Daniel, Strand and Madison are surprised to find themselves reunited with Luciana and Charlie. But the joy is short lived as Troy finds them all.

This one, despite its best efforts, is a bit of a mess. It’s no one’s fault bar the studio’s, but it’s hard not to feel like this episode sprints to cover two episodes’ worth of ground. We get Luciana and Charlie back, closure on Charlie’s murder of Nick, a pair of reveals on Troy and the group we just met falling apart. None of it’s actively bad but all of it feels like it has about two-thirds of the screen time it needs.

That isn’t to say the episode doesn’t work, it often does. Danay Garcia has always been a crucially underused player on the show and her presence in the cast as welcome as it is behind the camera. Likewise, Alexa Nisenson brings a determination to Charlie that’s welcome and interesting. Her choice here, sacrificing herself to deny Troy a bargaining tool, is an interesting and effective one. If it had happened more than 15 minutes after she returned to the show it would have had much more impact. The situation is only made worse by how interesting Luciana and Charlie’s plot is. Luciana running a supply network across States with Charlie as one of her drivers is a great idea! There’s clearly so much you could do with those lines of communication! But not here.

The situation is worsened still by Madison’s frantic arc through the episode. Vengeful to grief stricken berserker to reluctantly working with Troy to penitently taking herself off the field of play is great but in one episode?! It’s so much not all of it lands and given Kim Dickens’ relentless commitment to the role that’s a real shame. Daniel Sharman is arguably the only cast member who actually gets some room to breathe and the episode throws some interesting stuff Troy’s way, including the revelation he’s a father now. It also gives us one of the cruellest moves in the franchise to date, as we find out Troy has been lopping the arms off Walkers to torment Madison into checking if each one is Alicia.

Verdict: There are some great ideas this episode and a lot of ground covered but it’s all at a dead sprint. Hopefully later episodes will either slow down or find their stride. 6/10

Alasdair Stuart