The Walking Dead 1003 – Ghosts
The pre-credits sequences of Ghost serves as one long trailer for the events of a harrowing two-day walker assault on Alexandria. Exhausted, the Alexandrians are given an ultimatum by Gamma to meet Alpha at the north boarder before more walkers arrive at their gates. The Highwaymen, still furious at the slaughter of their friends at Alpha’s hands want revenge but cooler heads soon prevail and Michonne, Carol and Daryl devise a strategy to combat Alpha and the myriad of walkers that threaten them.
Ghosts is broken into three storylines with Michonne, Daryl and Carol’s group meeting Alpha at the north boarder; Aaron and Negan battling walkers and the rest of the Alexandrians defending the community from a wave of walkers. Alpha has a new method of punishment for those who cross her boarder. Instead of bloodshed, she wants the southern boarder expanded, effectively cutting off the Alexandrians’ hunting grounds. Carol has no time for Alpha’s demands and the tension between the two is something that needs to be resolved at some point down the line. As things are shaping up, Carol and Alpha are being cast as two sides of the same coin. Both grieving mothers, Alpha has already gone over the line and now with Carol’s dependence on pills to help her cope the lines between the two promise to be blurred even further.
The odd couple of the week is definitely Aaron and Negan. Long buried emotions come to the surface when Eric’s death is brought up during their mission. Words cut deeper than knives and when Aaron strikes back by treading into territory occupied by Negan’s late wife all bets are off where any form of cooperation is concerned. It’s not hard to forget the atrocities Negan is responsible for but he often is the voice of reason, even if it’s a tad twisted. Still reconciling what he was, and may still be will always cast a shadow over his actions in the present.
Not much of Ghost’s running time is devoted to Alexandria but the bits that do stand out centre around Siddiq’s mental frailty and Rosita and Eugene coming to terms with the reality of their non-relationship. Eugene’s inability to see the true nature of their relationship is echoed by several of the other characters. Aaron, who actually goes blind for a portion of the episode is only able to see Negan after he saves his life. Siddiq, who is Coco’s father can’t, or better yet refuses to see that he is being romantically pursued by his surgical partner in crime, Dante.
Lastly there is Carol, who deprived of sleep and hooked on pills doubts her own sense of reality when the truth behind her sightings of Whisperers in the forest is challenged. Ghosts are everywhere it seems. However sometimes the ghosts people see are real and ignoring them can have perilous consequences.
