The Walking Dead Awards: Don’t follow the leader

Season 10, Episode 8: We fell into the pit

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The Walking Dead 10 08
Rosita and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

Photograph by Jace Downs/AMC

(Spoilers ahead)

Each week, we comb through the guts of The Walking Dead, much like a horde of hungry walkers, to bring you the episode’s best moments, surprises, and other post-apocalyptic curiosities. This week: Michonne is paranoid of traps, Daryl avoids a trap, and Carol falls right into a trap.

Season 10, Episode 8: “The World Before”

Biggest retcon: “My daughter won’t know you,” Alpha says to Dante in a flashback explaining how the hell he managed to infiltrate Alexandria in the first place, providing acknowledgement of a huge plot hole from last week’s episode. But why, exactly, didn’t she know him? That’s still not clear.

Saddest image: It was really hard to watch Siddiq zombify, even harder to think that he might harm his daughter Coco, and hardest to see him lying dead on the floor, the whites of his eyes shining in the dark room. The good doctor in no way deserved any of this.

Most unnecessary: Rosita ripping the helmet off the walker’s head, revealing a goopy, rotting scalp. We know the TWD team loves inserting this type of gore wherever they can but . . . yuck.

Most unanswered question: We’re still not sure what drew Michonne, Judith, and Luke to Oceanside. A few missing supplies? Seemed like overkill.

Biggest disappointment: This year’s midseason finale was fairly lackluster, with no deaths and not much to move the plot along. Even worse, there was no Negan at all.

Least useful knowledge: Gracie’s knowledge of state capitols might have been more useful before the cities all became bombed-out, walker-infested ruins.

Much needed advice: As Michonne interrogates Virgil, she remembers Rick’s mantra for not killing Negan—”My mercy prevails over my wrath.” This would have been something good for Gabriel to remember, too.

The Walking Dead 10 08
Carol knows better than this.

Photograph by Gene Page/AMC

Least Valuable Player: After everything this season, we’re sick of Carol’s hasty, careless decisions. She’s smarter than this, and unfortunately, she’s going to get people killed. (And we’re going to be double-mad if that includes Jerry.)

Best nickname: Judith was christened as “Lil Asskicker” before she could even crawl, but she has above and beyond lived up to the title, as proved in this episode with her sword skills.

Not goodbye . . . yet: Running off to a naval base seems like an easy enough way to write-off Michonne, now that actress Danai Gurira has confirmed that this season will be her last, but thankfully, this episode isn’t the final one for Michonne, according to showrunner Angela Kang. We will see her again this season.

Best exchange:
Michonne: So, what are you really doing here?
Virgl: Your daughter’s a little demon with a sword.
Michonne: Yeah, like mother like daughter, only mine won’t leave anything to heal. Now answer my damn question.
Virgil: I didn’t mean it in a bad way. Nobody can make it this long without being comfortable with violence.

Most disturbing image: Gabriel viciously killing Dante. We’re not saying we blame him after everything that happened, especially with Rosita, but still. Gabe went from 0 to 100 in a heartbeat and didn’t let up. We’ve seen Negan show more restraint on the show. Add in the funeral pyre scene with Rosita and him coldly watching the body burn, and we’re looking at two people who have lost a good chunk of humanity . . . which may be just what Alpha wants.

Best kill: As much as we hated to watch it, Rosita did do an impressive job of escaping and subduing Dante before stopping zombie Siddiq from killing Coco, especially given that she’s still not quite 100 percent health-wise and, you know, a man was trying to murder her while the undead father of her child was headed to eat her baby. Talk about staying cool under pressure.

Episode MVP: Luke, for talking Michonne down from immediately killing Virgil. Considering this episode started with Dante boasting about Alpha’s plan to sow discord and paranoia in the communities, having at least one person desperately clinging to civilization and humanity keeps that flame alive. (And in this case, Virgil, too.)

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