The Walking Dead review: “Try” (5×15)

Well you guys, I’m frustrated. I’m worked up. I’m anxious. And it’s all because of a damn TV show. Good job “Walking Dead”.

After last week’s brutal deaths, I wanted Nicholas to be revealed for the coward he truly is. I wanted Deanna to learn how ill-suited her people are for the world. I wanted Rick’s take on survival to resonate with the Alexandrians. I wanted someone to smack Gabriel and toss him out on his ass. But, none of these things happened.

We see Deanna interview Nicholas (henceforth: Dickolas) about the events leading up to her son’s death. He spins a tall tale of his heroics. A tale where Glenn is a murderer only looking out for his own well-being. She replays the tapes over and over, but she doesn’t have Glenn’s side of the story. Glenn confides in Rick, the truth spoken but not recorded. We will have to hope Deanna isn’t messing around when she tells Dickolas “I see a great deal”. Perhaps she knows he’s a lying son of a bitch and waiting to act on it.

She certainly knows about Pete beating his wife. Rick confronts her over the issue and she replies “I was hoping it would get better”. Deanna brings up an interesting point that Pete is the only doctor in town, he has saved lives. So, like Dawn from Grady Memorial Hospital, she lets certain things slide for the benefit of the group.

I could watch Andrew Lincoln and Tovah Feldshuh go at it for an entire episode. Both actors give each respective leader strong convictions as to why their methods are best. “What happens when Pete doesn’t want to do that” Deanna knowingly asks after Rick’s suggestion of separating him from Jessie. “I kill him, we kill him” is the reply. Killing is a fact of life for him. But Deanna is content to exile evil-doers with the hope that the world beyond the walls does the killing for her. Though she says “we don’t kill people here”, she knows exactly how to wash her hands clean of unsavory characters. The content in these Alexandria episodes is fast becoming the most fascinating arc in the history of the show.

One must wonder what Deanna wanted of Rick and Co. Wouldn’t their tactics and instincts be naturally suited to standing up to an abuser like Pete? Rick can do what Deanna cannot.

We see just what Rick is capable of when he comes face to face with Pete. A drunken Pete lumbers into the house after Jessie has finally agreed to accept Rick’s help. Pete shouts for him to get out, Rick says lets leave together. It isn’t hard to see where this is going.

The two men come to blows in what is one of the most intense knock down, drag ’em out fights we’ve seen on the series. I found it a little odd the Pete was an equal match (he was inebriated and this isn’t Rick’s first rodeo), but it provides some great set pieces, with the two of them crashing through the living room window into the streets of Alexandria. Jessie and Carl get smacked while trying to stop the brawl, as the entire town gathers to witness the brutality.

When Deanna arrives and orders them to stop, Rick hits a breaking point. When Dickolas and other men rush forward to grab him, Rick pulls his gun on the crowd. He is bloodied, a wild look in his eye, gesticulating wildly with the gun. Andrew Lincoln allows himself to become completely unhinged, like a wild animal. “You’re ways of doing things is over” he spits out. “From now on, we need to start living in the real world”. It seems like the gun is going to go off, his rage boiling, and that’s when Michonne swoops in and knocks him out cold. Mic drop Michonne.

The running theme in every encounter this week was “you fight or you die”. Even inside the walls that keep you safe. Did Rick overstep in his attempt to get his point across. Foaming at the mouth like a mad man is not the best way to gain support, no matter how good the intentions. And after this very public conflict, it seems like Alexandria is poised for some infighting and civil war in the season finale.

The episode does fall into the trappings of a “set-up” episode in many regards, but it did a great job of making me anxious for the final episode. As the potential for a civil war in Alexandria arises, Daryl and Aaron make horrific discoveries in the wild: Dismembered limbs and woman tied naked to a tree, “W” on her forehead, left as walker food (did someone listen to Carol the Cookie Monster’s plan? Carol you have an admirer!). The light Daryl and Aaron see in the distance implies that the Wolves are coming for Alexandria at the moment they are most divided.

Other Thoughts

• I loved the opening with the Nine Inch Nails song from Aiden’s mix CD. Especially Carol baking an “I’m Sorry” casserole for Deanna’s family. Deanna promptly burns the card and leaves the casserole on the doorstep. Tovah Feldshuh has no time for sad casseroles.
• Sasha is a hot mess. Sonequa Martin-Greene does her best to bring gravity to her story, but the escapade hunting down walkers in the woods mostly served as a catalyst for Michonne. Killing walkers helps her remember what its like to be out in the world, even if she isn’t with her katana. (How many times can the writers use her Katana as a symbol? I think we are done here, let’s move on please).
• The mystery of the blender-gun is solved! The thief is…Dickolas? Well that doesn’t make much sense right now, but does make me nervous that he is going to shoot someone next week.
• Could Glenn be his target? Steven Yeun gets a fantastic scene where he steps up and tells Dickolas that he gets to walk around with the deaths of Noah and Aiden on his back forever. And he forbids him from ever leaving the walls again. “Are you threatening me”, “No” Glenn smirks, “I’m saving you”. Get it Glenn.
• Enid and Carl have some nice flirtatiousness in the woods that mixed up the pace a bit (though I maintain a hollow tree would be a terrible hiding place). It’s all going fine until Enid takes out a knife and begins carving in a log with her dead mother’s knife. Is she carving a “W”?! Dammit Carl, why didn’t you look at what she’s carving? Enid is totally a “Wolf”, and Carl is totally going to have to put her down.