Season Six, Episode Three — “Thank You”
courtesy AMC.
By Jarrod Jones. Well… shit.
Just when I thought that “Thank You” was The Walking Dead downshifting Season Six into an episode of inevitable self-reflection, it went and gave us its biggest heartbreak since Season One. As corpses continue to litter the forests outside Alexandria, Rick’s master plan to herd an army of walkers away from the quiet ‘burb is quickly unraveling. And as we all found out by the end of this week’s episode, that plan has consequences, far more dire than I think any of us were expecting. So let’s take a moment to reflect on “Thank You”, pour a ridiculous amount of booze into a glass, and say goodbye to Saint Glenn. (Dude was a saint, people. Tell me I’m wrong.)
WHAT WORKED: Even though I’m loathe to admit it, Glenn’s final moments were the seat-edgingest The Walking Dead has been in ages. It’s one thing to gleefully enjoy all the mayhem this show offers us, but witnessing Glenn’s final moments was a grim reminder that this show can still be serious business. (It’s all apocalyptic fun and games until we lose someone we legitimately love, guys.)
WHAT DIDN’T: With the episode’s greatest shock still a half hour away, “Thank You” takes care to pad it’s first half with quite a bit of The Walking Dead‘s notoriously chortle-worthy back and forths. With David’s gnawed-up back putting a time limit on his guest appearance, we’re privy to his entire backstory during a quiet stroll with Michonne. And while seeing anyone stand next to Michonne automatically makes them a 1000% more interesting (that’s just how cool she is), David’s plight simply can’t hold a candle to Glenn’s death. And it’s just another reminder that the citizens of Alexandria are serving little purpose than to be chatty walker chow.
Poor Daryl’s been inching his motorcycle down a narrow strip of road for three whole episodes now, and you can tell he’s just itching for some action. Hey, so are we. But that’s zero excuse to have The Reedus ditch Sasha and Abraham during the herd run only to have him come right back by the time the credits roll having accomplished nothing. It’s enough for us to know that these kids are doing the boring job, but the focus of this episode needed to stay with Glenn, Michonne, and their wounded motley crew. Instead we got a cop-out subplot that (literally) went absolutely nowhere, for no other purpose than to give Daryl some screen time.
BEST LINE:
“Is it bad?” – David. “It’s about what you’d expect.” – Michonne.
“Good luck, dumbass.” – Glenn. D’aw.
WORST LINE:
“Thank you.” – Nicholas. Enjoy the lake of fire, you jackass.
BEST THE MOMENT: Glenn passes. With the mewling, mostly useless denizens of Alexandria generally holding Glenn and Michonne back from getting everybody home in one piece, pretty much everyone who was paying attention to the second half of last night’s episode saw what was coming: somebody vital was going to die. And as that moment creeped up on us, as Glenn’s ultimate doom became apparent, we were just as gobsmacked as our favorite pizza delivery guy. Only when Chris Hardwick’s typically jovial mug stared back at us with pain in his eyes did we realize the truth: The Walking Dead still plays for keeps. The stakes have never been higher.
EPISODE’S SERIES’ MVP: Glenn. There is absolutely zero argument that Steven Yeun’s character boasted the most growth out of this group of people. Watching Glenn develop from a shit-talking delivery dude to the hardened Mr. Maggie Greene was a privilege few shows could ever honestly provide a devoted fanbase. And even though it’s a painful thing indeed to watch Glenn pass (did it need to be so violent? guess so), he died very much as he lived: by turning the other cheek. Don’t be surprised if you start seeing “Saint Glenn” t-shirts pop up at next year’s convention circuit.
BRAY OF THE DEAD:
– This is the first time a cast veteran from Season One bit it since Merle and Andrea took an eternal powder. Doesn’t make it suck any less, though.
– It’s a well-established fact (and one that was reiterated during this season’s premiere) that if you throw shade Rick’s way, you’re walker food. And Mr. Blue Shirt McTrashTalk courageously proved that point once again this week.
– Dude. Sturgess. Try not to suck so hard. And ditch the hat.
– Now, if you’ve been reading Image’s Walking Dead comics, you knew that Glenn was probably going to meet his maker sooner rather than later. But if I had to choose which shitty fate to give our guy, AMC’s version was definitely the way to go. (Considering the alternative… I mean, yeesh.)
“You don’t want to break that continuum of hate.” – Michael Traynor (Nicholas)
