Episode Title: “Us”
Writers: Nichole Beattie & Seth Hoffman
Director: Greg Nicotero
Previously on “The Walking Dead”:
All roads lead to Terminus. Whether that’s a good thing remains to be seen.
“The Walking Dead” Season 4.5 has been a departure from the source material by keeping the former prison survivors separated for seven episodes. Some of the character building moments have been successful, others less so. One important thing to know going into the season finale is that there is no Terminus in the “Walking Dead” comic. But there might be people living there whom you would never want to meet.
On any other show, Terminus could be exactly as advertised. A true sanctuary in the zombie apocalypse. And yet there are no guards at the gate? It seems strangely designed to get visitors to let their guard down. That in of itself makes Terminus feel extremely creepy.
But before the survivors reach the end of the road, there was one last episode about their lives apart. And while “Us” certainly has its moments, I’m glad that this phase of the show is coming to an end.
There are full spoilers ahead for “Us,” so if you happened to miss last night’s penultimate episode of “The Walking Dead” Season 4 then you should probably skip this review before your bunny gets claimed.
I’m not sold on Joe (Jeff Kober) and his band of marauders as the show’s newest adversaries. They seem legitimately dangerous, especially since they are heading to Terminus just to find and kill Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) after the incident in the house a few episodes back. Joe shares the story with his newest recruit, Daryl (Norman Reedus), but he leaves out the part where his men were apparently waiting for Michonne (Danai Gurira) to return so they could rape her.
For his part, Daryl seems to realize just how crazy Joe and his men are. Especially, Len (Marcus Hester), a psycho who goes out of his way to make trouble for Daryl before Joe has him beaten to death for violating his rules. There’s something cartoonishly over-the-top about the whole thing. Joe and his group only seem to exist to give Rick’s reunited group someone to fight in next week’s season finale. But they’re cardboard villains without any compelling characterization. I’m simply indifferent to them.
Rick, Michonne and Carl (Chandler Riggs) are only seen briefly as they get closer to Terminus, but it’s enough to convey just how close that trio is becoming. That’s one of the more endearing aspects of the show. Although it’s less of Rick and Michonne coupling and more of a strong connection between Carl and Michonne.
The bulk of the episode deals with Glenn’s (Steven Yeun) final push to reunite with his wife, Maggie (Lauren Cohan). One of the opening scenes depicts Glenn’s discovery of a sign left by Maggie and co-signed by Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Bob (Lawrence Gilliard, Jr.) that confirms everything that he could have hoped for. The stunned reactions of Sgt. Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz), Rosita Espinosa (Christian Serratos), Dr. Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt) and Tara Chambler (Alanna Masterson) effectively demonstrated their disbelief. It was a great moment that played out in near silence.
While the eventual reunion between Maggie and Glenn was appropriately epic, the heart of the episode belonged to Tara and the script went out of its way to redeem her for joining the Governor earlier this season. As far as we know, Tara is the only survivor of the group that attacked the prison. The penance that Tara has chosen for herself is to help Glenn locate Maggie no matter what it costs her.
Abraham’s early scene with Tara did a lot for his character development, as he sympathized with her and he eventually guessed that Tara’s devotion to Glenn wasn’t born out of any misguided romantic feelings. Abraham liked Glenn and Tara enough to give them some of his supplies before parting ways. But to Abraham, nothing is more important than getting Eugene to Washington so he can help save the world.
Which brings us to Eugene himself. For someone who may (supposedly) be the smartest man still alive (granted, he doesn’t have much competition), Eugene sure speaks like he’s an idiot. It’s not uncommon for some people to hide how smart they are in order to fit in, but this is starting to stretch Eugene’s credibility. Eugene’s attempts to get close to Tara are laughable at best. If the zombie apocalypse ever comes, trying to pick up a woman by talking about video games and home made batteries isn’t likely to work. Or ever work in any context.
In theory, Eugene has a heroic moment in which he tricks Rosita and Abraham into getting him in a position to help Glenn and Tara on the opposite side of the tunnel. But it seems self-serving when Eugene tells Rosita that he did it so he can still live with himself after saving the world. At least the episode provided a laugh when Eugene bungles his plan by lowering his car seat on Abraham’s face.
Inside the tunnel, Glenn makes a number of increasingly dangerous choices to get past all of the walkers inside. But it’s Tara who becomes trapped while trying to make their way through. After a few episodes of taking Tara for granted, Glenn finally gets a redemptive moment of his own by refusing to abandon her. A few seconds later, Glenn is rewarded for his selflessness by a reunion with Maggie, Bob, Sasha, Abraham, Rosita and Eugene.
Glenn also does Tara a solid by introducing her to Maggie as someone he met on the road rather than one of the people who attacked the prison. If the truth ever comes out, Maggie is probably going to be pissed at both of them. But once her mission to help Glenn is over, Tara promptly joins Abraham’s quest to get to Washington because she has no other reason to survive. Her family is long gone and it would just be awkward to stay with Glenn’s group as long as the truth about her previous life was hanging over their heads.
But before Glenn and Abraham’s groups can separate again, they stick together long enough to arrive at the strangely unguarded Terminus; where they are greeted only by Mary (Denise Crosby) and her barbeque platter. I’m not sure what to make of this, but it rarely pays to trust strangers in “The Walking Dead.”
“The Walking Dead” Season 4 is in a state of flux. If next week’s season finale delivers a great episode, it will go a long way towards making the second half of the season worthwhile. However, that’s a pretty big conditional. We’re far off the path of the original storyline, and that’s where “The Walking Dead” has stumbled in the past. Occasionally, “The Walking Dead” TV show has had stronger execution than the comic book’s storyline. But the story detours haven’t really worked out as well.
