The Walking Dead Review: Heads Up (Season 6 Episode 7)

We finally have answers, thanks to this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, “Heads Up.”

Ladies and gentleman, we can rest easy: Glenn Rhee is alive!

In all fairness, most people already predicted that he was alive. In fact, most people predicted his survival in extreme accuracy (to a T, really), but, nevertheless, despite predictability, we’re all glad to see our boy alive and well and back in action. For how long? Time will tell because, let’s be honest, The Walking Dead is absolutely that show that would give us back one of our favorites just to rip him out of our grasp again.

This episode has been a long time coming. The showrunners have been dragging out resolutions and stalling progression of plots for three weeks now in an attempt to keep us on the edge of our seats, but, really, it’s just made us bored. Although “Heads Up” has finally given us something to care about again, and the plot is finally moving forward, they really took their sweet time getting us to this point — and, honestly, the wait was too long.

Are we happy that Glenn is alive? Of course.

However, by now, after so long of a wait, all of the tension and anxiety about Glenn’s supposed death has been dulled by time and irritation. It’s almost as though we’ve had too long to speculate. By the time Glenn’s survival is revealed, most fans had already come to the conclusion that he survived and, as I said earlier, they accurately predicted exactly how Glenn managed to get out of there alive.

That is the wrong way to do a cliffhanger.

The longer we went without answers, the more obvious it became that Glenn is alive. There is simply no way they would have built up toward what they hoped would be some grand reveal for as long as they did just to be like, “yeah, no, he’s actually dead.”

The wait, in itself, was a spoiler.

Are we relieved? Yes. Shocked? Not at all.

But, with that being said, other plots that had previously been put on the back-burner are finally addressed in this episode — like the attack on Alexandria, for example. Honestly, it is sort of like the showrunners already knew what fans would complain about and crammed in everything necessary to rectify their mistakes to this one episode (in the future, guys, it’s better to just not bother with the slow fillers at all).

Low and behold, Rick, Michonne, Carol, and Morgan finally sit down and talk about what happened. Honestly, I think we’re all thrilled to have them talking to each other period, but the fact that they are talking about what is likely to have been a massive misjudgment on Morgan’s part is even better. As admirable as the value he places on life is, there is definitely something to be said for being proactive in the world they live in and taking care of a threat when you have the chance, before more damage can be done.

Everyone and their dog knows that letting those Wolves get away was a mistake and now, hopefully, Morgan will begin to learn how to balance the philosophy he clings to with what is realistic and necessary in their harsh world. Odds are that, by letting them go, Morgan will indirectly be responsible for countless more lives lost — losses he could have prevented by taking out those Wolves when he had the chance.

And, finally, we need to talk about Ron. What is Rick thinking, teaching the son of the man he killed how to use a gun? You’d think by now, with how cautious and ruthless Rick can be, he would be smart enough to know that this gun in this kid’s hands can only lead to terrible, terrible things.

He is absolutely going to regret this when Ron goes after Carl.

At the end of the day, the complaint about the not-so-big “Glenn is alive” reveal aside, this episode puts the show back on track. The focus is back on the characters we actually care about, the plot is moving forward, and it looks like we have one hell of a mid-season finale to look forward to next week.

Thank God for that because I, for one, am not sure I could have sat through another filler episode.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Let me know in the comments below!

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The Walking Dead airs Sundays 9/8c on AMC.