The Walking Dead 814 – Still Gotta Mean Something
The opening moments of Still Gotta Mean Something flashes back to the massacre of the Scavengers and reveals how Jadis escaped suffering from the same fate of her people. The harrowing experience has a profound effect on her and we get a glimpse of what she may have been like before the apocalypse. A quick flash-forward brings us to the present with her wielding Lucille and dragging a captive Negan through the Heaps.
In the aftermath on the assault on the Hilltop, Carol and Ezekiel have a painful heart to heart. He questions her decision to stay behind instead of going after the escapees and her refusal causes Ezekiel to deliver some harsh words. Even the strongest among us need some support once in a while and Carol is certainly at a low ebb when it comes to her confidence and resolve.
Carol isn’t the only one battling emotions as Michone fights back tears in during a quiet moment of reflection while reading Carl’s letter to her. She wants Rick to read it but the pain is too much for him to bear. He reveals that he hasn’t read what Carl wrote to him either and Michone tries to force him to let down his walls. One of the ways to survive in the apocalypse is to bury the pain caused by all of the loss but denying the grief isn’t a sign of strength. It can consume a person from within and Rick, Carol and Morgan are all at different stages of emotional ruin by trying to soldier on through the tough times.
L’affaire Dwight continues to be a matter of concern between Daryl and Tara. The fact Tara hasn’t succumbed to her injury during the siege strengthens her opinion that Dwight is still on their side. It appears that Dwight may have shot Tara with untainted arrow but Daryl isn’t buying what she’s trying to sell.
There has a been a slow humanization of Negan, and it takes a few more steps to fruition while he’s Jadis’ prisoner. It seems that the revelation of Simon’s betrayal has forced him to look at things with some regret. Now whether he’s saying that to save his own hide or if he truly believes that remains to be seen but Jadis is highly skeptical.
The search for Henry coupled with Morgan’s decent into madness puts him on a different path than Carol. His decision to walk away from her is his futile attempt to hang on to the last threads of anything he holds dear. In some ways his struggles are reflected in what keeps Jadis and Morgan and many of the other characters on the show going. The symbols may be different but they all have something, a hat, a bat or some photographs that represent whatever humanity they have left.
Still Gotta Mean Something is a bit of an emotional meat grinder for several of the characters. It adds some depth to Jadis and also deepens the mystery surrounding the mysterious helicopter glimpsed several episodes ago. With all of the despair that permeated throughout the episode there are moments of hope. Without hope all is lost and hopefully some of the characters will find that out before it’s too late.
