Despite the fact that The Walking Dead’s penultimate episode was basically all set up for the midseason finale, “Crossed” showed just how much better an episode can be when every storyline is explored within a single episode. “Crossed” also re-asked the question of whether or not someone can be kind to strangers in this post-apocalyptic world (coming up with the same answer) and showed which side Rick stood. “Crossed” was not the greatest episode of TWD but it felt like it did not feel like it was stuck at a slogging pace, which many of the more recent episodes have.
After weeks of episodes focusing on just one character’s/group of characters’ stories “Crossed” finally explored each one in the same episode. The main effect this had on the show was that the episode always felt like it was moving, even when some of the storylines were doing little to nothing. There is rarely ever a need for TWD to only focus on one character or group of characters for an entire episode and “Crossed” proved that sentiment. The only one that could be argued needed her own episode was Beth and her introduction to Slabtown – though it was not executed as well as it should have been. In fact, if anything, by focusing on singular characters/group of character the season’s timeline became muddled and confused.
In “Crossed” the audience picks up where every episode since “Four Walls and a Roof” left off. Surprisingly it has only been three episodes since the last time Rick has been seen, despite it feeling much longer – another aspect of slowing everything down to focus on a singular character or group of characters. Rick and company are fortifying Gabriel’s church before all but Michonne, Carl, and Gabriel head off towards Atlanta and Slabtown to retrieve Carol. Meanwhile, Glenn and company are still dealing with Eugene’s revelation and Abraham’s violent outburst. In Slabtown Beth has proven to Dawn that she is strong by sticking up for Carol (and possibly trying escape) and so Dawn puts Beth in charge of taking care of Carol, despite the fact they are turning her health machines off. Already more seems to be happening than in any of the previous three episodes.
The main focus of the episode is with Rick, Daryl, Tyreese, and Sasha as they plan to assault Slabtown to retrieve Carol and Beth. Rick wants to go in quiet and deadly but is talked out of it by Tyreese, with Daryl’s support, who thinks they should take prisoners and then trade them back to Dawn to minimize violence. Rick acquiesces to the prisoner plan, which works after Dawn’s cops’ first escape attempt fails. With the help of a very sympathetic officer named Bob, Rick, Daryl, and presumably Tyreese go off to negotiate with Dawn, which leaves Sasha to watch over the three kidnapped officers all by herself. Because of Tyreese’s kindness to Sasha and her working through her feelings for the recently departed Bob Stookey she offers to help out new officer Bob and kill a zombie he supposedly once knew. Surprise! He knocks her out just as she is about to snipe this zombie and officer Bob runs off.
The prisoner capture incident is yet another example of what happens in the post-apocalyptic world when you try to be kind and as nonviolent as possible. But it would be too easy to blame this incident on the characters not having learned their lessons from the Governor and Terminus – though you would think that Daryl, at least, would be more wary. Instead it is time to question the show itself. The Walking Dead is hell bent on making sure everyone knows that the only way to deal things in their world is through violence and death. There is no middle ground. While this isn’t a shock considering the show’s long run it does make you wonder if there is anyone worth saving in the new world. Is it that, somehow, every character who had/or still has decency are together in Rick’s and Glenn’s clans? Not since Bob has there been a stranger worthwhile to the group, who hasn’t acted only on selfish interests and isn’t completely screwed up in the head. And when will our beloved characters finally receive some sort of meaningful comeuppance for being too understanding and kind to strangers?
In fact, “Crossed” showed just how useless strangers have become with Gabriel’s escape from his own church. Gabriel, the guy who has no survival skills and can’t even kill a zombie who is wearing a cross necklace, decides to sneak out of his church because he isn’t exactly into this whole killing thing. Gabriel is literally running away from the violence required to survive in this new world. His church has been sullied by Rick and his group and no matter how much he tries there is no amount of scrubbing he can to do his floors to get Gareth’s blood from the church’s floorboards. It was a bold and incredibly stupid move for someone who, admittedly, was running out of food before Rick showed up but hey, God will protect him. Right?
Where Gabriel couldn’t bond with the group, Glenn, Rosita, and Tara all found some nice bonding time with each other in the fallout of Eugene’s truth. Everyone aside from Abraham seemed to deal with Eugene’s truth bomb extremely well as they all came to some sort of forgiveness/acceptance by the end of the episode. While their level of acceptance seemed to happen all too quickly and probably should have been dragged out into the next episode, it was refreshing that an entire episode wasn’t lent to dealing with the realization there was no saving the world in Washington D.C. Can you imagine an entire episode devoted Glenn and Tara initially having a falling out only to come back together through fishing, Maggie and Abraham slowly chipping away at their denial, and Rosita becoming more than Abraham’s gal? Sure their acceptance went quickly but the alternative would have been far worse.
So now Rick and his crew are on a collision course with Dawn and Slabtown. Whether there are fireworks involved remains to be seen but I wouldn’t bet on Slabtown coming out on top. Glenn’s group will end up having to make a choice now that Eugene has woken up, both on if Eugene should be punished and where they will go next (my guess is no and they will continue on to Washington D.C.). And how long will it be until Gabriel gets nice and eaten? “Crossed” was solid set up for the midseason finale and didn’t feel tortuously paced as the previous episodes sometimes had.