Anyways, today I will indeed be ranking my favorite episodes from the 10-season run of AMC's The Walking Dead. I enjoy the series for its survival drama intrigue, its realistic depiction of what our world might look like after an unrealistic zombie apocalypse, its constant reinvention of itself with new creative storylines to keep the series fresh, and its amazing character stories as the humans change through years of survival. I figured that a Walking Dead list would be topical for two reasons: the tenth season just ended earlier this month, and the show's world of empty cities and a frightening pandemic has felt quite close to home during the last few months. I mean, the characters of this series are world-class experts in social distancing by now - let's hope the Covid-19 situation clears up before we have to resort to violent supply runs and cannibalistic cults!
Here are my honorable mentions: Conquer (Season 5 Episode 16), Evolution (Season 9 Episode 8), Internment (Season 4 Episode 5), Pretty Much Dead Already (Season 2 Episode 7), The Grove (Season 4 Episode 14)
10. Honor (Season 8 Episode 9)
To understand how hard this episode hit me, one must understand my investment in the character Carl Grimes. Chandler Riggs, who plays him, is the same age as me, so his character grew up much as I did. When the series started in 2010, he was a small 10-year-old boy, and when I started watching around 2014 or so, his character was a teenager like I was. And every year with the new season, he had grown up and I saw a reflection of myself in him, while the show's apocalyptic nature gave his character arch a lot of power as he grew from scared little kid to brave young man. And so, the character's death was very emotional for me. What made it even greater was the character's incredible courage in the face of death: after getting bit by a walker, Grimes uses his final moments to help people to safety, spend time with his baby sister, and write letters to all the most important people (including one to the villain Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), where he urges him to stop the violent warfare between survivor communities and make peace). The episode is a perfect exit for Carl with its heartbreaking yet beautiful nature.
9. Beside The Dying Fire (Season 2 Episode 13)
The season 2 finale was a game-changer. By now, fans of the series are used to homes and communities being under attack and going up in flames, but at this stage it was quite a new and big thing. The Greene family farm, where season 2 took place, was the first real long-term home for the main group of characters, and it had become a cozy setting that the viewers were used to. But after gunshots attracted a horde of walkers to overrun the farm, this season finale followed the main characters in a sequence of unforeseen panic and chaos as the farm is destroyed and they try to escape in one piece. The episode also revealed that the virus affects everyone who dies (not just the people who get bitten), introduced the fan-favorite character Michonne (Danai Gurira), and ended with an epic shot of the prison where season 3 would take place - what more could you ask from a season finale?
8. Walk With Us (Season 10 Episode 12)
The most recent episode to make my list, this season 10 episode surprised fans positively with its Shakespearean power dynamics that one might not expect from the 10th season of a zombie series. Viewers will remember this as the episode where the villain Alpha (Samantha Morton) is finally killed by former-villain-turned-anti-hero Negan, but it's so much more than just a big death. It's a moment that brings both character archs to a perfect climax, after being built towards very well. It's the perfect end for Alpha, as her evil ways go too far for even Negan, as Alpha's decision to kill her own daughter (a plan that thankfully never comes to fruition) is the final nail in the coffin for Negan's decision. It's also a game-changing moment for Negan, who finally proves his worth to the good guys with this act.
Fans had wondered where Negan's loyalties lied as he had showed signs of redemption before shockingly joining forces with the nefarious Whisperers, but this episode revealed that he had been there to get close enough to Alpha that he could slit her throat. What makes this even better are the complicated morals that went into Negan's decision - killing Alpha took so long because a part of him enjoyed being with the Whisperers and being a "bad guy" once again. That makes it so much more powerful when he finally decides to do the right thing at a critical moment.
7. The Day Will Come When You Won't Be (Season 7 Episode 1)
The Walking Dead has always had a knack for impressive season openers, and this one was especially memorable - by being possibly the most shocking TV episode of all time (at least right up there with Game Of Thrones's The Rains Of Castamere). Long before the character Negan became an anti-hero that viewers wanted to root for, he was a frightening and powerful villain. After being introduced in the final scene of the sixth season, Negan truly made his mark as a force to be reckoned with in this episode. Killing off not one but two major character in a season opener is quite the bold move, especially when one of them is Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun), a man who had been there since the beginning and who the fans absolutely loved. They're both killed by Negan in this season premiere as an ultimate show of force, a way of Negan telling the main survivor group that they don't want to cross him. Of course they eventually would, leading to the war between the communities in season 8, but Negan's actions in this episode held Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and company back for a long time - as well as cementing Negan as one of TV's greatest antagonists.
6. The Calm Before (Season 9 Episode 15)
Speaking of shocking, well, this episode. While season 9 was largely memorable for being significantly more uplifting than previous seasons as the survivors finally start to build a new world instead of mourning the loss of the old society, the season still had its dark moments. Chief among them is this penultimate episode, featuring the by-now infamous pike death scene. The Calm Before is a perfect title for the episode, as everything until the final scene feels like an edge-of-your-seat build-up to something huge that's about to happen - who didn't feel nervous chills down their spine when Alpha simply walked through the fair in the Kingdom while in disguise?
The final scene sure was a gut punch. Multiple major and minor characters are killed off at once, and the way this is revealed is truly heartbreaking. The Whisperers leave the heads of the people they killed on top of pikes at the border between the territories, and the scene goes back and forth between people in the Kingdom realizing that some of them are missing, and a group of main characters finding these heads and realizing who they have lost. Melissa McBride's acting as Carol is absolutely phenomenal, as she sees the head of her adoptive son Henry (Matthew Lintz) on the final pike, and breaks down in tears. The dramatic soundtrack makes this scene all the more powerful, all of this making for a truly gut-wrenching moment.
5. No Sanctuary (Season 5 Episode 1)
As I mentioned before, The Walking Dead has some seriously awesome season premieres - none more so than this heart-pounding extravaganza that kicked off the show's fifth season. Season 4 had ended with quite the cliffhanger (more on that later), and the fallout was absolutely breathtaking. Instead of dragging the Terminus storyline out for a season or more (the series has been known to drag storylines out), the threat is dealt with in one incredibly action-packed episode. The cult-like cannibals of Terminus are about to kill the main group of survivors, when Carol (who is outside the facility at the time) begins to break them out by going full Rambo and blowing up a propane tank to distract the Terminus residents and attract walkers to the era.
This leads to an expertly directed adrenaline-inducing sequence of chaos as the group of survivors escapes in the midst of walkers, cult members and fallout of the explosion. After all of the episode's intensity, we get a heartwarming ending as the group reunites with Carol and makes their way far away from Terminus. And as a cherry on top of this delicious cake, the episode featured a post-credit scene where popular character Morgan (Lennie James) made an epic return! No other season of television has started quite this explosively.
4. A (Season 4 Episode 16)
The episode that preceded the previously mentioned one, A is a very unconventional season finale. It isn't so much climactic as it is a set-up for the climax that would take place in the season 5 premiere, and this works surprisingly well. A lot of season 4 had been spent leading up to the potential safe-haven of Terminus, as the main group had split into smaller groups who were all heading there. In this episode, Rick and his fellow survivors finally arrive in Terminus, only to discover that there is something very off about the place. The entire episode dives deeper and deeper into the mystery of what exactly is going on there, making the viewers feel very invested and excited as the tension builds.
All of this culminates in the final scene, where the group is trapped in a cargo container by the cannibals running Terminus, as Rick delivers his iconic line "They're gonna feel pretty stupid when they find out - they're fucking with the wrong people". AMC actually gave the series special permission to use the F-bomb in this scene, as the line was so fitting that it had to be said in the same way as it is in Robert Kirkman's awesome graphic novels that the show is based on. And that's a good thing, too - it just may be one of the most memorable TV lines of all time, making for one of the best season-ending cliffhangers ever.
3. No Way Out (Season 6 Episode 9)
I love stories that get very dark and desperate yet end up with a surprisingly happy ending - the bigger the challenges have been, the more powerful a happy ending feels. That phenomenon is very much present in this season 6 episode; halfway through the episode, all hope seems lost. Carl has lost an eye, Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge) and her sons have brutally died, and a gigantic horde of walkers has overrun Alexandria as the surviving major characters hide away in the dark, essentially waiting for their inevitable deaths. And in this moment of unforeseen desperation, the tables turn in the most magical way.
Of course, it's Rick Grimes who first decides to go down fighting. When he and others go outside, shooting at the walkers, they soon realize that they actually have a fighting chance to salvage their home and come out of this alive. Soon enough, Daryl (Norman Reedus) and his group return to Alexandria from their detour in the nick of time, and begin to fire upon the walkers. Glenn, who had been thought to be dead by his beloved Maggie (Lauren Cohan), also makes his way back and has a sweet reunion with her. When this incredibly well-directed battle sequence is finished, the horde is gone and Alexandria has survived. While everything else in the episode has happened during the dark of night, the final scene takes place during the next day and is very bright, symbolizing the uplifting nature of the episode's outcome. In this scene, Carl is recovering from his wound, and has a profound conversation with his father about the hope that the future will bring. Truly powerful stuff.
2. Too Far Gone (Season 4 Episode 8)
The first two thirds of this episode are some of the most suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat moments of tension that I have ever come across in television (as well as cinema). The Governor (David Morrissey), one of the show's best human villains, has returned and is now trying to take over the prison that the main group of survivors inhabit. He has taken two major characters, Hershel (Scott Wilson) and Michonne, hostage, as he negotiates with Rick from outside the prison, with a small army of followers behind him. The tension of this portion is so incredible, with the soundtrack and cinematography and everything else signifying that something big is about to happen, causing some major goosebumps to any first-time viewer. This segment of tension-building comes to an end when the Governor chops Hershel's head off - and the rest of the episode is even better.
The final 20 minutes or so are a sequence of chaotic action that has been outdone in television only by Game Of Thrones's battle of Hardhome. The direction, shock value and overall chaotic atmosphere are off the charts, as the situation gets more and more insane - people are shooting each other, walkers arrive and start killing people from both sides, the major characters get separated as they try to escape, the Governor is killed yet the fighting rages on, no side wins as the prison goes up in flames, and somehow in the midst of all this, Daryl Dixon has the time to dispose of a tank in a very badass fashion.
Too Far Gone was a very game-changing episode for the series; it disposed of the prison, that had been the show's setting for a long time, but it also changed the nature of the show's storytelling. Up until that point, the main group had been one intact group who shared their adventures together. Now, it got split up into several smaller groups, whose individual stories would be followed in the rest of season 4. The episode's final shot, where a severely wounded Rick Grimes and his son Carl make their way forward as we see the burning prison facility in the background, is a memorable moment signifying the fact that after this point, the series would never be the same.
1. What Comes After (Season 9 Episode 5)
Rick Grimes is the best character of the series. He's the second-most badass television character of all time (the one ahead of him is obviously 24's Jack Bauer and any other opinion is false). After being the heart and soul of the series for over eight seasons, it was time for Grimes to be written out, as Andrew Lincoln was moving towards other acting projects. Thankfully, the series managed to stay good without its original leading man - but not before giving him the most perfect exit one could imagine.
Rick's final episode is a love letter to the whole series and to his character. As he struggles to stay alive from his injuries, he flashes back to past moments and has strange visions, allowing for characters like Shane (Jon Bernthal) and Hershel to reprise their roles in some nostalgic and poignant scenes. After a long while of this, Rick arrives at his explosive end (or so the viewer is meant to think) as he realizes the only way to protect his community from the approaching herd is to blow up the bridge that he had built after the war with Negan. The symbolism of the scene is striking, as is the acting as Michonne (Danai Gurira) watches, horrified that she can't help the man she loves. Rick destroys the bridge, saving everyone in the group and going down with the explosion, and this makes for an emotional and satisfying end to his character.
...But they didn't leave it at that. Rick is found by the mysterious Jadis (Polyanna McIntosh) down the river, and she rescues him, carrying him to a helicopter. Mind you, this isn't the typical "character thought to be dead is rescued at the last moment" -cliché - Andrew Lincoln was leaving the series, so they weren't keeping his character alive just to boost ratings. The manner of his exit is made so much more epic by this last-minute reveal: while the emotional power of his "sacrifice" remains intact as all the main characters believe him to be dead, it is quite heartwarming to know that Grimes is still somewhere out there. And the mysterious nature of the helicopter group that Jadis belonged to is left deliciously open, so that anyone can imagine where exactly Rick is headed and what he'll do there - hopefully this might one day be answered in a Rick Grimes follow-up movie. All in all, that helicopter scene made his exit even more perfect, guaranteeing that this was the show's best episode by far.
...But there's still more. I was sure that the episode was over as Rick was seen flying off into the unknown, yet after a moment of silence we got one more scene. The series jumped ahead six years, where the rest of the series would take place (what other series would have the balls to make a six-year time jump in the middle of a season?). There, we see a new group of characters near Alexandria being attacked by walkers, and then getting rescued by a young girl. The girl (Cailey Fleming) introduces herself as Judith Grimes, in a moment that made the hearts of The Walking Dead fans everywhere bounce with excitement. The original main character may have left the series, but Judith (who had been just a baby before this time jump) was there now to ensure that the Grimes family and Rick's legacy will always be the heart and soul of the series.
Thanks for reading! Tune in next week for my list of the top 10 documentary films of all time!
No comments:
Post a Comment