Sadé Green reviews the third episode of The Walking Dead season 6…
Nope. No. Not happening. This is not an acceptable episode Angela Kang. Why have you allowed this to happen? Kirkman? Gimple? Nicotero? Got anything to say for yourselves?! Devastated doesn’t even cover it. Spoilers ahead if you keep reading.
Season 6 has been incredibly eventful thus far and ‘Thank you’ really doesn’t disappoint. Written by the aforementioned Angela Kang (damn you Angela), ‘Thank you’ starts pretty much where ‘JSS’ left off. Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Glenn (Steven Yeun) along with Nicholas (Michael Traynor), Heath (Corey Hawkins) and some random Alexandrians (or fodder as we really think of them) are going their separate ways – Rick wants to go alone to the RV to distract the Walkers from heading to Alexandria due to that pesky truck horn; he instructs Michonne and Glenn to get themselves and the others back to Alexandria as soon as possible, leaving behind any Alexandrians that happen to slow them down.
As Michonne and Glenn lead the group back to Alexandria, their number gradually decreases – semi-serious Walker bites, accidental shootings and cowardly runaways lead the group to stop and recoup in an abandoned town. They soon find themselves trapped as the oncoming herd of Zombies closes in. When Nicholas was a runner for Alexandria he became quite familiar with this particular town and he and Glenn devise a plan to set fire to a certain building to distract the impending Walkers. As the two new best buds (why’d do you have to be such a nice guy Glenn?) go off on their mission, Michonne is tasked with getting Heath and the others back to Alexandria. With David (Jay Huguley) already bitten, and Annie (Beth Keener) and Scott (Kenric Green) with leg injuries it seems an impossible task and sure enough two of them are overcome by Walkers.
In the meantime, Rick gets back to the RV so that he can distract the rogue Zombies and get them back on the right path, away from Alexandria. As he pulls up at the side of the road to radio Glenn and Daryl (Norman Reedus), he suddenly gets ambushed by a familiar pair of Wolves. After a tense battle, Rick notices another three creeping up the side of the vehicle, only to unleash a tirade of bullets against the RV wall. Rick settles back into the driver’s seat to move further on as the Zombies approach, only to realise that the RV won’t start; Rick is stuck in the RV as he slowly gets surrounded.
As if this wasn’t all nerve-wracking enough, Glenn and Nicholas are running around the deserted town like headless chickens. The panic in Nicholas rises as he keeps leading the pair to dead ends and when they finally find the building they’re looking for and see that it has already been burnt down, the responsibility becomes too much for Nicholas. He unknowingly leads Glenn and himself down a dead-end where they have to climb on top of a dumpster to escape the growing hoard of Zombies that surround them. And that’s when it happens guys. One of the worst moments in Walking Dead history. Nicholas surveys the area and seeing no way out turns to Glenn and thanks him, whilst raising the gun to his own head, committing suicide. At this point, footage turns to slow motion and as Glenn looks on in horror, Nicholas’s dead body falls, dragging Glenn with him, into the hungry mass of Walkers below. Glenn lays trapped, screaming, as innards are torn apart and we apparently watch the beloved character die.
Just going to let that sink in…
Glenn is dead.
Or that’s what we’ve been led to believe. No one wants to believe that our wonderful Glenn is officially dead and several ‘Glenn’s alive’ theories are doing the rounds. If you are a viewer of The Talking Dead (highly recommended if you’re a super fan), then you’d know that Steven Yeun did not appear as a guest on the show; cast members normally do after their on-screen death. Secondly, Glenn’s death was not featured in the ‘In Memorium’ section of the show. Thirdly, Scott M. Gimple sent in a statement stating ‘In some way, we will see Glenn again’. But what exactly that means, remains to be seen. Many people want to believe that Nicholas’s body fell on top of Glenn and they are in fact Nicholas’s guts that we see ripped to shreds whilst others believe that there is no way that the writers would deprive Glenn of his real, iconic ending in the graphic novels. Sure, we may be clutching at desperate, unreasonable straws here but can we be blamed?!
We also have to deal with the death of Nicholas. He was just beginning to really thrive, and as Glenn carefully led him to becoming a decent human being (especially after the fact that he tried to kill Glenn), he was potentially a character that fans could have grown to love. His death was shocking enough, if his demise hadn’t dragged down Glenn as well. No matter what you think, this was one of the most painful scenes to watch in Walking Dead existence.
The rest of ‘Thank you’ wasn’t exactly what you’d call boring either. Michonne had some serious words with Heath after he accused our gang of purposefully trying to leave behind some Alexandrians having overheard Rick’s instructions to Michonne and Glenn earlier. It seems that Rick’s family still have a very long way to go until they fully earn the Alexandrians’ trust. Also, those ‘familiar’ Wolves that attacked Rick later in the episode are in fact the same Wolves that Morgan let get away at the end of ‘JSS’. After a few seasons of their mentality getting darker and darker and their humanity slipping away, the one person who is trying to get them to heal their darkening minds almost gets them killed.
Overall, ‘Thank you’ was one powerful episode. With one of the most gut wrenching (honestly, no pun intended, I swear) and heart destroying scenes in the last six seasons, it was sure to be an emotional one. Next week’s episode, ‘Here’s not here’ is a massive 90 minutes long so don’t expect the tension to end. But hopefully episode 4 won’t feature another fan favourite death. We don’t think our sensitive little hearts can take it.
Rating: 9.5/10
Zombie Kill of the Week
Michonne, Heath, David, Annie and Scott are trapped inside the pet store in the deserted town. As the Zombies begin to pile up outside the door, the five trap-ees decide to break out of the double main doors and make a run for it. As they kick open the doors, five or six Walkers are directly outside and are taken down in unison by the group, collapsing to the floor with an array of rolling heads and brains flying out every which way. Certainly not the goriest kill of the week, but definitely the coolest.
Sadé Green
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=Yo85WjqklYY
Originally published October 29, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
