*** SPOILERS AHEAD! ***
With so many mini-stories now in play, TWD approaches this week's episode with a three-story focus following Rick (home alone, but not for long), Michonne and Carl (out on a supply run), and Glenn and Tara (meeting up with three important new characters). Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) continues to be the series' emotional touchstone. But I can't be the only TWD fan who is growing restless under the yoke of the show's familiar cycle of character-study-and-zombie- kills. Well-drawn characters are crucial, and zombie kills are great (and sometimes bloody brilliant), but TWD is treading water now with this formula deep into the back half of this season, and sacrificing storytelling in the process. Big questions are gnawing away at the show: Where are we going with these survivors? Can this ever end? What caused this to happen in the first place? The Walking Dead is a mature show, and needs to work harder to address these narrative demands.
'Claimed' opens with the Michonne-Grimes "family" reunited: Carl (Chandler Riggs) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) are eating and laughing together at the breakfast table, while Rick shuffles morosely about the kitchen in his prison rags. (A small point, but Michonne finds a clean shirt in the house, so how about it, Rick?) But Carl is still moody and Michonne is worried. They implore Rick to rest while they head out into the neighborhood for food and supplies, and he agrees reluctantly. Rick settles down in an upstairs bed for a nap with a book -- a simple act of leisure that is an outrageous luxury in their new world. Before long he's awakened by sounds of violence on the floor below. A gang of marauders is in the house and Rick must once again find escape for himself and salvation for his family, who could return any moment.
Michonne and Carl are an endearing pair. They need each other, and serve as confidantes for one another. As they cautiously pick through the neighborhood, Michonne notes Carl's detachment -- he's not in the mood for a laugh, even when she instigates hijinks with crazy cheese. Michonne, you kooky girl! As they reach a house that looks promising, she pauses ... then: "I had a 3-year-old son, and he happened to find me extremely funny." She smiles, and breaks our hearts just a little more.
What they find inside the house mirrors last week's scene where Carl finds a teen's abandoned room but then quickly sobers to the reality that he can never enjoy the promise the room holds. In 'Claimed' Michonne wanders through the empty house, pausing to gaze at cheerful children's paintings on the wall, and the inside of a child's brightly painted room. As always, grim reality lurks just beneath the surface, and she quickly finds the house's true horror: a family laid out just so on beds, all shot through the head in an apparent mercy murder-suicide.
As Michonne and Carl wrap up their supply run, Rick is beset with new threats. These nameless and mostly faceless men who've invaded the house underscore that the most successful survivors in this paradigm are largely the strongest and most ruthless. They fight for the best bed -- Rick has scrambled underneath and shakily bides his time -- and bludgeon one another for dominance. After some truly nerve-wracking scenes, Rick manages a slim escape (not before murdering a man on a toilet!) and intercepts the returning Carl and Michonne in the nick of time. They quickly hit the road and reach the railroad tracks that we know Tyreese's group is also following; a banner promising sanctuary at 'Terminus' hangs on the side of a rail car, and it's decided. Sanctuary is what they need, and so they begin their trek.
For TWD comic fans, the trio of Eugene, Abraham and Rosita are a welcome sight, potentially infusing new direction into the show. In the comic series, these three characters become allies of Rick. Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) -- Sgt. Abraham Ford -- is the muscle. He's a blunt instrument, bent on completing his mission to help fix the world. How? By ferrying the shifty- eyed scientist Eugene (Josh McDermitt) to Washington, D.C., where his professed scientific knowledge of what caused the apocalypse will help find a cure. Eugene ... where to begin? His mullet is already well-noted and he seems to have gotten this far in the walker world without any self-defense skills. Rosita (Christian Serratos) is plucked directly from the source material, but looks like a teenager dressed in a sexy military girl Halloween costume.
When he finally awakens, Glenn (Steven Yuen) and Tara are bouncing along in the back of Abraham's military truck. Though safe, they're now three hours from the prison area -- and three hours from any hope of finding Maggie (Lauren Cohan). He forces them to stop and scuffles angrily with Eugene, who insists that Maggie must be dead; Eugene haplessly shoots up their truck (and gas tank) while trying to repel walkers emerging from the corn fields; and Abraham utters the night's best line: "Son of a d**k!" while assessing the truck's fatal damage. Glenn's determination to retrace his steps, no matter the cost or futility, inspires a shoulder shrug from Rosita, as she sets off to follow Glenn and Tara, and Abraham and Eugene follow suit.
So we have some new possibilities for at least some of our characters. They could head to D.C., in search of real answers. There's no doubt that at least some of them will make it to the mysterious 'Terminus,' but fans will not tolerate another Governor-style bunker situation. The most intriguing question is, does Eugene really know what caused the outbreak? There lies the real energy that The Walking Dead needs to propel the series toward a season conclusion that holds imaginative promise far beyond the biters.
Rating: 6 out of 10
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