The Walking Dead: Sneak Peeks And Videos For Next Week’s Episode, Live Bait
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READ WITH CAUTION. SPOILERS FOR THE WALKING DEAD BELOW!
Last night’s episode of The Walking Dead put an end to the deadly disease storyline and re-introduced a new threat to the safety of the group. It seemed like the writers wanted to inject some hope into the zombie series before taking it away for the next chapter of season four. The cable network has now released a sneak peek of next week’s episode, entitled “Live Bait,” as well as two behind-the-scenes featurettes from last night’s episode, “Internment,” and its most talked-about scene.
The Governor will return to The Walking Dead in next week’s episode. His appearance at the end of “Internment” was surprising to some, but considered mere fan service by others. “Live Bait,” and its following episode “Dead Weight,” should serve as standalone episodes featuring The Governor and his new gang. In the sneak peek above, we get a look at how twisted the Governor has become after the massacre in the third-season finale.
The first behind-the-scenes video features the last moments of the plague. Everyone in the infected ward is on the brink of death, so Hershel takes it upon himself to help those in need. When a very convenient zombie outbreak happens in the ward during the episode’s climax, Maggie goes in to try to help during the deadly situation.
The last featurette highlights the visual effects that make the zombies come to life (or death) when Hershel has to kill a few newly turned zombies to save Glen’s life. The featurette also shows off Hershel’s tussle with a zombie that still has a much-needed breathing tube jammed down its throat.
While this scene may seem exciting, it was full of stupid decisions from almost everyone in the ward. It’s almost as if no one has ever faced off against zombies, or they learned nothing from the last three years of survival. You could almost forgive the actions of a little girl luring a zombie out of a prison cell like a dog, but you can’t excuse Hershel trying to get a breathing tube out of a zombie’s mouth without killing it first. Why do the writers insist on lowering the stakes when it comes to zombies? They are so ineffectual that they never come off as threatening or horrific anymore. They seem more like a nuisance or annoyance than a deadly threat.
I was not a fan of last night’s episode of The Walking Dead. It had a few surprises and thrills, but overall, it was probably one of the dumbest episodes of the AMC zombie series. While the episode was going for an emotional draw with Hershel trying to save the lives of his fellow survivors, it failed to deepen its character’s decisions that seemed to be more of a plot convenience than anything else.
AMC also released “the most talked about scene” from “Internment,” which was Rick and Carl mowing down zombies with assault rifles. As thrilling as this scene seemed, it served as yet another plot contrivance. It took the zombie horde five episodes to break through the outer chain-link fence, but in “Internment,” it takes the zombies 30 seconds to break through another chain-link fence.
It feels like the writers knew that these were all convenient plot devices to push the narrative forward. That’s why they introduced the Governor at the end of the episode. It was a way to “cover up” the episode’s flaws and to distract from The Walking Dead’s deeper problems.
The Walking Dead will air the episode “Live Bait” on Sunday November 17 on AMC.
