TV Review: The Walking Dead – ‘Guardians’

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

With the chaos at the Whisperers camp and the plans moving forward for the fair, it’s only a matter of time before there is a clash between these two sides. People will die, characters will leave the show. However, the show is beginning to spin its wheels and it needs to get there sooner than later to avoid too much filler and not enough real character and plot development.

There are a lot of things going on inside the Whisperers camp, and this collection of people is a lot bigger than anyone imagined. Of course, Henry gets captured by Beta (Ryan Hurst, looking intimidating as hell) in his brave but stupid attempt to rescue Lydia. In his defense, he is a headstrong teenager but the stupidity of his recent actions is getting to the point where he can no longer be forgiven for simply being headstrong.

The recent trip to Hilltop did not sit well with some of the Whisperers and Alpha’s leadership is challenged. The result is one of the more gruesome deaths in recent memory, although since we didn’t get to know the person who was killed it lacked the full impact of some other deaths on the show. Lydia being captured and then released has caused a stir in the ranks of Whisperers and this won’t get any better after Daryl and Connie rescue Henry, who of course has to drag Lydia along with them. Alpha will not be a happy camper and will surely want some revenge, but the question is will everyone follow her? (Who is going to argue with her and Beta? Really, those two are damn intimidating)

While that part of the episode was fun, the rest was rather dreary and strange. Michonne and Negan have a chat, which was only interesting because he pointed out how she was turning into him. There can be no reasonable excuse to willingly let Negan out of his cell, short of some disaster that has people grasping at straws. Michonne also relents, although her reasoning is weird, and agrees to let the people decide about going to the fair. She still doesn’t agree with it and really, the fair does look like a prime target for carnage by the Whisperers so she’s probably going to right in the end.

Romance on The Walking Dead has always been weird as if the writers have no real clue what to do with it. Why they continue to push the Rosita/Gabriel/Siddiq/Eugene storyline is beyond me. It really doesn’t work and I have little interest in what any of these characters have to say about it. The moments between them in this episode were awkward, and not in the way they should be. Rosita and Gabriel never worked to begin with and why they continue to try and push them together is beyond me.

The weird love triangle/square romance is one of those storylines that highlights the issue of padding episodes while we slowly move towards the good stuff. For the most part this season The Walking Dead has moved forward, not always with success, but it seemed to have a purpose. Now it is in wait mode as we approach the last few episodes of the season and some real carnage and death. If the show wants to continue to build towards something better it needs to either write better storylines, dump the padding altogether or shave off a few episodes in the season.

Three stars out of five