The Walking Dead Review: Now (Season 6 Episode 5)

This week’s episode of The Walking Dead, “Now,” is a filler at best.

At worst, it is actually a really bad filler, which is disappointing, considering how strong this season has been up until this point. They really hit the ground running and, with this episode, it seems like they may have run out of steam.

Filler episodes happen to best of shows, we all know this. We all known that character building episodes are a thing, and we know that no show can have a consistently action packed season. There is no such thing as a perfect season. However, what makes this particular filler especially disappointing is the fact that it’s filled with characters we don’t even care about. This episode is about the Alexandrians, not the core group that we have all come to care about and love.

Had the filler’s focus been on (or, hell, even featured) Carol, Michonne, Rick, or Maggie, it may not have been as slow as it is. However, instead, it focuses on Deanna, on Jessie and her boys, and on Spencer.

The little plotline Maggie is granted leads absolutely nowhere. She wanders around a sewer for a little while with an Alexandrian, Aaron, in tow (heaven forbid we exclude a minor Alexandrian character from a plotline, guys), and, yeah, we get to see some pretty cool gutter zombies. Unfortunately, she ends up getting nowhere and blurting out a pregnancy revelation that we sort of all saw coming.

Given that I have nothing but the utmost faith in the writing team behind The Walking Dead, I can only assume that the focus is on fleshing out these minor characters in preparation for some form of impending massacre. We know the show does so love to break our hearts (yes, hi, remember Beth? Glenn?), so, perhaps, this episode is a building block toward making us empathize with and care about the Alexandrians so that, when the time comes to kill them all bloodily and brutally, it will be that much more painful to witness.

On the other hand, the episode could have also just been giving us hints as to who will be the asshole who ruins everything for Alexandria. Prime suspects include: Spencer (the unstable alcoholic), Ron (the young man with a chip on his shoulder and a grudge against both Rick and Carl), or Deanna herself (you can’t honestly tell me that woman isn’t losing it). Perhaps “Now” was a means to an end, so to speak, and not so much a filler.

Sort of like in Math when you have to “show your work.” Yeah, it’s tedious and time consuming, but it gets you to what really matters — it’s part of a necessary process to reach a conclusion.

Was that a terrible analogy?

Maybe.

But you get the point.

Maybe “Now” is a necessary, albeit slow, episode to develop and pave the way toward Alexandria’s downfall.

There’s simply no way that this episode is as pointless as it seems. No way. Not with this show.

Either way, here’s hoping that the show will be right on track next week (which seems likely, given the focus is on Daryl, Abraham, and Sasha in the preview for the upcoming episode).

Fear not, The Walking Dead fans. We are in good hands. They won’t let us down.

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 at 9/8c on AMC.