The Walking Dead S9E15: The Right to Choose Yourself

Emmanuel 2022-07-21 21:53:32

This episode weighs heavily.

Not only is it adapted from the "Ten Heads" section of the comic "Twelve Heads" , but also because the design ideas and actual effects of the entire episode are very good , I personally think that the quality of this episode has risen to the average level of the peak period of "The Walking Dead". Above, it is second only to the fifth episode in the ninth season.

This episode is ingenious and opens with three "wedding anniversaries" of Hilltop couple Heard and Miles :

In the first act, the two went through hardships to the top of the mountain;

In the second act, Hilde made a carved wood coin with the letter "H", which represented hilltop and home . Miles felt that it also meant hope and encouraged his wife to do it. More commemorative coins.

In the third act, the couple drove the "last train" to the market in the Kingdom of God, carrying a box full of commemorative coins on the road.

From the conversation between the couple, it is known that they have been at the Peak Village for at least 6 years. They are happy and gentle, and they are good at first sight-so, when they were attacked by the Whisperer, Alpha cut off Hilde's scalp And when she took away her clothes and hat, this huge and strong sense of drop suddenly pulled up the tone of the whole episode.

There are many angles in this episode. I finally decided to focus on "choice" , largely because of Hilde's blood-stained woodcarving coin, which is the most obvious metaphor at the beginning and the most important part of this episode. clues and questions.

high spirited

Ezekiel commemorated Rick, Carl, Jesus and others in the opening speech of the market, and hoped that everyone in the alliance could unite and live up to the predecessors and future generations (fully demonstrated his line skills).

Of course, Ezekiel skillfully concealed his worries about Carol and Henry. He wanted to go out to find someone together, but Carol refused on the grounds of "taking care of the whole market".

This market event is the biggest event within the alliance in recent years. It is directly related to the future development environment of each community. Unsettled people's hearts are a taboo, and its significance is even more important than the bridge that Rick insisted on building.

Fortunately, Daryl and his party arrived just in time, and while everyone was chatting eagerly with Henry, Daryl, Connie, Michelle, Judith and others, Tara also began to have a headache for the "troublesome" Lydia. .

At the next community leaders meeting, Michelle expressed her willingness to stand with everyone, and Alexander was willing to take in Lydia.

But at present, the "only" mountain village that has been exposed in front of the Whisperers is the most dangerous. Everyone convinced Tara, and in order to make up for the shortage of people in the mountain village, the rest of the community is willing to team up to help.

But this is only a temporary solution for emergencies. In such a favorable environment, the establishment of a "joint pact" is an inevitable result (refer to NATO and Warsaw Pact).

Although the once five major communities became the four, the charter that Tara handed over to Ezekiel finally came in handy (Tara also reconciled with Michelle as before). The Kingdom of God (Ezekiel, Carol), the Seaside Inn (the little girl Rachel has grown up), the Hilltop Village (Tara), and Alexander (Gabriel) signed the charter together.

The next step is to dispatch people to go to the top of the mountain. The first group of leading troops encountered the highway gang and their helper DJ on the way. They all checked the attacked mountain-top truck together. There were still traces of dragging on the scene, which was obviously man-made.

Unsure of the enemy's plans in the shadows, we decided to divide our troops into three groups : Michelle, Daryl, Carol, and Yumiko with four high combat powers to follow the trail, and the reinforcements rushed to the top of the mountain, and the highway gang and DJ continued. Patrol the area around the Kingdom of God.

It's a relatively safe solution with no obvious omissions - but they make this decision on the condition that other communities, such as the Kingdom of God, remain undiscovered by the Whisperers.

When the tracking group of four found that the trail forked again, Daryl finally realized that they had stepped into a trap and wanted to retreat but were already surrounded.

In this "Ambush Battle", the Whisperers adopted quite clever tactics and gave full play to their field advantages : first use the corpse to consume four human strength (because to identify whether there are whisperers in the corpse, Darryl and others Compared with the usual hacking and killing of walking corpses, it is more labor-intensive), and at the same time, all the members took the opportunity to surround them without leaving a dead end. In the end, the second master Beta personally took the lead in disarming, and the four had no chance of winning.

solitary

As early as when the reinforcements were set out, Alpha disguised herself had infiltrated the kingdom of God. She made full use of the characteristics of "there are many strangers in the market" to inquire about news , such as "Deborah of Alexandria". Chatted with Ezekiel.

Alpha has already mastered a lot of information. For example, it is not easy for Alexander to participate in the rally, and a large number of main forces such as Carol have already left.

Don't think that the protection of the Kingdom of God is too watery , Alpha can penetrate in, including her stealing 8 people out, largely because the people who participated in the rally did not know that the Whisperers had discovered the Kingdom of God, and they were very concerned about the Whisperers. The attackers are completely undefended (you can't use military-level vigilance during a war to demand a group of ordinary people who have been at peace for a long time).

And most of the people who knew that the situation was serious at the meeting went out. The Kingdom of God’s theoretical defense of “relaxing outside and tightening inside” is actually “relaxing inside and outside” — Alpha and other elites of the few whisperers can totally use it For reasons such as leading the way, asking for help, etc., use the blind spot of the sentry to abduct people who are single at the rally one by one.

Before the movie started, Alpha had already completed the target of arresting people. She wanted to take Lydia away while everyone was watching the movie, but found that she had lost her daughter...

This is where I come to my theme for this episode: Alpha was attacked by her own "dictatorial educational policy" , she chose a path she thought was right after the apocalypse began, and forced everyone to follow the path she chose. , other people will kill if they are not obedient, only daughter Lydia, she can only beat and scolded corporal punishment to force her to submit.

We should be familiar with this "I'm all for you" rhetoric, and Alpha really wants Lydia to be strong and survive -- in her own way.

When Lydia stated that she was no longer a Whisperer, Alpha, the leader, felt a strong sense of frustration, and her worst fear happened: her daughter saw an option other than "Whisperer", and it was real of.

So when Alpha returned to the captives before dawn, her sentence "it's not for her daughter anymore" was true, and now she is no longer out of personal vendetta, but mainly (had to) stand up again.

Alpha took Daryl to see a large group of corpses circling all over the mountains and fields, mixed with whisperers who "lead the way". Under the corpses, the Alliance is indeed not their opponent.

The Alliance doesn't have what the Whisperer needs, and the other side's lifestyle is a fantasy that will shatter at any time, while the Whisperer is a strong man who follows the "laws of nature". Different road non-phase plan.

Alpha didn't mean to drive out the alliance and kill the alliance.

What she really wants to do is to demarcate and divide the rule . The northern border has been drawn with "very obvious marks", which is also her way of "standing up".

In addition to giving the Alliance a "blood warning", Alpha's division of the region has another purpose: to prevent more traitors like Lydia from appearing in the Whisperers, she herself has a firm determination, and does not mean others Also immune to the "sugar-coated shells" of the Alliance community. Since Alpha believes that the Alliance's way of life is wrong, then she will remove this option for all Whisperers in advance. She does not agree with and cannot afford each Whisperer to make a choice for himself.

"I don't think you can protect my daughter...but I hope I'm wrong."

This is the only thing Alpha said as a mother when facing the "enemy". She still has some "backward" humanity, but this must not be discovered by her subordinates.

After Lydia and Alpha said goodbye, the mother and daughter both cried... Beta was the only one among the whisperers who knew Alpha's "weakness" and was trusted. .

This is the sadness of Alpha's choice of the "relentless path": the quality that has always made her and the group strong, but also the curse that keeps tormenting them to the death.

ten heads

After the four were released, Siddiq was rescued, and then they saw the "boundary line" left by Alpha: 10 heads from within the alliance.

Regarding the ultimate suspense of the ninth season, I played a lot of routines and anti-routines in the second half of the season, especially the various "smoke bombs" in this episode, such as Kelly and Connie's heart-to-heart talk, and Siddiq taking "being a father" as a surprise Telling Michelle later, the Magna quintet goodbye, Darryl letting Connie take care of the dog, Ezekiel can't be happy until Carol comes back, Magna and Yumiko separated again, etc.

I originally sorted out all kinds of "true and false flags" in this episode , but later I deleted them because they didn't make much sense. Here I will only talk about the most successful one: the survival of Rosita (and others).

In the comics, Ezekiel and Rosita are the most important characters in "12 Heads"; in the show, I think Rosita is the most dangerous because she has straightened herself out with Eugene, Gabriel, and Siddiq Even if she was lucky enough to survive, it is very likely that some of the men who were close to her would suffer, but all of them survived, and this one had to be accepted... It is worth mentioning that Eugene is working on radio, trying to make the community Being able to communicate smoothly again will be important in the next story.

Let's analyze the "10 heads" in the play. I divided these 10 people into four blocks——

The fourth gear: Soy sauce used to make up people's heads , Oz and Alek of the Highway Gang only appeared in two episodes, and their names were only told to the audience after they died. It was simply designed to make up the numbers;

The third gear: a mix of familiar three-line tricks , including former Salvation Army members DJ, Frankie, and young Rodney and Adiline from the mountaintop village, of which DJ, Rodney, and Adiline are the first The new characters in the nine seasons have not many roles, and at the same time, the characters are more "functional", and Frankie has not many scenes after the seventh season, and his status is not higher than others;

The second gear: There are second-line supporting roles with special roles , Tammy, the aunt of the mountain top, is also a new character in the ninth season. Tammy's image is more three-dimensional, the old man who lost his only child at the beginning of the season, and the kind elder in the season The happy mother at the end of the season, her sudden death was enough to make some viewers feel uncomfortable;

The first gear: The (quasi) first-line supporting roles who have actually played for many seasons, and the current role is relatively heavy, can make most audiences have strong emotional fluctuations . Only the last three are Enid, Tara and Henry.

Enid is the character who debuted in the fifth season. He belonged to Carl's official match, and now he is the most famous doctor in the league and the girlfriend of "Singer" Alden who has just established a relationship.

In the FLAG scene at the time, I thought Luke or Alden (or both) were going to suffer, but the girl lost her life... Her death, the hardest hit is the old community Alexandria and the new community Peak Village.

Tara is a character that appeared in the fourth season. She was first bewitched by the governor to attack the prison, and then joined Rick's team. Now she is the new leader of the Peak Village.

Tara never wanted to take on the responsibility of a leader, but Jesus had always intentionally cultivated her. After Jesus died, Tara stumbled to take over the leadership. Now Tara has shown the potential of an excellent leader in both thinking and action... Her sudden and sudden death, in addition to the "home" mountain village, Alexander and the seaside hotel who had a relationship with her will be very uncomfortable.

The most complicated thing is Henry, the little boy who started playing soy sauce in the seventh season, and became the successor of the "young master" after Carl's death, just like the leader in the "new generation" of the alliance, and his father Ezekiel spoiled him. , mother Carol is used to it, uncle Darryl helps, girlfriend Lydia kisses, what dare you not do?

This season's screenwriter's clever / viciousness is here : Unlike Carl who was written to death as "too perfect", Henry in the ninth season is completely shaped in the direction of "too naive", like "raising a gu" Absorbing all kinds of beauty and attracting all kinds of firepower to grow up , when the time is almost up, I will try to see it again, some of the audience's emotions have been released, and Henry's "strategic mission" has also been completed... As for the "young master", it is not And Judith and the new Lydia?

Henry's death, the most severe damage is undoubtedly the Kingdom of God, especially Carol, who has suffered a lot, I can't bear to watch it anymore... Sophia, Liz, Mika... The children she loves, the men always They died one by one...it's so cruel...

Overall, the design of the "10 Heads" in the drama version is relatively successful . , S7E1 Negan's headshot is completely rudely pressing the audience to the ground and rubbing hard, while S9E15 has greatly taken care of the audience's emotions without changing the result. The proportion is quite good and deserves praise.

old song new

At the end of the episode, the survivor Siddiq tells the story of what happened to himself and his victims to the Alliance.

This speech is crucial, it is not just a simple retelling, it is a speech that unites people, and it has great political significance - if Siddiq is simply describing how cruel the whisperers are, and how tragic the deaths of friends, then The purpose of Alpha deterrence and division of the alliance has been achieved.

In any case, the Whisperers cannot be allowed to succeed. The same story has completely different effects from another angle , so Siddiq will use another kind of "seeing" to restore the decline of the alliance: some of them even never They met, but they fought hard like family until the very last moment of their lives.

This is also another manifestation of the theme of this episode. Driven by a sense of responsibility, the Highway Gang did not stand alone, and the arrested did not sit still under the situation of death... So why can't the family members of the alliance go on in solidarity for them and themselves? ?

Respecting the will of the individual while emphasizing the collective will is not new. Similar scenes were used in The Walking Dead when Rick opened up to his relatives and friends at the end of the third season - the truth is always the same, it doesn't matter, as long as The story is well told, even if it is the same sentence, I will never get tired of reading it.

At the end, Lydia and Darryl come to remember Henry and drop a commemorative coin where he "died", echoing the beginning of the episode, which is a collision of two ideas: something that one side leaves behind , may be the most precious and priceless treasure in the eyes of the other party.

Snow is falling, and winter is here.

What excites me is that The Walking Dead series will usher in the first positive portrayal of "Bitter Winter Drama" in history, and it is also the finale of the ninth season ... So exciting, how can you not look forward to it?

[You are also welcome to pay attention to the public account of my first article "You Love Comment Area"~]

View more about A New Beginning reviews

Extended Reading

A New Beginning quotes

  • Aaron: [about his zombie kick moves] Will you teach me sometime?

    Paul 'Jesus' Rovia: I got a kids' class at the Hilltop you could audit.

  • Michonne: I'm glad you won your election.

    Maggie Greene: I'm glad I grew up on a farm.