Is “The Walking Dead” going off the rails in its final episodes?Jace Downs/AMC Warning: There are spoilers ahead for season 11, episode 19 of “The Walking Dead,” Variant. One of the series’ final episodes makes some frustratingly silly choices this far into the apocalypse. There was no reason for Aaron to put the group in danger other than to service a contrived episode plot.
It makes no sense that Aaron is in a rush to get to Oceanside and would put his friends in danger to get there. There wasn’t a logical reason Aaron forced the group to go off-road with the wagon instead of set up camp. AMCMinutes into the episode, Aaron’s group runs into a giant group of zombies blocking a path to the Oceanside community.
Jerry, smartly, suggests that they hang back, make camp, and enjoy some food he prepped for the trip. After all, they’re making good time. However, Aaron, who usually keeps everyone’s safety in mind, oddly insists they carry forward and find another way around.
When Aaron is questioned about why they’re rushing he claims that they need to get these supplies to their friends at Oceanside stat before getting on their way to Alexandria. He claims they “don’t have time to spare. ” Jerry relents but points out that they shouldn’t go offroad with their wagon.
The next time we see the group, the wagon is stuck in the woods, just as Jerry predicted. Though they get it unstuck, Jerry gets injured as a result, something that could’ve been avoided if they just made camp. This decision then leads to the group discovering variant walkers who can climb walls and open doors.
This was an absolutely absurd story choice that isn’t believable. We’re 11 seasons into “TWD. ” Our main characters shouldn’t be making silly survival choices that would put them unnecessarily in harm’s way.
It’s disrespectful to the character’s intelligence and it’s insulting to the audience who knows these characters. No one has seemed to care this much about the Oceanside community in episodes. Why are they starting to now when they’ve always been the most self-sufficient group?Not only does this seem really out of character for Aaron to make a choice that could put his friends and loved ones in danger, but Aaron’s arrogance and insistence on placing the group in potential danger are never explored and fully explained.
That was downright frustrating because Aaron seems like he’s in a bad mood for most of Sunday’s episode. While viewers can infer that he’s in a rush to be reunited with his daughter Gracie, we’re never certain. I expected Jerry to pull him aside at some point and ask “What’s going on?” but we never get an intimate moment like that.
This entire bit came off as a story choice that was simply made to introduce variant walkers that will likely tie in to future “TWD” spin-offs. It felt like the series was putting the needs of the spin-offs ahead of the continuity of the original series. It’s not believable that Aaron would never mention that he’s heard of variant walkers until season 11.
Are we supposed to believe that Aaron would’ve kept something like this to himself?AMC, composite by Kirsten Acuna/InsiderWhen Jerry and Aaron realize that there are smarter walkers who can present a real danger moving forward, Aaron tells Jerry that — surprise — he actually always knew this was a possibility. What?Aaron has been on “TWD” since the latter part of season five. Yet, it’s only on Sunday’s night that he tells Jerry — or anyone — that he heard stories of walkers who could climb walls and open doors years ago.
That doesn’t make any sense. Why wouldn’t he equip the other survivors with that knowledge?This was something Insider brought up to Ross Marquand during pre-season interviews and even he was in agreement, saying, “Yeah, that’s a good point. “In trying to explain why Aaron conveniently never brought this up before, he added, “We don’t wanna freak people out.
“Let’s be real. The variant walkers are something that could’ve and should’ve been introduced seasons ago, but “TWD” waited until its final six episodes to introduce or re-introduce them as a nod to some members of the undead from season one. Why? Again, this is a sore spot of the final episodes that makes it appear that there is a certain list of boxes they need to check off in order to set up the series’ many spin-off shows moving forward.
What is going on with Lance and Pamela?No one asked for this. Let Lance continue thriving as a terrific antagonist. AMCThere is some really strange chemistry going on between these two characters.
On last week’s episode, when Pamela started to brush her hand through Lance’s hair, he seemed to be enjoying it a little too much. Fans immediately started pointing out the strange sexual moment between the two, which was even mentioned on aftershow, “Talking Dead. “In this week’s episode, Pamela reached down into Lance’s pocket to retrieve his lucky coin, but the moment was so drawn out that it seemed like her hand uncomfortably lingered in his pants.
This is such a strange and unexpected turn of events in the final eight episodes. It’s difficult to comprehend why “TWD” is bothering to suggest there’s some sort of weird power dynamic between Pamela and Lance to further complicate relationships at this point. While some have pointed out that this mirrors Homelander’s obsession with Madelyn on “The Boys,” “TWD” doesn’t have enough time to fully explore this with so many other stories to wrap up.
Lance has been such an asset to the series in the past eight episodes and this entire weird sexual tension between him and Pamela is starting to derail the momentum the show built for his character to be an extraordinary antagonist. Perhaps “TWD” is trying to set up the potential for another future episode of its anthology series “Tales of TWD. ” If that receives a second season, maybe fans will get their backstory.
A massive shift in time from night to day makes one scene unbelievably convenient. We’re supposed to believe that Elijah, Lydia, and Aaron just magically killed all of the dead?AMCWhen Aaron, Jerry, Elijah, and Lydia are surrounded by a group of walkers in the dead of night, Aaron simply tells Lydia and Elijah that the three of them will take care of the, at least, 50 or so walkers. But we never see them do this.
After a commercial break, the show cuts to daytime and everyone’s doing just fine. Are we supposed to believe that the trio had no problem clearing the dead after just discovering a smarter zombie among them?This scene wasn’t believable. They were appearing to struggle beforehand while working together.
Additionally, we just learned that some of these walkers were innately smarter. Are we supposed to believe Aaron magically took out the one variant walker in this massive group and that they conveniently didn’t come across another? If a scene wasn’t cut or missing altogether, this was weird writing, which again appeared to only serve introducing variant walkers for future shows, which is downright frustrating. Where was everyone else on this episode?It would’ve been nice to see what happened to Carol, Kelly, Connie, and more as the group was being hunted inside the Commonwealth.
Jace Downs/AMCPamela demands that anyone associated with Eugene should get detained and questioned early in the episode. Yet, we largely only see Princess, Ezekiel, Rosita, and Max rounded up for questioning. What happened to everyone else in Daryl’s very large group? Did they all successfully evade the Commonwealth army or were some of them detained and questioned off screen?Though Daryl briefly mentions that he has talked to “the others” and that they’ll leave at dawn if they can get out, we could’ve used more time with Carol, Negan, Connie, Father Gabriel, Kelly, and more.
Were there scenes written for them that just aren’t going to see the light of day? Last week, writer Kevin Deiboldt told Insider about scenes that were trimmed down from last week’s episode simply for time. It’s likely this is happening to every episode. It’s unfortunate that AMC isn’t giving fans extended episodes every week to close out the series.
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From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/the-walking-dead-final-episodes-story-choices-2022-10
