Review
"All our drills were for nothing against those numbers" - KarinaJust when it seems Karina and Paul are going to be zombie food a Doctor, Gale, leaps out of nowhere and dispatches the walker threatening our duo. We learn Gale is the last person alive in the Hospital Karina and Paul have found, and Gale hasn't been able to totally secure the building with the odd zombie managing to get in. We further learn that Gale survived atrocities caused by former patients.
Gale bandages up Paul, who is still unconscious, but informs Karina that he is close to dying and there is nothing Gale can do to save him. Warning Karina that she doesn't want her last memory of Paul to be of him post re-animation, Gale wheels his hospital bed down a corridor and pushes it into a Cafeteria. A cafeteria that is locked down! Wonder what's in there then, watch Choice to find out before reading the rest of this review.
Choice kicks in immediately after the first episode delivering over its 7:25 minutes enough meat on the bone to really get the web series rocking. Which is just as well really as there is only one episode left, though that does promise to rock the house down. We find the Hospital wasn't as deserted as original thought, Doctor Gale is in the house and to be honest the chick might have more than a few Roos loose in the top paddock. We learn she survived an onslaught of former patients, her female companion wasn't as lucky, and I'm left wondering exactly what position she held at the Hospital prior to the undead festivities going down. Was she a former patient herself? By the end of the episode the clear indication is that Gale has a few problems, Paul is in real trouble and Karina might well be the next to suffer Gale's remedial methods. This is one Hospital you don't want to turn up sick at, hell you probably don't want to turn up to it at all just to be on the safe side.
Like Cold Storage the early focus is on just what might be behind Door A, the Cafeteria is on lock down and we discover exactly why. Now it might just be me but the Cafe doors looked ominously like the ones that confronted Rick Grimes in episode 1 of The Walking Dead television show way back in season 1. Only thing missing is the warning about the dead inside, hey make your own Intel joke here, but guess we still have another episode to see if my suspicions will be confirmed or not. The idea of the Cafeteria is however awesome, talk about feeding the Christians to the Lions, and once again points out a recurrent theme in zombie outings, you have more to fear than simply the resurrected dead. There is of course a sort of metaphor going down involving the Cafeteria being a place of sustenance, which those trapped inside are certainly getting from Gale's meals on wheels service.
Simply put an excellent piece of film making that highlights the strenghts of the franchise
Guess I should also mention the background details on Karina and Paul that the episode delivers. Their initial camp, seen at the start of episode 1, was 20 miles outside Rockford and contained twenty survivors from the initial zombie outbreak. A quick, and I have to admit not thorough, search turns up a Rockford in Georgia, so I'm wondering if we might just be at a Hospital that has been visited before in the Walking Dead franchise, fingers cross, I'm a sucker for self referencing in a franchise.
Okay before I get much older I wanted to mention the excellent sets being designed and delivered for The Oath. Paul's Hospital room is almost pristine, you could readily believe the apocalypse hadn't gone down, until of course you step into the corridor outside the room. The Hospital corridors are either a grunge wet dream or the result of panicked flight. There's papers strewn around like confetti at a mad hatters wedding, what looks to be dried blood prominently featured on the walls, and more loose wiring than was evident last time you tried to fix the light socket in your room. Absolute bedlam, well designed, and I was rocking out to it! Full marks to the design team; they really nailed the Hospital location and made it a winner.
The episode finishes just on the right note, Paul is strapped to a hospital bed, is surrounded by zombies, and appears to have no options left. I really can't see how they are going to pull the dude out of the fire here, which of course they maybe planning not to. The other side of this particular equation see's Karina on her own with the less than stable Gale, not expecting that to end with high tea any time soon.
Seems we are having something of a Walking Dead happening at the moment with a whole bunch of material being reviewed currently. Must admit to digging Choice, which in seven and a half minutes managed to do more with the zombie thing than a lot of full length movies can achieve in their entire running time. The plot is a thing of beauty, we're behind the protagonists, and we have just met the deranged antagonist for the evening. You really can't wish for anything more if you were being honest. If you haven't tapped this series yet then make it a priority to check out The Oath, this might just be the best web series yet in The Walking Dead universe!
Left on a cliffhanger, outstanding!