All Out Whimper….

On A Walk With Rick And Carl

Sunday night’s season finale of The Walking Dead capped off what has been one of the most uninspired and dull seasons of the franchise.  I started to question my loyalty to the franchise earlier this year and posted about it here.  I hoped that the show would get better as the season progressed, but it continued to leave me empty and longing for more.

Spoilers For Season Eight (Especially The Finale) Below This Picture!!!!

Promising an all out war to fans of the series meant that expectations were high for a ton of brutality, major character deaths, and an ending that left viewers hungry for more.  What we got instead was the needless and completely dumb death of Carl, a bitter dislike for the increasingly annoying Eugene, the elimination of the only interesting Savior, Simon, and almost every member of the core group making irrational decisions and/or taking actions that are completely out of character.

When Morgan, who faded in and out of sanity all season, is the most sensible member of the gang, you know things are getting bad.

But the season finale could fix all of the misfires, right? Wrong.  What we got instead was Rick walking hand in hand with a little version of Carl, Eugene not shutting up, Morgan attacking Henry and then running off for Fear The Walking Dead, and hints at mutiny that I’ll get to in a bit.

The whole episode revolved around Negan leaving obvious hints as to what his group would be doing and Rick taking the bait.  A huge stand-off is set up with Rick’s group completely surrounded by the Saviors and Negan getting ready to assassinate Father Gabriel.  At this point you would expect something to happen and it did.  All of the Saviors’ guns misfired (thanks to mouthy Eugene and Gabriel) and Rick’s group seized upon their sudden luck.  Almost immediately the Saviors throw up their hands and beg for mercy despite having been full of blood lust for pretty much the entire time that they’ve been a part of the show.  The only person acting like they should was Negan, who yelled at Eugene and turned tail to run away.

Negan and Rick square off under a picturesque tree and despite being shot in the hand, Negan handles Rick quite well.  Rick then starts to beg Negan to stop and talk things over with him and, completely out of character, Negan agrees.  What does he get for his sudden change of heart?  A slit throat.  Then, despite all of the rage that had built up in him prior to this moment, Rick has a moment of mercy.  He asks the new doctor, Siddiq, to save Negan.  Maggie (the only sensible member of the either group left at this point) screams out to Rick that Negan has to die.  Michonne holds her back, though, and everyone just walks away in uneasy peace.

As the episode comes to a close, we see Rick and Michonne making a powerplay against Negan.  They threaten to let him bleed out if he doesn’t agree to any and everything they say to him.  Daryl, who is still around although he’s rarely seen anymore, allows Dwight to leave the community and right what he’s done wrong with his wife.  Daryl also tells Dwight that if he comes back, he’ll kill him.  We then cut to a scene where Maggie is sitting at her desk with a “Wait’ll they get a load of me” face a la the Joker from 1989’s Batman and she’s talking to someone.  She tells that person that Rick and Michonne are wrong for allowing Negan to live (and, really, she’s correct) and that she wants to build up her forces at the Hilltop and wait until the moment is right to “prove Rick and Michonne wrong.”

The other person is revealed to be the peace-loving Jesus who, completely out of character, smiles and agrees with her.  Then, out of the shadows like a puma, rolls Daryl, who also agrees with Maggie.  Is mutiny afoot, or is Jesus planning to eventually win Maggie over to Rick’s side like he did Morgan?  Is Daryl just going along with Maggie so that he’ll become relevant to the show again?  Who knows?

What I do know is that this season finale has got to be the worst one so far in the series.  Much like the bulk of the rest of its season, it limped along to an unsatisfying conclusion and attempted to bait us for next season by creating a divide within the core group (mainly with Maggie and Daryl because Jesus hasn’t been around long enough in my opinion).  Do the writers honestly believe that audiences would accept that the Saviors would just fold up all of a sudden?  I don’t think so.  I believe that they are beginning to realize that there needs to be more to these stories than a new big bad every couple of seasons.  Their plan for that appears to create some sort of monster with Maggie.  I must admit that I would love to see her go off on everyone, but I have a feeling that she’ll either die in a rage or simply cave under to Rick’s way of thinking.

I don’t know, folks, but I might not be watching TWD for much longer.  Let me know what you think about the most recent season and the actions of the primary characters.  Are you still enjoying the show?  What do you want to see happen next season?  Is it time for TWD to hang up it’s sheriff’s hat????

Thanks for reading.  I’ll be posting about the new Netflix series Lost In Space by the end of this week.  I have two more episodes to go before I’m finished with the first season and I have to admit that I’ve really enjoyed most of the series so far.  Oh, and I also began working on a project with another nerd like myself that I hope to let you all know about real soon!  Stay tuned!