Hostiles and Calamities Recap & Review | A Walking Dead Blog
This past Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead was like a bundle of Bill Nye the Science Guy segments…if Bill Nye had a mullet and was being tempted by the darkside.
We got a more in-depth look at The Sanctuary’s economic system, which I can thoroughly appreciate as an entrepreneur. We also found out who helped Daryl escape and we saw a couple of secondary characters get a bit more of the spotlight.
It’s a great long-term strategy for creating a compelling story. The writers are planting seeds for big payoffs down the road. They’ve done similar things with Gabriel, Aaron, Eric, and Rosita this season. This episode focused largely on The Sanctuary’s newest recruit, Eugene Porter – Dr. Eugene Porter.
“I’ve changed. I’ve adapted. I’m a survivor.” Remember that? While his monotone quips may make for some great memes, that line is probably one of the strongest ever uttered by Eugene.
I was honestly worried about him at the start of this episode. I thought he may get the iron or at least get beat up. As he was being led down the hall, I felt my heart racing. I do love the this type of old horror trope, designed to build tension only to throw you off guard with an eerily peaceful resolution.
Eugene wows Negan and his wives with his intellect. This results in him living like a king in The Sanctuary, enjoying food, old-school video games, and the company of beautiful women. I was seriously expecting them to invite him to the jacuzzi later.
This creates an interesting dilemma. He’s known for doing questionable things in exchange for security and resources. If he contributes his fair share and follows the rules, he’s a made man. But can Eugene really kneel to the man who killed Abraham?
Eugene knows what happens when people don’t kneel. So, he does – sort of. He revives his old “Human Genome Project” persona to pull one over on Negan and his posse. That was a nice throwback, and it’s smart writing. Eugene even throws his weight around a bit, clearly seeing his worth – a nice tie-in to the economic aspect of the episode.
Eugene loses the respect of Negan’s wives when he passes on helping them poison Negan. He gets called a coward – and maybe he is. But he’s also smart, and not just when it comes to science experiments. He’s biding his time and waiting for his moment…and he isn’t the only one whose loyalty may be questionable.
With Daryl gone and Negan pissed, Dwight catches a beatdown and a night in jail. Negan questions Dwight’s loyalty, and points out that Daryl isn’t the only one who’s missing – Sherry left too.
Negan has been rubbing the entire situation with Sherry in Dwight’s face all season, and Dwight has been biting his tongue to maintain some kind of a life. She’s making a big sacrifice too - Dr. Carson even points it out when he’s patching Dwight up.
Dwight returns to his and Sherry’s old house to look for her, only to find a farewell letter. It’s a beautifully written tale of lovers torn-apart by their commitment to a system that helps them survive only at the cost of their own humanity. While she once believed that being at The Sanctuary was better than being dead, she was wrong – it’s worse. That’s why she helped Daryl escape.
Dwight ends up telling Negan that he killed Sherry, and he frames Dr. Carson. The writers built tension by teasing the iron before backing off, recalling the bait-and-switch trope from earlier. And once we all breathed our collective sigh of relief, Negan tossed Dr. Carson into the furnace.
How do you follow a tense build-up to an eerily peaceful conclusion? With the gruesome death of a minor character, that’s how. It was both shocking and epic – classic Walking Dead.
The episode ends with Dwight seeming stunned by Eugene’s apparent conversion. Some interesting things are coming. I pointed out in a recent blog how this episode may signal the eventual implosion of The Sanctuary. And don’t forget that Eugene is the one who bit “D” in the d – that’s going to make for some awkward conversations.
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