“You’re not the good guys. You should know that.”
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
So I’ve been really enjoying this back half of Season 6. Aside from not having the didn’t-quite-work experimental format of the first half, with the cutting back and forth between stories at the wrong time and whatnot, there’s a big forward drive to push through story. Along with a lot of action. Action that also raises important questions about our main characters’ overall ethics and tactics.
Sure, there are occasional boneheaded moments. Filler conversations. Repeated words and themes that can give things a retread feel. But that’s kind of always been the show. This week’s chapter was a side quest, yes, but it still triggered the story forward in a big way because it was all directly connected to last week’s episode. It was just Carol and Maggie-centric. Which was great because A: Carol is amazing, and B: Maggie needs more screen time as well. She had a big moment with Gregory a few weeks ago, but overall she’s been sidelined.
This was a super-intense episode that really leaned into our anticipation of someone big dying. Both Maggie and Carol escaped unharmed, but it could have easily gone otherwise. Well, Maggie was mostly safe, but there’s always a danger, I’d say. Even with a pregnant character. Though it’d have been a shame if Maggie had gotten killed simply because she’d made the dumb decision to go with everyone on the raid.
More so, I was worried about Carol. Very worried. Because this was a death arc, basically. This was “Carol goes out in a big moment of final sacrifice” story. On paper. Especially because Maggie was there with her and we knew Carol would protect Maggie at all costs.
Plus, and not to get too spoiler-y about Boardwalk Empire, but Boardwalk had a “killer” character who went through the usual “wants to stop killing” arc. Done well, of course, but you’ll find, on TV, that a typical journey for a cold-blooded assassin is to soften up. Want something more. They develop a desire to leave the life behind. The toll weighs heavy on them at some point. And in that case, on Boardwalk, it meant the end of that character’s run. So that could have been the case for Carol here, who we saw last week growing more uneasy with all the people she’s killed. Maybe because of Morgan. Or Tobin. Or just herself, in general. It wasn’t much (wish there’d been more actually), but it did plant the seed.
So Carol walked a really cool line this week between earnest and “playing possum.” Using her unassuming demeanor to lure Negan’s crew into certain moments of vulnerability. Faking a panic attack so they’d allow her to have the crucifix. Letting them think she was harmless with crocodile tears. Granted, she was feeling trepidation, so all the tears may not have been faked, but she was mostly worried she’d have to become that killer persona again. Which she did, by the end. Though with a softer hand. And with a heart that actually told Paula (Alicia Witt) to run and escape so she wouldn’t have to kill her.
At some point, I should do a ranking of Walking Dead’s best one-episode characters. Because Witt’s Paula was a great single-serving foil. Scary, capable, and with her own tragic backstory. There were times she was fooled and there were times when she was frustratingly a few steps ahead. A very powerful adversary with a VERY gruesome demise (hey, she had the chance to split!). And the ending, where Carol and Maggie not only killed the crew (using a zombie trap, some pummeling, and shooting) and THEN killed the backup with a giant fire, was awesome to behold.
And the smaller moments worked well too. Particularly Maggie and Jeananne Goossen’s character (didn’t catch her name) talking about Maggie’s decision to have a baby. And then Paula and Carol’s moments. Of course, Maggie was told that her crew weren’t the good guys. Which is what I wrote a lot about last week. And it is what it is. I don’t need them to be heroic. It’s all about survival. But I think it’s important for them to know the full extent of what they’re doing. Because only Morgan seems to. And a few others, though they’ll still go through with it.
Of course, Carol, in her half truth/half lie mode, didn’t give Paula the full story. The stuff about Daryl being attacked on the road was the truth, but she wasn’t giving up Hilltop or the deal they’d all made to assassinate Negan and his people. So while Negan did make the first move, Carol’s crew is not as innocent and scared as she made them out to be. And Paula saw right through that. Which was cool. Though Paula didn’t see far enough to know how serious a threat Carol truly was. Which was cooler.
Now, we know Negan’s coming. And we sort of know when he’s coming (you can check out the particular episode synopsis online). And we know Negan exists as a man and isn’t just a collective hive mind smoke-screen. So the “We are all Negan” tactic might have a few layers. One, it protects Negan. And two, the Saviors might all really have that conjoined cultish psyche where they do one man’s bidding. Or fall in line with one type of zompocalypse philosophy. I just hope Rick wasn’t fooled by Primo at the end when he pulled the “I’m Negan” crap. I mean, someone will tell him that the guy’s name was Primo. And that Smoking Woman (Molly?) also pulled the same Negan-y thing. I’m assuming.
And yes, Carol’s brief walkie impersonation of Paula was amazing.
I really enjoyed “The Same Boat” as a crumbling Carol episode. But not “crumbling Carol” in a way that ultimately did her in. Just in a way where she’s now “not okay” to be doing the thing’s she’s doing. She can do them, and make the choice to kill, and be conniving about it, but it’s eating her up. And that’s a good place to take a character. She almost messed up/slipped up this week, but the show allowed her to live on as a more complex character. Overall, I wish there’d been more set up for her change (we only got last week’s episode), but it still worked.
