Warning: This review contains spoilers.
Here it is, friends: the week on The Walking Dead when we find out if Glenn survived the zombie onslaught. Were they Glenn’s intestines or were they Nicholas’s? Will this episode continue in the vein of awesomeness that the last few episodes have? Without further adieu, let’s find out what went down in Alexandria and the surrounding area this week.
I’m just going to be honest right from the start. I, for sure, was not very into this episode; it bordered on sucking. Sorry, guys and gals, but I call it the way I see it. After the excellent precedent set over the last two weeks, Now was dull, boring, lackluster, or throw in any other adjective that makes you happy. I was kind of angry about it. The highlight of this episode was the girl fight between Carl and Ron. I mean, really, I was waiting for them to grab each other’s hair and start rolling around on the ground as the towns folk yelled out cat calls. This all came about because Carl wanted to leave to look for Enid and Ron was trying to save him. Ron threatened to tell his daddy and made good with his promise. I can hear in my mind Rick yelling “Coral!” (That’s for you, Thomas). Really though, that was not the highlight; it was just one of the scenes that caused me to play on my phone.
The episode picked up where we left off last week, when Morgan heard someone yelling to open the gate. It was Rick. After making his escape from the RV, he was followed by a boatload of walkers. Eventually they surround the reinforced walls as life goes on inside.
No Glenn closure in this episode of The Walking Dead, but we do get Aaron and Maggie tunneling out of Alexandria to go look for him. This is truly where the highlight of the show was for me. I though the sewer zombies looked great. The whole sequence was eerily lit and was really a creepy scene. Also we get a touching exchange between Aaron and Maggie as Maggie lets out her emotions. The camera was from the view of the sewer pipe looking out to the caged end of the pipe. We see them hugging as a horde of zombies gathers at the gate in a nice shot.
The whole premise of this episode was to follow the arc of Deanna, who has been extremely stoic all season. The townsfolk are distraught about the walkers making their way to the outside of the walls. After Rick gives a rousing speech aided by Aaron, Deanna just walks off emotionless. She deals with her son Spencer, who is coping by getting liquored up and taking extra rations. She then draws a map of the town, highlighting areas for gardens for increasing food supply, and gets attacked by a walker. Here we see her go off the cob and just continually stab the walker in the stomach, chest, and face as she is splattered with blood. Rick finally comes over and puts the walker out of his misery. Deanna looks at Rick and states that she wants to live and that she wants Alexandria to survive. That is pretty much the gist of this episode.
Other highlights include the townsfolk making a memorial on the wall by writing the names of those who have passed; they did put Glenn’s name on it. At the end of the episode, Aaron and Maggie are erasing his name off in hopes of him still being alive. Aaron tells Maggie that Glenn is out there and when they have a child, the name Aaron works for a male or female. Rick and Jessie finally get in that first kiss and the wall is weakening.
The Now episode was a major let down. Frank Darabont penned the teleplay and Avi Youabian directed. Avi is tied to such gems as Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and Step Up Revolution. I’m optimistic that this is just a bump in the road but come on, The Walking Dead, you are better than this! I am giving a slightly higher rating because of the sewer zombies; they kind of rocked.
The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 5 “Now”: 
(2 / 5) on the Thug Meter
