In the episode’s most resonant scene, Carl takes it upon himself to barter peace and offers himself as a sacrificial lamb. 25, 2018 for a final goodbye.) Rick’s unmoored son finds purpose in mending the fences between the warring groups by any means necessary, no matter how extreme.
#The walking dead season 8 episode 1 runtime series
(Actor Chandler Riggs has confirmed that we haven’t seen the last of Carl he’ll return when the series gets back up and running on Feb. In the post-apocalyptic wasteland, hopeful statements ring out like a death knell.Īnd indeed, the final moments reveal that Carl has been bitten by a Walker and his days are numbered. It happened to Ezekiel before he lost his cherished tiger, it happened to Eugene before a complete internal break that sends him to the brink of suicide in this episode, and it happens to poor Carl when he attempts to make one last-ditch attempt at decency.
Within this fractured schematic, an unusual quotient of attention gets paid to young Carl in an instant sign of doom. The episode carries that splintered vantage into the final scenes, which divide attentions among multiple fronts through crosscutting that fails to produce the emotional response it’s looking for. This episode treads the same drawn-out, unaffecting path as so many have this season, briefly checking in with an array of minor players without crafting a particularly engaging character beat for any of them. Perhaps the writers intend to save Rick’s inevitable showdown with Negan for the proper season finale, but all the same, they cannot muster a suitably dramatic substitute. Even at a bloated 90-minute run time, this week’s episode lacks the sense of momentousness that a midseason finale ought to possess. His lieutenants spread themselves smartly and neutralize many of the threats before matters can get dire enough to require gunfire.īut it’s all in service of a climax that never arrives. He goes the shock-and-awe route, flatly informing his enemies that “you lose, it’s over.” On all of this war’s multiple fronts - the Sanctuary, the road where Simons halts Maggie, the Savior refuge - Negan threatens to grasp the upper hand. The script clearly establishes what’s at stake and assigns a timeline: Negan’s got the alliance’s compound surrounded, and they’ve got three minutes to surrender before the rocket-propelled grenades start flying.
The episode begins promisingly enough, as Negan mounts a counteroffensive just as it looked as if Rick’s coalition was seizing the upper hand. But much in the same way that leaders on both sides have reneged on their social contracts by neglecting to protect their followers, the writers have punished viewers with inertia and bitter nihilism.Īfter seven episodes of strategizing and interminably unproductive conversations about the value of life in times of crisis, the series has sputtered right when it should’ve begun roaring. When a show makes the choice to frame so much of itself as anticipatory, it had better have the firepower to back up that promise. This season has gotten repeatedly bogged down by chatter, positioning and repositioning characters for an impending reckoning. As the eighth season of “The Walking Dead” has sunk itself into the “All Out War” story line and the extended conflict with Negan, the writing staff has entered into an unspoken understanding with its patient audience.
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