Episode Title: “Still”
Writer: Angela Kang
Director: Julius Ramsey
Previously on “The Walking Dead”:
Back when Frank Darabont was still the showrunner of “The Walking Dead,” he often mentioned that AMC had cut the budget for the second season. Supposedly, one of the AMC executives asked “can’t we just hear the zombies?” as part of the cost cutting strategy.
The opening sequence of “Still” reminded me of that, as Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Beth Greene (Emily Kinney) hid in a car trunk while a horde of walkers went by. It was a good sequence, but that’s not a trick that “The Walking Dead” will be able to repeat with any regularity if it wants to appease the fans.
“Still” is perhaps the first true filler episode of the season. At least the two Governor episodes were meant to humanize him before his full fledged return as the villain in the midseason finale. “Still” isn’t a story as much as it’s a collection of scenes with Beth and Daryl. And for the most part, “Still” felt like a waste of time.
Here’s the plot of “Still” in 16 words: Beth drags Daryl out on a quest for booze before they clash and bond over moonshine. Spoiler alert: they get drunk.
So little happens in this episode that this review doesn’t even need a traditional spoiler warning. Not every episode has to have a status quo shake up or a ridiculous amount of zombie action. But the episodes will always need to have a story. “Still” might be the first episode in the series that doesn’t even try to hold together as a story.
Which isn’t to say that weren’t moments that worked. A few of the scenes between Beth and Daryl have some real bite to them, especially when drunk Daryl takes out his rage, sorrow and frustration on Beth after she angers him during a drinking game. Likewise, the quieter scene at the end of the episode where Beth matter-of-factly predicts her own demise and Daryl’s survival was also a winner. Everything else was superfluous.
I get the feeling that if Beth and Daryl’s appearance in this episode had been a B or a C plot on an episode that featured the other characters then it would have resonated a lot more. The audience loves Daryl Dixon, but Beth has been largely a prop rather than a character in her own right. “Still” tries to change that by allowing Beth to show off more of her personality. The problem is that Beth still isn’t very compelling. And if we can’t care about Beth now then we definitely won’t care about her when she inevitably becomes zombie chow.
Reedus carries the episode as best as he can. Of the two performers, he’s definitely the one with charisma. And the revelation about Daryl’s past just felt right. He wasn’t anything special before the zombie apocalypse. Daryl was Merle’s sidekick as they lived in a haze of criminal activity and drug use. Daryl’s tale about nearly dying at the hands of one of his brother’s junkie friends was particularly harrowing.
Daryl’s immediate anger when Beth guessed that he had been in prison was also a good moment. Prior to this episode, Daryl hadn’t admitted what he had done before the apocalypse; which is why Beth’s dead boyfriend, Zach kept trying to guess what Daryl was before Zach’s untimely end in the fourth season premiere. Zach was trying to create a narrative to explain why Daryl was only slightly short of being a superhero in the zombie apocalypse. The answer was just more straight forward than anyone expected. Daryl is a hero because he was given a chance to step up and become a protector. In the old world, Daryl was useless. In the new world, he’s needed.
Again, Reedus was very effective when Daryl let his guard and showed his grief for Hershel’s death and the way that the prison was lost. Kinney had a few good moments as well, but nothing that justified headlining the entire episode opposite Reedus. It’s really a shame. “The Walking Dead” needed an episode like this to flesh out Beth as a more fully realized character. But the episode just fell short in the execution. “Still” feels like the first draft of a much better episode that needed a few rewrites. Instead of being perfected, “Still” became the most instantly forgettable episode of the season.
