'The Walking Dead' Recap: 'Them' Slows to a Glooming Crawl

For those who thought last week's "What Happened and What's Going On" was a slow farewell to the kindness and optimism of Tyreese was slow, then this week's pensive and dour "Them" was a slog through emotional mud. It is incredible to see how quickly the group's outlook has changed over the past four-ish episodes. In "Them" not only does everyone question their willingness to keep going -- to differing success -- but the crew gets to deal with their feelings as they traipse aimlessly down the backroads of Virginia with little water and next to no food. But for those who have always wanted to watch Daryl smoke a cigarette and cry "Them" was your episode.

"Them" was the ultimate slow down episode. After having taken all of a minute to travel from Georgia to Richmond, VA in the very beginning of last week's episode, "Them" made sure to slow things down to a zombie pace. Apparently they have been on the road for three weeks so far and the Virginia climes have not been welcoming. There has been a drought, the deer have already been half eaten, and it's oh so very hot. And if the weather wasn't bad enough the recent dashed hopes of Eugene's cure and Beth and Tyreese's deaths have put everyone into a fatigued, dejected state. While there needed to be some fallout from Tyreese's death, "Them" was far too slow and quiet.

For much of the first two-thirds of the episode there was silence, or just about. When Gabriel tries to talk to Maggie she tells him to leave her alone. Glenn attempts to rally both Maggie and Sasha but to no avail. Instead everyone feels better to trudge along with no conversation as a horde of zombies follows behind. But aside from Sasha's way of dealing with Tyreese's death there really wasn't much added to the excellent opening scene of Maggie crying, taking an interlude to slowly dispatch of a zombie, and then returning to cry. Everyone is on their last legs and it doesn't help that both their vans have run out of gas.

This is not to say that it's not important for the characters to deal with everything that has happened recently but "Them" does it in one of the most boring ways possible. Aside from Rick, Michonne, and Sasha everyone is in the same state of affairs. They're all quiet, they all want to be left alone, but they all don't really seem to be at a breaking point. There was never a point where it seemed like any character would actually just give up. Perhaps that's because we've been with these characters for so long and they've survived this long despite what they've been through but it didn't actually seem like Maggie was ever going to just stop and let everyone continue, no matter how vacant and dead her expression was. Though she puts on a good show it doesn't seem as though she really addresses whether or not she wants to continue.

However Sasha's way of dealing with the recent losses was very different and much needed. Unlike most of the other group members, Sasha is angry to the point where she is not in the right frame of mind to make good decisions for herself or the group. She wants to take her grief out on the horde of zombies following them despite Michonne's advice. When Sasha decides to attack the zombies head on, which is in direct violation of the plan to lure the zombies down into a riverbed, she puts herself and the group in danger as they must then fight the zombies. The tension between her and Michonne was palpable and much needed. It's hard to show inner strife on screen so Sasha's outward anger was a breath of fresh air from the brooding gloom hanging over the group.

After the group takes out a group of feral dogs and cooks them and Gabriel burns his priest collar something interesting happens. In the middle of the road the group finds bottles and jugs filled with water. They decide they can't drink them because they are tainted. But where did they come from and who put them there? Unfortunately this isn't really explored as the heavens open up, causing Gabriel to repent for giving up on God, and rain pours down on them. The show doesn't really allow this to break the mood too much, however, as the storm almost immediately turns into one of the worst thunderstorms ever. They have to go to a barn Daryl found during his smoke and cry to take up shelter for the night.

Again more brooding but this time its punctuated by Rick telling a war story about his grandfather, coming to the conclusion that the group must consider themselves the walking dead for now, which rubs Daryl the wrong way. This could have been an interesting point if not for the lengthy and not very well explained exposition required to set this belief up. Luckily Daryl storms off in a huff, refusing to accept Rick's thought, to find a horde of zombies coming towards the barn. What follows is the most tense moment of the show in which the characters, almost one by one, jump up to join Daryl and hold the barn doors close so they don't all get eaten. It seems they have made their choice to survive. But after an entire episode of some people supposedly questioning their will to survive the reasons behind everyone helping went unexplored and the reaction to that event came far too late. It would have been nice to see everyone maybe smiling, maybe laughing while holding the doors back -- something that broke the gloom and made their choice for them.

The next morning Maggie and Sasha go out to have a little chat to find all the zombies conveniently pinned down underneath fallen trees that made sure to fall around the barn and not hit it. This along with the rain and Gabriel's faith questioning may reopen some discussions about God that really don't need to happen again. As Maggie and Sasha finally are able to smile over a seemingly broken music box a random person named Aaron, who somehow knows Rick's name, comes upon them and asks to speak with the group. Who knows what his role in everything will be but introducing a random potential new threat didn't exactly feel right for this moment in the story.