The Walking Dead - S07E02 The Well (2016)

Review

Remember last season when Carol slipped out of Alexandria to go her own way, and Morgan tracked her down? Those armoured dudes on horses' right? Well episode two of the new season kicks off right after those events, Carol is being taken by carriage to have her wounds tended to, and is being guarded by Morgan and a couple of dudes on horses. Which proves just as well as they run into a whole bunch of walkers and battle is in full swing. Just when it looks dangerous for the wounded Carol, a whole lot more horsemen show up to deal with the undead threat. Later Carol wakes to find herself tended to, in a bed, in a place called The Kingdom. Morgan seems somewhat at home, and introduces her to the leader of the community, the overly flamboyant Ezekiel.

Carol isn't buying into the setup but Morgan seems happy enough and is singled out by Ezekiel for a couple of tasks, including handing over some supplies to the Saviours. Seems the Kingdom is also under Negan's influence, though Ezekiel is keeping this from his subjects. Morgan also takes to training a young Kingdom soldier, Benjamin, in Aikido. Meanwhile Carol is doing her meek and mild impersonation while gathering supplies. She finally gets busted by Ezekiel while trying to take some fruit and the two open up to each other. Not quite sure but they both seem to come off the better for a little heart to heart.

Mortecai in folks and this time I'm flying solo, hell Walking Dead you can throw me a lot of curve balls but I'm not about to give up on the relationship after six years, though my girl has lost the faith. While last week's episode was brutal and blood covered The Well gets back to some character development and takes a lighter approach to the hostile world we are all immersed in.

The episode will separate the horror tourist from the horror fan

So the episode explodes right from the first scene with Kingdom soldiers battling walkers, with a little help from Morgan. For all those girly men groaning on about lack of walker action, you get a good strong dose here as the mindless mouldering ones attempt take out. Later we also get a zombie kill but that's more in terms of plot development and character introduction than all out violence and all. The Walking Dead delivering you the undead action some horror lite weights require.

The dominate themes running through the rest of the episode, with some slight detours, are Morgan realising his belief in all life is important isn't practical in the face of the Saviours, and perhaps Carol coming to the conclusion that she does need people, there are always going to be deaths in the brave new world, but she isn't responsible for them all. Guess we need to give her some slack after her daughter's death, the whole Lizzie psycho thing, and of course the Sam being eaten by monsters scare campaign that turned tragic. Anyone care about Sam? Carol needs some time out from the whole mess, and just maybe a bit of counselling.

Of course the other major development in the episode is the introduction of Ezekiel and The Kingdom, the fourth group of survivors in the DC area. While I dug the whole medieval take on surviving, including light cavalry, Ezekiel didn't come across as an obvious choice for leader given his overly dramatic flourishes. Sure the big dude has a tiger on a chain, but would you automatically think, hey this guy is on top things? Before I get bogged down the episode did expand on why Ezekiel became leader, and exactly how he is protecting his community. So pass mark this episode, not sure what Rick is going to make of the whole thing, but would appear there are a lot of soldiers under Ezekiel's command. Dug the whole "Drink from the Well, replenish the Well" which reprised the notion of earning what you take that the Medical team used a few seasons back, naturally Carol is sceptical after Beth and all.

We do get to meet and greet a few minor characters while Carol is devising her exit strategy; a girl has to do what a girl has to do. I was rocking to Jerry, Ezekiel's right hand man, and to throw a Shakespearian influence down, his Falstaff. The comic relief etc., they can keep Jerry coming at me episode after episode. We also meet and greet Richard, a Kingdom soldier with a short fuse, he definitely isn't happy with the saviour thing. And finally Benjamin, a young man finding his way who is learning from Morgan and whom Ezekiel has great hopes for. Now I know what everyone is muttering under their breaths, more characters to follow, but this is the Walking Dead Sistas and Bros, how many of these guys are going to make it to end of season? Negan is going to clean house for us, don't get too attached, that puppy is going back to the pound!

Time for a break folks before this gets way too heavy? Well lets handled one of the criticisms levelled at the show which this episode is no doubt going to light some fires under. A number of people are complaining about episodes spending all their time on a small group of characters while abandoning the larger whole. While there may be a Star Trek comment in there, it is still a valid point and I accept where people are coming from. To be honest I am very happy with Walking Dead spending quality time with different characters and taking time out of its busy schedule of mayhem to explore the ongoing development of those characters. For sure after last episode we needed something slightly less in your face, if not any less intense. Both Carol and Morgan have come to a divergence in the road, where their beliefs are proven to be not the way ahead. Will be interesting to see where that might go over the next dozen or so episodes. Remembering, and this site has belaboured the point, the "zombie" sub-genre is less about the monsters and more about the survivors. Sorry folks, have thus far avoided the use of the Z word, The Walking Dead takes place in a Universe devoid of the popular awareness of zombies, but pointed needed to be made right?

Some minor points and I'll wrap this up in time for Christmas. The incidental music is working to help bring across mood and feeling, sorry to go Chick time but I can dig the whole package guys. Bear McCreary has a knack for the score and narrows it down each and every time to help get the message across. I almost always also appreciate the incidental music used to good effect from time to time, for example this episode we got a Choir doing a Bob Dylan number which added the wow factor.

Just a word on the pig situation that kind of came out of the blue and had me with Morgan in a pretty much WTF stance. Pigs eating walkers, come on you going to eat prk after that, what the hell was Ezekiel doing, being my jaundiced view of the situation. Naturally there's a method behind the madness, a sort of chef spitting into the broth mentality, but it did get me thinking about how the virus is spread. We know it's inborn in everyone, you die you walk, it can also be spread by wounds being infected, but can it be spread by eating contaminated food? I actually sort some advice on this from a hygiene expert, boom baby, research right there. Seems a lot of food we take for granted, poultry etc., has naturally occurring nasties that can have dire effect, hence the cooking process to not only make the meat scrumptious, sorry PETA but sea kitten for dinner last night, but to kill off any bacteria lurking ready to strike. So my expert considered that the Saviours would no doubt roast the infected porcine treats as they probably had no one capable of smoking the meat, hence they are not likely to contract the virus. But, and here I diverge, first use of germ warfare in the new reality, sometimes humans simply don't learn.

What did I think of The Well, loved it, yes some might find it boring but this is quality television drama, an exploration of evolving characters, and an appreciated change of pace from the first episode. Season seven really is starting to heat up nicely, here first, a few of the characters we meet tonight are not going to survive, that was the point of us getting to know them, to feel the anger when Negan's goons do the thing they do. Ezekiel is going to go ballistic in my opinion, the Kingdom is headed for war with the Saviours, which pretty much will play into Rick Grime's long range gaols, anyone really think Negan was going to get away Scott free with the whole Glenn and Abraham thing? Excellent episode taking the time to hit the dramatic overtones, people really do need to u nderstand the ebb and flow of this show, there's a reason it's breaking television records year in year out. Can't wait till next episode, who knows where that is going to go. Mortecai out, think I may need to double up to catch up this season, hey we still doing past seasons?

Editor's Note: Are walkers hungry little hippos, yes we are, moved states and don't have my disc collection to hand, hence why a few franchises are waving in the wind here. Oh and if wanting to double down on ep reviews, knock yourself out Brah!