By: Heather Seebach
**Warning: The following contains spoilers about S6E8**
The mid-season opened on a creepy note, albeit one lifted right from James Wan's Insidious, with the ever-eerie "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" playing. I don't care how dead the world is, what little kid listens to 1920s music?! That cookie monster has a serious screw loose. Or perhaps he's been possessed by Darth Maul?
The ants were a creepy touch, I'll give them that. Presumably foreshadowing the zombie swarm. I get it now - WE ARE THE WALKING COOKIE!
Anyway, so the tower came crumbling down and let in the zombie hoard, sending everyone fleeing for the nearest home. Naturally, all of Alexandria's mortal enemies end up stuck together - Morgan and Carol; Carl and Ron; Rick and Gabriel; etc. Grimes was actually sort of nice to the priest this episode so that was the disappointment #1.
Secondly, STILL nobody cares about Ron's grudge against Carl. They have another fight and Carl inexplicable pulls a Glenn and defends his attempted murderer. Wtf! Clearly, the apple has fallen far from the tree! On the other side of town, Carol makes a run for Morgan's place in an attempt to kill the captured Wolf but gets her ass kicked by Morgan (dammit). Why is she suddenly so shaky now? She usually would not hesitate to kill Morgan if she had to. Hell, she barely knows him. Ever since her last encounter with cookie boy, she's been "off" and I don't like it!
I do, however, love, love, love this Romero-esque shot in the garage:
Morgan's Wolf buddy gets loose and takes a hostage. I'm predicting he'll be overtaken by the hoard and that will be the end of the whole Wolves subplot that went nowhere. Meanwhile, the walker-bitten Deanna goes all granny Rambo again and (presumably) dies facing down the walkers. That bite improved her aim, did you notice? I did have to LOL when Rick nearly ax'ed her head for touching Judith - "STILL ME!"
Finally, Rick, Michonne, & co. cover themselves in zombie guts again and make their way dangerously through the crowd of walkers. I know the guts trick worked before when they Shaun of the Dead'ed their way through the streets but to squeeze through like that?! Eeek!
Once outside, the cookie monster starts whining, "Mom?" and we KNOW what's coming. Comic book fans were predicting and expecting at least one of two major events to go down this episode - and neither happened. In fact, nothing happened. The episode ends on...well, it's not even a cliff-hanger...it's set-up. Nothing but set-up! Fans of the books know what is coming and can at least get a tiny bit of satisfaction from that but I imagine everyone else was left feeling completely cold. How are you gonna end a mid-season finale like that?!
Overall, this was not a bad episode but the lackluster ending leaves such a bad taste in your mouth that it kinda ruins the whole thing. They couldn't give us SOMETHING?!
After the episode ended, there was a prologue involving Daryl, Sasha and Abraham. If you missed it, watch it right here. The trio encounters some men on motorcycles blocking the roadway. If this looks familiar to you, it may be because....
The men demand everything they have, saying it does not belong to them anymore. And for the first time, Negan is officially name-dropped! HURRY UP!!!!
Burning Questions from This Episode:
1) Why the hell did Morgan and Carol leave the doctor alone with the psychopath??
2) What the fuck did Carol trip over? Look, just because you have Jamie Lee Curtis' hair doesn't mean you have to fall down like a final girl, k?
3) You're telling me...Deanna wasn't a zombie all this time?
