Hello everyone and welcome to my first The Walking Dead Review on Inside Pulse. I have been doing these for years on various platforms and now I have a new home. “Gut Check is the name I have had for it in my head ever since I started, but now feels like the time to actually use it.
What is “Gut Check”? It is a review done immediately following an episode. Everything is done off the top of my head with no research. It is all about how I feel about an episode in the moment. It is all reactionary. Let’s begin, shall we?
Tonight on The Walking Dead: St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
Alternate Title 1: Introducing: The Governor II
Alternate Title 2: It Takes a Village
Spoilers for:
The Walking Dead
Season 6
Episode 9
No Way Out
Hey guys! They finally aired the mid-season finale… at the start of the new mid-season. It was the culmination of all the storylines that got left hanging and also gave us a great final moment that left hope and tragedy for the future.
Let’s get the deaths out of the way. I have a really weird feeling after this one. In a few fleeting moments I grew to love Negan’s henchman, he played it so perfectly and delightfully nutty. He was a bad guy I could grow to love. Then *kerblooey kerbang* and my hopes of seeing that wacky bastard devolved in a fine red mist.
Wolf boy met his maker as well, and even after being shot by Carol he helped save Denise, proving Morgan right. I hope that thread comes back. The character got some nice moments there with Denise too. I am pretty sure this mostly ends the story of the Wolves too, which is a shame as they felt shunted to the side.
Wife and sons of Porch Dick all met their end as well. The really sad part about it was that I felt relief, they all earned it. It feels weird that losing the two bad guys made me feel more than losing a mom and her kids. That isn’t on me, it is on them. Ron was living up to his father’s legacy of dickery. Sam caught whatever Nicolas had, and Jessie kept enabling him. The kid got all three killed, along with other after effects. Speaking of…
Carl lost his *blee blippin’* eye! Man that was awesome. I have been hoping they would recreate that iconic comic book scene and they did. I was often called crazy and shot down by people saying the show would never do that to poor Carl. They did and it was awesome. Now I hope Rick meets his fate.
Congrats to Gabriel for getting gutsy finally, and Eugene for wanting to be a part of the tale the bards’ will one day sing. The way the entire community came together was a thing of beauty.
This episode was bombastic, Greg Nicotero did a damn fine job directing it. The fact a good portion of it was filmed at night (legit, not filters) did a lot for the vibe of the story being told. Everything was dark and a bit washed out, there was no brightness and no hope. What deserves the most accolades is the Survivors and the Towns’ People cowboying up and going on a damn killing spree. It felt like a video game in the good ways. The angles, the cuts, everything was done in a tremendous way. That last frenzy was a thing of beauty, and one of the best scenes this show has ever done.
“No Way Out” was a fantastic episode, it will propel the series forward into our new world. There was some needed house cleaning, great action, and wonderful practical effects. Importantly, I believe every major character got some time in the limelight, which is something this show struggles with time and again. My only real wish is that this was the mid-season finale, not the mid-season premiere. I would have felt better about all of the first half of the season if this was the capper. Hopefully we keep this moment going forward.
Thanks for reading; please check out my work at Diehard Gamefan: Steven Kess
and my blog here: Tumblr
