A terrible boss. A pissed off employee. The Walker apocalypse. A… time loop?

This may be my all time favourite episode of the franchise. It plays like a gore-soaked Twilight Zone episode. There’s a sense of glee to the whole thing as franchise veteran Michael Satrazemis finds endless new ways to blow up Blair and Gina. There’s always a gas station. There’s always a standoff. There’s always an explosion. Sometimes there’s murder.

Don’t look for an explanation for this, there isn’t one and it isn’t needed although I’m already having fun figuring one out. Blair and Gina are stuck in the worst Groundhog Day ever and as they get violent, then sad, then honest, the show’s biggest strength comes to the fore. Kari Drake, a veteran of Limitless and Defiance among others, has put together a script that sparks and snaps with the same barely contained rage as its leads. It’s funny and kind and unbearably sad and there are two moments of absolutely perfect writing here in the middle of a sea of great writing. Drake’s a major talent, and I hope she’s recognized as such.

The script by itself is excellent. The script in the hands of legendary talent Jillian Bell and Parker Posey is outstanding. Bell has patiently been the best part of casts of bigger names for years and here she is flat out brilliant as Gina, the world’s most put upon receptionist. No one has ever dropped a coffee mug with more exhausted venom or balanced action heroine badassery with the long-suffering ‘Oh COME ON!’ energy of someone who gets to the gas station just as it closes. This is some of her all time best work and given who she is, that’s saying something. Likewise Posey, indie cinema legend, who embraces what we expect of her right up until she doesn’t. Spiky and snarly and self-righteous she’s the worst boss in the world until we realize all Blair is actually doing is wearing a mask to cover up how close she is to coming apart. They hate each other. They kill each other over and over. They’re heroines together. They’re friends. They’re survivors. Like last week’s protagonists, you like them instantly. Even if they die a lot more.

Verdict: Crackling with energy and petroleum fumes and crammed full of great lines (I think my favourite is ‘I’m a stone cold killer.’ ‘She killed me five times.’) this is the oddest episode of a Walking Dead show ever and my favourite by a long way. Let the weirdness and easter eggs drag you in, stay for the performances, the heart and the fun. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart