The Walking Dead S5E15 – Idealism vs. Stone Cold Reality

Well damn. Now THAT was a hell of a swerve turn!

But more on that later. Let’s nit pick a little bit…

Sasha takes her frustrations out on the walkers. At one point, Michonne and Rosita join her. If we’re comparing the comics to the TV show, Sasha is clearly a stand-in for Andrea in terms of her sniper duties. I find it a bit odd that she’s this worked up over Noah, though. In the grand scheme of things? Noah wasn’t around that long. Tyreese, on the other hand? Different story. Still, after all that’s happened, Sasha has as much to grieve about as anybody else, I suppose.

 Carl and Enid go out to…play? This whole sequence with Carl and Enid was really well-written, simply because it seems like the kind of stupid thing two teenagers would do. “Hey, let’s hide in a tree while the zombies walk by!” What a stupid girl…

But hey, Carl is a teenage boy, and Enid is the only teenage girl in sight. If I were a teenager, that’s probably what I’d do too.

Glenn confronts Nicholas about the run that got Noah and Aiden killed. This was a gutsy move by Glenn, considering his level of seniority compared to Noah. But it obviously fit with the “Our Way vs. Their Way” theme of the show. We’re not seeing as much of “sensitive Glenn” this season. Actually, since we got to Alexandria we haven’t seen much of the Glenn/Maggie relationship. The Glenn we’ve gotten this season has been much more aggressive, which is cool.

The Rick/Pete conflict comes to a head, resulting in Michonne knocking Rick out. Those last few seconds of the episode were a great surprise. Michonne, one of Rick’s people, didn’t stand with him. Talk about awkward…

What we have here seems to be (as our title suggested), the idealism of Alexandria against Rick’s stone cold reality. Deanna and the Alexandria community are trying to preserve something that was lost. Namely, civilization. But for Rick, a man who’s been out in this post-apocalyptic world so much more, the reality is that the world humanity knew is gone. And in a community like Alexandria, I imagine that balance would be really hard to find.

 The question now, as Rick presumably faces exile for trying to murder Pete in front of so many people, is how many of Rick’s “family” members are willing to stand with him? Seemingly Michonne feels the preservation of Alexandria outweighs her loyalty to Rick. So what about Daryl? Glenn? Carol? What about Carl?

So many questions…

Written by: The Fanboy Wonder, Rob Siebert