By Ben Wright (@iamzavagno | www.xgeeks.co.uk)
This review contains spoilers.
We start this week’s episode with the captives in the convoy. Maggie, Gabriel, and Rosita are part of the prisoner convoy, but unlike those on the bus, they are in a particular vehicle and are able to escape when Maggie, invertedly, forces it to crash. Now in the wild and separated from the others, they must reunite and try to save their friends. As for the rest of the survivors, they too are separated, with the workforce being split between two sites – it’s time for good old-fashioned forced labour!
As for the Commonwealth? They have a train! And a train that Daryl and Carol are tailing, which is a good thing too, as Connie has been brought to the train, for an as-of-yet unknown reason. The plan is to continue to follow it in the hope that it leads them to their friends and family. A working train is a pretty big deal! It also always gives me flashbacks to the Series One of Telltale’s The Walking Dead. Maggie is forced to kill a kid Walker, and given her torment of wanting Herschel back, there was an extra significance to the scene. I thought between the performance and the music, this scene was really well executed, as was the following interaction between Maggie and Carol. Taking a step back to focus on the human drama and these emotional notes was a really welcome addition to the episode.
The action this week comes courtesy of a train heist! After a moderately successful skirmish, the gang manages to capture the train driver and start to plan out their next move. However, before they can action on the next phase of said plan, the train driver takes his own life – out of fear of the warden and to protect his family. Time for Plan B! Rosita radios in a distress call and we learn that the labourer encampment is actually Alexandria! It’s interesting that they have taken over and reinforced Alexandria, and while the Commonwealth will have a better understanding of their setup and camp, the bigger picture of the settlement is very much in the hands of our heroes! On a quick and final note, I want to talk about the interaction between Ezekiel and Negan. It hadn’t occurred to me that the two have never really interacted on this scale, which makes sense considering their history of the Kingdom and the Saviors. I really enjoyed their dialogue and performances, and in another life, I could easily see these two as good friends.
Overall, I think this was a pretty strong episode! I enjoyed the pacing and the multiple story threads, two of which joined up nicely halfway through! I think the performances, across the board, were powerful, and once again the music really assisted in adding more drama and emotion into multiple scenes. We are now set up for a prison break and I’m very eager to see how this will play out!
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