The Walking Dead Review: “Forget” (5×13)

Melissa McBride needs an Emmy nomination for playing Carol. It is no longer an option after last night’s episode. Without a single zombie on screen, she provides the creepiest, most unsettling moment of the whole series.

“One morning you’ll wake up and you won’t be in your bed” she tells the young cookie-loving Sam with a soft menace. He has just caught her stealing from the town’s gun cache. “You’ll be outside the walls. Far, far away. Tied to a tree. And you’ll scream and scream because you’ll be so afraid. No one will come to help, because no one will hear you. Well, something will hear you. The monsters will come…And they will tear you apart and eat you up, all while you’re still alive. All while you can still feel it. And then afterwards, no one will ever know what happened to you. Or, you can promise not to tell anyone, ever, what you saw here. And nothing will happen to you. And you’ll get cookies. Lots of cookies. I know what I think you should do”.

Cue my jaw dropping to the floor, basically mirroring the poor child on screen who likely just wet himself as Carol towered over him. I’ll speak on the rest of the episode in a second, but it has to be noted that Carol’s “Junior League” housewife act is the most delicious thing “The Walking Dead” has cooked up all season. It’s great fun seeing Carol pretend to be a sweet people person (watching her bottle contempt while discussing recipes with other Alexandria housewives was hysterical). What’s more disturbing is that her monstrous monologue has an air of parental protection to it. She is protecting herself from being outed, but also the boy who is not prepared for the horrors outside the walls. And McBride knows how to sell both sides of this coin, imbuing the terror with an undertone of motherly warmth.

Carol also finds herself in a new cabal with Rick and Daryl. These three exemplify the survivalist nature of the apocalypse. They hold secret meetings at the shack outside the wall where Rick stashed the gun (which is still missing!). I found myself thinking of perspective in their scenes. If this was episode one of “The Walking Dead”, the viewer might perceive these three as villains and a potential threat. It is only after journeying with them over the past few years that we see their plan for potential takeover as necessary. It was a smart move on the writer’s part that played an emotional tug of war with the viewer. We don’t want Rick’s group to mess up their situation, but by now we accept that mess (threatening a child, for example) is a part of staying alive.

Surprisingly, Darly is the member of the secret meetings who ends up with a change of heart by the episode’s end. I really enjoyed the unlikely pairing of Daryl and Aaron. Their escapade about trying to wrangle a horse in the woods was likely born out of fans’ desire for zombie slaying. But, the actor’s turned it into a sort of spiritual bonding session. Ross Marquand’s Aaron has immediately become one of the strongest characters of the series (he even registers more than some series regulars), and he bounced well off Norman Reedus’ signature internal performance.

Aaron needed to size up Daryl, to make sure he was capable of taking the surprise job he had in mind for him. And he is able to appeal to the loner bowman by using his “outsider” status as a gay man (which made the writing feel like it was a little 1980, but whatever). Daryl on the other hand needed to know his new co-worker had what it takes to survive on the outside, to have the strength to put an innocent horse out of its misery (Poor Buttons the Horse, your death resonated more than Beth’s and Tyreese’s combined. Yeah I said it.) By the time Aaron comes forward with motorcycle parts and a job offering for the “recruiter” position, Daryl is already on board with his new friend.

The arc of the episode that didn’t land for me was Sasha’s. As we have seen in the past, many of the women on “The Walking Dead” are boiled down to ciphers. Their job is to react: to death, to loss, to dire conditions. But they have no strong character traits of their own. This is surely not the fault Sonequa Martin-Green. Time and again she displays excellent skill at displaying conflicted emotions just waiting to bubble over. She can be full of rage and sadness all at the same time.

But Martin-Green is working with a hollow character. So watching Sasha attempt to act normal at Deanna’s dinner party, and blow up at one of the guests for daring to have frivolous “worries” about dinner plans is plenty engaging. But spending time with her shooting pictures of happy people in the woods, looking for a zombie fight? Haven’t we seen this before? I hope the writers don’t waste this actress’ talents the same way Laurie Holden (Andrea) was wasted. Carol and Michonne are expertly developed female characters. I promise there’s room for another one, guys.

The episode ends with another visual storytelling moment the series has been excelling at this season. Constable Rick (fresh off of flirting with a married woman) hears noise at the wall. He puts his face to it to listen to a walker roaming around the other side (shown in a provocative split-screen view). He cracks a smile. We arent sure quite what he is thinking. Perhaps he’s happy he’s not out there anymore? Perhaps he likes being in such proximity to danger? Whatever is going through his mind is a little disturbing, a little unsettling, and has me invested to see what he does next.

Stray Thoughts

• I half expected Sasha to punch Olivia after her request: “If you bag a boar, can I have a leg?” God, these people are dense. #toosoon #RIPBob
• Does anyone have a grasp on what the “A” stamps were for at the party? They obviously call to mind the A car of Terminus. Was it symbolic of Rick assimilating into the community? I didn’t quite get it.
• Why is Deanna so against having a look-out sniper? It was the biggest display of how woefully ill prepared she is for whatever evil is coming.
• The walker Carol shoots during the cabal’s meeting had another “W” carved into its head. Unlike the other’s we’ve seen, the limbs weren’t cut off this one. It seems the Wolves are creeping closer.
• With Rick’s group on the road, we have seen that gender, race, sexuality, and age don’t matter one bit in the apocalypse. It matters if you can fight for the group and help the family survive. Aaron on the other hand complains of homophobia from his community. One more example that Alexandria isn’t united, and isn’t the utopia Deanna thinks it is.
• Most poignant moment of the episode for me, was Daryl’s commentary on the wild horse Buttons. “The longer they’re out there the more they become what they really are” It was a great way at highlighting the danger of Deanna’s views on “what was before”. Daryl recognizes that past ways of life don’t matter anymore. Nature would seem to prove Deanna’s beliefs wrong.
• Also can we not kill anymore horses? Feed as many humans as you want to the zombie hordes, but watching Buttons getting devoured was rough. Aaron’s subsequent line “he always ran” was even worse.
• Walker Kill of the Week: The show flirted with some classic zombie movie effects this week. The best of which was blood splatter from a bashed in walker skull splattering against the camera.