The Walking Dead S08E05 Review: Negan's Sins

The Walking Dead, Season 8, Episode 5: The Big Scary U

So yeah, this was the sort of episode that I hoped would come. It's not like 'the Big Scary U' suddenly redeems the three pretty shitty episodes that season 8 started off with, but it's certainly a return to some decent amount of quality that you expect from a long-running series. It's not particularly mind-blowing or super-duper-awesome, but it's still the most entertainment I've gotten out of season 8 of Walking Dead. And most of it revolves around the characterization behind Negan and Gabriel. Now part of me really rolls my eyes at how many times the psychotic Negan spares Gabriel throughout their encounter, even when Gabriel does his best to shoot Negan dead, but it's believable enough with Negan's whole 'people is a resource' rhetoric. 

I'm perhaps one of the few people who really like Gabriel, and I thought that his transformation from being a villain to something more akin to a hero in seasons 6 and 7, someone who straight-up done some really stupid shit that would've meant his death (because anyone who disagrees with Rick tends to die) but somehow survived, and made a proper heel-face-turn. And thus part of my disappointment in episode 1 is perhaps seemingly setting Gabriel to die a horrible, horrible death by shoving him into a trailer with Negan with no way out and no real buildup to his character in that entire episode beyond an ill-advised attempt to save Gregory. 

Gabriel's conversation with Negan isn't A-list writing, but it's watchable and both actors are entertaining enough to make an episode mainly driven by the strengths of two people trapped in the same room really work. Both are slightly nutty, too, with Gabriel's insistence that Negan needs to go through a confession, and Negan being Negan. It's somewhat better than King Ezekiel's breakdown last episode for the simple fact that it's not something we've really seen before, at least not in this combination. We also get to learn a bit more about Negan and how his completely unhinged role is a necessary evil in the Saviours' modus operandi. The episode works well in highlighting Negan's role as a psychotic overlord dictator that everyone is happy to kowtow to, and it works well in both the 'show' and 'tell' aspect, by having cutbacks to Negan's lieutenants (more on them later) relatively failing to contain the situation with Negan disappearing for a day or two.

And, well, we learn that he used to have a wife, who he couldn't bear to put down. It's.... it's not the most original backstory. Seems like everyone in the universe from the Governor to Morgan has some sort of personal tragedy in their backstory, and I just hope this doesn't get milked too much. Humanizing Negan and showing that there's something more to the crazy-dude-with-a-spiky-bat is definitely a well-done concept... it just kind of makes Negan so much more interesting than Rick, and one of the biggest problems of the show in general.

It's such a shame that any scene that cuts away from the Negan/Gabriel stuff ended up being pretty weak, and none as weak as the Rick/Daryl scenes, which I really felt would've worked better in literally any of the earlier four episodes. Cut away some of Ezekiel's brooding last episode and include this scene, perhaps? It's a bit oddly-paced, and while the Rick/Daryl conflict was built up over the past few (crappy) episodes, it's still not at all that interesting. 

We do get some real nice scenes with the Negan lieutenants, though -- and I've always said how it would've been more interesting if the Saviours we actually know and care about from season 7 actually showed up. Apparently they're all just huddled up here, being entertaining as they try to out-Negan each other. Dwight, Eugene and Simon are the only ones I really care about, but giving Simon a bit of a conflict against Negan is a neat way to throw in some neat friction within Negan's group. And while we've seen them work as enforcers for Negan, without that direction, that omni-present 'big brother' figure watching over them, they are reduced to squabbling and blame-slinging. It's pretty neat.  

There's a bit of a Eugene subplot where he's immediately the suspect, and Dwight defends him, which in turn is fortunate because Eugene has put the pieces together that Dwight is the traitor, but eh. Overall, a pretty surprisingly decent entry into a problematic season.