or: when a beard is more than a beard
Oh, the road to Alexandria is paved with good intentions, such as “I am totally going to do weekly reviews of The Walking Dead when mid season premier starts”… yeah right. But this episode deserved a renewed effort. So I present to you “Monday (Morning) Walking Dead Review”, featuring guest friend Jason Akinaka giving sound bites.
Episode Info:
“Remember” S5E12
Director: Greg Nicotero
Rick and the group have reached Alexandria. As some of them begin to fit in on the new reality, Daryl and Glenn face conflict with some of the community’s members and their rules.
Plot
“They measure you by what they can take from you” – Rick
A lot of the plot revolved around deciding on whether Rick would shave his beard or not.Jason Akina: Rick, if you get rid of your beard, you are no longer who you are!
Michael Bacera: But whenever Rick shaves his beard, it represents that he has returned to society. Outlaw rick has a beard, Civilized Rick is clean shaven.
JA: But I like outlaw Rick!
MB: #CleanCutRick for the win!
Also, we get to see a Chekov’s Gun in the form of an actual gun, that is Rick’s trusty secondary sidearm, what I assume to be a Glock 19 that was hidden in the blender.
MB: Oh no, not the Glock!
JA: Somebody else was porbably thinking, “Will it blend?”
Will it play a bigger role later? Or will it, like many other items in TWD Tv show, be an empty Chekov’s Gun.
Character
“If we become comfortable here, we let our guard down, we are going to become weak” – Carol
With Carol being a character that died early on in the comic, but continued living in the TV series, I feel like the writers get to play with her in a lot of fun ways.
MB: I love how [Carol] is pretending to be weak and useless to the group.
JA: You know she’s playing at something!
And of course we continue to see more Emo Abraham.
JA: What pisses me off the most is that everyone else looks disheveled, and here is Abraham looking like he woke up in the morning and did his hair!
A lot of it, of course, is the new setting, and allowing the characters to expand or contract beyond their previous all out crisis situation.
Setting
“I don’t think you’re ready to go out on runs.” – Aaron
“I think you got that the other way around” – Glen
One thing that The Walking Dead always get’s spot on, whether subtle or overt, is the shifts of power. Rick and crew are a force of nature.
JA: You don’t mess with Glen! (power struggle fist fight ensues)
MB: That’s my boy! And don’t forget Daryl too!
And of course, is the creepy, hanging over our head sense of impending doom and waiting for the other shoe to drop
JA: “They got a house for free ninety nine? Get these socialists out of here
Conclusion
“You don’t even know me.” -Rick
“I can handle myself.” – Samantha
With the introduction of more dynamic characters (sorry Noah and Gabriel, but *yawn*) the plot of Walking Dead is revitalized. With characters like Samantha, Aiden, Enid, and Deana, and the creepiness/ too good to be true factor of Alexandria, Walking dead proves that it’s true conflict is not man vs zombie, but man vs man. Also, if Glen dies, I’m done.
MB: Well it was definitely better than “Them” (S5E10)
JA: I bet Daryl will shower and he will look exactly the same