*Warning: Review may contain spoilers.
Walking Dead 605 “Now”
“This place is a graveyard.” – Resident of Alexandria
If you tuned into tonight’s episode for some answers to the mysteries surrounding this season of The Walking Dead, “Now” provided some (sort of), but left quite a few unanswered.
All is quiet in Alexandria in the aftermath of the Wolf attack. Deanna stands in the lookout tower once occupied by her husband Reg, surveying the carnage of the siege. She overhears Michonne recounting the events surrounding Glenn’s disappearance to Maggie until a yell from beyond the gates gets her attention. It’s Rick, the Harry Whodini of the walker apocalypse sprinting towards the community. Michonne and Morgan spring into action and open the gates just before he’s swallowed by the hoard of walkers. As the gates slide shut, several walkers reach through the bars grasping at the Alexandrians and a look of shock washes over Deanna’s face.
Alexandria is literally at the gates of Hell.
With everyone trapped inside and the walls of Alexandria surrounded by walkers 20 deep, Deeana is in the midst of a crisis of confidence. She’s in no shape to lead even though her people look to her for guidance. Even Spencer, Deanna’s son, throws some blame at his mother’s feet further adding to her burden. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
The destruction of Alexandria’s relative utopia has the residents losing faith and starting to question themselves and those around them. Is the stark reality of the apocalypse finally setting in? Have the residents of Alexandria become cynical fatalists? While that sentiment may be growing there are still a few who are willing to stand and fight. Aaron openly reveals his unwitting role in the Wolf siege, Jessie comes to an epiphany and even Deanna finds some hope and redemption.
With the uncertainty surrounding Glenn’s fate, Maggie and Aaron take to the tunnels beneath Alexandria to try and find him. Carl and Ron debate going to look for Enid and the merits of such a mission bring them to blows. That brings us to Enid. Who is she and what’s her story? Is she a survivor? Is she a member of the Wolves? Ron’s revelation to her activities after she came to Alexandria may hold the key to her true nature.
One of the themes in “Now” was about being a prisoner. Whether it’s being a prisoner of one’s own fear, ideology, or being trapped behind the walls or the bars in the tunnels leading out of Alexandria, liberation from one’s limitations to be able to confront the realities of the walker apocalypse is what is needed for survival. What has to be taken into account however is what actually constitutes survival. To live – but to do so against all that you stand for – may not be enough for some. It may be more important to die trying to adhere to that code than living to see another day.
It’s a lesson that Morgan, freed from his own personal prison, learned from Eastman before he arrived in Alexandria and one that he continues to live by. Although the walls surrounding Alexandria have essentially imprisoned the community from the outside world, it doesn’t have to be a graveyard. How that unfolds will depend upon how the Alexandrians accept their new reality and the future it holds.
