 |
| (Photo Credit: AMC) |
The Walking Dead
Season 7, Episode 14
By Garrett Yoshitomi
The Walking Dead enters the
homestretch of its seventh season with this week’s episode, “The Other Side.” We’ve
officially left behind the filler-filled fun of the past three weeks, as “The
Other Side” focuses more closely on the group’s central conflict with Negan. We
get to see the culmination of Rosita’s season-long quest to hitch a one-way ticket
to Savior Town, as well as the current state of the Hilltop Colony, including
another run-in between Simon and Gregory.
After several
weeks of build-up, Rosita’s incredibly well-thought out plan to assassinate Negan,
finally gets put to the test. Rosita’s been a pretty unpleasant character this
season- angrily berating anyone who isn’t onboard with her mission to storm the
Sanctuary and shoot Negan in the face. This “my way or the highway” attitude has
quickly transformed her from a forgettable side character, into a rather
unlikeable antihero. As stupid as her plan is, it’s really her selfishness that
makes her storyline so hard to embrace. It’s difficult to believe that a
character would willingly commit to such a flawed plan, knowing full well that
when it fails, Negan will take his vengeance out on the innocent people of
Alexandria.
 |
| (Photo Credit: AMC) |
With all that
said, I don’t particularly mind the way Rosita’s arc plays out this week. It
probably helps that this is a pretty well-balanced episode, featuring an enjoyable
B-plot with Maggie and Daryl. If this episode had been entirely dedicated to
Rosita, the pacing would have undoubtedly dragged, especially around the
character development parts. Now, the character development that we do get for
Rosita, this week, is fine. It’s not particularly groundbreaking by any means, but
it gets us invested enough in her storyline for the episode, and she’s been
enough of an unknown for the past several seasons, that any insight into her
background is more than welcome.
It’s kind of
poetic that after all of Rosita’s verbal chest-puffing, it’s Sasha that ends up
swooping in and stealing her long-awaited moment. Some fans might call it lazy
writing, yet another example of one of The Walking Dead’s heavy-handed
misdirects, but I think it kind of works, given the context of the episode. Rosita’s
spent a good portion of her life (and this show) being taken for granted, but
if there’s one thing she’s proved over the course of this season, it’s that the
eclectic mix of skills she’s gleaned from her former flames, actually makes her
one of the most valuable members of Rick’s group. Sasha understands this, and
acts accordingly. It’s a quick gesture, a sacrifice that focuses less on
bloodshed and bullets (as most Walking Dead sacrifices do), and more on
the subtle character dynamic behind it. It’s pretty easily my favorite (and
probably last) Sasha moment, though, it’s fair to say that it’s a little out of
character for her.
 |
| (Photo Credit: AMC) |
If this week’s
Daryl and Maggie scene doesn’t stir something up deep down inside of you, then
you’re probably not a fan of The Walking Dead. We’ve had very few shared
scenes between characters reacting to Glenn’s death, and this moment between
Daryl and Maggie beats them all. It’s short, but sweet, as Daryl is finally
forced to face Maggie after indirectly causing Glenn’s death. Of course, Maggie
holds no ill will towards Daryl, and the way she reassures him is everything
that The Walking Dead should aim for, in terms of scenes like these. It’s
a little disappointing because it shouldn’t be this hard for The Walking
Dead to manufacture these types of character moments. There’s so much
potential for great drama baked into this show, but it’s constantly wasted on
the nth conversation about “doing what needs to be done to survive”
between Rick and character X.
Rounding out
the rest of this episode are some enjoyable appearances from several supporting
characters, all of whom I hope we see more of in season eight and beyond. First
and foremost, we get another encounter between the enigmatic Simon and the
still slimy Gregory. Simon has popped up in a handful of episodes, though the
only thing we really know about him is that he’s a high-ranking Savior with an ever-changing
taste in alcohol. Still, he’s probably the Savior lieutenant I enjoy the most,
especially when compared to the paint drying personalities of Dwight and Gavin.
Enid displays her usual amount of precociousness, although it’s against a much
more formidable opponent than we’re used to seeing her face. She’s certainly
come a long way from the Enid who was basically willing to abandon Alexandria
and take her chances on her own, and it looks like she’ll be settling into a
permanent position by Maggie’s side, for the foreseeable future. Finally, Jesus
continues to demonstrate that he’s right at home with our ever-growing ragtag
group of survivors. He’s always been an easy character to like, but he’s also
had a surprising lack of major storylines to work with. Hopefully this changes
in future episodes.
 |
| (Photo Credit: AMC) |
We’re just two
weeks away from the season seven finale, an episode that Andrew
Lincoln says will be one of the most exciting, yet. It does feel like we’re
running out of time for some of these lingering storylines to come together,
although based on the preview for next week, it looks like this season’s
penultimate episode will see the return of the Oceanside community. It’s been
made pretty clear that this
year’s finale won’t end on a cliffhanger, which makes it even harder to
believe that things will all come together in a satisfying way. I’m thinking we’ll
see something similar to this year’s mid-season finale- a fairly standard episode,
with multiple storylines all converging onto one, non-cliffhanger point that
gives us a clean starting point for next season.
No comments:
Post a Comment