jVFu. This Fear the Walking Dead review contains spoilers. Fear the Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 5 Sitting down to write this review of “Till Death,” I was surprised that the word count for just my notes was a whopping 1,400 words. While I tend to take very extensive notes for each episode, what sets “Till Death” apart is that much of my notes is devoted to ranting. Much of my frustration as both reviewer and fan stems from my disappointment with this season’s aimlessness. Why should viewers care about solving a 40-year-old murder case, or Sarah’s sudden interest in finding Wendell? Those both felt like filler episodes to me, and “Till Death” likewise does little to advance the overall story. Austin Amelio and Christine Evangelista give this week’s tepid, nonsensical script their all, but even so, why should we care about the Dark Horses and their code? Does it really matter that Dwight and Sherry have become “peace officers of a modern frontier?” Fear the Walking Dead already explored the pitfalls of being Good Samaritans—to deleterious effect—in previous seasons. Why revisit this theme when it proved so disastrous the first time? Sure, the Dark Horses’ cause is a noble one, but here, now, it just falls flat. And the idea that their reputation already precedes them a scant two months after taking up the Dark Horses mantle? I’m sorry, but I found that a bit laughable. But it’s not until Dwight and Sherry are forcibly brought before Strand that “Till Death” completely divorces itself from logic. You see, while Strand has heard tell of the Dark Horses, he had no idea it was Dwight and Sherry behind these exploits. It’s interesting that he finds this surprise reunion so amusing—because, really, the world that these characters inhabit is way too small. So, sure, why not laugh at how contrived all of this feels? As for why Strand has summoned them—this is likewise laughable. Why would he seek the aid of “ethical outlaws” to find a missing person? That’s not what the Dark Horses are known for—at all. No, what Strand needs is a tracker, or even a bounty hunter, like Josiah—someone who knows how to find people that don’t want to be found. I’m sorry, but just because Dwight and Sherry found each other doesn’t qualify them for this task. If it did, Strand would have sought them out, and not the Dark Horses. And yet, despite all of this, and with almost no information to go on, Dwight and Sherry easily track down the wayward Mickey Aisha Tyler. It’s hard to tell how long this takes—is it a matter of hours? A few days? And how is it that they found such quick success, whereas Strand’s people kept coming back empty-handed—if they came back at all? These are rhetorical questions, though, since Fear’s writers don’t seem to care about the logic or lack thereof behind any of this. As to why Strand is so keen to find Mickey in the first place? This is likewise devoid of logic. Certainly it’s not because he’s concerned for her welfare. Rather, he’s angry that she devised a way to escape and doesn’t want word getting out about how she did it. But, so what? This information would only be useful to anyone still inside the tower, and she has no desire to go back there anyway. So, really, Strand’s motivation for finding her makes zero sense. If she’s brought back to the tower, wouldn’t that make it that much easier to share her means of escape? It’s phone books, by the way. The secret is…phone books. There’s been a bit of friction up to this point between our beloved Dark Horses, though. Is Strand’s community right for them, and for the Larsons, whose storm cellar they’ve been sharing since the bombs fell? And does Mickey really know what’s best for her? So, yes, when it comes to helping Mickey, flip-flopping ensues despite their code—or maybe in spite of it. Would Sherry really choose a stranger over Dwight? Yes, apparently, since the two go their separate ways. This happened last season too, if you’ll recall, only for them to reunite a few episodes later. As it turns out, the journey to the gym the Grapple Chapel! is hardly treacherous, so what was Mickey waiting for this entire time? How long does it take to construct armor out of phone books and duct tape? What bothers me more, though, is that Sherry brings back the use of zombie guts as camouflage. If this is a known trick, then why not do this all the time—like Nick used to do? Mickey soon discovers that Cliff is undead and before long she and Sherry are cornered by a horde of walkers. Luckily for them, and before they can radio Strand for help, Dwight has somehow tracked them down, and in the nick of time, no less. What follows is a bizarre montage of zombie-killing set to Damian Marley’s “Welcome to Jamrock.” For me, this does not work at all. Nor does seeing Mickey put her pro-wrestling skills to use against the horde—not when guns are suddenly in abundant supply. Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! By episode’s end, the Dark Horses are not only reunited, they’re now joined by Mickey. Their first mission together turns out to be a ruse, though. In actuality, a mysterious group needs their help locating Padre. To me, Padre feels like a retread of the Terminus storyline from The Walking Dead. And even if Padre turns out to be the promised land so many survivors believe it to be, certainly experience has taught us that any safe haven in the Walking Dead universe is really a hell just waiting to burn. Spoilers through Season 7 of 'The Walking Dead' follow. Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes Photo Credit Gene Page/AMC Sunday night's episode of The Walking Dead may be the worst episode ever made in the long-running zombie franchise. I certainly can't remember a time I've laughed this hard at the bad writing and terrible plot devices. I can't remember another episode this thoroughly wasted on side characters we don't care about, that dragged on indeterminably, weaving drunkenly from one ludicrous scene to the next. Now, before people start yelling at me for "hating on" this show, I'd like to point out that in Season 7 I have had overall mixed feelings so far. I liked things about the season premiere-it was incredibly intense, for instance-and disliked others. I liked both the second and third episodes. It wasn't until last week that I truly started to find myself irritated and bored. But even last week's plundering of Alexandria looks good compared to the steaming mess that is episode 5, "Go Getters." The episode can be broken down into two main storylines. In one, we have Enid and Carl heading toward Hilltop. In the other, we have Gregory yelling at people at Hilltop, and then getting yelled at by Jesus, with a Savior-filled interlude. Neither of these stories is worth the screen time. We'll start with... Carl & Enid Carl and Enid finally kiss, and I suppose we're supposed to be happy for them, but all I could think is that Carl should go for Michonne. Just kidding, sort of. Whatever the case, the two don't have any chemistry to speak of. They even walk about 10 feet apart from one another on the path, until they find the roller skates. Everything is forced about these two. The way they talk to one another. There's no spark. But that's not the worst part. The worst part was when Enid was making her way to Hilltop alone and comes across a lone zombie. This zombie, who is all by itself shuffling slowly across the street far away, makes Enid Very Afraid. The music gets tense, and the camera flashes back and forth between Enid and the zombie, and you get the feeling that the director and writers are trying to make the audience just as Very Afraid as Enid appears to be. Then, just in the nick of time, sort of, Carl shows up and crushes the Lone Zombie with his car. Read More The Top 10 Most Annoying Characters Still Alive On 'The Walking Dead' What is this nonsense? Why is Enid afraid of one zombie? She's spent tons of time on her own out in the apocalypse and she's killed plenty of walkers. As viewers, we've also seen many hundreds of zombies die. We've seen whole towns overrun with the undead. Do they really expect us to feel a moment of fear as this far away zombie shuffles toward the perfectly capable Enid? Are we supposed to feel relieved when Carl shows up to save the damsel in distress? I just laughed. It was one of many instances in tonight's episode where the only reaction I could muster was a laugh of disbelief. Enid asks Carl what he was doing out here and he says he just thought he'd take a drive. We, the audience, see that for what it is An incredibly transparent lie that Carl isn't telling to be deceitful, but in an almost joking manner. Of course, Enid takes it seriously, believing that it's just coincidence he's out for a drive in the same area she is right after she told him where she was going. Later in the episode she says, "You weren't just out for a drive were you?" To which I wanted Carl to respond, "Uh...no, Enid. Did you really take me literally when I said that? Have you fallen on your head or something?" Follow me on Twitter erikkain This is just a tiny bit of the terrible, no-good, very bad dialogue sprinkled throughout 'Go Getters.' In fact, I think the dialogue is even worse in... Hilltop Enid does eventually make her way to Hilltop, where it turns out she's already very close to Maggie for some reason. They never really developed this relationship, so we just have to accept it. We also have to accept that Jesus is also very close with Sasha and Maggie, and has Very Close and Intimate Conversations with them both. These are broken up by Gregory shouting and acting creepy. So we move from one bad, overly sincere scrap of dialogue, into scenes with Gregory acting like a blow-hard. And for some reason, everybody keeps saying Jesus's name. "I'm talking to Jesus!" Gregory yells at one point, causing me to double over laughing the sheer absurdity of it all. It's just non-stop bad dialogue. Sasha at one point tells Jesus that if he "really wants to make it up" to them because advocating for them constantly and helping them at every turn isn't enough I guess? he can find out where Negan lives. But it's just between her and Jesus. He replies that he doesn't like keeping things from Maggie, as if he even knows Maggie, as if it's even his place to question Sasha on this. Again, this is just character interaction that doesn't make sense based on what's come before. It's absolutely disorienting to watch. Subscribe to my YouTube channel here. It's almost like a whole new team of writers took over and didn't really know anything about the characters before this episode, and just kind of made it work by making Jesus and Sasha all buddy-buddy, and Maggie and Enid all buddy-buddy. It doesn't add up. There's plenty more laughably bad dialogue in the episode. At one point there's some commotion and Sasha looks out her window. We see fires burning across the compound, and walkers come in through an open gate. Music is playing. Of course, in The Walking Dead seeing isn't always enough, so Sasha describes everything in painful detail "There's fires and the gate is open. The music is coming from a car," she says in the most excruciatingly expository manner possible. The ensuing fight scene against a small band of zombie invaders was okay at best, but made Hilltop out to be just another worthless colony like Alexandria, filled with survivors who don't know how to shut a gate on their own, let alone kill a zombie. Simon Says Perhaps the only redeeming element of the entire episode was the entrance of Savior lieutenant, Simon. He's one of Negan's right-hand guys, and he comes and plays the part of Negan. I have to admit, I like Steven Ogg as a villain more than Jeffrey Dean Morgan, all things considered. Yet even here, with Ogg's great performance, the show can't find its footing. Simon and Gregory's scene drags on far too long. And I can't help but think it's kind of weird that Negan sends five trucks and like 50 guys to take a few things from Hilltop. That's a lot of wasted man power and gasoline. Still, this was pretty much the only halfway decent moment in the entire episode. I guess the Rick and Michonne kiss was nice, too, simply because I am always glad to see that the show remembers they're an item, something it seems determined to ignore sometimes. Verdict Let's hope that episode 6 is much stronger than this one. Right now we have too many characters, and far too many that we don't care about, and it's distracting us from the people we do care about. Apathy is the most dangerous thing, but that's where I'm at now with a lot of characters, both good and bad. I don't hate Negan, I just don't care that much about him. I don't hate Jesus, I just don't think he's a very interesting character. The list goes on, and episodes like this only make matters worse. We're languishing in a very bad place right now, with the same basic thing happening over and over each episode Heroes do some stuff, then Negan's goons show up. Rinse and repeat. The show is also breaking up the story into separate episodes for each group, which means that if one plot is a little off, the entire episode is. This would all have been far more tolerable had the past few episodes been interwoven rather than separate. Alas, that does not seem to be the direction The Walking Dead is heading. I really have liked some episodes this season, but tonight's is a reminder that sometimes The Walking Dead can be every bit as bad as its spin-off, Fear The Walking Dead, sometimes, and that AMC needs to invest in better writing and better quality control going forward if it wants this show to remain a huge hit rather than sink into mediocrity. What did you think of "Go Getters?" Did you laugh out loud at the terrible dialogue like me, or am I being overly harsh? It was cool when Maggie called herself Maggie Rhee taking Glenn's last name and I hope she eventually castrates Gregory or something like that. Good for her. Though I just wish she'd tone down the southern drawl. The Walking Dead Season 7 premiere featured the brutal deaths of some beloved characters. However, we ultimately think the losses will make for a better show overall. While fans continue to dry their tears, here’s why we think it was for the about the deaths are coming! Those that haven’t watched episode 1 have been The Ladies Move Forward The Lucille victims were paired up with two of The Walking Dead’s leading ladies, and now their plots are able to move forward in some pretty aggressive ways. With Maggie, for example, her relationship with Glenn frequently kept her hanging around camp at times when she could have been doing more. The baby might also have that effect later on, but birth hasn’t happened yet. Without her husband, there’s a real chance for Maggie to become the fearless woman that battled Gregory at the Hilltop earlier this year. That will eventually be a big win for on the other hand, just seemed to be in a pretty flat place. She had been scarred from the death of her brother and had found new life in her feelings from Abraham. The latter’s passing will push that story forward in huge ways. Will she become even more of a danger to herself? Will this tragedy actually create a sense of inner peace? These are interesting questions that only Negan can bring. 2 New Characters Are Introduced With every character death, The Walking Dead has historically introduced a batch of new faces to fill in for the lost ones. Without saying more than we need to, the source comics tell us that the personalities that emerge after Glenn’s death are super he’s already been in trailers, the arc of the great king Ezekiel should be mentioned here. Played on the AMC series by Khary Payton, Ezekiel becomes one of Rick’s most trusted allies and is one of the most unique characters Robert Kirkman has ever created. With him arrives a group of survivors that breathes totally new life into what was becoming a slightly stale Alexandria Existing Characters Get Fleshed Out The Walking Dead season 6 did right by fans by bringing beloved characters like Jesus and Heath into the narrative, but both of these intriguing partners were criminally underused. With Glenn and Abraham now deceased, Rick will need more strong survivors that his community can trust. These two seem like pretty promising candidates. 'The Walking Dead' season 6 introduced us to Jesus, but his character was criminally underused. That's likely to change in season 7. Photo Gene Page/AMC Because of the premiere’s deaths, Heath and Jesus will likely become the amazing people that comic readers know them to be. Both will assumingly contribute to the war ahead in massive ways, and that might not have been true if the previously arranged cast was hogging the spotlight. Viewers will finally learn just how important those silenced support roles truly Negan Is Made All The More Evil As much as Sunday’s deaths were painful to watch, they did wonders to position Negan as the most demonic adversary Rick and company has ever encountered. It’s easy to make comparisons between Negan and the Governor at face value, but, with the brutal way the premiere was handled, we’re able to see that he’s on an entirely different level of Negan were to take out a less prominent character like Spencer or Aaron, his entrance wouldn’t have been as impactful. In the comics and on the show, there’s a clear plot that emerges before and after Negan establishes himself. As we said in a previous article, there’s so much more to come. He shatters everything Rick thought he knew about life in the apocalypse. You can’t get a truly clear vision for the terror that comes next without some major deaths Some Stale Arcs Get Cleaned Up We touched on this already, but it’s a point worth reiterating. Glenn and Abraham were in the perfect position for death because their characters had mostly run their course. As much as we love Glenn, when was the last time his story was ever truly necessary? Because his plot mostly exists in Maggie’s belly, he wasn’t exactly needed. Abraham probably could have grown more, honestly, but his romantic failures just weren’t prompting much discussion we can get rid of those stories and replace them with something better. Negan has forced Alexandria into a position of complete servitude for the first time. Will Rick head to war immediately? Will he hang back and quietly recruit allies? The revenge for episode 1’s deaths is so much more interesting than anything Glenn or Abraham could have Walking Dead season 7 continues Oct. 30 on did you think of the premiere deaths? Will The Walking Dead be better without Glenn and Abraham? Tell us in the comments section!

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