Photograph by Jackson Lee Davis/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: Carol pops pills, hallucinates, and fires her gun.
Season 10, Episode 3: “Ghosts”
Best series tightening: A few years ago, that whole 48 hour period of walker waves would have been an entire season. We’re glad to see the plot moving at a faster pace now.
Best plot device: Especially after last week’s snoozer Alpha and Beta backstory episode, we needed an engaging hour with our heroes, and this episode brought it by having Carol become an unreliable narrator. While by the end of the episode it was fairly easy to tell that Daryl flipping eggs in the kitchen was a fantasy, we were stunned to learn the trucker conversation wasn’t real. And we spent up until the episode’s final scene wondering if Carol actually did fight off walkers in the gymnasium or if she just fell and cut herself. Combine this with the Negan and Aaron subplot and you have excellent storytelling all around.
Most interesting highway: You might be interested to learn that I-66 does not go through Kentucky. Oddly enough, it was planned as part of a cross-country route from Virginia to California, that would have run through Kentucky, but there wasn’t much state-level support for the route. Currently, it runs from the DC area to I-81 in northern Virginia.
Best clue: With that in mind, we’re wondering if the incorrect freeway wasn’t a clue to Carol’s conversation with Daryl not being real.
Most reformed: OK, Negan has had ample chances to get back into the world and he hasn’t yet. Get him more weapons, and send him after the Whisperers already.
Most relatable line: “I don’t want to hear about the damn satellite anymore, Eugene!” Yup, neither do we.
Best visual explainer: We know that Carol is haunted by a lot of dead kids, but you just don’t realize just how many there are until you see a photo of all of them on the cover of a home economics textbook.
Most out of place: But on that note, what 21st century school still has a home ec class?
Best accessory: Aaron’s mace hand. Negan’s right, it is awesome.
Best subliminal messaging: As the Carol, Daryl, Michonne, and the others enter the school building, there’s a sign visible on the wall that says, “Don’t let the flu get you.” And in case you missed this AJC story from last week, health experts recommend getting a flu shot before the end of October. So listen to the poster and get your flu shots, folks.
Most dangerous plant: Yes, hogweed really can blind you. Its sap, combined with sunlight, can also cause severe burns. Oh, and there’s a giant, even more dangerous version that can grow to be two to five meters tall.
Best line: “Jesus, did you just trip me? What are you, 12?” —Negan to Aaron after he trips him
Most disturbing image: Questioning reality. Nothing makes it harder to watch a show than a fake-out. After that, every scene became a guessing game of whether it’s real or not. The tension choking the school scenes didn’t help. We’re just glad the last scene showed us that, yes, Carol did indeed get attacked by a Whisperer.
Best kill: Eugene’s dreams of a romantic relationship with Rosita, after she tells him flat-out, while sleep-deprived, that it would never happen. As they both admit, Rosita has been making this clear for a long time, but as Eugene finally accepts his place in the friend zone, he realizes the only reasons he was friends with Rosita in the first place was because he thought he might win her over. “And what kind of friend is that?” he asks.
Episode MVP: Dante, for not being nearly as big of a jerk as we thought. He’s cocky, sure, but he revealed in this episode that he was a field medic in Iraq who struggled with PTSD after losing his squad. He recognizes that same PTSD in Saddiq, which is why he chooses to open up to him—and stops Saddiq from performing surgery on Carol when he was in no shape to do so.
