“The Next World”

After an explosive return last week, in the latest episode of The Walking Dead things take a bit of a breather as the pacing of the show slows down.

There were only a couple of notable talking points; the first being the appearance of the mysterious Jesus character, and the unlikely romance between Rick and Michonne. The tone of this episode also attempted to go down more of a comedic route in an attempt to try something different but despite a couple of mildly funny moments with Rick and Daryl, I hope they don’t try this too often in the future.

The light-heartedness was clear from the start, with Carl (who is totally alive after getting a bullet in his eye after the last episode) happily playing with a ball and everyone is smiling to the tune of “More Than a Feeling”. A few weeks have passed since the massacre of thousands of Zombies, and it’s evident that since that day, the residents of Alexandria seem to be bonding as well as ever due to the recent stability which has resulted in a sort of normality for the town. This episode is clearly the eye of the storm.

Rick and Daryl are on a supply run and hit the jackpot when they find a truck loaded with provisions. The majority of “The Next World” revolves around this part of the story. They stop to open a vending machine as per the awkward request made by Denise, and this is where they encounter the character who refers to himself as Jesus. Even though he picks Rick’s pockets and takes the keys, we still cant make any assumptions on whether or not he will turn out to be a bad guy. We then have the frankly laughable chase when Rick and Daryl somehow manage to catch him without a vehicle, and then Jesus somehow manages to get on the roof of a moving truck after being left on the side of the road with his hands and legs tied. Well Jesus did do the odd magic trick in the Bible I suppose. He does have the chance to kill Daryl, but saves him instead. I still don’t think assumptions can be made about this character at any stage of this episode, maybe he wants to find out where Rick and Daryl are going.

There weren’t many earth shattering plot lines in this episode but there was definitely a notable missing one. In the last episode of The Walking Dead, Maggie and Glenn are finally re-united. I found it strange that it wasn’t alluded to in any way- Glenn didn’t even appear in the episode. Elsewhere, Michonne follows Spencer in to the woods and it is finally revealed he was looking for his walker mother with the intention of killing her. Carl ends up leading her to them, I guess after the way he had to kill his own mother he is able to empathise greatly with Spencer here. This belief that the two of them seem to share is that zombies should always be killed by their loved ones. I guess I can see why they think that, but the practicality of this in the middle of a zombie apocalypse is in doubt. Carl and Michonne show a lot of decency towards Spencer here, I think this illustrates the kind of bond that has grown within the group in the few weeks that have passed since the last episode.

Rick and Michonne have been living together, apparently, and I don’t think I’m alone in my thinking that I had absolutely no idea that anything would happen between them. I knew they were close, and have a lot of respect for each other, but in a platonic way, much like the relationship between Daryl and Carol. Whether or not this had been brewing between Rick and Michonne for a while, it isn’t clear. Maybe being with Michonne would suit him, as his previous two love interests required his constant protection, whereas she is very capable of looking after herself. It could also be a simple case of them sleeping together to get it out of their system. Whatever the reason, the dynamic between the two will surely change in the next episode and it will be interesting to see just how it will pan out.

Verdict

Personally I didn’t really like the tone of this episode, especially straight after the heart thumping drama of last week. Apart for Jesus turning up and Rick and Michonne getting together, there isn’t a great deal to take away from this week. We can only look forward to the next episode in the expectation that both of these stories will be further explored. I think the fact that quite a lot of the main characters seemed to be omitted from this episode led to it stagnating.