The season of 'All Out War' continues at a slow pace in this latest episode as we're given a look into some of the inner workings of the Saviours, and get to see a different side to Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as we catch up with him and Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) trapped by a group of walkers.
Negan has been something of a one note character since his first introduction, a man to be feared, someone that commands the respect of his people, someone who forces women to be his wives/sex slaves, and a guy who keeps making awful dick and ball jokes whilst talking about people shitting themselves.
Other than the intensity of his first appearance and the killing of both Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) Negan has been something of a let down, constantly swaggering around talking lick a college frat boy and trying to look tough through sheer force of numbers backing him up.
This episode, however, adds a little more nuance to the character. We learn that he is very much keeping his people together, with the Saviours falling apart without him around to keep order. In the few hours he was trapped inside the trailer with Gabriel we see that his people have to deal with power and supply problems, a mutiny from the workers, and in fighting between their leaders. Whilst this does add credence to Negans statements that he helps people by keeping order, the fact that so much went wrong without Negan around for a few hours was quite ridiculous. Do the Saviours experience these difficulties every time he leaves the Sanctuary for more than five minutes?
Despite this slight ridiculous over exaggeration of just how quickly their small society falls apart without one man, we get some good scenes between him and Father Gabriel, particularly the insight into Negans past and his first wife, who died of a long term illness when the apocalypse happened. Unfortunately, half of these scenes are dragged down with more of Negan constantly talking about dicks, balls, and shitting.
It's a shame that the character is reduced to having to make these kinds of comments, to be reduced to puerile banter instead of being able to be a grown-up. We saw in his first appearance that he can be menacing, we've seen here that he can be quiet and contemplative, even deep, so please, stop making him so stupidly irritating.
The episode also shoehorns in some scenes with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Daryl (Norman Reedus), as they continue on from their story in the previous episode where they try to capture some large calibre weapons. Whilst that in itself is all well and good, and carries on the story of the conflict between the two opposing forces, having the two characters disagree about how to proceed and get into a physical fight feels so pointless.
The show did this a couple of weeks ago when Jesus (Tom Payne) and Morgan (Lennie James) did the exact same thing in regards to killing Saviours. If this was the first time this had happened it would still feel out of place, but at least wouldn't feel like a rehash of an idea that was dull weeks ago.
The Walking Dead appears to be struggling to keep quality and story going as it takes interesting concepts and character development and bogs them down in ridiculous dialogue, over the top moments, and poor storytelling decisions. It's of little surprise that the series is suffering with its lowest ratings since 2011.
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