The Walking Dead - Season 5, Episode 8 - "Coda"

Blair Fink (Twitter: @BlairMFink, Instagram: @BlairFink)

Steve Bethel (Twitter: @the_lazy_gamer, Website: steveisthelazygamer.blogspot.ca)

Maggie suddenly remembering she has a sister.

The Walking Dead, Season 5, Episode 8, "Coda"

FEELINGS AND MISTAKES

Ain't nobody got time for that.

So there we have it everyone, I hope you're happy! You got your midseason finale and look what happened!

Let's play a little Good Cop, Bad Cop, which seems appropriate given the content of the episode. Steve liked this episode a lot so he can be Good Cop. I was less than impressed so I'll be Bad Cop.

So somehow Rick has discovered Bob has managed to slip out of the watchful grasp of Sasha. I'm assuming that he questioned where Sasha and Bob were, realized that Sasha going off alone with him was probably a stupid bad idea and went to investigate. Either way, he's in hot pursuit! We see Rick try to give Bob a second chance, he gives him ample opportunity to give up and come back, all is forgiven. A nicer, Rick, trying to play well with others. At the same time, can you blame Bob? He has no reason to trust Rick, his instinct is to survive, running seemed like a good idea. So do we see Rick shooting him as a mercy kill or a cold blooded Rick moment? Has Rick ever asked himself the three golden rules recently?

How did Rick find out? This is glossed over and, while pretty trivial, still bugged me a little. Bob didn't get far so Rick couldn't have been far away and Sasha was out cold. Doesn't quite add up. I'll let it slide. I guess.

Rick seems to have become emotionally exhausted with the burden of making the right and moral decision in so many situations that he just wants to take the easy and less risky way by being brutal and violent.

We find the Preacher is still wandering around aimlessly. Did he head to the school specifically to look for Gareth's camp or was it coincidence/subconscious? Either way, finding Bob's leg and coming to the realization that he is in a dark world that he can't handle alone came quickly. Back to the safety of the church! The most powerful part, to me, when he got back to the church and was banging on the door was what he was screaming. "LET ME LIVE WITH IT!!" Powerful! His desire to survive was far out weighed by his guilt for forsaking all of those people he was tasked to shepherd.

I found Father Gabriel's wanderings tedious. "Let me live with it!" is a great line, I will give you that, even if I'm not particularly invested in him as character at this point. Despite this, I am very excited at the opportunity here for a long, redemptive character arc where Father Gabriel starts as a guilt-ridden, helpless preacher and slowly becomes a capable, confident member of the group who maybe sacrifices himself in a final redeeming act in a season or two. The potential is there and I think Seth Gilliam is up to the acting task.

Back in ATL we see that everyone is on the same page and both parties just want this trade to go smoothly. "Bob got got by rotters. That's what I saw." Ya, totes what I saw too." I enjoyed the trade talks on the parkade. Rick "alone", the two cops, "Where are you people?" SNAP to the walker's head, "They're close." HOWEVER, from the angle that it showed their overwatch from the scope perspective I would think they should have been on the roof of the parkade behind Rick...clearly seen by the two cops as they drove up. But that might be nit picking. We also got a bit more back story with Dawn and the previous leader. After Dawn and Beth have their little heart to heart and team up on O'Donnell I was afraid that Beth was starting to turn team Dawn and would maybe refuse to go back with Rick. They had a bit of a bonding experience, although Beth did see it as she was doing all the dirty work.

I've never really bought Dawn as a character. The performance and dialogue always felt a little flat and one-note. I wish she could have been a little more charismatic or multi-dimensional. While I never like the hospital setting or the new characters it introduced, I did enjoy how it built up Beth's character.

I've noticed a lot of call backs to season one in this season, we get another mirror with the doors of the church, once Michonne, Carl and Preacher get outside. "DON'T DEAD OPEN INSIDE" And just when I think "Well shit, now they are going to be separated from Rick because there is no way they are going to wait here out in the open for Rick's team to come ba...OH LOOK WHO IT IS!!" Just in time! At least we FINALLY get to see some emotion from Maggie regarding Beth! I do kind of understand her not bringing Beth up a lot in the past as I'm sure it's something she tried not to think about, so it was good to see her react. As happy as we are were to look forward to them being reunited I suppose we should have seen the foreshadowing…

Don't even get me started. They're going to rescue Beth! "Beth who?" is basically what Maggie should have said. When she was separated from Glenn last season she was on an unwavering mission to find him. Beth disappears? Meh. She'll rescue her if we run into her and it's convenient. I have this feeling that they're going to play up Maggie's sadness in the back half of the season and it's going to ring a lot more false to me than if they'd just laid the tiniest bit of emotional groundwork in previous episodes.

I don't even...I can't. So I went into the last 15 minutes of this episode with high hopes. This is calm, everyone is calm, I'm calm. This is good. 15 minutes, what could happen? Ok, trades go, one at a time, very civilized. Calm. Dawn, why you gotta be greedy? Find a new ward! Ok, Noah takes the high road. Beth, I know you have those scissors, don't be silly...Everything from that stab on is amazing. I watched the scene twice actually. Dawn's base reaction is to shoot when stabbed but you see instantly that she didn't want this. Rick's shock and the look on his face as more of his sanity and hope dies a little. Daryl's unhesitating swift retribution, pain and anger. Carol's face and strength to stop Daryl from totally going AWOL. Rick and Shepherd defuse the situation quickly, making me think this might have been some what premeditated. Based on what Shepherd says. The final scene when Maggie is reunited with Beth is also pretty powerful. I mean you can go on thinking she is alive and not be affected by it but to go from learning that she is alive, to seeing Daryl carrying her out is crushing. I think she will be broken now, which works towards my comment last week of her being phased out.

Okay, I'm ready to go Good Cop on this part. The final scene involving the deal in the hospital corridors was very well executed. Everything that comes before it I'd probably grade a C+ while I'd give this part an A. The whole situation was very tense because you know it's going to go bad but when and how? It was so tense I forgot about the scissors Beth slipped into her cast earlier despite making a mental note to remember that it was going to come into play later based on the rule of Chekhov's Gun. And Beth…stabbing Dawn in the shoulder? Weird choice. Ultimately, I did appreciate the irony of Beth finally becoming strong and capable only to die because of this very development in her character.

That is it until February, time for Blair and I to get a well deserved break from each other!

I'm sending you an I (heart) Sasha t-shirt for Christmas, Steve.

All in all I thought the episode was damn good. Not in the barn scene intensity but it had weight, cliffhangers, questions.

I had high hopes after how great the show has been this season but alas, final scene excluded, this one landed with a clunk for me.

TIME FOR A NEW SEGMENT CALLED 

FIVE WHO WON'T SURVIVE!

We have each picked five characters who we think won't make it out of the season finale (episode 16) alive. We aren't allowed to revise this list and we'll be marking off names as appropriate going forward. At the end of the season, we'll see who got the most correct out of five. The loser has to make a video of themselves getting a pie to the face (which will be posted in the finale recap).

BLAIR'S PICKS
Noah
Tara
Abraham
Eugene
Sasha

STEVE'S PICKS
Noah
Tara
Abraham
Maggie
Father Gabriel

Our first three cancel out so it's basically down to Eugene and Sasha vs. Maggie and Father Gabriel.

In the event of a tie:
Eugene, Sasha, Maggie and Father Gabriel all survive. NO LOSER. Consequence carries over to next season.

One of Eugene/Sasha dies and one of Maggie/Father Gabriel dies. THE CHARACTER WHO DIES LAST LOSES. In the spirit of picking deaths, the earlier the death the more it's worth.

Both Eugene and Sasha die and both Maggie and Father Gabriel die. THE CHARACTER WHO DIES LAST LOSES. Same as above.

Let us know who you agree with in the comments.

QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS

-How rough of shape is Carol in? Is this going to be a problem with the mobility of the group in the subsequent episodes?
-Does anyone from the hospital join them? Noah?
-Yeah, only Noah leaves with them. He's outside when they meet up with the G.R.E.A.T.M. gang.

-Where are they going now?
-It's really wide open headed into the back half, isn't it? The trailer for February has Michonne lobbying to go to a camp or something. So far, they haven't had the best of luck with camps and towns.

-Funny how we brought up Morgan last week, does he catch up?
-Well, he picks up the map with Rick's name on it but isn't that map showing the way to Washington? I was surprised how long this post-credits scene was. Maybe these scenes will get longer and longer until the show is only about Morgan wandering alone, Cast Away style.

-Blair, I know you don't watch this on cable but I assume you have checked out the Better Call Saul preview that we were blessed with at this commercial break. If not here it is;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds4FZmVG908
-Thanks for the link. Aw, a Meet Cute between Saul and Mike! Fun stuff. I'm looking forward to this show but am keeping my expectations at a reasonable level.
-The first half of the season was light on Michonne and Carl. Let's hope we get more of those two in the second half, but only Carl if it's with Michonne. They have great chemistry.
-How long before the group splits up again? An ensemble this big is going to be really tricky to write for.

Blair's Rating: B-

Steve's Rating: 5 out of 5 surgical scissors to the shoulder

Blair's MVP: Beth

Steve's MVP: Rick

Blair's Deadpool Pick: Noah

Steve's Deadpool Pick: Maggie