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| (Photo Credit: AMC) |
The Walking Dead
Season 8, Episode 12
By Garrett Yoshitomi
With five weeks to go until the
season eight finale, we’re entering a stretch of episodes that tends to
stagnate whenever The Walking Dead
reaches the back-half of its seasons. However, it’s possible that season eight
could buck this trend, as the start of 8B has been surprisingly strong in terms
of episodic quality. “The Key,” while still relatively enjoyable, is classic Walking Dead filler, with about 5
minutes of action on either side of forty minutes of very little forward plot
movement. However, the actual content of this episode does a decent job in
masking this, as we get an entertaining (albeit, somewhat contrived) showdown
between Rick and Negan, as well as a compelling introduction to a mysterious
new group of characters. It’s not a great episode, but it does enough to hold
your attention, which is saying a lot for where we are at this point in the
season.
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| (Photo Credit: AMC) |
The main storyline this week is the
face-off between Rick and Negan. It’s a fun pairing for the show to further
explore, and Andrew Lincoln and Jeffrey Dean Morgan have a solid level of
chemistry that deserves to be displayed more than it has been this season. There’s
a bit more complexity to Rick’s relationship with Negan, than we’ve seen with
other antagonists. It’s more than just, “you’re clearly the bad guy, I’m clearly
the good guy, so let’s fight.” Instead, there’s a prism of respect through
which Negan’s hatred of Rick filters, and the two share a tangible, though strange,
personal connection through Carl. With all that said, the Negan and Rick dialogue,
in this episode, never really escalates past monologue-y banter, and the real strength
of their scenes comes from the interspersed action sequences. The majority of
their car chase scene could be seen in clips and previews from last week, and we
don’t even get to see the most exciting part of this chase, as it takes place
off camera. But, all of the closing action that we get is great, and the use of
walkers, as well as Negan’s signature weapon, Lucille, is quite unique.
Since his menacing introduction in
the infamous season six finale, Simon has been built up as one of the Saviors’
top dogs, as well as Negan’s most trusted lieutenant. However, we’ve seen
friction develop between Simon and Negan, in recent episodes, and things are
starting to come to a head much faster than most plot points, in The Walking Dead, tend to develop. It’s
a relief that we’re getting to see this conflict play out swiftly, yet
methodically. It’d be easy to imagine a scenario where the writers quickly
introduce, and then completely drop, the Simon v. Negan plotline, only to
revisit it later by condensing their entire feud into the B-plot of the
penultimate episode of the season. But this way, there’s a natural feeling of
escalation in Simon’s eventual betrayal of Negan. And, while it’s fairly
obvious how things will end, I’m interested to see exactly how things play out
between Negan and his former right-hand man.
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| (Photo Credit: AMC) |
The most memorable development from
this episode, and the one with the most long-term narrative impact, is the
introduction of a brand-new character, Georgie. Georgie’s fresh and clean-cut
demeanor is certainly unique compared to the typical revolving door of grimy, apocalypse-hardened
chuckleheads that The Walking Dead
usually presents us with. However, her mysterious form of initial contact with
the group, is largely reminiscent of Aaron back in season five. In both instances,
fans were kept on their toes, as they tried to suss out the true intentions of
these two seemingly well-meaning, yet slightly “off” newcomers. In Aaron’s
case, it didn’t help that his appearance was coming off the back of the group’s
run-in with the initially friendly, later cannibalistic, folks of Terminus. Plus,
even though he’s been dead since season three, Merle Dixon’s age-old adage of: “The
stranger with his mitts in his pockets is the son of a bitch you’d really want
to be scared of,” still rings true within The
Walking Dead to this day.
It seems like a lot of fans are
convinced of Georgie’s intentions (warning: MAJOR SPOILERS) based
on her similarities to a future comic book character. I’m not entirely
convinced, though, that that’s where this character is heading. It would be
awfully early to introduce this particular storyline, and for the most part,
the writers have stuck relatively close to the comics, in terms of unfolding
new characters and plots. Regardless, Georgie, along with her traveling
companions, Hilda and Midge, represent a nice tonal change to the show, and I
think their introduction is very well done. For the past several seasons, we’ve
met a variety of different communities, ranging from the regal Kingdom to the
downright bizarre Scavengers. And, while it’s always interesting to get a first
look at these sprawling communities, I really enjoy the more intimate
introduction we get to see, this week, between Maggie and Georgie’s groups.
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| (Photo Credit: AMC) |
Overall, “The Key” is a solid
episode that manages to be entertaining, despite its filler-y nature. If the
writers can manage to strike this balance with more of The Walking Dead’s filler episodes, it will mean a lot for the show’s
future prospects, because as of right now, the middle stretches of these eight-episode
half-seasons have a tendency to drag. It’s certainly possible, though, that
things start to languish next week, and even if the episode itself is decent, it
would be hard to forgive the lead-up to the Saviors’ counterattack against the
Hilltop getting stretched out by another week. However, from what I can tell
based off of the preview (which, granted isn’t always reliable), it looks like
we will get an actual firefight next week, rather than just Simon and Maggie
threatening each other through walkie-talkies.
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