Entertainer’s The Walking Dead Recap

For many, the season seven premiere of The Walking Dead (TWD) was the final episode they could endure.

And can you really blame them? After all, it had one of the most horrifyingly graphic moments since the show began in 2010. The ultimate question boils down to whether the show can retain the fans it lost last week.

But last night only served to prolong that query.

The second episode offered TWD fans a moment of cathartic respite from the premiere. After watching the gruesome deaths –to put it mildly- of Abraham and Glenn last week, this installment gave fans a binary that deviated from the main storyline of the protagonist and the group at large. As usual, Robert Kirkman introduced us to a handful of eccentric characters, which we will try to summarize for you.

We are re-introduced to Carol’s predicament, which entailed suffering near fatal wounds from her pursuers, who we later learn are a part of the ‘Saviors’ group—the barbaric nomads who were responsible for Rick and his group’s captivity. After, narrowly escaping a zombie encounter, Carol is brought to a large encampment of survivors by Morgan. This new band of survivors, who call their outpost, ‘the kingdom,’ seem to have a blissful demeanor as Carol immediately shows great disdain for the newfound group.

Her qualms become exacerbated after Morgan guides her to the leader of the town, who calls himself ‘King Ezekiel.’ This new character comes across as an erudite, rational individual until he begins to show off his pet tiger and labels himself as a literal king among his cadre of people. However, this comes as a welcomed surprise as Carol and Morgan have become accustomed to meeting others who attempt to end their lives in the past.

The Carol arc has seemed to subside as she has finally found her inner ethos: gritty, non-credulous and independent. Those character traits come to fruition in this episode, which to our delight gave us a moment of clarification and solidarity to a show that seems to bounce from one plot point to the next. Eventually, Ezekiel –who is the owner of a giant CGI tiger- finds her attempting to escape from the compound.

Despite his discovery, Ezekiel resolved to divulge his past after recanting his elegant, theatrical rhetoric -which was comparable to that of an actor portraying a king in the medieval times- in favor of his natural dialogue. He recalls when he used to work at as a former zookeeper –thereby explaining how he acquired a giant tiger- and becoming the leader of a small group of runaways by acting as a larger-than-life leader who is able to tame a wild animal. This doesn’t seem to sway Carol, who elects to steal away from the encampment and live in an abandoned shack after saying a momentary farewell to Morgan.

While the episode did not cease to impress on many levels, nor did it resolve us to come limping back to the show, it showed us that TWD can offer its fans an alternative to bone-crushing murder on a consistent basis. The acting was subpar at best, but it nevertheless served as a breath of fresh air for many who may have decided to abandon the show altogether. It will be telling of the future relevancy of the show if the writers can steer its fans away from choosing other options next week.