The Walking Dead S05E05 Review: Eugene Used Hydro Pump

The Walking Dead, Season 5, Episode 5: Self Help

Well, as I've been guessing throughout nearly the entirety of Team Abraham's screentime, I've been guessing that Eugene's mission is a bust. The question is whether Abraham (and Rosita, but she's barely a character) knows. Turns out the question to that is a big no. The thing is, this has been played out for quite some time, and honestly the revelation when Eugene speaks to Tara (second only to Rosita in the 'barely a character' rankings) is just 'oh, that'.

The thing is, though, Team Abraham never made for particularly compelling characters. Rosita is barely background filler. Abraham is badass, determined and has an epic mustache, but not much beyond that. Eugene speaks like a robot and is likely a liar. And despite sticking around with Glenn for some time, and being part of the main group when they break out Terminus, they really don't get much in lieu of characterization. And we really haven't gotten anything overtly sci-fi since the dude in the super-advanced medical facility at the end of season one blew himself up, and changing the show into that realm after four seasons of more nitty'n'gritty survival stories is not something that I see happening.

It's a bit too late in the game to finally flesh these characters out, and coming in after last episode's Beth-centric episode it felt like a jarring change in pace. Neither long-runners Glenn and Maggie really fare all that well too, to be honest, just being the sane people to Abraham's one-track mind and Eugene's false saviour shtick. 

And honestly, most of it fell short. Abraham gets a cursory backstory that's basically identical to nearly anyone. He lost his family to zombies, he goes super violent and scares his wife (though honestly how stupid must you be to run away because your husband killed some people protecting you?), and the only purpose in his life is the hope that everything's going to get better by delivering Eugene to Washington D.C. It's as much for his benefit, a distraction from his dead family, a mission, than it is for the world. Honestly Abraham doesn't look that much of an idiot, and I think he knows, whether subconsciously or consciously, that Eugene is full of shit, but refuses to acknowledge it because the alternative is scary.

Eugene, meanwhile, is scared. He's useless, literally a dead weight that has to be protected by badasses Abraham, Rosita, Glenn, Maggie and even the novice "shit, you have to destroy the brain?" Tara all fare better than him, and all the encouraging words from Maggie and Abraham and Tara is yet more and more layers of guilt. It's revealed that he goes around sabotaging their vehicles, and generally trying to slow down the mission to D.C. so his duplicity isn't found out, but like the doctor from Beth's hospital last episode, Eugene's lies aren't born of malice, but simply because he wants to survive. He just let it ran way, way longer than it should. 

So yeah, it builds up to a big, big conflict. Abraham is desperate, obsessed and literally is willing to drag Eugene through a zombie-infested field just to get him to D.C., while Eugene is feeling guiltier and guiltier about his dirty lies. He breaks down, telling everyone that it's all an act, and Abraham punches him so hard that he may or may not have died at the end of the episode, and just shuts down. 

So yeah, so much for that. On one hand, I really sympathize with poor, scared Eugene... but on the other hand, shit, it's a really dick move on his part, raising up everyone's hopes so, and as the others pointed out -- people have literally died to help Eugene on his bullshit mission. So yeah, while I get that he's scared and all, he really should've considered himself lucky he got away with only a punch to the face. Not the best episode, but not the worst episode either. Not sure if I would really want the D.C. mission to have actually existed. For one it would actually bring a sense of purpose, an endgame to the whole thing... yet at the same time it's presented as far-fetched and unrealistic for the show's tone in the first place so it's not a huge loss, I guess.

Eugene using a fire truck's water cannon to mow down a herd of zombies was hilariously badass.

Only thing that really bugged me was why Tara was willing to lie and cover up for Eugene. That was super-strange, especially for someone who's pretty sensitive about mistakes and all after the whole Governor debacle. Rosita also doesn't get to do much but bone Abraham. Overall, not the strongest episode the series has to offer, which sadly has been a running trend this season.