The Walking Dead Review: Episode 5×10 “Them”

We’d nearly given up on The Walking Dead, but at our lowest, and the lowest for these characters, comes an episode that reminds us why we love this show so much.

The Walking Dead — The final leg of the trip to Washington would prove to be the most difficult. With food, water and hope running dry, the group shuffles forward just a short distance ahead of walkers who stagger aimlessly behind them. Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) all push back the pain of their recent losses in their own ways. Each refusing to let the world in and feel again. When the group finally reaches a bridge that gives them a small advantage over the straggling walkers in pursuit, Sasha’s rage blows the plan of quietly tipping the walkers over the side and the ensuing fight nearly costs everyone. Ragged and at the end of hope, a sudden confrontation with a pack of dogs puts the group on the defensive, only for Sasha to dispatch the pack. With few options left, the dogs provide much-needed sustenance for the beleaguered survivors. As the drought and weary journey continues, the pain and realization of their individual losses begin to creep into their hearts. When all seems lost, a strange gift of water “from a friend” is found on the road. Desperate, but wary, the group can’t risk a trap and when all hope seems forever gone, rain begins to fall.

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Elated and jubilant, most of the group sees the rain as the salvation it is, but some, especially Daryl, Sasha, Maggie and Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) realize that their loss, their anger, their grief and their sins can’t be washed away so easily. When the storm intensifies, the group seeks shelter in a nearby barn where some find quiet solace but others still struggle with what to do next. In the middle of the night, as the storm rages, a restless Daryl sees the worst possible nightmare outside. A herd of walkers is approaching the chained barn doors. In a desperate attempt to hold back the advancing threat, one by one the entire group pushes together against doors to hold back both the walkers and the raging winds outside in an effort to keep the world at bay for one more night. When the light of day breaks, Sasha and Maggie slip outside in the fresh and cleaned Earth to find that a tornado has brushed miraculously past the barn and trapped or destroyed the walkers from the night before. As the two sit and watch the sun rise, they contemplate their survival together only to be interrupted by an approaching stranger Aaron (Ross Marquand)—who wishes to speak to Rick (Andrew Lincoln) with what he claims is good news. We certainly hope that for this group good news is what Aaron brings, because more heartache, betrayal or hardship may prove to be more than they can bear. A lot happened in this remarkable hour of television, much of it subtle, yet essential, so let’s wade in and sort through the aftermath of this episode of The Walking Dead!

When the only sound is of shuffling feet, the weight of our burden often feels the heaviest.

Fatigue. When everything feels lost and gone, we have nothing left but to stagger forward, in whatever solitary way we can cope. In an ensemble cast, it’s hard to find those individual moments that define characters, but this episode of The Walking Dead did it exceptionally well. The silence. The buzzing of insects, all felt like the oppressive heat of summer and the last weary steps of a ragged troop of tired souls hanging on by a thin thread. All of those things brought into focus the moments where individual characters let the reality of the world finally sink in to their consciousness.

Maggie’s frustration and grief, in particular, were palpably real. In the first season of The Walking Dead, an approaching walker during a silent moment of tears would have quickly escalated into intense heart-pounding horror, but after five years of fatigue, it was simply a momentary pause between sobs. Maggie’s grief was the focus of the moment and despite the shuffling dead amongst which she now lives, her grief isn’t more powerful than her fear.

“After what Daryl said, I hoped she was out there, alive. And then finding out that she was and then she wasn’t in the same day. Seeing her like that, it–made it feel like none of it was ever really there. Before this was just the dark part and I don’t know if I want to fight it anymore.” ~ Maggie

“You do. You do. That’s who you are. And maybe it’s a curse nowadays, but I don’t think so. We fought to be here. And we have to keep fighting.” ~ Glenn

Lauren Cohan produced an incredibly brave, raw and emotionally charged performance in putting Maggie’s grief out for all to see. After questioning Maggie’s motives through much of the first half of this season, we see her regret in those choices with the realization that she could have done more to find her sister had she tried. Doing the right thing is sometimes the hard choice to make. It exposes you to pain and suffering if things you are denying don’t work out.

Somewhere in the back of Maggie’s mind will always be the idea that she should have done more. That when presented with the opportunity to find Beth (Emily Kinney), she should have embraced the task with the same zeal she did in finding Glenn (Steven Yeun). Those moments of inaction, so poignantly symbolized in her frustration to do the right thing by the walker in the trunk, will weigh on her for some time, but a sliver of possibility is the only seed needed for hope to spring forth from hopelessness. Sometimes you just have to remove a little grit from the gearbox and the next step in a world gone mad becomes clearer.

It’s a dog eat dog world.

Desperation. We’ve all felt the anger and fear at the end of our ropes at times in our lives bubbling so vividly in our veins that we couldn’t hold it back. Sasha’s pain was ours too. After two crushing, and seemingly meaningless deaths, especially that of her brother, Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman), we felt the same as she did. We wanted to lash out. To plunge headfirst into what we didn’t understand in order to make some kind of sense out of the worst things that can happen. Sasha’s lashing out nearly cost the group dearly as a simple walker deflection plan became a desperate fight for survival once her pain overwhelmed her sense of preservation. Everyone on this show understood it. Most have been there. Some more than once.

The Walking Dead has taken us to the brink of frustration and despair in the last few episodes. Through its confusing themes and difficult moments we’ve been left wondering if this show had lost it’s way. If all that was left of The Walking Dead was shock value and a trail of dead frogs where the life of water used to flow. Was there anything left for us to cling to and look forward to now? Sasha’s confused pain of losing her brother was not unlike our own. After an artful, if not confusing, ode to his passing, we still struggled to understand. And perhaps even to care.

It wasn’t lost on us, that as a pack of dogs emerged from the woods, the two sides held for a second in a standoff. These two wild groups were the same. Feral. Desperate. And down to their last bits of themselves. Both holdovers from a world that was, but now transformed into something entirely different by the cruel, violent and grimy world they found themselves in now. As Sasha put the pack down and the group quietly ate to survive, something became clear. Those that do emerge from a wild and frenzied state have a chance to survive. Despite the risk of losing the fighting spirit along the way, they can survive—but only together.

“Noah (Tyler James Williams), that kid he said he didn’t know if he can make it. That’s how I feel.” ~ Sasha

“You’re gonna make it. Both of us, we will. That’s the hard part.” ~ Maggie

As Sasha weathered the storm with the others and realized it was okay to rest—if only just for a little while—her humanity found it’s way back to her again. These individuals cannot survive alone. They can only do so as a group and amongst friends.

WE—are The Walking Dead.

Hope. It’s a fragile and delicate feeling that can be lost without realizing it’s gone. For all its horrors and action, The Walking Dead has always been at its heart, a human drama. The inner workings of the human mind and the subtle interplay between characters have been its trademark tools of storytelling since Rick first emerged from a coma five years ago. And the hope of something better, something real and those rare glimpses of cherished serenity in a world gone to hell have always defined the best moments of The Walking Dead.

This season has been a test of that hope. More than any other season, the world in which these characters live has become the most bleak and dire. With each passing episode since Terminus, hope has slowly and quietly bled away from this group. As an audience, we’ve felt the drain of that loss right along with the characters. After all the moments we’ve been confused, angered and found ourselves losing faith this season, it was our own hope, for what we’d lost in the early seasons of this show, that had slowly withered and died.

“We do what we need to do and then we get to live. But no matter what we find in DC, I know we’ll be okay. Because this is how we survive. We tell ourselves that WE—are The Walking Dead.” ~ Rick

“We ain’t them.” ~ Daryl

For the entire Walking Dead family of cast, crew, writers, producers and a weary fandom, our creeks had run dry. Our water bottles were empty. Our souls were lost and our hearts were numb to the wake of death and loss of five seasons. Like Maggie in her sorrow, Daryl in his denial, Sasha in her anger, Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) in his indifference and Gabriel in his bitter realization, we had lost hope. Another death and another loss would only have seemed surreal. Our connection to this show had been eroded. Hope, in it’s fragile and most delicate form, was gone. The Walking Dead seemingly couldn’t make us feel again.

But something happens when we reach the bottom of all things and there is only one way to go—up. We either lie down and give in, or we fight with everything we have left to hold back the storm. Those of us who do not know how to do anything but keep going and who can’t give up, rise to the occasion. We inspire others. We push back against the relentless weathering of the world around us and together we survive. Arm in arm. Hand in hand. Soul to soul. We survive. In what is likely to be remembered as a crowning achievement of this series, as the storm and walkers battered the last remnants of hope, this group stood tall. They held back the howling winds and the finger of God lit a small light of hope in each of them. They would be okay. In some ways they were living on borrowed time, but they weren’t dead. They weren’t them. And fighting to moving forward was how they, and we along with them, would survive.

FINAL VERDICT: From the depths of despair comes a glimmer of hope. After an up and down season and a rock bottom emotional plunge two episodes in a row, we are once again reminded how amazing this show can be.

The Walking Dead has left us exhilarated, fatigued, confused and heartbroken throughout it’s fifth season. Through that sordid downward spiral may have been a sliver of brilliance we couldn’t yet see until now. Taken as themselves, individual episodes throughout the season still do not all make sense. Which is entirely the way of the world at times. Often things don’t fall neatly into place. But as a collection, and a larger narrative, perhaps there was a bit of hopeful genius in Scott M. Gimple’s direction for this show.

We’ve certainly been first in line to call Gimple, and the entire writing team, onto the carpet for confusing and senseless moments that made little or no sense to us. Taken by themselves those meandering and lost entries into this series may never be validated on their own, but the brilliance of a larger picture, that in some ways redeems them, may have emerged in this episode.

This group made its last, gasping stand against hopelessness in that barn. The raging storm and the onslaught of walkers were synonymous with the plight that this cast has endured. Beaten and weary, they stood together to hold back the fury of a world they could not control, but knew they must survive. And that survival could only happen through the solidarity of a group that has shared together the worst this dark new world has seen fit to offer them. And when the dust cleared and the rain fell, they could be washed clean of the past with a renewed sense of hope to move forward. The sun, after all, does rise each day. They need only embrace it together in order to find the strength to carry on.

We know that a series is broken down at the beginning of a year in the writers’ room and that each episode is a collaboration of many thoughts and ideas. But tremendous praise must be given to Writer Heather Bellson for not only the simplicity and bite of her dialogue, but also in the courage to let silence and emotion pour through the performances of her actors when words simply wouldn’t do.

Director Julius Ramsay took that work of clay and found within it, powerful moments from Andrew Lincoln, Sonequa Martin-Green, Lauren Cohan and Norman Reedus that will stamp this episode as a high water mark in achieving exactly what makes The Walking Dead astounding television. The quiet character building moments, when done right, carry far more weight than all the action, fights and stunts can ever offer. All of those things are ingredients that make The Walking Dead remarkable, but in this episode in particular, the emotional outlets of these characters culminated in a goosebump-inducing chorus of noise and courage through an unwavering group effort at the gates of a simple country barn door.

In the end, we saw the sun rise again and were awed at the sight. Tornadoes are curious beasts. They eat and destroy in seemingly random ways, but on this night, a group on the brink was spared and providence saw fit to clear a path of possibility for them ahead—hopefully in the form of Aaron. We do know this, we’ll be watching next week to see where that hope takes them.

Questions, Comments, Concerns and My reaction on Twitter…

• There was a time that moment would have freak EVERYONE out, but now.. Okay, I’ll kill ya. @LaurenCohan *back to crying*
• How much longer we got? 60 miles. I wasn’t talking about that. Damn. This crew is at the edge.
• Guess it’s a good thing those are *walkiers* and not *runners* or they’d be screwed.
• You don’t know shit. You hid. Don’t act like that didn’t happen. Bitter much?? o.O @LaurenCohan
• You’re not dead. I know you. You have to let yourself feel it. That was heartbreaking. @mcbridemelissa @wwwbigbaldhead
• Plan just got dicked. #ThingsAbrahamSays
• And I would have never thought to keep a spare walker in the trunk.
• I truly do not know if things can get worse. Dude. Have you been watching this show? Of course they can. @JoshMcDermitt
• I almost didn’t recognize that relatively clean-shaven Rick in that commercial.
• They way things are goin. Your what’s gonna make things worse. Hmm. Sasha > Booze in a drought. @Cudlitz @SonequaMG
• I’m not sure that’s what she meant when she said you have to feel it. #CigaretteBurns
• Awe hell. When Daryl Dixon cries we know the world has gone to shit. @wwwbigbaldhead
• Alcohol may not help them but I’m now two beers in to keep from sobbing along with. Geez.
• Growing up is getting used to the world. It’s easier for them. He may have a point.
• I do like how Michonne is the one person that just will NOT give up hope. @DanaiGurira
• After a few years of pretending he was dead. He made it out alive. I know we’ll be okay. WE are #TheWalkingDead #FirstRealHope
• I don’t know if it’s the alcohol I’m drinking or the dialogue, but I’m feeling *slightly* less depressed. #ProbablyBoth
• Oh shit!!! There went ALL good feelings.
• Can you hold back the storm? Where is a small tornado when you need it to suck up walkers?
• Hello Aaron. It’s been a long time coming. 😉 We’ve been expecting you.