The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 9

The Walking Dead

Episode Title: “What Happened and What's Going On”

Channel: AMC

Director: Greg Nicotero

Writers: Scott M. Gimple

Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller

Runtime: 44 min

Rated: TV-MA

Original Air Date: February 8, 2015

Full disclosure, there's going to be spoilers here.

The Walking Dead is back after more than two months away. After the events of “Coda,” speaking of course of Beth's death, I expected this episode to feature some grief. Maybe try to redeem Maggie a bit. Her reaction, or lack thereof, to the disappearance of Beth could have been forgotten by the audience with a solid send off. As “What Happened and What's Going On” opened with a montage of several seemingly unrelated scenes there were a few cuts of dirt being moved. Clearly that's a grave, right? Looks like we're getting the expected Beth send off.

And no. Instead the group decides to take Noah home to Virginia. Well that's going to be quite the trek, right? After all it has seemed like a struggle for this group to get anywhere for seasons now. Ten minutes later, Rick and Co. are cruising through Virginia with Noah telling them it's five miles further down the road. I'm all for a change in scenery, but when a line has to be written for a character commenting on the ease of travel perhaps it should have been handled a little differently. Within fifty or so miles of Atlanta they've encountered: a CDC doctor determined to incinerate them all because life isn't worth living, roving herds of walkers, a tyrannical sociopath that kept his turned daughter as a pet, and cannibals. That's just the major stuff; don't forget fuel, food, injuries, shelter and the plethora of other obstacles the group has encountered. Want to be in Virginia? Boom we're in Virginia.

It's all right though, a change in venue is a good thing. No matter how we got there. The group arrives at Noah's community and it's exactly as we knew it would be. Abandoned and crawling with walkers. Glenn, Michonne, and Rick set off to scrounge up some supplies and Noah drags Tyreese to his home to see the horrible fate of his family. This was the point at which the directing of the episode took an odd turn. It started with the blood of a walker slowly pooling into a crack in the sidewalk, then a shot of Tyreese and Noah looking through the front entry to Noah's home from behind them, only Noah's face is hovering over Tyreese's shoulder in a mirror inside. Those were a bit odd, not quite what we've seen before from the show but it's no big deal, I'll roll with it.

Michonne told Rick and Glenn that they need to find somewhere that they can feel safe and settle down. It seemed a bit unrealistic that she would consider this specific community a possibility. There were multiple streets and a huge amount of area for the group to try to secure. Add to that the obvious fact that these people had been attacked here already and I just couldn't believe that this would be the place she'd feel comfortable settling down in. Glenn on the other hand has continued to become more of the type of person that could survive in this world. He's a bit too nihilistic with his belief that nothing matters very much anymore, but he's finally come to terms with the fact that they live in a them or us type of world. This is in direct contrast to the man Tyreese has become, shunning violence at every turn. Tyreese is no longer equipped to survive in the world they live in.

Back over with Tyreese and Noah, Tyreese is exploring the rest of Noah's former abode when a silent walker attacks him. This was a walker that he'd noticed on the other side of a door in the hallway, a walker that had apparently been in that room since he'd turned and not managed to get out. It then stealthily crept up on him. Tyreese notices it at the last second, and still hesitates to defend himself, ending up bitten in the process. What follows the bite is where the episode, for me, really went off the rails. Tyreese hallucinates friends and enemies from his life, all of whom offer some sort of insight into the character he had become. Those scenes were all odd, but the strangest one was a brief moment featuring the Governor with a couple of quickly projected films on the wall behind him. It all felt very out of place in a The Walking Dead episode. I'm sure some will argue that it was a fun, artsy experiment that provided some insight into Tyreese and who he'd become, but I found it distracting. A mad dash for help ensues, but it's all for naught as Tyreese succumbs to his injuries. Then we find out that the grave from the beginning was not for Beth.

Conclusion: “What Happened and What's Going On” suffered from being too heavily directed and too surreal; so much so that it felt like a different show entirely sometimes. The lack of a depiction of mourning for Beth and the sudden ease of travel both felt like strange decisions from the writers. The moments showing us Michonne's desire for a safer, more normal life, and Glenn's resigned acceptance that decency will get them no where were good character moments overshadowed by the rest of the episode.

Rating: 6.5/10