The Walking Dead Recap: 'No Way Out' from Comic Roots

The Walking Dead returned with explosive, zombie eradicating fury.  Never before have our merry band of survivors been so overrun by zombies and chosen to stand and fight instead of run away.  Never have they been in so much individual “peril.”  And never has the show so fully embraced its comic book hero roots.  And yet, TWD has never felt more mundane and disappointing than in “No Way Out.”

Aside from the opening scene in which Abraham, Sasha and Daryl are briefly stopped by a motorcycle gang who namedrop an unknown baddie named Negan, the bulk of the episode takes place in Alexandria and picks up where “Start to Finish” left off – Alexandria’s walls caved in by a lot of zombies who now roam the streets. But it was this opening scene that finally showed TWD’s true essence. It is sometimes easy to forget that TWD’s source material is a long running comic book. There are no colorful tights, no “super powers” (unless you consider surviving as a power) and no recurring supervillains. When Daryl disappears for a minute behind the tanker, only to fire an rpg and blow up Negan’s gang does “No Way Out” remind you, in a big way, that TWD is a comic book. And being a comic book means that, eventually, everything will return to the status quo with only a few minor scrapes, bruises and cosmetic differences.

Having to return to the status quo means no matter how ridiculous a scenario that is unfolding in Alexandria none of our main characters will die and all will finally return. This is exactly what happened. Sure, Jessie and her two worthless sons don’t make it through the night – thank goodness. And despite Ron shooting a gun and hitting Carl right in the eye, at near point blank range, Carl does not die instantaneously. In fact, despite the screaming Jessie and the gunshot attracting all sorts of zombies to Rick and Michonne, they easily make their way through the horde to get to the infirmary. And then Rick, in a fit or shocked rage goes back out to have himself a nice little zombie-killing party.

Luckily, by the time Rick had gotten to the infirmary, Denise had escaped The Wolf’s capture with both his help and finally, Carol shooting him – though after she realized The Wolf was helping her get away. After the back and forth of who is changing who, it seems Morgan and Denise had a bit more of an effect than The Wolf had over Denise. And of course Denise had changed drastically since she was first too afraid to operate on anyone to where she is now ready to save Carl’s life when Rick arrives. But much of this back and forth between Denise and The Wolf seems like wasted time in hindsight as it only really set up the need for Carol to change/show Carol her way of thinking is not correct because she is also at fault for Sam not being able to continue through the zombies (via the wonders of voice flashback). Carol recognizes she has done something wrong after killing The Wolf, but how much she will be blamed remains to be seen. There could be something interesting that evolves from this, if it is revealed that Carol has been seen as a villain by many of the other Alexandrians as well, but remember status quo.

Glenn and Enid create a half-cocked distraction to save Maggie, which puts Glenn in immediate jeopardy. But don’t worry because Sasha and Abraham return just in the nick of time to save Glenn from the quickly descending zombies. And during this Rick has been joined by both his group (even Gabriel) and original Alexandrians alike as they very easily slaughter the zombies. Remember when everyone was afraid of zombies? Now the completely untrained Alexandrians are dispatching them quickly and efficiently without any losses. So much for any logical explanation as to why Rick and his crew had become so good at killing them. And after everyone gets a few good slashes at the audience via zombie POV shots Daryl fills the lake with fuel from the tanker he luckily stumbled upon in the forest and wastes a rocket to start a fire and attract the remaining zombies.

Covered in blood, but otherwise none the worse for wear, Rick’s group and the Alexandrians are now shown as one distinct group as they wait outside the infirmary the morning after. Rick has a nice little soliloquy to an unconscious Carl about finally believing in the Alexandrians and that Alexandria is worth fighting for before Carl squeezes Rick’s hand. Who, aside from his one eye, is almost certainly fine. And while losing an eye is nothing to scoff at, it certainly feels like a cosmetic loss more than anything. Now everyone is back in Alexandria, most unscathed, and are ready to continue surviving through any “dangers” that await them. Though after “No Way Out” there is no way zombies can represent serious danger any longer.