The Walking Dead Review: Something They Need (Season 7 Episode 15)

Despite a few explosions and some walkers, The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 15, “Something They Need,” is pretty lackluster considering it’s the penultimate episode of the season.

Sure, sometimes the episode before a season finale is all about planning and getting everything into place while all the actual action is saved for the season finale itself.

The thing is, at least half of Season 7’s episodes have felt like set-ups where the purpose of the entire episode was just to get characters in place for something that would happen in the next episode or two. But that “something” never actually occurred.

The past few episodes in particular seemed to be setting up action that needed to happen before the season finale.

For example, now that they’re really under pressure to deliver a lot of guns to their new pals at the junkyard, they’ll go to the Oceanside community, and that’s where something big will go down.

It doesn’t.

They set off some dynamite, but mostly just to scare people, not to blow stuff up. Tara gets held at gunpoint for a few minutes, but it gets resolved. Some walkers (who look like they walked straight off the set of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”) show up, but surprise, the group and the Oceanside women take them all down without any problems.

Some members of the community consider joining the fight against the Saviors, but then… they don’t. Our heroes leave with the guns, and that’s that.

Maybe some of the women will show up just in time to save the day in the season finale, but that doesn’t make this episode any less anticlimactic.

Okay, so the A-plot was disappointing, but the last time we saw Sasha, she was running into the Saviors’ compound, ready to kill Negan or die trying. At least Sasha will bring some excitement to “Something They Need,” right?

Not really.

The episode skips straight to the next day, where Sasha has been tied up in a cell overnight. According to Negan and a disgusting Savior who quickly gets killed, Sasha caused quite a bit of chaos, but apparently, viewers don’t need to see that.

Instead, we get a B-plot of Sasha sitting in a dark cell, quietly talking to Negan and Eugene.

Even though it’s boring, at least the B-plot provides a few good monologues: Eugene’s explanation of his cowardice, Sasha’s off-screen manipulation of Eugene, and Negan’s pitch to Sasha.

These three are great actors, and they sure are good at monologuing. Now, if only they were allowed to do something.

Just like the A-plot, the B-plot leaves you thinking, “Well, maybe this will lead to something big on the next episode.”

The C-plot, unsurprisingly, is not any more exciting.

It makes you wonder how in the world Gregory is still alive when he gets frightened when one (1) walker shows up and completely freaks out when a second sneaks up on him.

He tries to make nice with Maggie, briefly appears to consider literally stabbing her in the back, and then seems to decide to go visit Simon when Maggie embarrassingly has to save him from two (TWO!) walkers.

Again, something more eventful will probably happen with Gregory during the season finale, but this plot, in this episode, feels like an afterthought. It’s just something they needed to get out of the way. It’s not a plot worthy of the season’s penultimate episode, especially not when the episode’s other two plots are equally dull.

In past seasons, The Walking Dead has done a good job of balancing the season-long arc with episodic pacing. There were standalone plots that were resolved in one episode, and the focus gradually shifted to the season’s endgame.

Yes, Negan is the biggest Big Bad that has ever been on The Walking Dead, but his presence has been so overwhelming this season that it doesn’t feel like we’ve been building to the battle against him. It feels like we’ve just been stalling until the time was right for the battle.

Even if the extended season finale ends up being the action-packed episode we’ve all been waiting for, a great season finale still doesn’t erase all of the poorly paced, uneventful episodes that came before it.

At this point, it honestly wouldn’t be surprising if the “war” that’s been looming ended up being more like a hostage situation — with Dwight in Alexandria and Sasha with the Saviors — but maybe, just maybe, there’s still hope that The Walking Dead will end its sloppy seventh season with the action we’ve been waiting for.

 

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

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