Rick now for the moment

Two good episodes of The dead who walk in a row is not an unheard-of event, but it's auspicious. "The Bridge" continues with last week's narrative debut as Rick, Maggie and the others try to keep everyone together in one community, but some flaws begin to appear – and the same can be said of the TV series.

Unsurprisingly, the main story of this episode is the joint effort to rebuild the bridge that erupted last week, which Rick says is a symbol of working together and peace and their new nation ( zombie). It does not turn around with the metaphor, but the show is not. For The dead who walk as a series, the broken bridge represents the links that must be woven between disparate groups of people to truly unite them, and Rick tries to build them, as well as the bridge. No one has ever accused TWD subtle, but that's good.

Rick's plan to rebuild the bridge is, however, much safer than his hopes of seeing everyone hear. There is a tent city near the bridge where groups of people from all communities work, with nearby logging for the equipment. Eugene is working on a dam upstream. There are scouts looking for herds of zombies in all directions to attract them with sirens, which will also be used after blasting.

Some artificial moments are needed to solve problems and create conflicts, but I think this has always been the case for The dead who walk. (See Ken's hilarious and useless death in the first, for example.) Here, it all starts when an ex-Savior named Justin (Zach McGowan) suddenly decides to become a huge jerk, stealing a jar of ice cream. water pushing a child – Henry, currently relegated to the water boy – to the ground. Daryl, who never ceases to hate the Saviors, immediately begins a fight, which Rick breaks. Rick chooses to let the incident slip, rather than bothering all the old Saviors working on the bridge, but Daryl is pissed off (like everyone else, I imagine).

The artificial part comes later when the group blasts and attracts a flock. Jerry uses the first mermaid to start attracting them, but the second one does not ring, which means the flock begins to head straight for their logging, where Daryl and Aaron are working. A dumb guy drops the rope holding a giant log – the guy says, practically, "Yipe!" And leaves a cloud of body-shaped smoke behind him, like a Looney toons the character – directly on Aaron's arm, plating him to the ground.

As usual, the herd of zombies is barely managed until the series reaches the desired pace – in this case, Aaron is "barely" released – and then he is very easily dispatched. However, I will allow it for two reasons: 1) Daryl dual-purpose daggers Assassin's Creed was great, why does not he literally do it all the time? and 2) Rick pulling a rope to send a stack of logs rolling toward the flock like a fucking Ewok trap was as entertaining as ridiculous, and it was very idiot.

But the really The artificial part is to know why the second siren did not ring; it's because Rick entrusted Justin's job to the asshole that Daryl pummeled earlier in the day. I do not think he would be willing to kill so many people, including many former Saviors (some of whom are surely his friends), just because he pouted, but it's within the limits of Walking Dead behavior. No, what's artificial is Rick's choice to give this guy a job for life after being fucked by Rick's middle management and he's obviously very upset with his odious stupidity. Whatever the case may be, the guy goes back to camp (a very strange thing to do if he did not do it on purpose to make the siren work, so maybe he was saying the truth when he said it did not work), but Daryl is beating him again in front of the whole camp, which should be great for the relationship between ex-Savior / all the others. Rick simply tells the guy to go back to the Sanctuary the next day. Justin leaves immediately.

Meanwhile, at Hilltop, the Earl and Tammy saga continues, but it's pretty good. Apparently, it's been a month since the first episode took place, because Tammy, helpless, told her deputy commander, Jesus, that she was not allowed to see her husband imprisoned all this time. I know that Earl tried to kill Maggie and imprisoning him is a perfectly fine punishment, but not allowing an elderly woman who lost her son to see her husband incarcerated safely is ruined. Jesus thinks so too, but he has been content to accept Maggie's decisions without question (spoken) all this time. This happens to him however and he asks his boss.

Maggie finally gives in and surprises Earl and Tammy, including a conversation about Earl's alcoholism. This makes her want to have a solo conversation with Earl herself, where he tells her story of drunkenness and sobriety attempts, and how only Tammy's very rigid vision of marriage commitment holds her by his side. . He explains that Ken's death was too much for him, but he boldly assumes – but correctly – the responsibility to get drunk and attack him instead of saying "Gregory did me that." "This is not the most unique drama scene, but John Finn does a great job as a count and raises the material.

Meanwhile, Michonne arrived to ask Maggie for extra food for the deck crew, but Maggie refused the deal because she never received the maize ethanol that she was promised for the food that she had given at the premiere. Apparently, and the old Saviors carrying it have all disappeared. Maggie thinks she's been cheated. But between Earl, the pro-merciful agenda of Jesus, and Michonne's incessant discussions on drafting common laws for all communities, Maggie ends up pulling the traditional "Maggie": she begins the episode as a hard one that refuses everyone at all, but in the end gives up and decides to do it heartily, also for everyone. Maggie sends food, Earl is released to repair the plow and perform other blacksmith work under surveillance, and informs Michonne that she is willing to work with her. Maggie does this all the time, but it always means that scenarios are constantly progressing on Hilltop.

Doubtful moments aside, I think these two scenarios are strong. Clearly, peace between communities is going to break down, but I love how difficult it is for acceptance and forgiveness to destroy what Rick has built, not a villain. Of course, the episode is written by Rick, who tells halfway, half jubilant against Negan, jailed for life, about the progress made by each and the way they all work together. Negan remains confident that everything will collapse like a certain bridge and tells Rick in a predictable, predictable way, in the manner of Negan-y. "The bridge is not the future. It is a monument to the dead, "he says, the dead being in this case a world in peace.

In the grand scheme of The dead who walkall these plot problems are rather small, or at least too common to be really surprised. My biggest concern is therefore how "The Bridge" puts Rick in the foreground, which will only make his death more difficult to hold – or, more accurately, make the absence of Andrew Lincoln after the sixth episode more glaring and potentially more problematic for viewers. who might already be looking for a reason to stop watching. For the moment, though, we still have four episodes to watch Rick watch everything he's built to destroy himself. Sounds fun …!?

At least, there seems to be two mysteries during the season to keep us busy. The first is that six former saviors disappeared from the gangway crew in the last month; Daryl and Rick assume that it is a black bane, but none of them returned to Sanctuary, which seems immediately strange, because to engage alone is usually a death sentence. (There are also the rescuers who disappeared carrying the ethanol meant for Hilltop.) This is the most stupid decision of the episode, and potentially the entire season. Justin the asshole decides to walk alone from the camp to the Sanctuary. The night. Of course, he is attacked (fatally?) … but it is by someone that he recognizes.

The second mystery is that Anne (born Jadis) and Father Gabriel are falling one to the other. Wait, agree, it's do not the mystery, but while flirting, Anne tells him that he can ask questions about his past, but not about his secrets. Hey, do you remember the landing pad of the helicopter in the garbage and helicopter kingdom that she was clearly waiting for to pick it up last season? Everyone attended the series, but on the night before that night, Anne heard the low noise of a helicopter, looking desperate. Desperate good? Desperate bad? Stay tuned for the mid-season finale to discover, probably!

Assortment of reflections:

• Other news: Aaron's arm must be amputated and by trainee doctor Enid. She does not hesitate to cut off her arm and saves her life. Enid became a champion and I realized how easy it was for TWD to make these minor characters more empathic by making them useful to the wider group. That's what happened with Siddiq; the series did not do much with the character, but as a single doctor if he dies, this will cause major problems to the characters we care about, so I'm investing in his survival. Even Earl, a character who only played in a previous episode, is more convincing because he is Hilltop's blacksmith and his skills are indispensable no matter what he did.
• Aaron's assumption that Daryl was definitely going to be a father one day made me very angry. It's a pet peeve, but it's very boring to live in the zombie apocalypse.
• I am quite convinced that the current bridge will remain as a metaphor for the unity of the groups. In other words, when all is well, the bridge will be abandoned or fully built, but quickly destroyed. Go to the devil "message to Rick. Since this is The dead who walk, my money is on the explosion.
• If you recognized the long-haired guy Justin but could not put it, it's Zach McGowan, probably the best known for playing the role of the Russian guy Ivanov longhaired. SHIELD agents. You could probably place it, however, since it is exactly the same.
• Line of the night, from Ezekiel to Carol, about little Henry: "He'll go to college before he knows it.
• If Rick's Ewokification means he dies when an AT-ST applies it, I'll forgive every episode of shit. The dead who walk already.