The Walking Dead - Try - Review and Discussion

This was another great episode, as the show gets ready to wrap up the season on Sunday. In Try, we saw the differences between the two groups – Rick’s group and the Alexandrians – come to a head, although as Glenn reminds Rick, they’re really not two different groups anymore: “We are them.”

The lines are drawn. One the one side Deanna won’t sanction killing anyone, even someone who has been hurting one of their own. She warns Nicholas that she “sees a lot,” but that line takes on an ironic meaning later in the episode when Rick confronts her about Pete beating Jessie. He realizes that she sees that Pete is beating Jessie, but is purposely turning the other way. On the other side, Rick won’t turn away anymore. He’s learned that failure to face issues gets people killed, and he won’t let Jessie get killed, and he won’t live that way himself.

Since the beginning, this show on some level has always been a metaphor for real life, showcasing the darkness buried inside people, the violence in the world, the benefits of community, and the loss from losing the ability to have some trust and faith. With this season, I’ve felt that those parallels have become a little more overt. Rick’s speeches to Jessie and later to Deanna, in which he says that things don’t get better just because you want them to, could be applied to any of millions of real world situations.

Getting back to the current story though, I suspect Deanna won't agree until she learns the lesson the hard way, and Rick won't bend on this one. We're left with that impasse as we wait for the season finale.

An interesting thread that ran through the episode was the idea that people belong out in the world rather than behind walls. We see this theme come up in Carl and Enid’s run through the woods and conversation. Enid says that they’re supposed to be out there (in the real world) and that she doesn’t want to forget. She also says about the walkers, “It’s their world. We’re just living in it.” Carl confesses to dreaming about being in the forest with them.

Their conversation connects back to a comment Daryl made about Buttons, the horse, a couple of episodes ago, in which Daryl said that the longer they’re out, the closer they become to being who they really are.

Michonne is also expressing doubts that living behind the walls is a good thing. She tells Rosita that she feels like she was asleep back in the community, and she is seen to be missing her sword. Michonne eventually joins Sasha in killing the walkers, and appears to need to hunt them for her own needs – as if it wakes her up.

As we’re drawing closer to the season finale, a new thought crossed my mind, and that is that maybe Rick’s group will eventually choose to the leave the community by their own choice rather than because of conflict, which has been the pattern up until now. They're changing and seem to be evolving in to the model for the future.  I think Carl summed it up when told Rick earlier in the season, “We're strong enough that we don't have to be afraid and we don't have to hide." They seem to be finding some peace and balance with being out in the world and, from what we've seen, are somewhat unique in that they’ve become strong enough to stay out and not completely lose their humanity.

Other Thoughts:

- While the conflict between Rick and Pete/Deanna was coming to a head, we saw Daryl and Aaron come across a massacre by a particularly brutal group who left a women naked and tied to a tree to be eaten by walkers. I suspect we’ll be seeing more of this group soon, and wonder if it could be as soon as the finale. Perhaps they’ll serve as the wake up call Deanna needs.

- Sasha’s way of coping with her grief, not only from the death of Tyreese and Bob, but now also from guilt from having told Noah that he would die, is to take the fight to the walkers. Apparently Sasha’s been mostly holding up alone in the watchtower, practicing her sniper kills on the dead. Her reaction reminded me of a couple of other characters: Morgan, who after the death of his son, made it his mission to “clear” out the walkers, and Andrea, who dealt with the death of Amy by learning becoming an expert shot.

- I have a bad feeling about Glenn. When Rick was asking Jessie to let him help her with Pete – essentially agreeing to let him kill Pete – and she agreed, my gut reaction was that she just saved her own life. When Glenn asked Rick if he thought he made a mistake in bringing Nicholas back, Rick seemed indicated he did. My response was one of foreboding. I hope I’m wrong. Glenn seems to be blessed with a cat's nine lives so far.  I've lost count of which one we're on.

- I loved the fight sequence between Rick and Pete and appreciated the continuity of the effect we see whenever Rick is close to murder: the clock slows down and the camera focuses tight on Rick's distant expression. This was how we saw Rick seconds before he bit Joe’s neck, and we saw it again in his fight with Pete.

- Was it me, or was there something slightly creepy about the way the children looked in this episode – and with the red balloons? Sam, especially, seemed to have dark rings under his eyes, although his situation is understandable since we know he lives in an abusive household. But I also thought I caught a similar, almost dead, effect on some of the other community children that Rick spied while he was looking around the neighborhood, although it was hard to tell because they were at a distance.

- A random thought – whatever happened to conserving bullets? That doesn’t seem to be a concern for anyone (looking at you, Sasha) anymore.

- So what do you think about Michonne knocking out Rick at the end? Do you think it means anything more than that she was just trying to diffuse the immediate tension of the situation?

About the Author - Chris684

Chris is a New Englander with a background in print and digital media, who currently earns a living by making web and technology products easier to use. She has a weakness for TV characters who are 'dark and twisty' (to quote Meredith Grey) and reviews The Walking Dead, Legends, Halt and Catch Fire, and Dig for SpoilerTV.

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