The Walking Dead returned for the second half of Season Eight Sunday night with all eyes on the fate of Carl Grimes and the progression of ‘All Out War.’
In the end, all a person has is their honor, and that was the focus of ‘Honor.’ When you have accepted that your life is finite you can become free and untethered; Chandler Riggs brought this to the screen as Carl. Danai Gurira fresh off her Black Panther success brought an intensity and a mother’s compassion to the episode that was raw emotion. When Carl passed the torch to Judith, it touched a nerve, and it was hard not to get a little misty-eyed as Judith started to cry.
Morgan’s character arc is insane as he falls back into the abyss of death and destruction. The tension that Carol and Morgan built was well played as they try to rescue Eziekel. It was interesting to see Carol in the role of samurai and Morgan play the part of the rogue. Every episode always contains a special effects shocker, and I would love to meet the writer that decided Morgan’s kill maneuver would be to pull a person’s intestines out through a gunshot wound. That was crazy-town, and the reaction from Eziekel and Carol was perfect. Morgan brought a real horror to the episode unlike any other character before. Morgan turned into Jason Voorhees!
The Walking Dead has never been about the zombies or the battles, it’s about human the interaction and the evolution of the characters, good or bad. As the parallel storylines in ‘Honor’ came to a head, the philosophy of the show was bright and shining through the grit and grime of The Walking Dead Universe by the time the credits rolled.
Carl went out on his own terms Sunday night and brought a new mission to the show.
What did you think of tonight’s episode? Comment below.
