I'll be honest. An episode of The Walking Dead focused on Eugene, Dwight and Negan sounds like a recipe for disasters. It sounds even worse than homemade potato chips (yuck!) and much worse than a jar of pickles. Honestly, I want to tell the show's showrunners, in my best Negan voice, that they're "complete badasses" for even trying something so crazy.
Crazy like a fox.
Sunday night's episode had me worried at first, as I began to realize that Eugene would be the star of the show. Thankfully, it turned out to be a much better episode than I expected. The Walking Dead still feels very different than the show we used to watch and love, but at least in 'Hostiles and Calamities' we had some funny and sad moments to latch onto.
We'll start with the sad.
Dwight and Sherry sitting in a tree...
Dwight and Sherry's relationship and situation was already pretty monumentally screwed up prior to Sunday night's episode. They had tried to escape Negan before, and when they changed their mind (for some godawful reason) and screwed over Daryl, Negan welcomed them back to the Saviors with open arms.
And a red hot iron to the face. Oh, and he took Sherry as one of his wives.
After that, Dwight was a whipped dog and one of Negan's go-to lieutenants. On the surface, Sherry seemed to be almost close to Negan, or at least willing to work with him.
Then she freed Daryl. We weren't entirely sure it was true before, but it's confirmed now. She writes a letter to Dwight and tells him that she freed him because Daryl reminded Dwight of himself before he became a terrible, wretched excuse for a human being.
This scene, where Dwight goes to track down Sherry at their old place, and reads her very touching letter, was really surprisingly poignant. She says in the letter that they always planned to meet there if they were ever separated, that they'd bring pretzels and a six-pack, but she doesn't think he remembers that. She's gone on without him since she doesn't know if he'd come with her or take her back. Judging by the beer and pretzels he brings, I think he planned to make a run for it with her.
Credit: AMC Credit: AMC
We are left with some questions. The most important is why Dwight decides to return instead of going on to find Sherry. Why go back at all? Why go back just to frame the doctor? Is it just to tell Negan that she's dead and throw him off her scent? Or does he have a longer con in mind?
Dwight even being able to lie to Negan like this strikes me as somewhat problematic. If I were Negan confronted with a similar problem, I certainly wouldn't send Dwight alone to find his wife. At the very least I'd have him followed, or go with him myself, or send a few other guys along. He's a wholly unreliable agent for that task. Even when Negan tries to justify why he believes Dwight over the doctor, Negan's reasoning is flimsy. Dwight has every reason to lie in this situation.
Still, a pretty good "B" storyline that continues to position Dwight as one of the more interesting, conflicted characters on the show. He's still despicable---framing the doctor is as cruel as it gets---but his internal struggle is probably the most potent character conflict on the show right now. Who else is struggling with anything nearly as fleshed out?
Eugene
Taking center stage Sunday night, however, was neither Dwight nor Negan. It was Eugene. Eugene in quite the pickle. Eugene the Fake Doctor. Eugene the Mullet. Eugene the Coward. Eugene, who doesn't like hand-made potato chips and who can make totally useless bombs, and who is now suddenly afforded the luxury of playing old-school video games on a flat screen TV in the comfort of his very own bedroom, surrounded by Negan's three remaining wives.
I have never been a fan of Eugene. After all, he makes faces like this one:
twd-s7e11-4
Besides, Eugene not only lied to the entire group about a cure in Washington, D.C. he also let down the entire TV audience by sapping the show of its one clear and sensible purpose: To strike out for a destination and find a way to end the zombie curse. Now, aimless, the show languishes in a hazy stupor.
But I'll forgive Eugene somewhat for all of this, because he wasn't half bad in his first real starring role. He was every bit as weird and awkward as we've come to expect, but he left me wondering how much he was helping Negan out of cowardice and how much he was doing it because he has a trick up his sleeve.
"I'm Negan," he tells Negan, cutting him off before he can even ask the entire question. "I'm utterly, completely, stone-cold Negan. I was Negan before I even met you, I just needed to meet you properly to know. I'm Negan."
But is he? Has he turned coat? Are he and Dwight both just sheep in Savior's clothing?
One thing is certain: He's having a better time of it than Daryl did. He's in a warm bed with a TV rather than solitary confinement. He's got a jar of pickles instead of a broken nose. He's even bossed some Saviors around. And he's gotten to hang out and have drinks and play video games with a trio of attractive women.
So what if they're only being nice to him because they were told to be, or because they want his help in crafting a poison? That's still a lot better than sitting in a closet, naked, with annoying music playing.
(And my, wasn't that a funny moment when he finds the same track Dwight used to torture Daryl, and just nods his head to it contentedly. That's one of the funniest things I've seen on this show period.)
Better yet, he has the trust and confidence of the enemy. He's currently the best-positioned good guy in the entire show to take out Negan, which is ironic and hilarious. And while he may not help the assassin wives in their quest to poison the Dear Leader, that doesn't mean that he isn't cooking up some other plot.
Credit: AMC Credit: AMC
Verdict
All told, a better episode than last week. No terrible fake backdrops. No bizarre Garbage Pail Kids. Fewer irritating characters taking up screen time. Even Negan was more tolerable, maybe just because we haven't seen him as much. His final scene with the doctor was even a little frightening.
Overall, the episode just felt a little more focused and contained than what we've seen lately. So long as we don't spend the next four or five episodes just focusing on one character at a time, I'm happy. Hell, I'm happy it was a Eugene episode and not a Carol episode, which says a lot about where this show has gone.
What did you think of 'Hostiles and Calamities?'