The mid-season finale of season eight of ‘The Walking Dead’ approached with substantial hype and left with disappointment and many questions for the creative team involved.
There will be spoilers to follow, turn back now if you have not watched ‘How It’s Gotta Be.’
The mid-season finale was a 90-minute episode that could have been edited down to 30-minutes. The excess killed all momentum from the previous episode; the length did not build up the suspense either. It actually did the opposite; it became a waiting game for something to happen. A faster-paced episode would have kept the audience off-balance, and the final knock blow of the story would have carried weight.
What also didn’t work for this episode is the most crucial scene took place off camera. When a tragedy occurs to a central cast member, the audience deserves a better sendoff than what happened Sunday night. Chandler Riggs did lead the way as Carl, the younger actor grabbed hold of the spotlight and didn’t let go. Lauren Cohan also deserves your applause as Maggie continues to dominate the Hilltop.
A bright spot in a somewhat monotone episode was that viewers finally got to see Rick and Negan ‘throw down.’ The two have contrasting fighting styles, and this along gets you excited for the second half of the season.
Overall, everything that has been building on the show fell apart today, which begs the question, ‘Why was it in there in the first place? Things happened, the plot moved forward, but no one is winning an award for this episode. ‘How It’s Gotta Be’ looked to be a ‘moral compass’ episode to where a death would have had meaning, that is not the direction AMC took the episode.
Here is the most poerful scene from the episode. You deceide if it gamed the game or not.
What did you think of the mid-season finale? Sound off in the comment section below.
