You don’t bring a knife to a gun fight, not in The Walking Dead and not anywhere (unless it’s a katana and you are Michonne). This seems like an obvious survival rule to someone who has been built up as an increasingly capable survivor, but good decisions don’t always make for good TV do they? No, good TV is made by bad decisions that make zero sense and give the writers a reason to kill someone off, because it’s the mid season finale
My personal enjoyment of the episode was somewhat sapped by whoever is running the official social media channels for The Walking Dead. Just a few minutes after the episode aired on the East Coast of the U.S, there were words, pictures, AND a hashtag posted by the Facebook and Twitter accounts to immediately recall the major death. The episode hadn’t even aired on the West Coast of the U.S yet, let alone the rest of the world. It’s almost a slap in the face, implying that one of the most effective elements of The Walking Dead – the element of surprise – is only to be enjoyed by those who live in a certain time zone while everyone else is an afterthought.
Luckily those careless social media workers didn’t spoil the method of death though, because while it made little sense and felt a bit gratuitous, it was effectively heartbreaking to watch especially given the reactions of all these characters who we care about.
Before we get to that ending, let’s start at the beginning. “Coda” starts off with a very strong sequence, skipping the fallout and table setting from the “Crossed” ending, jumping straight into Rick’s ever-effective badass mode. Rick running down Lamson in his now-standard ‘no bullshit’ way, breaking his back then shooting him in the head was an extra slice of the cold brutality Officer Grimes now dabbles in, kicking off this mid-season finale in a fantastic way and then continuing it with a herd of walkers when we jump back to Father Gabriel.
Gabriel is frustrating, and it’s doubly frustrating to think that he is being characterised that way on purpose. His consistently bad and selfish decisions, like leading walkers back to a church with a baby and a child inside, aren’t letting up and so this character is going to need a lot of work if we’re going to start seeing his presence as having any value whatsoever. Gabriel’s need to confirm that Gareth ‘deserved’ it by visiting the school and searching for evidence was really unbelievable, and the entire sequence seemed to be thrown in just so we could see Michonne use her katana again with ferocity. As frustrating as the trigger was though, it did make way for Abraham and co. to reunite with the group at just the right time, converging two arcs which needed to be tied up in order to make room for everything in Atlanta.
The Grady Memorial story was never compelling to begin with, thanks largely in part to characters who were barely fleshed out, and who were so frustratingly vague that many people began to hate Beth just because she was the main driver of the arc. Here, we get to spend some final moments exploring the see-sawing dynamic between Dawn and Beth, and see how Dawn isn’t so bad after all compared to the male cops. We’re treated to a nice fight scene which ends in Beth shoving O’Donnell down the elevator shaft, but other than that it’s the ol’ ‘she’s not too bad, oh wait she is, oh wait, she isn’t’ game with Dawn that we get to play. We actually don’t even get to see Carol waking up and reuniting with Beth – a scene which would have actually had some real weight behind it.
We rush to get Rick and co. into the hospital so they can make the exchange, and have a really great shot in the hospital hallway where you don’t really know what’s going to happen [or you do, because you have been on social media and unwillingly saw a spoiler] until a surprise set-up at the end places a gun beneath Beth’s head and lets loose on the trigger. We saw Beth tuck those surgical scissors into her sleeve, and thought it’d have some use since Beth has become so capable as of late; but that use was to stab Dawn in the shoulder (?) while expecting her not to have a reaction and accidentally pull the trigger on a loaded gun. What did Beth expect would happen? It was a really confusing death, seeing as Beth really didn’t need to do that. Sure, she might have thought she was saving Noah by setting off a possible gunfight in a very narrow hallway, but to stab Dawn so clumsily and in a place that had no consequence whatsoever (if it wasn’t for Daryl) was down right idiotic.
The real weight of the death was in the character reactions. Daryl cried and blew Dawn’s brains out; Rick, Tyreese and Carol wept; and Noah and Sasha were in shock; but none was as effective as Maggie breaking down. It was a sequence done incredibly well, having Glenn, Maggie, and the rest slowly fight their way towards the hospital only to see Daryl walk out with a dead Beth in his arms; the camera was on Maggie the whole time during the time she would have noticed Beth, and showed her slowly realise what has happened to her sister (who she only just began to mention again). It’s this level of emotional, physical performance that really make the deaths on The Walking Dead hit hard; we saw it with Shane’s death as Andrew Lincoln acted his heart out, and again when he dropped to the floor and rolled around like he was having a heart attack at the end of Season 3’s “The Killer Within”. It shows that no matter how stupid things can get, great acting can pull it right back out and make it all worth it in the end. And that’s what really saved this episode in the end.
Like “No Sanctuary”, “Coda” came with an extended Morgan scene post-credits, showing him stumbling upon the church and finding a map to D.C with Abraham’s message to Rick Grimes on it. Seeing as this inevitable reunion will hopefully bring Lennie James’ super strong acting chops into the fold a bit more, it being a bit drawn out is bound to be forgiven when Morgan finally catches up with the group.
Review Score: THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Hightlights:
1. Fallout from Beth’s death done well
2. Rick chasing down Lamson
3. Morgan getting closer
4. Michonne shows off her sword skills
5. Cop arc over
Lowlights:
1. Beth’s final move. What did she think would happen?
2. No Carol & Beth scene
3. Cops frustratingly vague and mostly nameless
Episode MVP: Michonne
Walker Kill of the Week: Michonne x 4
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