting to find meds — Ugh — she gets Daryl and Rosita to go with her, and Eugene wanting to make bullets. These primary objectives were just excuses however to get these characters out on the road and therefore in jeopardy. I guess the nexus of each journey was both Eugene and Denise wanting to kill a walker, and each struggling with the process. Eugene fails, and then gets mad when Abraham saves him, Denise succeeds but not without struggle. This very little action takes up about 3/4 of the show. Yeah, it’s pretty bare bones. By this point the writing was well and truly on the wall for this most weak of episodes. It was frustrating, it really was. How can you give us last week’s excellence and then this steaming pile of crap? We shouldn’t be surprised, not anymore.
The show tried to make these two journeys mirror each other, and they did, but I suppose it was supposed to be clever but it was just dull and obvious and everything everyone doesn’t want from TWD. There’s nothing wrong with the objectives of these characters, of them wanting to get their hands dirty, it’s important that they do, but it’s just not interesting. It’s just done so blandly and it’s so unnecessary to everything that is going on. Â Every minute Denise or Eugene is on screen is just taking up time that surely could have been spent on something more substantive. This is all just filler, bland, tepid filler. A product of a season that is way too long. TWD needs to slash their seasons in half — just one of their shows many problems.
So this is pretty much the state of affairs going into the shows final act. It’s all very… ugh, an episode that could be on in the back ground while you did something worthy of your time. That is until Eugene bit someone’s dick off. Yeah. That happened. An interesting choice to be sure but hey, I guess it was eventful. This all came about by Denise basically (thankfully) getting shot in the head with an arrow, an arrow from Daryl’s bow, fired by the man that stole it from him a while back. She died (no one in the world was sad) and Daryl and Rosita came to be held at gun point, as Eugene was revealed to be hostage to the men. They threatened them a little and then Eugene went to town. CHOMP. It was dumb, really dumb, but it allowed Abraham to come in to play, helping the guys to fight back, making the attackers retreat. It wasn’t all that exciting but at least one of the shows poorest characters died. It’s not much but I guess it’s a win? Though, probably not, as they will replace her with someone even more superfluous in due time. Oh, and when the gang arrived home, at the end, the show quickly tacked on a monologue about Carol leaving again and not wanting to kill anymore. It didn’t work at all and felt completely random because she was barely in the episode. Weird.
This was a stinker, gang. There’s no two ways about it. This is what happens when you have an episode with nothing to say, starring characters that don’t matter. Rick-less episodes rarely work (last week being an exception) and this was no different. At least it’s almost over now. We should get something interesting soon. It’s just a shame after last week’s stark improvement (despite the lack of important casualties). It’s always one step forward and two steps back with this show. God damn it, my hopes dashed as quickly as they were lifted. Where is he? Where’s my Don Quixote? This show needs saving. It needs a champion. Will it be Negan? Please God, let it be Negan.
Verdict
