- Starting off with Jerry saying he and wife are expecting led me to wonder whether they were killing off Jerry this episode. They did not, even if teasing it. So I'm happy they didn't, but at the same time I don't feel very endeared to them because it highlights the regular problem -- there's very little character development happening until someone is within about 15 minutes of being killed. What do I know about Jerry aside from him just being a lovable sidekick to Ezekiel... and he’s been around a few seasons?
- I was thinking that about Enid too. She was intriguing when she first showed up. We found out her parents died, which could explain her lack of attachment at the time. She and Carl became kind of involved romantically but we learned nothing else about her. Was she a mole? Was she serving some other cause and was going to undermine Alexandria? Lots of questions, nothing was done with her, none of those suspicions panned out, and now she's been around 3-4 seasons. She's older. She's the doctor for Hilltop. That's all. So now in this episode she actually pulls the "my parents died" card in a scene that is supposed to be soul-bearing, but we still barely know anything about her. Why should we care whether she lives or dies, other than her familiarity to the audience? This is such an ongoing issue with the show, and part of it is the size of the cast.
- I wasn't sure how that theater bulb / popcorn run was going to go. It's typically a recipe for disaster -- a superfluous side quest that ends up getting someone needlessly killed. It had all the typical plot beats too, including Jerry dropping the bulb down a shoot when "surprise zombie" lurches at them out of the dark after the room was supposedly cleared... yet another old show motif. It was a bit delightful when they decide to go back in, got the bulb, and killed all the zombies, and no one died – but it highlights how often such a stupid side quest justified unconvincingly by the characters ends up getting someone killed.
- Another crazy side plot so to speak with the deaf woman (in)conveniently getting trapped in the corn, then deciding to save a baby that was being offered up to the walkers to prove how cutthroat Alpha’s tribe is when it comes to survival. It seemed convenient a few people could sneak out of Hilltop to save her and the baby at the last moment. Also, it’s good to include a variety of people on the show, but it doesn’t mean a plot should be unbelievable; here, having one of the captives sign covertly behind his back to a deaf person hiding in the corn well enough that no one else notices her aside from him (and no one notices HIM noticing her), and also considering what extreme disadvantage deaf people have in regards to walkers (because the first indicator of a walker is the NOISE, they’re loud – which is why makes the Whisperers so deadly), it just felt very far-fetched that she could rescue that baby without dying, and now she’s running off with Daryl on an ill-fated rescue mission that will put her under the same risk. (And Daryl can’t sign, like her former companions can.) IOW, the whole choice has Bad Call written all over it. I don’t feel like it’s daring, it feels like it’s just ill-conceived.
- Henry is the Teen Idealist in this story who keeps doing dumb-ass stuff that will get him OR others killed, many times over. He’s lucky he is not locked up, let alone smacked around for being so frustrating and dangerous to those around him. He’s always been so. So maybe there is a comparison to be made here between Alpha and Carol, in terms of the empathy instilled in their “children,†but Lydia showed empathy pretty quickly after escaping the Whisperers, for someone raised in a loveless family (two days? It should be her DEFAULT setting, not something she can break from so quickly); and whatever discretion Carol ALSO has was not learned by Henry, who is completely impractical and unrealistic. (Carol has empathy but she also has common sense and practicality. I like how she handled the guys who stole her engagement ring, she took them out mercilessly but in a way she controlled, rather than acting out like Henry.)
- Babies cry. It’s part of being babies. If you offer up your baby every time it cries, your tribe will quickly die out. I’m not sure of the mechanism they have to deal with that within the zombie herd culture. I feel more like Alpha was trying to rattle Daryl by showing she was willing to kill babies, than really living by that code 100%.
There are some important questions here but they’re kind of getting lost in the tropes and the reckless character behavior that we’ve seen a number of times before, leading to disaster.
One question is whether some things are more important than life itself (e.g., the projector bulb). Was it worth the small crew worth dying to be able to show movies and help people feel human again? One could make a case for such, but there's a huge risk involved as well for this particular expedition.
Another is moral comparison. Daryl was willing to protect Lydia (despite her belonging to her mother and her tribe, NOT to Hilltop) until Alpha offered him the lives of two new community members in return. At that point, he has a moral responsibility for those under the communal care + it was TWO people, not just ONE. So he might not like giving Lydia back but in a “maximum good†situation, the deal made a lot of sense… and Alpha knew that, she was selling something that sold itself, so to speak. It feels dirty and bad while at the same time feeling sensible if you’re stuck with only the two options.
Henry has always been a idealist, even when younger, and typically done stupid stuff on his own that puts other people in jeopardy. This is typical Henry: “I can’t live with this decision.†Well, fine, you’ll probably die with YOUR decision, then. And you might take others with you, if they decide to save you; AND you might trigger a war that could destroy an entire community. All because you felt bad for a girl you knew for two days and felt she was in a bad situation. That wasn’t his decision to make. There’s a type of moral decision where no one goes after Henry and so only he pays the price for his choice. It's not even clear what Lydia's true situation is yet, either.. there are so many questions that need investigation.
Still, here’s a question – Why the deal at all? Why did Alpha even want Lydia back, considering she treats her like anyone else in her tribe? And they have no empathy? And no ties to each other? The dead don’t care about the dead. Why did she want Lydia back in the first place? There’s a question there that needs explored OR it’s just sloppy writing.
