written by Scott Gimple
directed by Greg Nicotero
How do you follow one truly pointless, gratuitous character killing? With another one, only this time, target the most predictable target for extinction, a narrative cliche so old it was a running joke in movies and television years even before they invented the internet meme.
Rick Grimes's (Andrew Lincoln) crew splits up with Rick, Tyreese, Michonne (Danai Gurira), and Glenn (Steven Yeun) taking Noah (Tyler James Williams), the nurse whom the late Beth (Emily Kinney) saved from captivity in the Atlanta hospital before her death, back to his community, which, they hope, could be a safe haven for them as well. Unfortunately, it has been overrun, apparently by other humans, who have left a trail of death and destruction in their wake, leaving Noah despondent. Rick, Michonne and Glenn begin to forage for supplies, while Tyreese attempts to console Noah, who then runs to his house to see what has become of his family. Predictably, they find nothing but death. Curiously, Tyreese, after seeing the shadow of a walker in the house, suddenly and rather inexplicably finds himself transfixed by pictures of Noah's twin brothers, one of whom is lying dead and eviscerated on the bed.
(Spoiler alert)
He then gets bitten by the other twin, just before Noah destroys what was once his brother. Tyreese gets sick, has visions/hallucinations of the ghosts of past characters, then dies.
Yup. They went and killed the black guy.
To be more accurate, they killed off the show's longest running black guy, and the second one this season, after Bob (Lawrence Gilliard Jr.) died earlier this season. I'd be offended if I wasn't so amused. It feels particularly insulting that they killed them almost right after they introduced two new black characters, namely the aforementioned Noah, and an Episcopalian priest named Fr. Gabriel (Seth Gilliam)...almost as if they were replaced. It's like some guy wrote on Twitter: lose a n***a, gain a n***a.
Tyreese was at the heart of some very interesting story threads in this show. His arc, in which he forgave Carol (Melissa McBride) for having killed his girlfriend in the prison back in season 3, was incredibly moving, and the moment he forgave her was the lone bright spot of the unrelentingly dark episode "The Grove" back in season 4. For me, "The Grove" will go down as one of the series' best-written episodes ever, and while Tyreese's death does nothing to change that, I really feel that a character who participated in an episode that important deserved a far better sendoff than this poor excuse for an episode. It would have made more sense had he been killed in a melee with a rival group of humans, especially considering that he wasn't willing to kill any.
Instead, in defiance of all character logic, he allows himself to be distracted in a house where he's ALREADY spotted a walker's shadow, and as a result gets bitten. This is a veteran of two and a half seasons; such carelessness on his part is unforgivably sloppy by the writers. The idiocy of his carelessness is highlighted by the fact that he tells Noah that he will enter the house first, and exercises utmost caution. He lets his guard down for...what? A picture of two kids he's never even met? Was it because they were black? Could this episode have been written any worse?
Considering my last post was about the only death that would really matter to this show, I find myself highly disappointed that the show's writers went for one of the easiest, most obvious targets imaginable, namely the black guy who refused to kill people (humans, that is, not walkers).
I don't care how many dead characters made cameo appearances to "welcome" Tyreese into the afterlife. In fact, I'm even pissed that the writers didn't even think of bringing back Tyreese's dead girlfriend Karen (Melissa Ponzio) for this gratuitous cameo sequence. I don't care if the governor (David Morrissey) showed up again. I don't care if Tyreese's ticket was long overdue for punching. This episode still felt like some shockingly lazy, perfunctory writing, and conjures up images of white guys in suits making the creative decisions.
(End spoiler alert)
There's nice, artsy shot selection and some pleasant, wistful, rustic music playing throughout the episode, which gives it a bittersweet tone. The actors involved pretty much give this episode everything they've got. There are generous helpings of walkers.
I normally appreciate little touches like this. However, this time, none of these things could prevent this episode from leaving a truly terrible taste in my mouth.
4/10
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