“No Way Out”

The Walking Dead ended for it’s mid-season break in the most frustratingly typical way possible. On a massive cliffhanger. ‘No Way Out’ was a great return to form for the show, epitomised by the epic slaughter of the walkers at the end. More character death, including Ricks love interest and her son, who was almost as annoying a character as Carl. It seemed obvious that Carl wasn’t going to die- even after being shot in the face. Excpect to see him walking and talking within a couple of episodes, possibly sporting a Governoresque eye patch.
There were plenty incidents before the climax to chew on, starting with Daryl, Sasha and Abaham picking up where the mid-season left off in a confrontation with Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) men. Neggen is a much bigger character in the comic book, but I’m sure we will hear more of him as the season progresses and I’m guessing he’s the next big bad guy of the show. The gang’s leader is playing with his food by taunting Abraham and Sasha just as the entire gang is taken out by Daryl’s rocket launcher. Well, no Hillbilly leaves home without one.

Back inside the walls of Alexandria we find the town in ruin. The living are trapped in small groups and the situation appears bleak for all involved. Rick takes the initiative as he usually does by attempting to lead a small group away from danger to their cars with the hope of leading the walkers away from the town. The tactic of wearing a cloak smeared with walker blood is an effective one, and raises questions about why they don’t just wear cloaks like these all the time in The Walking Dead? It’s permanent walker repellent after all.

This particular group contains a few vulnerable members including Judith and Father Gabriel who retreat to the Chapel. We get some great direction here as the intensity of the scene slowly escalates, and cracks start to appear in Sam’s resolve. The words of Carol are ringing in his ear as the realisation of living in a zombie ridden world seems to hit him hard. It was a sink or swim moment, and he sunk.

The same cant be said for Father Gabriel, whose faith gives him the strength he needs to face the world as it is and take a proper stand against the walkers for the first time. Eugene seems to have a similar epiphany after previously seeming like a cowardly and useless book worm who sounds like a medieval poet by talking about a battle that will be remembered for years to come. This marks some proper development for two characters who were stagnating in a perpetual state of frightened uselessness.

A mini bloodbath ensues on the back of Sam’s fatal error. He is eaten along with his mother who has her hand chopped of by Rick as he tries to free Carl. Ron then snaps and tries to kill Rick who he blames directly for the deaths of his entire immediate family, while seconds later receiving a Katana through his back courtesy of Michonne. Carl then gets a bullet in the eye. Don’t worry, he won’t die due to being too central a character. We can almost understand the rage Ron was feeling throughout this, particularly since Rick killed his dad, and all of the bad stuff that started happening to their peaceful town began right about when Rick and the gang showed up. We could say that Carl could have avoided this unfortunate turn of events, he had the chance to kill him during the wolf attack, or even the incident in the garage. His willingness to want to trust him was never going to be reciprocated by Ron who only seemed after revenge against him and Rick.

Glenn and Enid find themselves in a desperate situation to save Maggy. This leaves us in a path much trodden with Glenn who once again finds himself backs to the wall against an insurmountable number of walkers for one person. The Walking Dead writers seem to love tormenting Glenn, but once again he gets a lucky escape thanks to the efforts of Sasha and Abraham who cut down dozens of walkers in close proximity to him.

Glenn once again escapes without a bite or a bullet wound. The situations that he seems to wriggle himself out of are less believable than the idea of a real life zombie apocalypse. Fortunately I like Glenn as a character so I’ll let the writers off with this one.

The dynamic between Denise and the leader of the Wolf Gang was just starting to get interesting. He was showing a very human side and despite the fact he had a bight on his arm and a bullet in the stomach, he still showed desire to get Denise to safety. Noting to her earlier that he wasn’t always monster he is now. It  seems evident he turned out that way as a method of preserving his life for as long as he could. Denise had shown him genuine kindness which seemed to remind him of his own humanity. His last act being a noble one in saving her life. A nice touch for The Walking Dead.

And so, to the finale of the episode and unusually, nobody wants to hide. It seems that every living person able to pick up a weapon and fight the walkers took up arms and did just that. The camera cut so rapidly between each resident of the town with their weapons raised and their faces in a scowl. It was almost as if they were fighting as a single entity.

The living are drawn out to fight one by one and all have their own reasons for doing so such as the faith of Gabriel or the pride of Eugine. Daryl’s trusty rocket launcher does the trick again as the walkers stumble their way in to the flames it made. By morning we have the scene of thousands of dead walkers.

Verdict

A very good episode with lots of suspense followed by good intensity to back it up. The town of Alexandria prove their mettle in the eyes of Rick. It looks like they will move forward and allow the group to start to trust each other to build a strong society.