WALKING DEAD DIARIES: SEASON FIVE EPISODE THEM

Title: THEM Grade: C

This was written at commercial breaks during the progression of the show – as will the rest of the WALKING DEAD Diaries – and towards the end of this particular episode, THEM, Rick states, “We are the Walking Dead,” making the next few paragraphs seem blatantly plagiarized as opposed to correctly predicted...

So at this point, THE WALKING DEAD equally describes our beloved protagonists, the live humans, beginning with a shot of Maggie sitting woebegone with her back against a tree, sick and tired of her own existence…

When that familiar gross gurgling is heard, she gets up and reluctantly kills the Walker like swatting a fly, and without even that much energy… Then when the group saunter along the highway, you have to adjust your vision to really differentiate the living from their foe… All have the same tired, plundering gait… And there’s even a reluctance to put the Walkers out of their zoned misery.  

Lately, many fans have griped about not having enough Zombies on a show about Zombies… We’ve experienced some pretty mellow episodes, the title characters beyond peripheral, and now it seems the Undead might be brought back to the forefront.

Some of the music sounds very John Carpenter: a slow pulsating dirge befitting our morbidly weary heroes… Meanwhile, a group of ferocious dogs snarling through the woods are reminicent of the canine attackers in Walter Hill's SOUTHERN COMFORT. But enough nostalgia... 

Surely the somber mood is the result of Tyreese's departure… Another moral compass deleted, where does the arrow point now? This might also explain that passive unspoken no-kill treaty some of the characters chose to follow. That is, until Sasha cut loose.

While the last episode spent the entire hour on someone dying, we spend most of this one in mourning… Far different than the old days, especially the Frank Darabont first-two-seasons when death came with the territory, and you had to move on quickly.

Memorable highlights have fan-favorite Daryl eating a worm, and burning himself with a cigarette… Either white trash hobbies die hard or perhaps he's still sad about Beth. Or is he warming up with Carol? Yikes. Those two have the chemistry of Joyce Van Patten and Jackie Earle Haley circa 1976... There's that damn nostalgia again! (One more reference... What's with Rick's Jason Beghe from MONKEY SHINES fake looking beard?!) 

Though quite lackluster, the epilogue of THEM was filmed nicely: a lovely after-rain dawn as two characters walk out from a dilapidated barn, almost making you want to hear the words “Stay Gold.” But that’s not all… There’s a new stranger. After the Governor and those cannibals, we’re probably simply out of the frying pan: And even though this guy resembles a friendly Mormon hiker, you can assume, at the very least, our Living Walkers will have to start running for their newly-appreciated lives once again... Let's hope!