The Walking Dead Review: Mercy (Season 8 Episode 1)

What a difference a year makes. The Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 1, “Mercy,” celebrates the show’s one-hundredth episode with a huge battle on Negan and the Saviors. “Mercy” is bathed in sunlight and thankfully devoid of dread.

It’s a stark difference between “Mercy” and The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 1, “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be.” The worst part of Season 7 is that the survivors were helpless, beaten, and hopeless. It was almost a chore to watch The Walking Dead.

It was not entertainment.

We had lost Glenn (and Abraham) but in such an awful, brutal way and at the hands of the ultimate bully—Negan.

But now, on “Mercy,” Rick and the survivors have the upper hand and Negan is cornered as the dead occupy the Saviors’ sanctuary.

“Mercy” is a decent episode—but not exactly thrilling. It has some big speeches by Rick, Maggie, and King Ezekiel and they all do a good job at rallying the group to go into battle.

We see that this is a well-thought-out and executed plan and apparently, most of it goes smoothly. We see all the characters and man, there are so many.

It’s nice to see them all, even briefly. The Walking Dead has always had issues with showing all the characters in an episode, so this is a real treat.

It is a pity, though, that we get very little Michonne. She shares a kiss with Rick and has a sweet moment with Carl. The Walking Dead aims for continuity and Michonne is still too injured to hit the road with Rick from the assault on Alexandria on the last episode of Season 7.

“Mercy” tries to be more interesting with the way it’s shot. We get bits of Rick’s speech throughout the episode mixed in with the planning and destruction of the Saviors’ lookouts. Most curious though, is the image we’ve seen since Comicon and that is Old Man Rick.

Rick already has plenty of gray in his beard, but Old Man Rick uses a cane, has a full gray beard, and is losing his hair. It seems like it’s a good future to have…if the images weren’t also used with Rick standing beside two freshly dug graves and having a crazy look in his eyes.

We will probably learn the real story behind Old Man Rick as Season 8 goes on. Is it a dream? Is it Rick’s dream as he is on the brink of death? Could there be a time jump this season? I just hope we don’t have splintered images of it all season long.

The action on “Mercy” is pretty decent, considering The Walking Dead can be so talky. It’s cool to see Daryl on his motorcycle blowing stuff up and Tara wearing bright sunglasses and chewing on a Twizzler.

Seriously, how did she get a Twizzler?

I still get a thrill in seeing all my favorite characters and cross my fingers that Rick Grimes never dies. For the first couple of seasons, Rick annoyed me so much with his sheriff’s hat and morals.

And then Rick tore a man’s throat out to save Carl and Michonne and I have never looked back.

The worst part of “Mercy” is Negan. I knew as soon as he stepped out of the door, he was going to give a taunting speech. I was surprised though that he didn’t mention Lucille.

Why did no one shoot Negan? Did Rick want a written invitation to do so? They all let Negan yammer on, and someone could have killed him right then and there.

I do hope that we get an origin story for Negan, because, to me, he is still a caricature of a villain, but is not threatening. He can be violent, yes, but he’s just not scary. He just loves to listen to his own voice.

And do we care that Father Gabriel is alone with him? Nope.

Also, how many bullets do the survivors have? They wasted so many and not one even slightly injured Negan.

Overall, “Mercy” is a far better season opener than last season’s premiere, but it doesn’t have as much tension. Never did I think that any of the characters were in danger.

Considering that “Mercy” is The Walking Dead’s hundredth episode, what does the end game look like? Will we just continue in this cycle of war and survival?

What did you think of this episode of The Walking Dead? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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

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