Oh boy. Last week’s instalment was one of the most brutal and violent episodes in a while, and you could hardly be blamed for thinking that The Walking Dead might have ramped it down a little this week.
Instead, ‘Thank You’ cranked up the deaths and violence to the point it’s all threatening to become a little stale.
On the face of it, this week’s episode is another assured instalment. Fittingly, for an episode in which the majority of named characters die, the episode is choked with an atmosphere of doom and despair – the stakes are instantly established, and there’s a genuine sense from beginning to end as the bodies topple that quite literally anyone could fall.
In this, the episode succeeded – in making the walker herd into a terrifying, credible threat to major characters, and not just red-shirts, The Walking Dead essentially assures the audience that it’s got a firm handle on how to wring the most tension and drama out of its central threat six seasons in.
Likewise, there’s some strong material for Michonne and Glenn, who emerge as the de facto co-leads of the episode. Danai Gurira, frequently underused, is superb here, with a passionate and fiery performance that conveys both Michonne’s hardened sensibilities from being out in the world, and the softer, more optimistic side we saw a great deal of in the prelude to the Alexandria arc last season.
And then, there’s Glenn.
The Walking Dead often telegraphs its deaths in frequently unsubtle ways, and, sure enough, many of Glenn’s scenes here sent alarm bells ringing, from the clear attempt to paint Glenn as the self-sacrificing hero, to the multiple references to his desire to get back with Maggie. When Glenn said farewell to Rick with a line that echoed back to their first meeting, the possibility that a major character could die suddenly became a very real one.
If this is to be Steven Yeun’s send-off (and writing before the episode goes out, it’s unclear), then it’s an effective one for a character who’s been a stalwart since day one, with ‘Thank You’ highlighting just about everything that’s made Glenn a fan favourite.
All of this, of course, could be rendered moot soon enough – there’s a distinct possibility it could all be revealed as a stress-induced hallucination following Nicholas’ suicide in due course. Nonetheless, Glenn’s death is a true, genuine gob-smacker – an exit in a mid-season episode, in a manner that you might expect a red-shirt to snuff it.
There’s no question: this is the most shocking twist the show’s pulled off in yonks. There’s just an element of uncertainty as to whether this was remotely a good idea. Quite frankly, this feels cheap – an attempt to provide an easy shock and drum up some publicity by killing off a major character, rather than a natural storytelling development.
The horrendous, brutal way in which Glenn dies doesn’t do the scene any favours either, heightening the sense that The Walking Dead is gunning for shock factor and little else with this major death.
It’s a feeling that spreads to the rest of the episode, which possesses the slightly cheap and gratuitous aura of Glenn’s unbefitting death. Every redshirt death is slowly drawn out for maximum gore and maximum shock, but by the fourth or fifth death it just doesn’t have the same punch anymore – the gore and horror is overused to the point where the effect is heavily dulled.
It feels as if the showrunners looked at Noah’s infamous, gory demise last season and used it as a template for every redshirt death, forgetting that the surprise and rareness of that gory death is what made it so notorious in the first place. Even Nicholas’ death, the only one in the episode not brought about by a walker, feels cheap and slightly nonsensical, with no adequate reason or proper build-up to his abrupt suicide.
It’s a shame that the show has slipped back to one that aims purely to shock, as last season really showed that The Walking Dead can really work as something more profound and meaningful than a schlocky zombie horror.
Ultimately, ‘Thank You’ is actually a good episode with several effective moments – it’s just that the episode exposes some core problems with a show now in season six. It’s all getting a little stale, and the moments that had so much impact earlier now play as echoes of a more creative time in the show’s history.
The Walking Dead remains an exciting show – but should it be more than that?
Aired at 9pm on Monday 26 October 2015 on FOX.
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