The Walking Dead season 8, episode 10, “The Lost and the Plunderers” served as the first episode without Carl — and it definitely could have gone better.
What ‘The Walking Dead’ got right:
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I’m not sure what anyone else was expecting, but I was shocked to see that Negan’s reaction to learning about Carl’s death was actually done well! I felt like Negan was all of us when he shook his head in sadness and lamented at losing Carl because “that kid was the future.”
I was worried that they were going to have Negan go to his typical mocking but instead the writers showed a bit of his human side. Negan even apologized, which I totally wasn’t expecting. It was nice to see even the “baddie” of the series upset about Carl’s death.
One of my big worries with losing Carl is seeing who would become the show’s new moral compass. Carl was always there to keep Rick in check and make sure he wasn’t getting too dark.
It looks like Michonne has stepped up to the plate to make sure that Rick stays in line, at least for now. Rick hasn’t seemed to learn anything from Carl’s death and Michonne already pointed out what Rick was doing wrong.
Another thing that I thought Michonne did right in this episode was continue to mourn Carl’s loss. It’s obviously fresh on her mind and she’s allowing herself to feel the grief. Instead of being overcome with what’s ahead of them, Michonne takes the time to look around and see all of the things Carl left behind.
From his handprints on the porch to his favorite spot to hang out, which Michonne tried to save from burning down. Unlike Rick who seemed to jump right to anger and action, Michonne is processing Carl’s death.
What ‘The Walking Dead’ got wrong:
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I started out the positives of the episodes with Negan’s reaction to hearing about Carl’s death. However, on the flip side, I think everything Rick did in this situation was wrong. Carl took out the time to write Negan a letter, but Rick decided not to give it to Negan and just to paraphrase it.
He followed up this summary with a bunch of threats to Negan. This is exactly what I was worried Rick was going to do. At the moment he’s lashing out at everyone and ignoring the lesson his son tried to teach him.
Rick basically looked like a ravaged animal who couldn’t control himself during this conversation. Nothing he said was rational, nothing showed he’s learned what Carl wanted, it was beyond annoying to see.
Similarly, I was disgusted to see how Rick treated Jadis. Rick went to see Jadis and her people in the hopes that they’d have some way to help him get back at Negan. But when he saw that Jadis was the last one standing, after her people were punished for helping Rick, he decided she was no longer worth his time.
Granted, Jadis has played plenty of mind games with Rick in the past. Still, this was a chance for Rick to show that he could be kind to people even when they didn’t necessarily have something to offer him.
It would have been easy for Rick to help Jadis. All she was asking for was helping escaping the dump that was filled with walkers of her people. Instead, Rick left her alone and trapped.
The whole mass murder of Jadis’ people was pretty poorly timed as well. The Walking Dead has been very violent this season and Simon going on a killing spree is no exception.
I’m not sure how necessary it was and how it will affect the show going forward but I do think it would have been better if they had waited to do so. The show doesn’t need to keep up a certain level of violence to keep its viewers hooked; in fact, the show would be better served if they toned it down a bit.
Basically, everything Rick did in this episode was bad and the show needs to stop killing everyone for no reason.