Aaron, Jesus, Daryl and Dog go in search of Eugene. Gabriel and Negan butt heads. Henry makes some bad choices.

Let’s flip this and come at it from the smaller plots first. The Henry stuff is… actually pretty good. yes, as other critics have said, the kids with their pet Walker are massively annoying but this is the exact sort of dangerous, irresponsible bullshit country kids who grew up in the apocalypse would do. Is it stupid? Absolutely. Is it implausible? Allow me to introduce the kid I knew whose hobby was how long he could hold onto electric fences. Or the kid who sold paintballs, to kids without paintball guns. Or the kid who was bored waiting for his chips on the beach and so decided to free climb a twenty foot cliff face in the rain and almost died.

Stupid? Absolutely. But stupid in context.

The Negan and Gabriel stuff is also pretty good and it’s nice Gilliam and Dean Morgan get a chance to bounce off one another. Dean Morgan, despite being a great actor, has I’d argue been badly served on TWD to date. Negan’s dull. There, I said it, he’s boring as hell in his first incarnation. The stupid, incompletely creative profanity, the nihilism, the identikit henchpersons? Dull. This Negan? Much more interesting. The moment where Gabriel blows up at him and he basically takes it and apologises is especially great as is the speech about the window. This is a Negan who has grown by default. A man who is still a monster but has gradually become aware of the fact that the monster inside him no longer quite fills him. The thought of him being free is as exciting as it is terrifying. Exciting because of what he can do. Terrifying because the thought off another multi-season rematch with the Saviors is killingly dull.

Right then, there’s no tapdancing around it any longer; the show is back to doing the worst thing it ever did in the most interesting way and it’s.. honestly kind of hateful. In the past, The Walking Dead has had a thoroughly deserved reputation for treating several areas of its cast appallingly badly. The revolving door on black male leads (Hi T-Dog! Bye T-Dog! Hi Tyrese! Bye Tyrese!) springs instantly to mind as does, more pertinently, the show’s hilariously terrible attitude towards its gay couples. Remember Tara and Doc? Remember how long they lasted? Remember how long from appearing on screen for the first time in a while to being killed Eric lasted? Yeah.

Remember last week when the show hinted that Aaron and Jesus were a thing now? Did you hear the bell toll for Jesus? Did you see the death countdown start? You might as well have. Because here we are, yet again, watching a new story arc be born in the blood of a chronically under-served character. Tom Payne has talked openly about how he was a little bored through lack of use. This excellent piece covers a lot of my objections to the death. Regardless of timing, regardless of whether the character was deeply badly served by the show (and he was), the simple fact is that here perception trumps intent. The showrunner and writer’s room much like their counterparts on Supernatural, I have no doubt would be horrified if they were accused of adversely targeting gay characters or women. But Supernatural has a decade plus long trail of female bodies behind it and this is the second boyfriend Aaron has buried in two seasons.

Look, I get it, I get that you can’t have it both ways. LGBTQ characters, POC characters who are death-proof would run into different problems than the painfully mortal ones we get. The show even has an example. Michonne, who has undergone a complete personality transplant in the five year time jump between episodes. But wouldn’t it be great if they got that chance? Wouldn’t it be great if just once, a show like this had the courage of its convictions and didn’t reach for the minority characters the second it needed a stakes-raising death? Don’t they and we deserve better? And have done for years?

We do. But not this week. Make no mistake, this is a good episode with some high stakes, welcome progression and a great closing fight that introduces a terrifying new villain in a “WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!!’ moment for the ages. But that moment is cheapened by how we get to it and there’s no getting around that. Nor will there be. Because here we are, yet again. 7/10

Alasdair Stuart