'The Walking Dead' Midseason premiere recap

The Walking Dead’s midseason premiere is exactly what I have been craving from this show for the past few seasons. It delves into Tyreese’s reasons and desire to keep surviving. While this has been an undercurrent for the show for seasons “What Happened and What’s Going On” is the first time in a long time the question of whether or not it was worth it to keep surviving was explicitly brought up, let alone decided for one character. That main question was also at least hinted at by both Glenn and, especially, Michonne which means we could be seeing more of these types of episodes in the near future. “What Happened and What’s Going On” was incredibly well executed, engaging, and intense episode that is immediately thrust into one of The Walking Dead’s greatest episodes of all time.

First it’s important to note that the group moved farther from Atlanta in the first minute montage of this episode that it had TWD’s first 59 episodes. The group is on the way to Richmond in hopes of finding the gated community (Shirehilt) where Noah came from still intact. Surprise, it’s not. For some odd reason this seems to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Certainly it is another broken hope to throw on the pile of broken hopes – Eugene’s lie and Beth’s death being the most recent – but it seems like the shot in the dark to a gated suburb in Richmond shouldn’t have the effect on Glenn, Michonne, and Tyreese that it did. Regardless, the effect it did have was exciting.

Michonne most echoed the mindset that I’ve felt the characters should be in since the prison was destroyed. She is tired of being “out here”, meaning she is tired of just surviving on the run and wants to find/make a settlement somewhere. She so desperately wants to find a settlement that she suggests reinforcing Shirehilt before discovering the fortifications are too weak. Rick acquiesces to her argument that Eugene picked Washington, D.C. as the setting of his lie because if there was to be any place of a mass settlement it would be where the U.S. Government once sat. This has a twofold effect of giving the survivors somewhere to go, only 100 miles away from where they currently are, and giving Michonne’s character something to worry about and think about more than just blindly following Rick.

But “What Happened and What’s Going On” was really Tyreese’s episode. After chasing Noah into his former house Tyreese is bit by Noah’s zombified little brother, and eventually another walker, causing an internal dialogue/hallucination featuring the recently deceased visions of Bob, Beth, and Gareth’s brother from the first episode of this season, as well as The Governor and the two girls Carol had to kill in cold blood because they wanted to be friends with zombies. It was clear in this episode that TWD had learned from the mistakes it made when Rick used to see Lori every once in a while to little effect. Now, Tyreese was being cajoled by the visions he saw to let go of a world in which he was no longer suited to live. These were powerful scenes because of their dreamlike feel and the general artistic approach this episode took.

In fact it was a surprise to see TWD use a more artistic approach. For the most part TWD is shot fairly straightforward. The lighting is good and the show is starting to play with episode structure more often but the show usually does not allow much leeway in terms of color palette, camera filters, or even perspective shots. This is what makes the flashes of seemingly random images, at least until they are explained within the episode, so interesting for the show. While they didn’t necessarily add much to the story – mainly being utilized to come back from commercial breaks – these quick image flashes helped create the dreamlike tone, which was much of the focus of the episode.

The internal dialogue, however, made Tyreese’s death much more emotional than any death featured on TWD yet. This wasn’t like Beth’s death, which was random and unexplained, or Bob’s death, which made sense since he could not recover from a leg amputation. This was a fully explained, fully thought out and shocking death. This was a character who seemingly chose to die or, at the very least, chose to stop fighting death. While it wasn’t the first question of whether or not to keep surviving in the entirety of the series it may be the first definitive answer to that question. Tyreese’s death was poignant and resonated emotionally because of this decision he made.

Even though the entire episode was about Tyreese struggling with his inner demons his death was no less shocking in the grand scheme of things. By the time Beth had died her role had been marginalized so much that the sting of her dying was not as intense. So even though Beth’s death was a complete surprise it didn’t add as much to the show as Tyreese’s did. Tyreese’s death was not played simply for shock value and it’s organic nature made everyone realize that not only was this still a dangerous world but that no one is safe, which has not been the general feeling of the show for quite some time. If the physically imposing but kind hearted Tyreese could still be killed off because of one zombie attack then anyone is still capable of dying.

Tyreese’s death also immediately makes Sasha the most interesting character for the foreseeable future. In fact, Sasha’s reaction to all of the events that have taken place this season could be the first time TWD has featured a character whose persona has the chance to drastically change. Even though Lori died and Rick struggled with that we all knew he would remain much the same as he ever was. But Sasha is much more of a wild card now. She already had become ultraviolent in reaction to Gareth killing Bob but now, as evidenced by Tyreese’s funeral, she is completely broken by her brother’s death. And like Tyreese she will hopepfully have to make a decision not only whether or not she wants to continue to live in this world but also how to live in this world. Will she be inspired by Tyreese’s forgiving, kind nature or will she become the inverse to the detriment of herself and the group? Hopefully TWD shows focuses on not only her journey but also the wavering beliefs of the characters while it continually addresses the differences between just surviving and finding some sort of quality of life in this post-apocalyptic landscape.

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