The 17th episode of the 10th season of Living Dead don’t be fooled by the purpose of your existence. From the beginning, the first thing we see is Maggie Rhee, returning to Hilltop, the place she ran for several years, accompanied by Judith Grimes. Maggie’s return dictates not only the arc of this episode, but sets up what appears to be the next big threat to our heroes – and potentially the last real villains they’ll face, given how close we are to last season and the end of the series. . Yes, to the list of threats dubbed as the Wolves, the Rescuers and the Whisperers, we can add another group of antagonists who still breathe: the Reapers. Perhaps Maggie’s return home was not so welcome after all.
It was an especially unwelcome appearance if you’re not a fan of watching Lauren Cohan walk in slow motion, because, man, they hit that visual button repeatedly on “Home Sweet Home”. True, it was important to give some weight to the return of the oldest character in the series outside of Carol and Daryl, and overall, the episode did a good job of making Maggie’s reintroduction look well deserved and deliberate, giving her a sincere friendship with Daryl and even an unexpected link about the Kelly fellowship. (Although the latter may have been very beneficial to the viewer when it came to knowing who Kelly was and where she was, given how little of her we saw last season, especially in the back.) Maggie’s story was predictable – she and his son Herschel traveled, losing contact with Georgia and finally ending up in a good community before an attack forced them to return here, along with new friends Cole and Elijah – but their reunion with Daryl was undeniably touching, as was his perception that Carol was responsible for Negan’s freedom, which made that exchange cold. But while the relentless pace of her march away from Hilltop was a good way to show how she viewed the destruction of her old home as a punch in the stomach, it also took us to the next danger very soon – the one who came in a volley of bullets.
At the very least, the episode stumbled by rushing to reintroduce a new threat so quickly, instead of giving us a chance to re-enter this world and take stock of where everyone left off. Living Dead often seems unsure of going too long without putting our heroes in danger in the forest against a common human threat, and this was the latest evidence that the show is still afraid to take risks, even when granted six extra episodes to essentially do the whatever the hell he wants. I expected a little more experimentation; instead, the introduction of Reaper actually had the unwanted effect of making it look more like a standard episode; we could have used a little more “just to spend time” with these people. Especially when the Reapers, until now, basically appear as a militarized version of the Saviors, or any other dangerous group we encounter.
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Speaking of strange intros, the show decided to quickly undermine what could have been an intriguing new character. Don’t get me wrong: I kind of admire the decision to take the question mark from wearing the mask, Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari), and immediately reveal that he is nothing but a frightened young man, hiding his trauma and fears for behind your mysterious fantasy. And there is some potential to explore what sent the guy down that path, just as the series decided to contain any disastrous encounters with the Reapers that sent Maggie and her few remaining companions back to Alexandria in the first place. But it seemed jerky and shocking – suddenly, the character we saw doing nothing but kicking his ass without blinking (metaphorical) is afraid to move and needs a stimulating conversation from Kelly? (A very bad vitality conversation, by the way.) Not that it doesn’t necessarily match the character; is that we don’t know him at all, much less enough to make him appear meaningful in any real way. The series will have to spend some time removing its protective layers before it means a lot.
Part of what made the episode a little dull is that the whole thing is based on a question to which we already know the answer – “Are you coming home, Maggie?” – then structuring it as if the result was doubtful made some scenes feel more like stepping into the water than necessary. Especially when there’s so much rich stuff to play with: Maggie’s realization that Negan is free and part of the community, the arc of her journey that brought her back here, the friction with Carol … it’s all a promise. If nothing else, Maggie’s return is a good reminder of how full of character studies the series could be after 10 seasons. We hope that the remaining bonus episodes will do something more with the freedom of experimentation.
I must say that one of the most interesting aspects of “Home Sweet Home” was watching how Living Dead dealt with the new COVID-19 reality. When these bonus episodes were first announced, showrunner Angela Kang acknowledged that the big zombie-filled sequences the series is known for are simply not feasible during a time when people need to stay two meters away. And besides the speech papers, everyone seemed to be keeping their distance; when Maggie and company enter the parking lot to clean up a bunch of walkers, the episode director’s orchestration David Boyd was able to artistically implicate groups of the undead without actually showing them, through the use of shadows, ajar container doors and so on. against. It was a nice, low-budget alternative solution for what will undoubtedly be an urgent problem for the program until everyone is vaccinated.
Missed observations
- Negan’s “Well, shit” after Maggie passed him by following the pre-credits was perhaps the best possible way to reintroduce her to everything that happened in her absence.
- I liked the way the Reaper was essentially presented as a horror movie villain, first showing his wide eyes hidden in the undergrowth and then having him marching like a camouflaged Jason Voorhees, taking down Maggie and throwing Daryl against a tree .
- Confession time: I rewound half a dozen times and never managed to understand what Mr. Military Reaper’s final words were. Looks like “Pope ball chip”? Commentators, any ideas would be appreciated.
- Elijah must be constantly on the verge of passing out from sunstroke with that outfit, right?
- The last song playing when they approach Alexandria is “You want darker”By Anita Lester.