By: Heather Seebach
**Warning: The following post contains spoilers about S6E1**
The gang's all back in this entertaining albeit uneventful season 6 premiere. After killing Porch Dick in front of everyone, Rick has the allegiance of Deanna and most of the townsfolk - except a few, of course. Ethan Embry suddenly appears out of nowhere and declares DAMN THE MAN, SAVE THE EMPIRE....no wait, he says, "I'm taking this town back from Rick Grimes!" Of course, our man Rick is not having any of that shit. Still, the survivors have bigger problems - there's a big quarry full of walkers and the trucks holding them in won't last long. So they forge a risky plan to guide the zombies away from there and away from Alexandria.
The scale of this episode is huge, zombie-wise. I cannot even imagine the make-up team they must have had for all the on-camera walkers. This premiere episode goes all Tarantino unnecessarily with its non-linear format. I found the flashbacks kind of annoying, between the black-and-white and the soft piano music.
This episode also sees the introduction of Heath, who fans of the comic books will recognize (and damn that's good casting!):
I don't care how strong his "hair game" is, Eugene is a fucking idiot
for letting Heath & co. in without so much as getting a town
resident to confirm their identity. I guess a black man threatening to
"beat his ass" was identification enough. This leads me to another
point: I cannot fucking stand Eugene. He's an awkward monotone attempt
to lighten the mood and it's obnoxious as fuck.
I like Morgan but I don't appreciate all the judgmental looks he keeps giving Rick. Why is Rick constantly having to defend his actions at the community meeting? Porch Dick threatened everyone present and KILLED a dude - that's as self-defense as it gets. I don't want to hear this philosophical "We're all killers" bullshit, Morgan. We get it. You're a pacifist now! *eye roll*
Same situation when Carter gets bitten later in the woods. Rick gets dirty looks from Leonardo and Donatello over there when the guy CLEARLY has a giant bite wound on his FACE.
Easter egg time! Did you catch the Jaws reference? It could be a coincidence but it isn't - the folks running this show love to reference horror films and director Greg Nicotero happens to be a HUGE fan of Jaws:
Here are my three favorite parts of this episode:
1) The zombie who loses face:
2) Abraham quoting Bill O'Reilly when the dry-run turns real: "We'll do it live!"
3) This smack-down:
This episode left me with these five burning questions:
1) Why did nobody seemed concerned or curious as to how those zombies got there? Semi trucks do not simply arrange themselves in perfect diagonal walker-cage formation like that.
2) Where did they find a helium tank and balloons? Did they stumble across a Party City and go, "Ya know, we might need this someday"?
3) Why did they walk up to that tractor shop, see all the noisy walkers, and go "We'll take care of that tonight on the way back." Orrrrr you could do it now when you have, like, ten people standing around instead of just Glenn and two idiots.
4) So they locked up Morgan just in case, but when Carter pointed a gun at Eugene and threatened to overthrow Rick they didn't bother throwing him in the town jail? Nah, let's bring him along instead!
5) Did you take my last peanut butter protein bar? I could've sworn there was one more left.
In summary, not much progresses this episode - basically, more zombies and more Rick vs. untrusting Alexandrians. The premiere ends with a mysterious siren calling all the walkers right to Alexandria but it's clear from the trailer that it's not the walkers who are attacking the town. Finally! Bring on dem Wolves!
