The Walking Dead S7 E2: The Well

I guess that was fine. It was certainly better than last week’s episode and was a palate cleanser after the pointless slog through hell of the season premiere.

The sight of King Ezekiel and a CGI tiger in an auditorium was unexpected and amusing, as was Carol’s very fake glee. “I don’t know what the hell’s going on in the most wonderful way,” she says, maybe speaking for the viewer. Later she displays over-the-top joy at the prospect of more than one cobbler per day before stealing clothes and weapons. It seems the Kingdom is the latest in a long line of utopias, this one complete with a choir singing Bob Dylan.

It was refreshing to see Carol’s innocent act end quicker than it did in Alexandria. “Don’t bullshit a bullshitter,” King Ezekiel tells her. I’m also happy he dropped his pose so soon since all that archaic, theatrical talk might have gotten old. It was an intriguing point the “king” made that the people in the Kingdom needed some kind of authority figure like him. The fact that both characters almost immediately called one another on their BS is an encouraging sign that The Walking Dead may be moving out of its cycle of the group finding a seeming paradise that is too good to be true and then falls apart.

One interesting wrinkle in this story is the Kingdom’s subjects sabotaging Negan’s people by feeding them zombie-tainted pork. I’d like to see more of these unexpected and largely unexplored effects of the plague, like what happens to the animals and environment. The show seems to be starting to world-build a little more. Several communities are establishing trade and as messed-up as the dynamic is, this is a step toward civilization.

Ever a student of Greek myth, Carol refuses to eat the pomegranate seeds that would keep her prisoner in the Underworld and thus leaves the Kingdom for a little house outside its gates. I really liked her visions of seeing the zombies as they were before they died, showing that she is being affected by the real people behind the dead.

This episode makes me wonder what exactly Carol wants and what the point of survival is in this world. She has been through too many false promises to feel safe in the Kingdom, but if she won’t make a new start there, what will she do? The Kingdom may fall down but isn’t it better to have that safety for a little while and see how long it lasts? Is it better to give that a shot and maybe not fail? What is the point of just surviving alone in a little house with nobody else around her?