The war with the Saviors continues, Gregory tries to come home and the Coalition leaders come face to face with the consequences of their actions so far.

This is a difficult episode to write about for two reasons. The first is that like so much of The Walking Dead right now it’s massively serialized. There’s internal resolution but looking at this as an individual hour of TV is if not impossible then certainly difficult.

The second is that the quality of this episode varies wildly depending on what plot you follow. And by wildly I mean WILDLY.

The good stuff first. The PoWs Jesus and co captured last week become the living embodiment of the show’s central ethical dilemma this week. The Saviors are monsters. They’ve killed countless innocent people.

But they surrendered. And as Jesus puts it, they’re the people everyone will have to live with once the war is over.

He’s right. He’s also wrong. Likewise Tara and Morgan, who both want to execute the prisoners, are right. They’re broken humans who don’t deserve to live.

But they’re tied up. Unarmed. Prisoners.

This all culminates in a well put together fight between Morgan and Jesus, and Morgan apparently leaving. While the cynical response is ‘Well, that’s Lennie James popping out to film Blade Runner 2049 then’ it feels real, and weighted, and earned. This is the latest horrible thing in the endless stream of horrible things these folks have had to do. Morgan’s done. At least for now.

The Rick and Daryl plot is also, mostly, fun. Rick gets a well written reality check from Morales which lasts just long enough for Daryl to shoot the man in the throat. That needs to be picked up on further down the line, and we’re sure will be as the struggle to fight monsters rather than be them continues. Other than that Rick and Daryl don’t do a hell of a lot this week but they’re both such ridiculously good performers you don’t mind.

That’s the end of the good news.

The Ezekiel and Carol plot this episode marks time. Ezekiel gets to do a few speeches which are always fun and it’s actually the one front of the war that’s going pretty well. And right around the time you realize that is also the time you realize what’s coming. Ezekiel, Carol and Jerry’s team walk into a slaughter and while the consequences of it will be interesting, we spend this entire episode building up to that point. This is the price you pay for serialized storytelling.

Then there’s Eric and Aaron and the ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope. I don’t quite have the research links memorized but it’s getting pretty close at this point. The links are at the end of the piece. Read them. Get angry. I did.

Gay characters are underrepresented on TV in every way other than death. 2016 was a banner year for gay character slaughter, so much so that comment was passed on it in major trade magazines. There were the vaguest noises about learning and doing things differently and off we merrily went.

Last week, American Horror Story featured one character poisoning her wife to death. To be fair, it’s AHS, this sort of thing isn’t uncommon and at least had context.

Last week, after seasons of functionally nothing, Eric, Aaron’s boyfriend, was prominently featured. And promptly shot.

This week he died.

The show, in fairness, gives him a fantastic final scene. It gives him agency and heroism and makes it clear he and Aaron are deeply and completely in love.

But it still kills him.

And worse, adds him to the multiple previous gay relationships that have ended this way.

The logical defence here is that the show is called The Walking Dead and no one’s safe. That’s understandable. Until you look at the figures linked below. Gay characters aren’t characters. They’re drama fuel. And anything that the show does with Aaron after this is going to be coloured by the forced, cack-handed loss of his partner.

And I’m not saying gay characters should be invincible. No one should, especially in a show like this. I am very definitely saying that gay characters shouldn’t be first on the chopping block as they ALWAYS, *ALWAYS* seem to be. Especially not for a show like this that does almost everything else so well.

Verdict: So, some good parts, some terrible parts this week. When the show’s good it’s great, when it’s bad it’s trapped in the mire of tropes that continually, endlessly hold us down. It, Eric, Aaron and us all deserve so much better. Maybe next week we’ll get it. 4/10

Alasdair Stuart

https://www.out.com/news-opinion/2017/7/11/62-lesbian-bisexual-female-characters-killed-over-past-two-television-seasons

https://www.glaad.org/whereweareontv16

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BuryYourGays

https://www.themarysue.com/lexa-bury-your-gays/