The Walking Dead S9E2: The Bridge
I said last week that with it being public knowledge that Rick and Maggie will be leaving the show soon, showrunners will need to find a way to make viewers forget about that fact and become entrenched in the story. I thought that was mostly accomplished last night through the sheer amount of organizing resources, moving around manpower, and conflicts arising. By the end of the hour we were left with more questions than answers, but that’s not a bad place to be in when you’re trying to hook your current audience and reestablish yourself as on of the best shows on television.
This episode kicks off with a conversation between Rick and Negan as the backdrop. It’s easy to forget as the show gets going. The pace never seems to dull down, but also never seems like too much to keep up with. “We’re on day 35”, Rick says as he deliver what appears to be a regular update to Negan. It’s unclear whether this is the 35th day after the war was ended, or the 35th day of the bridge project. I would guess the former. Nevertheless, Rick paints a glowing picture of their situation… “We’re getting back a piece of who we used to be, how things were before all this… we’re not just fighting to survive anymore. We’re making a new beginning”. The primary focus of this new beginning is the bridge reconstruction. As Ezekiel puts it to Henry, “It’s not just a bridge. Roads are the lifeblood of civilization… this boring structure connects us all.” The bridge is a sign for the survivors and for the viewers of the health of the community. If the bridge stalls or fails, so will the community. A fight between Daryl and Justin (Zach McGowan, Black Sails) indicates this project may encounter more trouble than triumph.
At Hilltop, Maggie is trying to find her place as a leader, weighing the cost of punishment and charity against that of mercy and community. Her decision to hang Gregory and imprison Earl is seeing a hint of second-guessing, and her leveraging more food for the saviors against ethanol for their tractor is a move Michonne is trying to talk her out of. There is a solid contrast in this episode between Rick and Maggie. Not so much in their style of leadership, but in the daily decisions that community leaders must make. While Rick juggles resources to accomplish tasks that benefit everyone, Maggie deals with determining appropriate forms of punishment when community trust is violated, and weighing what’s best for Hilltop against what’s best for the union of communities. We know from the end of season eight that she has an ulterior motive; putting herself in position to undermine Rick’s leadership.
Her discussion with Earl, the man Gregory manipulated to try and kill her, was a terrific example of empathy in action. Earl has struggled with alcohol his whole life. He shares with Maggie that he can’t remember the day his son was born because he was drunk, and his drinking caused many problems with his family. Maggie is familiar with this; her father, Herschel, had a drinking problems as well. It was this personal connection which caused Maggie to extend mercy to Earl and allow him out of prison with an armed escort. Yet she makes it clear that this changes nothing about her decision to hang Gregory.
“Gregory had chance after chance and he wasted them all. I don’t regret what I did. Some people can be redeemed, but others can’t.”
Suppose you’re at a Walking Dead watch party (do people do those?) and were looking for a good discussion point afterward. This line from Maggie opens up a world of possibilities for interesting dialogue with friends, while also creating an opening for discussion about what true redemption looks like with eternity in mind. Redemption is something we all desire. Not just for ourselves, but we love to see it play out in others. We value repentance, restitution, and a mending of relationships among one another. How does that inherent value play out with respect to our creator? A feeling that some can’t be redeemed is due to a shortcoming either on the part of the one needing redemption, or the one granting it. Is that shortcoming also a reality with God? It’s easy to see how a discussion around redemption can lead to Jesus, but it can also lead to the realization that the perfection of God eliminates all shortcomings on his part, while supplying the power needed to overcome our own shortcomings. Indeed, our shortcomings are the very reason we need the power of God to step in for us.
While this is the strongest discussion point in the episode, other items may have a longer lasting effect on the community. Daryl’s fight with Justin serves to drive a wedge further between the sanctuary and the rest of the community at a time when they need to come together to reconstruct the bridge. Aaron suffers a major injury when a herd of walkers came upon the lumber yard after a savior member did not blast their air horn at the appropriate time to draw them away. While the reason for this missing air horn is unknown, it points to an unnerving disappearing of members of the sanctuary. A handful of people seem to be going missing each week. Even the delivery of the ethanol to Hilltop is chalked up to sanctuary members just disappearing. A closing scene involving Justin, and the preview for next week’s episode would indicate something more troubling is happening. Combined with the line from Negan that Rick isn’t saving the world, he’s just getting it ready for him, and the impact of Negan is felt even when he’s not around.
My Rating: B
The steady pace is what keeps this episode interesting. Thinking back, there were plenty of scenes that might have usually served as filler, but this episode went quickly through the simple things and spent time on the difficult things. The episode seemed to fly by, but at the same time it seemed to cover a lot of ground. It also provided a couple of teasers moving forward; Who hit Justin, and what does Jadis (Anne) seeing the helicoptor mean? Each of those questions works to make me forget that Rick and Maggie will soon be gone, and that’s a good thing for the show.
