Everyone converges on a very odd cabin with some very odd Walkers outside…

This mid season finale is the first time the show asks a lot of you this season and the ask is this: that Strand’s convoy, Alicia, Charlie and Morgan should all happen to verge on the same place. There’s a good reason, to be fair, and what’s there is a lot of fun but this is the price coming due of a half season of everyone being so spread out. Not bad, but for the first time this season, you can kind of hear the narrative cogs turn.

Ed, the lodge owner, is tremendous fun, and has modified Walkers with antlers to scare people away. It works too, and the terrifying Bernie Wrightson-esque creation that stalk the episode are some of the most fun the franchise has had in ages. The EC Comics horror feel is further by Ed’s trajectory through the episode which ends exactly where you think it will. Gory, over the top (there’s some almost 80s classic horror about the ending) and top fun.

Elsewhere the episode does a lot of heavy lifting, with Alicia emerging as an oppositional figure to Virginia, along with Morgan. Better still, the pair both recognise the strategic value of Virginia’s younger sister but approach dealing with her in different ways. Alicia wants to trade her for their old stomping grounds while Morgan wants to take her to his new hiding place. This sort of ‘different paths to the right conclusion’ writing is some of Jacob Pinion’s best work and along with the great direction from Tawnia McKiernan really makes this episode a stylistic standout.

But drama is where it really flexes its muscles. Strand makes his choice, staying with Virginia and the episode not only shows us why but shows us the price Virginia is extracting from him and, just maybe, her own plans. Both of which are connected to a now heavily pregnant and apparently free of radiation Grace from last season. This changes everything where Morgan is concerned especially and sets up some fascinating stakes for the second half of the year.

Verdict: An oddly quiet episode for a mid season finale, this nonetheless covers a lot of ground. It does more heavy lifting than it maybe should but remains a high quality entry in a very high quality of a show that continues to surprise being this good this late in its life. See you in season 6b. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart