Zeb Larson reviews The Walking Dead #148…
No Turning Back.
Things are significantly heating up in the Alexandria settlement as Rick tries to prevent anybody from making a rash move. It’s obvious though that people won’t be satisfied with lying low and biding their time, especially because none of them have seen what Rick has seen. The whole thing risks coming apart. That means considering desperate measures to try and deal with the Whisperers. I will be discussing spoilers in this review, so do not read on if you do not want the plot revealed.
Lydia holds the gun at Andrea before her and Carl can talk her down. Elsewhere, Alpha breaks down in the woods and cries over what she did with Lydia. She confides in one of her fellow Whisperers, before cutting his throat once she sees that he sympathizes. Back at Alexandria, Rick explains a plan to patrol the border. This doesn’t mollify the crowd of people at all, and all it takes is for a few thrown punches for the town meeting to descend into an all-out riot, which Rick only manages to break up with gunfire. Seeing that this challenge is pushing him to break his one rule, not killing in the community, Rick goes hat in hand to the one person who he thinks can help him beat the Whisperers: Negan.
The Lydia storyline is basically a waste of time in this issue, as for some reason she needs to have the whole thing explained to her. It’s a fair bit of pointless exposition, unless Lydia is supposed to be so stupid she can’t figure out that people at Alexandria are sad because their friends got killed. Hmm, why would they want to hurt her? Wait a minute…Moments like this drive me crazy in comic books: false cliffhangers.
Oh well, it gets taken care of pretty quickly. Alpha’s ruthlessness is on display for all to see here. She can acknowledge to herself that she’s sad about sending Lydia away, but she’s certainly not going to admit that to anybody else. She’s different from the Governor, who was increasingly ruled by his own madness and obsessions. She’s also not Negan, who looked crazier than he really was in order to keep people off balance. No, she’s the perfect picture of discipline, and one who has rooted out most if not all of her followers who might question her, or who might question her brutal methods.
But it’s what happens to Rick at Alexandria that is the most interesting here. Merely trying to sit down and calmly explain everything to the people who lost loved ones isn’t going to keep them from doing something dangerous. And if this keep going the way that it has, Rick is going to turn Alexandria into a garrison to stop his own people from going to war. This is how Negan comes back into the story, though whether can be trusted in any way, shape, or form is up for dispute. And by bringing Negan back into the body politic, can he retain Dwight’s loyalty, or stop the place from tearing itself to pieces?
Rating: 7.8/10
Zeb Larson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=qXJL6jGfZhg
Originally published November 16, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
