Sadé Green reviews the ninth episode of The Walking Dead season 6…
Have you been getting a little bit fed up of The Walking Dead? Have you been thinking what could they possibly do that’s new? Have you recently thought that maybe you wouldn’t watch it anymore? Then behold: Season 6, Episode 9, No Way Out.
It’s going to drag you back in whether you like it or not. Serious spoilers ahead.
First, a quick re-cap. Alexandria’s walls have been breached – hundreds of Zombies now roam the streets. Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Michonne (Danai Gurira), Carl (Chandler Riggs), Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), Jesse (Alexandra Breckenridge), Ron (Austin Abrams) and Sam (Major Dodson) are dressed in innards and are trying to make their way to safety. Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Enid (Katelyn Nacon) are trapped outside of the walls but can see that Maggie (Lauren Cohan) is in trouble. Daryl (Norman Reedus), Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) have been apprehended by Negan’s gang. The Wolf (Benedict Samuel) that Morgan (Lennie James) has been keeping as a pet has escaped with Denise (Merritt Wever) as a hostage and Carol (Melissa McBride) no longer trusts Morgan. That is literally the short version of Episode 8, Start to Finish.
In No Way Out, everyone’s story starts exactly where it was left. Sasha, Abraham and Daryl have been confronted by Negan’s gang. Their weapons are taken off them and in an extremely tense stand-off, the leader of the crew toys with Sasha and Abrahams lives. Until Daryl steps in of course and blows them all into the sky. Although a triumphant defeat, one can’t help but think that this could be used as a potential motive for some serious vengeance later on.
Rick’s gang are moving slowly through the throng of Walkers to safety after their house was breached. With some trepidation for obvious reasons, Rick allows Gabriel to take Judith to the safety of his church. Jesse encourages Sam to go with him but Sam insists that he is okay and can help on their mission to get their vehicles from the quarry. However, after Gabriel leaves and the group carry on moving, one of the most shocking 60 seconds of television begins. As the words of Carol’s dark wisdom enters Sam’s mind he sees a little Walker child off in the distance. Stopping in his tracks, the rest of the group desperately try to coax him along, whispering words of encouragement without drawing attention to themselves. But as Sam whimpers, the inevitable happens. As a single tear rolls down Ron’s face, Jesse can’t help but scream drawing more attention to the gang. Rick and Carl, both holding Jesse, desperately try to pull her along but then, Jesse gets torn apart. Rick watches, clearly devastated, his only chance at love being devoured in front of him. But it gets worse. SO MUCH WORSE!
Rick has to chop off Jesse’s arm as her death grip holds Carl in his place. As they turn to leave though, Ron points his gun at Rick and Carl ready to kill them (remember Carl fought Ron in the previous episode after Ron blamed Rick for the death of his father). Michonne’s sword suddenly slices through Ron’s chest and in shock, Ron shoots the gun into the air. Rick nods his appreciation at Michonne and as they go to recuperate and move on, Carl turns to Rick, having been shot in the face by Ron’s stray bullet. As a panicked Rick scoops his eldest up into his arms, it is the first time you truly see Michonne scared. The whole scene is shown in slow motion which only adds to the intensity and rawness of what happens. It is painful and shocking to watch. Rick’s flashbacks of his only love since Laurie slowly turn red as the inevitability of her death settles in. And with the shock of the deaths of the entire Anderson family within just a few seconds, you are then hit with seeing Carl mortally wounded. As with most major disasters on The Walking Dead, it is often the character’s reactions that really hit you and in this case you can’t help but feel for Rick; Lincoln’s portrayal of Rick’s pain will tug on your heartstrings. If it doesn’t then YOU’RE the monster!
On the other side of Alexandria, the Wolf is having a battle of conscious and despite holding Denise as hostage,he also saves her on multiple occasions. On one such occasion, the Wolf gets himself bitten and in an effort to save him, Denise directs him to the Infirmary but naturally Carol shoots him dead on the way. This doesn’t stop the Wolf from saving Denise one last time. It seems a shame to lose the Wolf at this stage – he was developing into an interesting character, and during this episode seeing him flitter from one extreme to the other was quite enthralling. Well played Benedict Samuel. Well played.
With Denise safe and sound back in her sort of natural habitat, she immediately sees Rick and Michonne approach with the injured Carl. As Michonne carefully takes the cloak of guts off Rick, the audience can see exactly what he is thinking; Rick is going to deal with his grief in the only way that he knows how – go on a murderous Walker rampage. Well there are hundreds of them outside and somebody needs to deal with them. Heath (Corey Hawkins), Aaron (Ross Marquand) and Spencer (Austin Nichols) who were holed up in the Infirmary, decide of their own accord, that they have to go out and help Rick. Let’s digest this for a second. The native Alexandrians have decided to help Rick. This is a huge step forward. Before they have only eyed him with suspicion or anger but this one decision looks like they might finally be starting to trust his actions or at least make them feel the need to support him in his endeavours, however crazy they might seem.
As the four men, plus Michonne go out and battle the throng, other survivors see them through the windows of their own hiding places. One by one, some with clear apprehension, they go out to join the battle each with their weapon of choice, finally being able to see what lengths Rick and his people are willing to go to, to keep Alexandria and her inhabitants safe. Even Gabriel finally sees the light and leaves some of his flock in the church with Judith and goes out to help the fight; an uplifting moment to finally see Gabriel trust Rick.
In the meantime, Glenn and Enid are launching a rescue mission from outside the walls, mostly to save Maggie. In the process, Glenn gets himself surrounded by Walkers again (bit of a bad habit you’re developing Glenn) and just as you think we’re going to have to watch Maggie see her love torn to shreds, the cavalry arrives in the form of Sasha and Abraham and a spray of machine gun bullets. Seeing the state of Alexandria, Daryl, pumps petrol into the Alexandrian lake and sets fire to it, attracting the horde of Zombies towards the bright light and taking some of the pressure of Rick and his gang of fighters.
What follows is another spectacular moment of television. One that will make you go cold both with anxiety and excitement. More and more people come out to fight; there are several moments that will make you whoop with joy and squirm in your seat. Timid Alexandrians finally engage in fighting mode and it is the first time we see all of the cast in one place in ages. In a scene that picks up speed, it’s incredible to watch every character let out some rage with their weapon. When you see Gabriel and Eugene (Josh McDermitt) finally fight you might fall off your chair with happiness. With Rick shouting words of encouragement to everyone you’ll see Maggie, Glenn, Enid, Aaron, Spencer, Heath, Daryl, Sasha, Abraham, Morgan, Carol, Michonne, Tara, Rosita and loads of unnamed Alexandrians kill, maim and chop their way to victory, all ending with a roar of rage from Rick. Using the word beautiful to describe the gore heavy rampage that occurs seems so wrong but it is the only word that describes how good a scene it really is.
As the morning sun rises, Alexandria is littered with bodies and everyone left gathers outside the Infirmary, waiting for news on the injured. This place and it’s people is finally starting to look like community, somewhere they can live and fight together rather than against each other. As Rick sits by Carl’s bedside, he revels in what the residents have achieved and we finally see a glimmer of the old Rick, the kind, community driven Rick that we haven’t glimpsed since the prison. Is this the start of a new way of life?
No Way Out is an insane adrenaline rush. You’ll have experienced so many feelings by the end you won’t know how to feel. One thing that most people can agree on is that this may have been one of the greatest episodes in the shows history – it certainly had two of the most fantastic sequences of television ever made. It seems that Greg Nicotero and Seth Hoffman have set the bar incredibly high for the rest of Season 6. Nicotero will direct the season finale so if No Way Out is anything to go by, you can guarantee that it will be an unbelievable end to the season.
No Way Out has shocking moments – Sam’s death (they’ve never shown the actual death of a child on The Walking Dead), the other Anderson’s deaths, Carl’s injury, the entire town getting in on the killing. People are always going to query this show and wonder if it’s just going in circles but that’s because audiences these days are fickle – they bore easily. Consider the premise of The Walking Dead though. Many people will be in agreement that actually in a world where Walkers rule the land, maybe their dark reality is as honest a portrayal of Zombie living as we’ll ever see. Let’s just hope it never happens, because unless you have Rick as the head of your gang, you’re pretty much screwed!
Zombie Kill of the Week
Slow motion head explosions; machine gun spray; heads chopped clean in half with swords; the killing of hundreds of Walkers with just a dozen people; slow-moving Zombies on fire. One death didn’t stand out in No Way Out, every single death was well thought out and done in spectacular fashion. Long live the King of Zombie death! All hail Greg Nicotero!
Sadé Green
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