In “The Next World,” Rick and Daryl battle Jesus, Michonne and Rick hook up and Spencer shoves a knife in his mom’s head.
This season, RedEye will chart the Walking Dead (characters making positive moves), the Stumbling Dead (characters who took a step back) and the Dead Dead (R.I.P.). We’ll also hand out BRAAAAAAAAAAINS to the episode MVP and NO BRAAAAAAAAAAINS to the character who blew it the hardest.
WALKING DEAD
Jesus: Congratulations to this new addition to the cast. He’s smart, resourceful, agile and elusive. The guy pick-pocketed Rick, weaseled out of his ropes and somehow jumped on top of a moving supply truck. We don’t know who he is or where he’s from, but it’s nice to see an intelligent character join the cast, especially if he’s at odds with Rick and company.
Sorghum: Never has a grain gotten such a rave endorsement from a character on a major television program. Had Eugene not extolled its many virtues, Rick and Daryl wouldn’t have found the truck.
Orange Crush: As MacGuffins go, sorghum is way more interesting, but Tara is mumbling about it in her sleep and Daryl spends the better part of the episode trying to find it. Lucky for you, it’s available at your nearest grocery or convenience store! Solid product placement. It’s apparently so delicious that Rick and Daryl are willing to shotgun the soda after it’s been roasting in the Virginia sun.
Judith: She’s growing up! Rick and Michonne are willing to burn precious batteries on her baby monitor. Although her ability to outrun zombies is suspect, we believe she’ll be around for a while.
STUMBLING DEAD
The Writing Staff: This episode was so tonally disjointed from nearly everything that preceded it in the series. One quarter was a goofy road adventure with Rick and Daryl, one quarter was a Road Runner cartoon featuring Jesus outwitting the Rick-Daryl Wile E. Coyote, one quarter was a lame family sitcom about Rick and Michonne’s new nuclear family and one quarter was a somber meditation about disposing of Deanna’s still-lumbering body. If this were the first episode you’d ever seen, it’s unlikely you’d continue. The show’s unrelenting bleakness is a tough pill to swallow, so maybe a comedic episode was due, but the shifting moods made it feel like the writers were trying to top each other by throwing the kitchen sink at the screen. Yes, time has passed since Rick ran out against the zombie horde, but there’s zero mourning for Jessie. We also didn’t get much of a Glenn/Maggie reunion. Maybe Maggie’s not much for sentiment. She barely batted an eye when her sister was killed.
Rick and Daryl: The road warriors made numerous stupid mistakes on their supply run. It started with Rick’s goofy honky-tonk CD. The failures multiplied as they let Jesus get the drop on them time and time again. They were reckless with the truck and let it sink into the lake. They even brought Jesus back to Alexandria, where he slithered out of his ropes (again!) and snuck up on Rick and Michonne. Several uncharacteristic mistakes from two of the more reliable characters in the crew. Pull it together, boys. On the plus side, Rick began and ended the episode by notching his belt, literally and figuratively. That’s the first sex he’s had since his wife died.
Michonne: What does she see in Rick? Sure, maybe you’re horny after running for your life for a few years, but Rick had eyes for Jessie until she was gobbled up last week. When she was introduced, Michonne was like Boba Fett—a near-silent, solemn assassin. Now she’s gabbing about toothpaste and sitting down for heart-to-hearts with Carl and Spencer. Honestly, she can do better than Rick. If you’re going to set her up with a love interest, she and Eugene would make a super cute couple along the lines of Zoe and Wash from “Firefly.” We’re also worried because Rick’s love interests have a terrible track record of survival on this show.
Spencer: Sorry you saw your mom as a zombie, dude. Maybe stop throwing yourself in mortal danger without asking for backup. This guy is a total zero.
Carl: He gets props for not whining about missing his eye. We’ve got to dock him and Enid for the strange stunt of wandering out in the woods to read. (“Why are we coming out here?” “‘Cause we’re kids. It’s what they do.” Nice motivation.) You guys know you can read in greater safety behind the wall, right? It was nice of Carl to let Spencer kill his zombie-mom, but the scene where he shoves Deanna down was so poorly written that it had zero resonance until Carl spilled the beans at the end. On the plus side, Carl gave a nice speech about astronomy to a toddler.
DEAD DEAD
Deanna: The brave matriarch went out like a champ before the midseason finale. Apparently, her zombie wasn’t drawn to the giant Lake o’ Fire Bug Zapper like all the others. We like an independent-minded reanimated corpse. In the end, her dumb son Spencer shoved a knife into her head. It’s really a shame Deanna couldn’t stick around to challenge Rick or provide some much-needed wisdom for the survivors. The show benefited from Tovah Feldshuh’s fine acting.
BRAAAAAAAAAAINS
Jesus: Man, this guy ran circles around Rick and Daryl. It’s like he was playing the game with the cheat code on. He spotted the guys with their truck, set firecrackers with a fuse long enough for him to pick Rick’s pocket, be interrogated at gunpoint and run off, then double back to steal the truck. Impressive. He tried some “Teen Wolf”-style truck surfing until Rick slammed on the brakes. He even saved Daryl by having him duck and shooting an approaching the zombie. Although he should have been agile enough to avoid the truck door, he got a free ride back to Alexandria. Jesus topped the episode by swooping in on naked Rick and Michonne. This guy is an MVP in the making, even if his beard and mustache look super-fake.
NO BRAAAAAAAAAAINS
Enid: It’s like she exists just for the audience to yell at their screens. Maggie shows up to give her a nice pep talk, and she shirks it off. She randomly wanders into the forest, grumbling the whole way. She complains that the note tied to the balloon faded. She pouts about not being able to kill Deanna, then walks back to Alexandria solo through a probable zombie hotbed. Are they just keeping her around to play Winnie Cooper to Carl’s Kevin Arnold? If so, the writers might want to imbue her with one redeeming quality.
Ben Bowman is a RedEye contributor. @bowmaninc
