The Walking Dead, Season 7, Episode 11: Hostiles & Calamities
So, yeah, this is a very Eugene centric episode. And it's the third episode this season where we have a member of Team Rick be brought over to the Sanctuary and be indoctrinated by Negan. With Daryl it's more of a torture thing. With Carl it's more of a tour. With Eugene? Eugene is a lot, lot more scared and terrified compared to Carl and Daryl, who are both cocksure badasses, and I'm honestly surprised to find myself relatively invested in Eugene's trip in this episode. More than anything, unlike several other character transformations (Carol's transformation into a pacifist, for one, or Abraham dumping Rosita for Sasha) it actually feels organic and a choice that I can buy the character doing, especially considering the events that happened in this episode.
Eugene is an interesting character in that I find the man hilarious. It used to be that he and Abraham are easily the funniest characters in the show despite them not doing much due to their unique vernacular, but Eugene's got something that Abraham doesn't, and that is uniqueness. You see, as much as he tries to do so last season, Eugene is the farthest thing from a badass fighter. Abraham calls Eugene a survivor, and that's correct -- Eugene survives, but he's unique in that he doesn't survive because he can fight. On a good day, he can't even kill a single shambling zombie. He's a nerd, a socially awkward one, who might suffer from some ambiguous disorder on the spectrum. He survives because of two skills: the first is his skill in bullshittery (he pulls out that Human Genome Project scientist lie again when Negan interrogates her) and the second is his ability to actually mix in some actual oomph to his bullshittery, like crafting bullets, or here, finding out the idea of encasing zombies in what's basically armour in order to make Negan's wall o' zombies intact.
(Also, incidentally, Negan's rant about how the zombies are breaking down actually makes logical sense and also explains why the zombies have been less and less of a threat)
(Also, also, Negan raises the very excellent question as to why Rick never actually used Eugene like this. Honestly Team Rick always treated Eugene as more of a load than anything and never really respected him -- Abraham aside, and even then it's a back-and-forth thing -- so yeah)
In short, Eugene may be pathetic, but he's not completely useless, and has shown that bit time and time again. And seeing this pathetic nerd just babble and trying his hardest not to shit himself in front of Negan, who's in full "intimidating psychopath" mode, is great for both characters, because shit, Eugene's already pissing his pants before Negan even actually begins speaking.
But Negan brings Eugene into the Sanctuary not for punishment, but because he wants people who can be useful to him. And the moment Eugene proves that usefulness, even with an idea ("god damn if that isn't the coolest thing I've ever heard!") Negan is more than welcome to reward him. Actually, not even just that -- Negan's people quickly gives Eugene access to a room with a fully-stocked fridge, a jar of pickles he can take, and quickly soothes the scared man that 'you're one of us now'. The show has been surprisingly good at showing Eugene's reactions when he sees all the nice amenities like food and television and that sofa, and in light of the fact that the Saviours looted every such thing from Alexandria, well.
And the moment that Eugene proves himself useful as Mister Smarty-Pants? Negan lets him hang out with three hot chicks. Not for sex, mind you, just to hang out as a reward (and as a test of loyalty, I bet). And I laughed my ass off when Eugene decides to play old 80's video games instead. Eugene is actually a barrel of laughs in this episode, but none of the jokes landed better than Eugene playing around with the radio, happening on that Easy Street song that was used to torture Daryl... and starts head-bobbing to it. That is the single most hilarious joke I've ever seen in Walking Dead and this is a season that's already rife with jokes courtesy of Negan, Father Gabriel and Tara. Both Eugene and Negan play off surprisingly well with each other.
Another great moment of this episode is the awkward meeting of Dwight and Eugene, where they just stand in awkward silence and Eugene starts wanting to discuss about Dwight's dick, and Dwight quickly just doesn't want to talk about it.
But the episode keeps it relatively ambiguous whether Eugene is just trying to bullshit his way through or if he's legitimately seduced, though I'm actually leaning towards the latter, if nothing else due to how enthusiastic he is to bark orders at the end, though one could still argue that he's just being very good at maintaining his act. After all, he put up that 'there's a cure in Washington' lie for nearly an entire season. If there was one member of Rick's group that would be seduced by Negan it would probably be Eugene.
There's also the fact that Eugene saw the poor doctor get shoved head-first into the furnace, and considering Eugene's a coward, shit, the carrot/stick comparison is definitely drummed into his head. The biggest point for his full conversion into the church of Negan is really how he interacts with Negan's wives. After fun science boom boom projects and video games, the wives ask Eugene to make like a suicide pill for Amber, the wife who Negan catches to be fucking her old husband in the Carl episode and is in such a sorry state in this episode. Eugene realizes that, no, they're trying to kill Negan instead, and despite having plausible deniability, Eugene refuses to synthesize said poison.
The B-plot of this storyline, once more, is Dwight, the other character in Negan's camp that has enough screentime to justify being a semi-main character. After getting thoroughly pummeled by Negan's men for letting Daryl go (the timeline's a bit fuzzy here, because it apparently happens directly after episode 8, but I guess Eugene's seduction lasted a bit longer) apparently Dwight's ex-wife Sherry escaped.
See, Dwight is a jackass. It really sucks what happened to his wife, forced to become Negan's wife after losing her sister and all that, but Dwight embraces his persona as Negan's enforcer so much, and lest we forget, he killed Denise, he tortured Daryl and he stole Daryl's crossbow, the tit. His wife is basically disgusted with the monster Dwight has became, and escaped, because she can't stand seeing Dwight descend even further into depravity. There's the weirdness where apparently Dwight has memory problems? That felt forced.
And we briefly sympathize with Dwight when we see him a broken man, sitting at his old house and reading the farewell letter and leaving behind the beer and chips, but then he later frames doctor Carson for being Sherry's lover by leaving part of the note in Carson's office. And then Dwight is back in full jackass mode and I hope someone shoves him into the furnace. It's definitely a nice bit that fleshes out Dwight without turning him into "oh he's a good guy after all!"
Mind you, Negan was a complete idiot for shoving the one doctor he has into a furnace instead of just punishing him a little. I know he's a maniac, but still, that felt particularly silly considering the sheer amount of things he lets Rick's group get away with.
So yeah. I'm sure that considering the nature of this show (Team Rick Must Win) both Eugene and Dwight will end up being punished down the line, but I really, really enjoyed this episode. Maybe I just kind of enjoy Eugene a lot in general, but I felt that this episode is pretty great.
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