The Walking Dead Review: Episode 5×09 “What Happened and What’s Going On”

Has the The Walking Dead lost some of it’s Mojo? In what can be best described as an episode that’s a work of art, we absorb another gut shot. But why?

The Walking Dead — In an attempt to honor Beth (Emily Kinney) and reunite Noah (Tyler James Williams) with his family outside of Richmond, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) decides to lead the group north with the hope that a happy family reunion and the safety of walls lies ahead. With everyone still reeling from the loss of Bob (Lawrence Gilliard Jr.) and Beth, the group seems to be hanging on by the thinnest of emotional threads. Hope, for something better and more normal, is the small lifeline that’s maintaining sanity for nearly everyone. When the long trip north ends with the discovery that the safe haven containing Noah’s home has been destroyed by someone unknown and overrun by walkers, hope it would seem, is slowly fading for everyone.

In attempt to at least salvage what supplies they can from the destroyed neighborhood, the group spreads out and leaves the grieving Noah to be comforted by Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman). When Noah and Tyreese enter the boy’s former home, they find the rotting corpse of his mother, smashed and beaten. While a tearful Noah covers his mother’s body, Tyreese learns Rick’s advice earlier in the season to be true. Letting his guard down, just for a second, Tyreese is surprised and bitten by Noah’s brother. As the fever settles in and the loss of blood mounts, Tyreese’s fading consciousness becomes a battle of the both dead friends and enemies that have haunted him in this new world. Despite the group’s attempt to sever the arm and save Tyreese, his inner struggle ends with those he’s loved and lost allowing him to slip away into death in peace. The emotional heartache of Tyreese’s eventual loss will likely rock this group to its core once again. How many more blows can this group take? We don’t known, but one thing is for certain—this show will never be the same and neither will we as we explore the raging battle in Tyreese’s mind, over his soul, in this week’s episode of The Walking Dead!

Guilt is a weight like none other. Is there room for a man of conscience in a world of the dead?

At it’s deepest level, that seemed to be the fundamental question floating in Tyreese’s mind throughout his struggle. Could a man, despite horrific losses, forgive others who had wronged him? Could the good man he always aspired to be, the one that always paid the high price of living, continue in a world where the dead walk? Could he forgive himself for things he had done or should have done? Could a man with a good heart continue to make a difference in a world gone mad? Part of Tyreese’s mind certainly didn’t think so. We’d hoped we’d seen the last of Martin (Chris Coy), but somewhere from the most troubled part of Tyreese’s mind, he appeared.

“I tried to tell you. I tried to tell you, man. It was gonna be you. You’re the kind of guy who saves babies. You think Gareth (Andrew J. West) would have been able to follow you guys if you’d have just put a bullet in my brain? Cut me up like your sister did?” ~ Vision Martin

As a dazed and struggling Tyreese descended further into his own subconscious, the voices of others became his internal struggle.Vision Martin certainly had a point. Had Tyreese simply killed him, much of what happened after, especially Bob’s death and Beth’s, may have never taken place.

“If I hadn’t told them that you were there, maybe Gareth wouldn’t have gone after you. Maybe they wouldn’t be dead. Maybe Bob wouldn’t be dead. Maybe him being alive, maybe something about that would have changed things with Beth. Domino shit.” ~ Vision Martin

Domino shit. Chaos theory reduced to its fundamental and crudest form. One simple action or inaction can cause a domino effect that spirals out of control. The visions of Bob, Beth, Lizzie (Brighton Sharbino) and Mika (Kyla Kenedy) all argued against this idea. It happened the way it was supposed to happen. It was okay now they said. Better now even. But guilt is a powerful thing and the dominoes fall once things are set in motion.

We don’t completely understand the depth and meaning of this episode overall other than to know that Tyreese was a good-hearted man in a world of coldness. Perhaps we won’t understand it for some time. Writer Scott M. Gimple may have felt the need for us to understand that the weight of the world can burden a man the most when he faces death and that a man’s conscience can only bend so far before it breaks. But despite the weight, in the moment when death takes someone, their spirit and will can indeed win. As much as we do not understand Tyreese’s death, his absence on the show will be felt.

Chad L. Coleman was a superb and unwavering middle ground on The Walking Dead. His beliefs, warm smile and his heart were his guiding principles. Despite the world eroding around him, Coleman kept us believing in good when everyone else might not. Tyreese’s moments of forgiveness and grief were beautiful in their simplicity. This big, powerful man had perhaps the most clear heart of anyone on this show. Tyreese will be missed. Chad L. Coleman’s poignant and emotional portrayal of Tyreese made sure of that.

Hope is the ray of light that makes taking the next step possible.

As the group, and especially Noah, realize that their destination is hopeless, the small and thin lifelines that held on to everyone seemed to be fading away. Rick will have to be stronger than ever to hold this group together, but even he must be wavering. They are on the edge of sanity and as Michonne (Danai Gurira) reminded us early in the season, surviving isn’t living. With the hope that one more trip, a last jaunt to Washington, might finally provide the refuge they desperately need, Michonne was once again the one person that could see past the now and hang on to hope.

“What if it’s someplace that we can be safe? We’re 100 miles away. It’s a possibility. It’s a chance. Instead of just being out here. Instead of just making it. Because right now, this is what making it looks like. Don’t you want one more day with a chance?” ~ Michonne

Danai Gurira was beautiful in that moment. Her lips trembled and her eyes pleaded with Rick to hear her words. The threads of hope were withering away. This group needed a dream of something good to hang on to and keep themselves together. They “were” approaching that dangerous place where they’d “been out there too long” and where right and wrong were blending into the same thing.

In that moment, Michonne’s pleading eyes screamed that it “did matter’ and that hope can’t be let go.
The weight of a darkness that has no foreseeable end will dim the light of hope. Michonne realized that all too well. The group’s struggles have reached a point where there is little left. The writing team, the cast, the crew and all those that produce The Walking Dead have orchestrated a feeling that they are all stretched too thin. Bilbo Baggins would have understood this clearly. He felt much the same after the burden of the One Ring left his spirit frail and worn. This ragtag crew must feel very much the same. If only there were a Mount Doom to cast the horrors into and rid the world of it’s plague. Instead, their hope lies in one more trip.

“We should go. It’s 100 miles away. We should go to Washington.” ~ Rick

The world has gone to hell, but the minute we lose sight of our humanity, we lose ourselves. It’s not over.

Tyreese was simply too horrified at the mess of dominoes to push past the death and guilt. That is, until The Governor (David Morrissey) weighed in on the side of Martin and called Tyreese out for forgiving Carol. That brought about the most troubling aspect of Tyreese’s death. His fight.

“I know what happened and what’s going on. I know. You didn’t show me shit. You, you’re dead. Everything that you were is dead. And it’s-it’s not over. I forgave her [Carol] because it’s not over.” ~ Tyreese

Right up until the end, he fought the demons in his own head. His guilt over his association with The Governor. His worry that Bob’s blood was on his hands. His worry that Beth was simply a domino in the chain. And the darkest part of his heart wondering what he could have done differently to save Lizzie and Mika.

All the losses, decisions and wrongs that weighed on his heart most recently were there. The guilt of all he’d done was weighing on him heavily. He was slipping away. Giving up. He was doing exactly what he’d told Noah not to do. Except the most important thing that had sent him down the darkest path was missing. Karen (Melissa Ponzio).

Perhaps his heart was clear regarding Karen after forgiving Carol (Melissa McBride). Tyreese alluded to this in his conversation to Noah. He lost himself after Karen, but as much as bad dominoes fall, so do good ones. He forgave Carol, because that is who he was. Tyreese was a forgiving soul and Chad L. Coleman brought that beauty to his character time and time again.

“I was there for Judith when she needed me. I saved her. I brought her back to her dad. And that wouldn’t have happened if I had just given up if I hadn’t chosen to live. Noah. This isn’t the end.” ~ Tyreese

That mindset made Tyreese’s final moments puzzling. There are two ways to look at it. He had done all he could, his entire life, to be the kind of man his father had raised and was at peace or he was finally giving up the fight. In some ways, it was likely both. The man his father raised was a man who was willing to face the horrors of the world and fight back the darkness. Having done so, at the end of his life, he was at peace with the way he’d lived. That peace meant that in his final moments, he knew he’d done all he could for the time on this Earth and it was “okay now” for him to pass the torch to someone else.

FINAL VERDICT: After a mid-season finale that left us reeling, we’re hit with a second blow to the gut. In the end, a beautifully constructed episode may be remembered best because we ask ourselves why it had to be this way.

Chris Hardwick, on The Talking Dead after show, said it best. Anyone who emerges as the moral compass of The Walking Dead becomes vulnerable to the deadly strokes of the writing team. Hershel (Scott Wilson), Bob, Beth and now Tyreese have all taken on that mantle in the writers’ spotlight and at the end of the day, that light has been extinguished for good. In that respect, the pattern should have told us this was coming. We do give the writing team credit for throwing us off by not being as predictable as they had been in previous openers or finales. We didn’t see this one coming. Perhaps we should have, but we didn’t.

It must have been a difficult choice for the writing team to let Tyreese go. The fan uproar has certainly been felt. But perhaps more than any other character on this show, Tyreese came full circle. The brilliant performance by Coleman made this feel all the more real. The beautiful cinematography, the melancholy violin music and the visual clues that backtracked his final moments teased at the beginning were poetic.

In some respects, this was perhaps the most artfully done episode of The Walking Dead in some time. In others, it left us wondering, simply—why? Death is a part of The Walking Dead. It always will be. It’s “The Walking Dead” after all. But so often those deaths have meant something more to us in the moment. Tyreese’s passing may yet prove meaningful in ways we can’t see, but right now, we’re left feeling hollow. If that was Scott M. Gimple’s intent, he nailed it. We can’t help but wonder what some parts of this episode were intended to mean. Dialogue and phrases didn’t seem to clearly tell us what was really going on. Don’t get us wrong. We don’t need to be slapped in the face with the obvious, but in some instances this episode’s central themes were so vague that we simply weren’t sure of the intended meaning.

This episode will long be remembered as a beautiful goodbye to a beloved character, but one that left us somewhat confused. The visual layers, the emotions and the somber mood were magnificently crafted. Though the themes were confusing, the artful delivery and performances were astounding. Director Greg Nicotero helped create a work of art in this farewell to Tyreese. Haunting music by Bear McCreary left us tearful and beautiful guest appearances by cast members lost made us miss them all over again.

But for all it’s visual mastery and for its poetry, this episode will long keep us asking one difficult question. Why did Tyreese have to die? Had Tyreese’s death been in the sacrifice of others, as an act of heroism, we would understand it better. Instead, his death simply was another thing that happened. It felt very much like something done for shock value and this show has for so long been above that. It didn’t seem to serve the story. It didn’t move the plot. It only left us asking why. His internal struggle between guilt and acceptance that things weren’t his fault were difficult to decipher. Difficult enough in fact, that we’re still not completely sure why it’s “better now” when it’s all said and done. Has The Walking Dead run out of compelling stories that make each death matter? This show used to be a thrill a minute with deaths that fit right in the middle of the plot that moved at an incredible pace. This episode however, and even the last, felt like the deaths “were” the plot and intended to shock us without any rhyme or reason to them.

Had Karen been the last person that Tyreese had seen, it all might have made more sense. Despite his fight, we could have accepted his choice to let it all go and be with her at little better. But she wasn’t there to comfort him or us. And that meant we needed something else to give Tyreese’s death meaning. As beautiful and amazing a performance that Chad L. Coleman delivered in portraying Tyreese’s struggle and last moments, that something larger we needed from the writing team for it to matter and make sense to us simply wasn’t there. The larger story didn’t demand this death. Perhaps that was the point. Sometimes there is no reason for death. It simply is. For fans of The Walking Dead, the question of why will likely linger—and there may never be an answer. In the mean time, we’ll move on with the rest of this group and hold out hope that Michonne is right. That Washington is a place of refuge. In the coming weeks we will likely see. We’ll also be watching to see if this show returns to it’s roots and that dramatic character tensions are the thing that drives amazing stories.

Questions, Comments, Concerns and My reaction on Twitter…

• That was an odd little montage. Dreams? Visions? But one with a destination perhaps.
• I love the story, but I’d seriously keep my eyes on the road Tyreese. #CarWrecksSuckInTheApocalypse
• Damn. Did someone shell the place or what?
• This. Was for her. Awe hell Rick. That cut heart-strings.
• Damn. Noah can book it when motivated. @TylerJamesWill
• You can be out here too long. That’s for damned sure. You lose yourself pretty easily too.
• Well that just makes me want to look at the flowers. Son of a bitch. 🙁 @ChadLColeman
• Domino shit. And now #ISeeDeadPeople is freakin me out.
• Right now, a warm fuzzy feeling I DO NOT have .. 🙁 #TwoBitesOneArm @ChadLColeman
• Making it, looks like someone fed the walkers grenades. #WhatAMess
• Rebar reinforced walker. That’s new. Scary as f*ck, but new.
• Okay, the wait to chop of that arm feels longer than the hiatus. #JustSayin @ChadLColeman
• You don’t have to be a part of it. But being part of it is *being* now. This is wickedly torturous. 🙁
• Holy shit! That [Arm whack!] left a pucker mark on the couch!!! @ChadLColeman
• Well, now we know where the “rest” of those walkers were. Who the hell did that?
• Any guesses who the “surprise guest” will be on @AMCTalkingDead? 🙁