This review of The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 14 contains spoilers; but, assuming if you are a reader of Thug reviews, you’re likely well aware of that.
As the sixth season of The Walking Dead is rounding into its closing episode on April 3, 2016, the show is becoming more intense with more WTF moments. We all sit and watch with abated breath, wondering what the Saviors are going to do next until “BAM!” that last episode of the season comes and Negan officially rears his ugly head. It’s worth noting that in Batman v Superman (which my wife and I loved by the way) that Negan (Jeffery Dean Morgan) and Maggie (Lauren Cohen) play Bruce Wayne’s parents. Maybe Ben Afflek will make an appearance in The Walking Dead, no probably not. Speaking of rearing ugly heads, a former ugly head reared itself this week even uglier than the last time we saw it so let’s hop on in and see what’s up.
I must admit the first half of this episode was fairly dull for me; however, the second half made up for it. We start out with Carol (Melissa McBride) smoking it up on a porch swing and a mish-mash of other scenes together including Morgan (Lennie James) practicing his sweet bow staff moves (he’d make Napoleon Dynamite happy), the changing of the guard as Eugene (Josh McDermitt) takes over, Daryl (Norman Reedus) pondering over a trinket from a past episode, an Alexandrian taking food inventory and Gabe (Seth Gilliam) on a walk about (he’s probably wondering what the heck happened to Teen Wolf). In retrospective, do-over fashion this scene plays itself through a few times as little nuances change with each little scene before the opening credits. I’m like whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Before we get to the meat and potatoes of the episode, we see Rosita (Christian Serratos) get out of bed and dress leaving behind a sleeping Spencer. Crazy revenge sex to get back at Abe, I’m guessing. I’m sure Abe, like the honey badger, doesn’t give a shit. He takes what he wants and for now his sights are set on Sasha (Sonequa Martin).
Turns out this episode The Walking Dead is a season of growth for some characters. Let’s first follow Eugene and Abe (Michael Cudlitz) as they team back up. Throughout this season Eugene has been trying to make himself more valuable to the team instead of the liability he was the past few seasons. With new training and skills in tow he sets off to get supplies with Abe. The plan here is for Eugene to get supplies to make and furnish the group with homemade ammo. As they are looking for supplies they get accosted by a chrome domed zombie. I can’t say enough about the effects team for this show. It seems with each season they out do themselves, kudos my friends, kudos. Anyhow Eugene wants to test out his training and calls dibs on the walker. Well, Eugene is having quite the struggle so between that and Abe used to being Eugene’s protector, he steps in and dispatches old silver top. Instead of being thankful, Eugene is extremely incensed by this and hits Abe with a tirade of insults and eventually tells him “you’ve outlived your usefulness to me” before storming off on his own.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our friend Dr. Denise (Merritt Wever) is pleading to go along with Daryl and Rosita on their expedition to retrieve more medicine. Denise has overcome some difficult situations in the development of her character this season. Now, with her budding romance with Tara (Alana Masterson) in full bloom, she wants to prove her worth is more than just taking care of sick people. After a drawn out argument, Daryl and Rosita give in. The journey involves arguments over which way to take but they finally arrive at the old pharmacy. Daryl pries open the area where the drugs are held and as he and Rosita enter they tell Doc to keep watch. As she is wandering around she hears a sound coming from a side room. She carefully makes her way into the room and sees an empty pack and play (for babies). Are we going to get a zombie baby?! As Doc makes her way further she discovers the source of the noise is an incapacitated walker (or former walker since its legs aren’t working anymore). She bypasses the, we’ll call him “crawler,” and finds what looks to be a sink. In this sink is what looks to be a ton of blood and baby remains, one can only speculate that the crawler pulled a fat bastard and said “Baby, the other other white meat; get in my belly!” This does not sit well with Doc as she stumbles out of the room.
With their new supply of medicine nested in their backpacks, Daryl, Rosite and Denise make their way back to their vehicle. On the way they spot a car with a walker holding a cooler. In Eugene-ish fashion Doc wants to handle this one. She proceeds to let the walker out and tussles with it. Daryl and Rosita are at the ready but before they make a move Denise dispatches the walker and gets her booty — a six pack of soda from the cooler. If you remember back a few episodes, we know that Doc loves her some orange soda and wanted to get the bubbly soft drink as a surprise for Tara. When Daryl questions her as to why she did that she proudly holds up the orange soda proclaiming that it was for her but not the rest (but we know who it’s for, oh the things we do for love). As they continue walking, they are arguing about how they feel about each other’s methods and attitudes. Doc is really standing her ground and seems to be gaining respect when — THWAK — an arrow goes through the back of her head exiting out her right eye.
Out of the woods comes Dwight (Austin Amilio) and a gang of what I can only guess is Saviors. You may remember Dwight as the guy that took Daryl’s bike and crossbow (also the guy that gave him the little trinket he was looking at during the show opening). Dwight’s face is a bit messed up and he has a prisoner in the form of Eugene. In an exchange where Daryl and Rosita drop their weapons and Dwight is giving a soliloquy about how he is getting used to the crossbow but was not aiming for Doc, Eugene spots good old Abe hiding nearby. Eugene takes this moment to tell Dwight about the red head that is a class one a-hole hiding in ambush. This distracts Dwight and the gang. Eugene seizes the opportunity to go all Kobioshi and have a hot dog. Yes, he bites into Dwight’s penis and does not let go! This allows the gang to regain the upper hand and chase off the Saviors and Daryl regains his precious crossbow.
Everyone makes their way back to Alexandria. Eugene makes up with Abe telling him he did not mean the class one a-hole comment but only used that as a distraction. Doc had earned the respect of Daryl and Rosita albeit too late. We find out what I can only guess to be what was taking place at the beginning of the show was Carol’s thought process as she pondered her goodbye letter that she narrates at the end of the episode.
Another solid episode, kudos to director Alrick Riley. We also got another excellent writing effort from Matthew Negrete. I am a little, nay A LOT upset that my favorite character left! Listen to me writers: you best bring Carol back in animalistic fashion to take Negan down! I originally scored this episode a 3.5 but as I write I have decided that it was worth a slightly higher rating.
The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 14 “Twice as Far” 
(4 / 5) on the Thug Meter
