The Walking Dead Review: Swear (Season 7 Episode 6)
If things were going differently this season, The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 6, “Swear,” might have been a nice break from the doom-and-gloom of the zombie apocalypse.
It’s not quite as fun as last season’s “The Next World,” but Tara gets a few funny moments in. It’s full of some badass ladies and conversations that pass the Bechdel Test. Sure, there’s Walker killing and a little girl who wants to murder innocent people, but, considering it is The Walking Dead, it still manages to be a lighter episode than usual.
But we’re not in a different season. We’re in this one, where almost nothing has happened to move the plot along in the entire first half of the season.
Things are still basically at the same point they were after the season premiere.
While it is nice to see Tara get her moment in the spotlight, it’s unfortunate that it comes during a season where everyone is so scattered and things are moving so slowly. We haven’t seen the Kingdom since Episode 2, and we’ve only seen a glimpse of Daryl since his captivity in Episode 3.
With so many other things going on, as cool as a Tara-centric episode is, is it really necessary to focus an entire episode on this, especially so close to the mid-season finale?
Tara and/or Heath could’ve simply showed up back in Alexandria after going on their run, and we could have spent Episode 6 with Carl and Jesus or in the Kingdom. Or if we really need to see Tara and Heath’s run, at least add a B-plot so we can check in on someone else, too.
Six episodes into a 16 episode season, it’s starting to feel less like they’re setting things up and more like they’re just stalling.
The only way this episode will really affect anything moving forward is if these women eventually help everyone else fight Negan, or if Tara betrays her promise and they go steal their guns. Otherwise, they’re just going to be more one-off characters who we waste time getting to know and then never see again.
Of course, there is one other major development: Heath goes missing, which is an unnecessary new plot since I suspect everyone will be too worried about Negan to go looking for him.
And Tara found that mysterious “PPP” keycard, which will surely be important at some point down the line, but that one small discovery probably could have fit into another episode somehow.
Alanna Masterson does carry the episode well, and the guest stars — including Sydney Park, Deborah May and Briana Venskus — are all great, which is why it’s such a shame that an episode with such potential is wasted as The Walking Dead Season 7 drags its feet toward the mid-season finale.
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The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.
Katie Houlis
Katie is a recent college graduate who spent most of her free time at school binge-watching shows like Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Fringe, and Hannibal. She has watched every single episode of Lost at least ten times each (yes, even “Stranger In A Strange Land”). Current favorites include a bunch of comedies, lots of superhero shows, and a few shows with quite a bit of murder in them.