The Walking Dead, Season 8, Episode 15: Worth
This episode's a pretty fun one, but at the same time I dread returning to the humdrum of the pre-mid-season-break season 8 Walking Dead because in one fall swoop, we've essentially killed off or taken out the few characters that made these past few episodes of Walking Dead feel different and essentially return back to a pretty bland status quo. Except, as hammered into the audience's head endlessly by Rick and Negan multiple times, this time they play for keeps and there isn't going to be any more negotiations or the like. It's just "kill everyone" at this point.
This episode spends most of its time with the Saviours, although there are a couple of honestly boring B-plots. Aaron's still alive, hanging around and expecting some sort of pity attention from Oceanside and nearly gets his hungry ass killed by zombies, but that gets pity attention from Oceanside, so... mission accomplished? Meanwhile, Daryl and Rosita go off to kidnap Eugene (was there not a whole point last episode about 'killing' Eugene), they exchange some words and then Eugene escapes with a combination of vomited Mac'n'Cheese and hiding in a pile of dust. None of these really feel like they matter, if I'm to be honest, other than Eugene's fun vernacular being fun to listen to in an otherwise heavy episode. By the end of this episode, Eugene returns back to the bullet factory and essentially doubles down on his decision to back Negan. (Gabriel's still crying.)
There's also the obviously 'artistic' way of having Carl's letter to Rick open the episode, and Carl's letter to Negan end the episode, but I do find it somewhat bleh that Carl's talk to Rick is less about spending time with his father but more about "MAKE PEACE, DAD!" I do thank Walking Dead's writers for at least giving a pretty realistic reaction from Rick and Negan -- neither are going to back down just because a kid asks them too, not if they want to maintain their respective leadership positions in their communities. (Also, a single episode of being scared shitless in Sanctuary doesn't really make me buy Carl's whole "but dad, there are families and civilians there" argument).
I do like the back-and-forth between Negan, Simon and Dwight. Negan seems like a dumb brute for the majority of this episode, especially to his followers. A charismatic brute, but a brute nonetheless, which is why Simon is ready to double-cross him, and Dwight to... triple-cross Negan? And Negan is happy to ham it up and play up the obvious "oblivious bad guy" trope. He talks to Dwight to ascertain Dwight's loyalty, and gets Dwight's help to rat out on Simon and the other co-conspirators. He forgives Simon publicly after asking him to kneel, either to give Simon a second chance or to get him to lower his guard. It's just a shame that there's no real way Simon's ever going to usurp Negan for simple storytelling purposes -- we've spent way too much screentime with Negan and building up hiss rivalry against everyone else to really buy it if Simon takes over. But it was definitely fun to watch, from Simon's talk to Gregory early in the episode, Simon trying to get Dwight back on to his side, and his eventual final brawl against Negan. (Also, zombie Simon and his zombie mustache is funny)
We also got the surprise revelation that Simon was the one responsible for Oceanside's brutal massacre, and I really wish this was told to us a bit sooner for the simple fact that it would actually give Negan's whole "my word is my bond" tyrant-with-honour spiel in the previous season a bit more weight instead of painting him as a hypocrite.
Oh, and while it seems that Dwight's double-cross of Simon will endear him to Negan, putting him in the perfect spot to backstab Negan in the season finale, it turns out that Negan has Laura under his thumb all this while (and it's not too far of a stretch since Negan just did the same thing to Simon with Dwight) and has given Dwight a fake plan in order for him to deliver false information to the Hilltop dudes via Gregory.
Overall, despite some very weak side-plots (Eugene's fun performance notwithstanding) the episode's pretty strong thanks to the general fun intrigue and backstabbing between Negan, Simon and Dwight. It doesn't instill me with any sort of confidence towards the eventual conclusion of this season, though, since they've pretty much had way too many plot lines to wrap up neatly and we're waiting for a season nine... but by then, I probably won't care enough to continue reviewing the series.
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