Shootout seems to be the main focus in this episode, but it is done rather terribly. Especially in Aaron's/Eric's/Tobin's team, where the conflicting parties hold each other in a very close gunpoint but nobody gets shot until the last moment (except for the Saviors of course, baddies always gets shot). The team also seems to have some trick up in their sleeves, but I guess the screenwriter thought the audience is stupid enough so one of the antagonist has to say it out loud. Morgan's/Jesus's/Tara's team is also bad, though not as bad as Aaron's/Eric's/Tobin's. There are these two scenes where people just rush without much caution exactly to the point where their teammates just got shot - you know how it ended up for them.
Well, Walking Dead isn't known to have the greatest action scenes anyway (though I still remember the Woodbury one was pretty good), but even in the drama department the tense kinda falls flat. One of the team has this scenes where they pose this "have we become what we hate"/"gaze into abyss" question - an interesting theme that seems to have been brought up by Walking Dead occasionally - but the scenes are mixed together between the loud firefights and the weird scenes involving King Ezekiel being smug of himself. That editing... really ruins the mood. They're making it hard to care with the seriousness of the theme raised.
Last - Rick encounters a familiar face. I'm getting a sense that the screenwriter is trying to evoke some sort of nuanced, conflicting values by returning this character like they did terrifically in Season 3 with Morgan (Episode 12 "Clear", still one of the best TWD episode). Except... it leaves no impression at all. I don't even remember who this guy is - something that the screenwriter seems to be aware of, that they made Rick spills the line, "Your name is..." (seriously!) It just came out of nowhere, with no foreshadowing and no build up at all. Even more so considering the character didn't get enough screen time back in Season 1.
So, yeah. The opening and closing of the episode also feel like a failed arthouse attempt to make dramatic moments - if not merely serving as filler. Unfortunately this season is still going bad so far.
Review by Pradipa PRBlockedParent2017-10-30T15:21:41Z
Not a good episode.
Shootout seems to be the main focus in this episode, but it is done rather terribly. Especially in Aaron's/Eric's/Tobin's team, where the conflicting parties hold each other in a very close gunpoint but nobody gets shot until the last moment (except for the Saviors of course, baddies always gets shot). The team also seems to have some trick up in their sleeves, but I guess the screenwriter thought the audience is stupid enough so one of the antagonist has to say it out loud. Morgan's/Jesus's/Tara's team is also bad, though not as bad as Aaron's/Eric's/Tobin's. There are these two scenes where people just rush without much caution exactly to the point where their teammates just got shot - you know how it ended up for them.
Well, Walking Dead isn't known to have the greatest action scenes anyway (though I still remember the Woodbury one was pretty good), but even in the drama department the tense kinda falls flat. One of the team has this scenes where they pose this "have we become what we hate"/"gaze into abyss" question - an interesting theme that seems to have been brought up by Walking Dead occasionally - but the scenes are mixed together between the loud firefights and the weird scenes involving King Ezekiel being smug of himself. That editing... really ruins the mood. They're making it hard to care with the seriousness of the theme raised.
Last - Rick encounters a familiar face. I'm getting a sense that the screenwriter is trying to evoke some sort of nuanced, conflicting values by returning this character like they did terrifically in Season 3 with Morgan (Episode 12 "Clear", still one of the best TWD episode). Except... it leaves no impression at all. I don't even remember who this guy is - something that the screenwriter seems to be aware of, that they made Rick spills the line, "Your name is..." (seriously!) It just came out of nowhere, with no foreshadowing and no build up at all. Even more so considering the character didn't get enough screen time back in Season 1.
So, yeah. The opening and closing of the episode also feel like a failed arthouse attempt to make dramatic moments - if not merely serving as filler. Unfortunately this season is still going bad so far.