The Walking Dead turned to Daryl’s (Norman Reedus) and Dwight’s (Austin Amelio) story in “The Cell.” This was another powerful episode featuring intense and outstanding performances from Reedus Amelio and Jeffrey Dean Morgan whose portrayal of Negan becomes more complex and nuanced each time we see him. The episode was directed by Alrick Riley and was written by Angela Kang. Riley also directed "Twice as Far."
On the surface it would appear that the title refers to the cell in which Daryl finds himself, but in fact, regardless of Dwight’s seeming freedom he is even more of a prisoner than Daryl. In fact each of Negan’s men who answer that they are Negan are in a cell – they aren’t even free enough to have their own identities – something that Daryl alone is able to maintain.
It was interesting to finally get Dwight’s story, and it’s a real testament to the writing and Amelio’s portrayal that I actually felt empathy for Dwight in spite of his having killed Denise. It’s clear that he’s still enthralled by Daryl – he’s wearing Daryl’s angel vest, driving his bike, and still trying to use Daryl’s crossbow. Dwight may appear to be Negan’s right hand man, but there are clearly cracks in his loyalty. Will Dwight end up being a valuable ally in the long run against Negan? Will the others ever be able to forgive him?
I loved the opening montage that mixed the happy 80s sitcom of “Who’s the Boss” with everyday life under Negan – clearly the boss. And if that music wasn’t torture, I don’t know what is. We quickly learn that Dwight has a privileged position and that there is a clear hierarchy with women clearly faring the worst. One woman – Laura (Lindsey Register) plays an air hockey drinking game with Dwight, clearly against her will. Moving into the supplies hall, Dwight simply takes what he wants. The women are there to serve, and a skirmish breaks out across the hall with one guy literally taking the shirt off his back and throwing it at another, ending with the guy (Noah Benjamin) getting beaten up for trying to take food to replace the food that Dwight took from 39’s family. Later we see 39 staked out, and it’s Gordon (Michael Scialabba) that Dwight gets his eggs from.
As Dwight eats the sandwich made from his ill-gotten gains, the music stops and we see jogging suit members – clearly the very lowest members as they don’t even get actual clothes – staking out walkers. Dwight stops to watch and his attention is drawn to a walker staked out on two poles – one through its arm and one through its back. The walkers slowly sags to its knees, seemingly defeated, only to struggle back to its feet time and again. It’s a wonderful parallel to the scene so closely before it when all the men kneel as Negan walks by. Even the walker has more courage and freedom than Dwight.
Continuing the parallel, Dwight makes another sandwich. This time instead of the lovely fresh produce, all he does is lump dogfood on a bun. Part of me really wanted Daryl not to eat it because….. dogfood! But Daryl does the sensible thing – he eats it. Daryl is a survivor; he’ll do what he has to, to survive. We’ve seen it before with Joe and the Claimers. But I think Daryl has evolved even from this. With the Claimers, Daryl was willing to draw on his shadier past and try to fit in – not very well, but he did try. It’s one of the things that made this episode so interesting because there was a part of me that like the dog food sandwich, both wanted Daryl just to survive and wanted Daryl to be better than that, better than Negan.
Our first shot of Daryl is one I’m sure many fans have wanted to see for a while – at least the naked part! Daryl is cold, dirty, and alone in the dark. They use classic torture methods – he’s subjected to that awful music. I will admit to having watched the odd episode of “Who’s the Boss?” so I knew we weren’t listening to its theme song. And I know at least one person reading this is thinking making Daryl watch the show would have been even greater torture. It does beg the question of who their torture expert is. Was Negan also in the military? Maybe he was a psychiatrist? It is a common belief that most people who study psychology do it because they are disturbed themselves – belief, not necessarily a fact!
It would seem Negan’s ruthless system has been very effective. I had to wonder if they always used the same song or did they pick something that they knew would be the total opposite of what Daryl would listen to? He’s clearly classic rock! However, the lyrics promise that you should be on Easy Street – clearly the promise if you work your way up Negan’s twisted corporate ladder. Just as a beautiful aside as Daryl is eating the dogfood sandwich the song is promising the gravey train – and there used to be a dog food called Gravey Train! Maybe there still is? Reedus is fabulous in these scenes as he is clearly being worn down – twitching into exhausted sleep as soon as there is a second of silence only to jerk awake. The scenes are beautifully shot in close ups with low lighting to mirror the claustrophobia.
When Dwight gives Daryl the jogging suit, I was worried he was about to start working the walker yard, but Dwight just takes him to see the doctor (Tim Parati) about the gunshot wound. There is a nice throwback to Terminus as Daryl’s suit is adorned with an “A.” But even more importantly, on the back of Daryl’s shirt is what looks like duct tape in the shape of an “I” – that nicely underscores Daryl’s independence – he won’t become the “we” of we are Negan.
In the doctor’s office, they run into Sherry (Christina Evangelista). She’s had a pregnancy test which is negative. There is clearly a strain between the two, but we don’t learn the whole story until much later in the episode. Dwight, Sherry and Tina ran away in the first place because they couldn’t earn enough to “pay” for Tina’s insulin. Negan, being the philanthropist that he is, offered to marry Tina – like that was a better option. When Tina was killed, Dwight and Sherry thought their best option was to go back because they were going to get caught anyway. Sherry agreed to marry Negan in Tina’s place, but that wasn’t enough, and Dwight had to get the iron as well.
Sherry is shocked to see Daryl, who carefully avoids eye contact with everyone. He can be a good dog – he knows not to make eye contact or challenge anyone. He doesn’t try to speak – but then, our Daryl has always been a man of few words, choosing the wise man’s path of listening more than talking. Dwight snaps at Sherry not to talk to Daryl, but she does anyway, warning him to do whatever they say. The Doctor tells him he’ll be ok and that Negan will look after him. He urges Daryl to trust him.
They run into Negan on their way back to the cell, and Dwight forces Daryl into a kneeling position. Negan wants to talk to Dwight, leaving Daryl with Fat Joey (Joshua Hoover) for a moment. Daryl gets a look into Negan’s apartment – and so do we. It’s very unassuming. There’s a rip in the single leather chair, the room is quite small, and the only real luxuries seem to be some books and a microwave. Dwight shows Daryl the other jogging suits – who have different letters. They are staking out a new walker – the guy from the opening montage. Dwight gives him a choice – be like them or be like him.
Dwight takes Daryl back to the cell and tells him to make it easy on himself. Daryl tells him, “I ain’t never gonna kneel.” Dwight says that’s what he said too. Dwight is clearly upset by the conversation – is he ashamed of what he’s become. Does he really want to spare Daryl? Or is he upset because he knows if he doesn’t break Daryl he will also face consequences. Amelio is just outstanding at making these moments ambiguous and slowly making us see Dwight’s own torture.
As Daryl feels better, he starts trying to get out. Negan and Dwight discuss him going apeshit over a beer. Dwight tells Negan that Daryl is about to break, and Negan offers him the perk of sleeping with any of the women as long as they say yes – but not before cruelly offering him a “blast from the past” with Sherry. But Dwight isn’t stupid and doesn’t rise to the bait to say yes or even react. And of course, it’s just another way for Negan to torture Dwight. When Dwight isn’t eager to partake of the “pussy bar” Negan feigns concern that Dwight might not be “all right down there” and we are reminded of Eugene awesomely biting Dwight in the crotch in the other episode that Riley directed.
Dwight says he’ll pass but that he’s cool. He explains that he hasn’t earned it yet because he hasn’t finished the job. Negan tells him he earns what he takes. But it seems clear that he still loves Sherry and is remaining faithful to his marriage vows even while she can’t. There’s no indication that he actually gets the girl at the beginning drunk and then has sex with her after all.
Negan and Dwight are interrupted by an orange situation – there’s a runner. Dwight says he’ll go, and Negan tells him it’s grunt work – let fat Joey go. But Dwight insists he’d like to do it. Negan takes it as a sign of his own twisted violent tendencies, clearly approving of Dwight’s eagerness to go. There’s a nice moment when Dwight picks up Daryl’s crossbow and walks off, as Negan lovingly swings Lucille about. It’s a clear parallel between these two iconic symbols. Is Daryl the one person that Dwight thinks could stand up to Negan and beat him? Is that why Dwight has taken all of Daryl’s things, including the crossbow?
Dwight quickly runs into trouble as he tracks Gordon down. Dwight fails to assess correctly where the walkers are coming from and one almost falls right on his head! Lots of great walker effects in this scene.
In another nicely subtle scene from Reedus, he perfectly mimics a dog taking food from a stranger as he hesitantly takes the sandwich from Fat Joey. It’s hard to believe that he’s really be afraid of Fat Joey, but acting that way only puts Joey at ease. And of course, Fat Joey then forgets to lock the door. Daryl runs into Sherry in the hallway, and she tells him to go back, warning Daryl that whatever he’s done to him there’s always more.
Daryl breaks out and tries to find a bike to steal, only to be quickly surrounded by Negan’s men and then joined by Negan, who wants to know if he’s pissing his pants yet. After demonstrating his control over the others – ‘we are Negan’ – Negan tells Daryl he has three choices: One, you wind up on the spike and you work for me as a dead man; two – you get out of your cell and you work from me for points, but you’re going to wish you were dead; or three – you work for me, you get yourself a brand new pair of shoes and you live like a king!
And then Negan says screw it and swings Lucille. And Daryl steps into it, not away from it, and suddenly Negan is impressed – “Wow! You don’t scare easy! I love that!” And then Negan goes on to say that it kind of pisses Lucille off because she sees it as disrespectful. It’s a classic sort of disassociation – Negan’s not violent. He’s a nice guy, but that Lucille, she’s the bloody thirsty one.
As Negan’s men beat Daryl, we cut to Dwight pushing Daryl’s now broken bike. Dwight is also the worse for wear. Dwight gets his man just as his man gets his walker and we have a quick cut to Daryl back in his cell. Daryl hears Sherry. She tries to apologize again – she reminds him that she tried to say sorry in the woods and he told her that she would be. She confesses that he was right. She’s so much sorrier now.
And then we flip to Dwight doing to Gordon exactly what was done to him and Sherry. He tells Gordon that he owes and he’s got to come back – and now he also owes for the damage done to Dwight and the bike. Gordon and Dwight used to be the same and to be friendly. But it’s clear that Dwight lost more than Sherry when Negan took her. Gordon agrees when Dwight tells him there’s nowhere to go and Negan owns – or will own everything. He then tells Dwight he forgives him – because he knows he’s giving Dwight no choice but to shoot him. Dwight says there is no other choice but to go back, but there is a choice – he can simply choose to die – but that turns out to be Negan’s door number one anyway.
Gordon wants to know why they’re living like this when there’s only one of Negan and more of them. Dwight says look where we are – what they have. I loved Gordon pointing out that he and his wife thought they knew how to kill the monsters after they’d survived the first few months. But they didn’t know how to survive a monster like Negan. Gordon kneels and tells Dwight it’s the last time. There is a fair bit of religious imagery in this one, including the lovely shot of the angle adorned with the hands or the dead. Dwight tells him he’ll torture everyone he ever talked to, and because he still cares, he agrees to go back, but he tells Dwight, “You know there’s nothing left.”
When Dwight shot him, I thought that was a real indication that Dwight still has compassion. But as we find out at the end, it wasn’t a head shot, Dwight shot him in the back, so that he’d turn.
It’s a really powerful scene in the staircase as Sherry and Dwight share a cigarette and lie to each other. She says Negan is good to her, and Dwight tells her that he’s happy. They agree that it’s better than being dead – I’m betting Gordon still wouldn’t agree. This scene is also beautifully shot from below, again mimicking the claustrophobia of their lives. The barred window at the top of the stairs symbolizing that they are just as much in a prison cell as Daryl is.
Daryl seems to have simply withdrawn. He finally refused to eat when Dwight brings him a sandwich. Dwight is still desperately holding on to his belief that he and Daryl are alike. He tells him, “You got your friend killed. I got Tina killed.” He tells him not to pretend like he doesn’t know the score and Daryl whips the sandwich at him. Dwight tells him he’s lucky because Negan’s taken a shine to him – is Dwight jealous of something else Daryl has?
Dwight leaves Daryl with his most cruel act yet – the polaroid they took of Glenn’s body. The music finally changes to “Blue Bayou” in which the singer is left alone and crying – and Reedus delivers everything in this heartbreaking scene. If he isn’t at least nominated for a Golden Globe and Emmy for this performance, there is something shockingly wrong with the Awards systems. Dwight listens long enough to hear Daryl break but then walks away.
He finds Daryl asleep and in a puddle of vomit and takes him to Negan. For Supernatural fans, there’s a nice little shout out in the plaid flannel shirts hanging in Negan’s room – the basic Winchester wardrobe – and Morgan played the patriarch, John.
Negan offers Daryl water – and then taunts him that his mouth is too swollen to drink. He tells Daryl that he likes Dwight’s hustle and then reveals the story of Dwight, Sherry, and Tina. This time when Negan waves Lucille in Daryl’s direction, Daryl flinches and cringes away. Once again, Negan acts like he’s the nice one and it’s Lucille who’s the stickler for the rules. Negan reveals that he didn’t kill Dwight only because Sherry offered to marry him to save Dwight’s life.
Negan tells Daryl that he thinks he’s “that” guy. The guy that can simply channel himself into obeying. All Daryl has to do is answer one simple question: “Who are you?” The scene is agonizing as Negan repeats the question and the silence drags on. It was just like the dogfood – you both want Daryl to say Daryl and you want him to say Negan! And then he says Daryl – and you know it’s what you really wanted him to say.
Dwight tries to intervene, but Negan shuts him down. Daryl made his choice. Dwight puts him back in the room and tells him that he’s either going to end up in “that” room – and earner’s room – or on the fence. Daryl reaches out to Dwight. He tells him that he gets why he did it. He knows Dwight was thinking about someone else. Just like Gordon agreeing to come back – it’s why Dwight used that tactic to get him to come back. Daryl tells him it’s the same reason he can’t kneel – he can’t cheapen Glenn’s death. Dwight sees Gordon put on the fence and is pretty clearly disgusted with himself.
This was one of those episodes that just brings together everything that makes this show so great: cinematography, writing, acting, and yes, even the effects. What did you think of the episode? Are you finding any sympathy for Dwight? Do you think it’s possible that he will end up becoming an ally? Should Daryl just pretend to go along with Negan? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
