Sasha is having another flashback. And another. And another.
“The Walking Dead” season seven finale was, to my expectations, supposed to leave me excited about season eight. However, Sunday’s episode left me asking only one question: How did King Ezekiel train his tiger so well?
Although the ending of “The Walking Dead” was rather exhilarating, the lead into it was too drawn out which had me just hoping that the show would finally end. While the final miniature battle was worth the wait, Sasha and her flashbacks while riding in the casket were repetitive and unnecessary. Her character was dealing with the loss of Abraham, but after a couple, I was like “we get it.” But, they just kept shoving it in our face like a toddler ecstatic to show you their first drawing.
“WAIT – did you say there was tiger?! “
I’ll get to that in a moment.
The Saviours marched into Alexandria, where Rick and his crew were waiting for them, but little did he know that his group had been double-crossed by Jadis and her band of trash dwellers. That was, in my opinion, a bigger surprise than Sasha becoming a zombie, which would have caught me by surprise had it not been for all the close-ups of her and the dramatic whispers of her conversation with Abraham in her flashbacks.
“Hey, but seriously… the tiger?”
Hold your horses.
Sasha’s sacrifice was key to making sure Rick and the “good guys” had a fair chance and would prove to be the turning point they needed as Negan’s advantage was spoiled. Her involvement in the previous two episodes almost guaranteed that she’d be bidding the show adieu.
The season had such an emphatic beginning that the rest of this season, which was my least favorite of the show, was almost excusable. Almost. The second half of the season had only one exciting episode (Morgan’s revival) and it was a major step forward for, not only his character, but the plot itself. Besides that, this season of “The Walking Dead” kind of had a lull that makes me cringe when thinking about all the hours I wasted — not that my Sundays were very action-packed to begin with.
“Dude, seriously, about the tiger.”
Okay, okay.
Yes, as Negan and Lucille (his barbed-wire bat) are just about to treat Carl’s head as if it were a hanging changeup, Ezekiel’s tiger, Shiva, jumps into the screen along with the King, Maggie, Jesus and company. That sets off the second battle that the groups have with each other, but it also is the best moment of the episode. It finally allows a changed Morgan to fight side-by-side with Rick, allows us to see a tiger eating up a bunch of people and links the two good forces together.
As the smoke bombs are thrown, the Saviors and Negan get to see another day. As the episode ended with him proclaiming that The Saviours were going to war, I couldn’t help but feel betrayed by the lack of substance. While I’m sure the writers are hearing plenty of backlash, I’ll just say the episode — and season in general — could have been done better.