10x14 Look at the Flowers

[7.3/10] I’ll say this for The Walking Dead. It’s not usually great at arcs or dialogue or storytelling, but it usually picks some pretty interesting themes. Even when I’m tired of the overwritten conversations or ridiculous plot development, there’s typically some sort of central idea that still gives me something to chew on.

Here, it’s about people who have lost something and feel like they have no choices except for death, only to find themselves on the brink of it and decide they’re not ready and want to do more. Sometimes that’s good, sometimes it’s bad, but it’s at least a solid idea to build an episode around, particularly one like this that emerges after some major developments.

Oddly enough, my favorite little subplot in the episode is the one that has the least to do with that theme. I would probably watch a whole season, or at least a multi-epsioe arc, about Daryl going on adventures together. There’s something about Daryls gruff teserness and Negan’s greagrious motormouth that makes for a fun mix. Their dynamic is just fun, and while I didn’t buy that Negan would really turn on Daryl, his ploy with the shotgun and the Whisperers was a really fun sequence.

But I like the idea at root there too. If you want to fit Negan into this weke’s theme, it comes in the cold open, where we see Carol telling Negan that she’ll keep him from the hangman’s nose if he takes out Alpha for her. Negan doesn't want to die, and it’s why he was willing to be sprung from Alexandria and why he “took so long” to find a way to kill Alpha where it wouldn’t be a suicide mission. The idea that he wants to live as a free, or at least freer man, is an interesting one, especially when he’s willing to give up a more pure freedom to be welcomed back, or at least not killed on sight, at Alexandria.

The one I liked the least is probably Carol. Much of that, I’ll admit, probably has to do with the fact that I thought we were rid of Samantha Morton as Alpha, so her showing back up as Carol’s fatalistic conscience (for lack of a better word) to taunt and haunt her did nothing for me. I like what the show is going for here, trying to dramatize the lingering scars from the abuse and debasement Carol suffered under her former husband, and the loss of so many chidren, surrogate or otherwise, that still weighs on her, plus the fear that she’ll lose confidantes like Ezekiel and Daryl. But the whole taunter routine really weighs it down, and the dramatic zombie situation is contrivevd to boot.

The weirdest but oddly compelling one is Beta’s. I’ll admit, I don’t like his strange post-death devotion to Alpha where he’s claiming to hear her severed head and jamming subordinates into her still chomping jaws. That said, I like the reveal, hinted two weeks ago, that before the end of the world he was a famous country singer. That’s a neat little Postman like twist, and god only knows what it means, but he ends up with an even scarier mask and a wounded country soul, so, uh, I guess I’m on board?

And the one that was on the nose but still heartening is Ezekiel’s. The episode really hammers the audience hard with the metaphor of his horse dying when he was too winded to protect it from the walkers earlier in the episode. Plus Miko’s speech about hanging onto hope is a note the show’s played plenty of times before.

And yet, somehow, I can never resist my heart going out to poor, sweet Ezekiel, and it may be the most I’ve ever liked Miko, who’s been kind of a big nothing until now (outside of the Magna relationship drama, which is still meh). The fact that Ezekiel says goodbye to Jerry means he’s truly a goner at this point, but still, he seems like he’ll go out with his heart full, which is something.

Otherwise, the episode also hammers home the hope point with Eugene’s speech about why he wants to go meet his cb radio girlfriend, but I like the idea of him, Miko, and Ezekiel going on an adventure together. And the weird walker dioramas they find are, as Ezekiel represents, dark but funny. I’m intrigued by the rando with the machine gun they run into.

Overall, this episode definitely has its weak stretches (it felt like it was going to end only to keep continuing no fewer than three times), but it has a solid idea supporting it, which buoys the whole thing.