Melissa McBride (Carol) should win an Emmy. In the last two seasons of The Walking Dead, Scott Gimple and the rest of the writers have made great use of her character, and it definitely shows in episodes such as “Consumed.” McBride has had two standout performances this season — first, in the explosive season 5 premiere in which she single-handedly saved everyone from the Terminans, and now this episode, which deals with Carol’s imminent rendezvous with death. After this episode, even though she has now become my favorite character on the show, I stand by what I’ve said all season: Carol is dead by midseason. “Consumed” is effective, shedding more light on a character that I hadn’t realized still was a bit of a mystery to me. Carol has been facing the chaos all her life. That’s successful backstory: immediately enlightening and vital to the episode’s structure. The focus of this backstory isn’t on the people Carol lost, but the skin she’s shed over and over. The episode stitches different moments from Carol’s past on the show throughout, opening with Carol surviving after Rick banished her from the group, returning to the burning prison, trying to catch condensation on plastic (nice little homage to 28 Days Later), and yelling at a zombie to go away while parked on the side of the road. McBride delivers all these moments with just the right amount of energy. Her kind of character could step into the melodramatic within seconds (and she does in the comics), but McBride knows exactly when to tone it down a bit. BIG important personal moments are sprinkled sparingly in this episode, never a big spotlight on a scene (or terrible blurry flashback cues) to let everyone know “this is important.” You just know the moment is important by how telling the dialogue or action is. Then there’s Carol’s life at the Prison, who she thought she needed to be (who she should’ve been all along, according to her), but that skin is quickly ripped away from her when she goes a bit too far — although I’ll argue that not enough people were doing what was necessary. Carol was the only one with any goddamn perspective. Survive or die. By the time we get the brief glimpse of Carol and Tyreese burying the ill-fated sisters from last season’s most shocking episode, we understand that we’ve just watched an entire hour about new beginnings, and how Carol just might not get a chance to start over before the end. Daryl, who wasn’t really put through the ringer enough last season, is dealing with the aftermath of the Prison. He’s in Atlanta trying to save Beth, dealing with his shit.
QUICK ZOMBIE NOTES
I usually prefer to flesh these out into a very big piece, but I felt that this episode was so thematic and character-centric that that discussion really deserved all the spotlight. So here are some other things I really enjoyed (or disliked) from the episode in quick notes: – We finally get the promised Carol and Daryl episode! I think The Walking Dead is at its strongest when telling tight arcs that don’t jump back and forth. The latter half of last season was really tough for me because I couldn’t really emotionally invest anything into any of the mini-arcs since the show kept jumping around from episode to episode. “Slabtown” should have been immediately followed by “Consumed.” “Self Help” was a very awkward jump. – This season has really taken advantage of darkness. Now that I think about it, the very big shots always tend to take place in the daylight, don’t they? But here we get a great big panoramic shot of destroyed Atlanta in the middle of the night. That whole car scene is so eerie. – How many times do we have to watch a music montage of a character surviving? I always go back to the terrible opening montage from last season that featured Bob just walking around. Yuck. – Although oft-used in most zombie things, it’s so great to see a city full of zombies again. The Walking Dead doesn’t often step into urban areas, so it’s a nice change of space. – The scene with the zombie children at the shelter is so affecting. The message seems to be “No one is saved.” Interesting juxtaposition to the new beginnings theme of the episode. – The great musical cues! The most quiet soundtrack I’ve ever heard on this show. No loud guitar. Sinister, explorative horns, light bells, rising strings. Goosebumps. – Exploration. It’s the first episode in a long while that shows a survivor exploring the area. Daryl and Carol’s expedition to Atlanta is one of rediscovery. – Noah is so fantastic in this episode. I really love the character. He’s still lighter in tone than any of the very grim survivors. He adds a nice balance to the dark episode. Noah is the right guy to set off the action sequences, too. More of him, please. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!
