The Walking Dead’s very good season six fell back to the norm with “Now” as it allowed most of the Alexandrians a chance to breathe in the aftermath of the wolves’ attack. What resulted was a monologue laden affair, setting up some of the relationships TWD may be focusing on in episodes to come. Unfortunately “Now” was all too reminiscent of the slower episodes of previous seasons as much of the plot introductions and character interactions were heavy handed and fairly uninteresting outside of Deanna. While slowing everything down and allowing the characters to react to everything that happened was necessary, hopefully “Now” is more of an aberration for an exciting and surprising Season 6 and not a regression to TWD’s past seasons.
As the title indicates, “Now” catches all the storylines from the previous episode up to the present day with Rick sprinting into Alexandria accompanied by the half horde. Rick’s lone arrival send doubts through the already shell shocked Alexandrians. And then the monologues, and survivors’ guilt begin, with Aaron passionately defending Rick in front of the surviving Alexandrians. A still grieving and reeling Deanna just walks off into the town as it seems Rick’s plan failed and all is lost.
“Now” was truly the reemergence of Aaron, Deanna, and Jessie. All of them had taken on diminished roles so far in Season 6 and “Now” took the chance to redefine each character in the wake of the recent events. Aaron has always been a likeable character as his patience and kindness are rare in TWD. Now with the guilt of having led the wolves to Alexandria his inherent kindness represents even more a danger to himself and possibly Alexandria. It was also a smart choice to team him up with Maggie, who also had a diminished role once she reached Alexandria, while they both wait (or not) for Glenn to return. While the Daryl and Aaron duo offered up a who slew of fun possibilities, Aaron and Maggie allow for some more emotion, which the show needs. There may not have been a better moment in season six than Aaron and Maggie trying to erase names from the memorial wall.
Jessie as well took on a more leadership role based on realism. She, like Aaron, got her own monologue as she tried to explain to her fellow Alexandrians that it was time to face the real world outside Alexandria’s walls. She is now capable of dispatching of zombies and wolves and has really become the new Carol as the once abused wife is becoming a strong figure within the group. Hers and Rick’s rekindled relationship -- a pretty robust kiss in the garage towards the end -- still doesn’t really move the needle but it could, at least, offer up a little something extra as Rick rubs off on her and maybe changes her for the worse. Rick also looks to be taking over the role as father figure for her older son, and Carl competition, Ron.
But really “Now” was Deanna’s episode. All season she had been shuffling through Alexandria with grief and despair. At the beginning of “Now” it looked like that would continue until her son, Spencer, showed his hypocritical ways, which caused her to somewhat snap out of her daze. Though still depressed she drew up plans to expand Alexandria despite all that had just happened. She still believed in Alexandria and had dreams of what it could become behind her latin rallying cry that translated to “someday this pain will be useful to you.” Even more cathartically she got to take out some frustration on a zombie by repeatedly stabbing it in the chest until Rick came along to kill it. And finally she asked Rick to take over leadership duties.
Hopefully Rick won’t become the leader of Alexandria. Alexandria needs Deanna, or someone like her, for it to thrive whereas Rick will only turn it into a less malicious Woodbury. While their relationship was always somewhat contentious, they both are good for each other and for Alexandria. For either one to assume complete power would be folly, though they may not have a choice.
Rick’s plan certainly seemed a failure despite Aaron’s best efforts to tell the Alexandrians otherwise. He came back sprinting into Alexandria with a whole horde of zombies behind him. Couple that with the fact that many of the people he took out with him either died or have not returned and even if half the horde was taken away it still doesn’t seem like it was worth it. Not to mention the fact that most of Alexandria’s best warriors accompanied Rick, which weakened Alexandria during the attack. Problems stemming from this were not even hinted at during “Now” but it isn’t far-fetched to see arguments stemming from the failure of Rick’s plan soon. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how Alexandria is governed if/when Deanna tries to lead.
Between the all too on the nose monologues setting up the current beliefs of the characters and/or what Alexandria has become or will become and the set up of some of the relationships in this post-Wolves world, “Now” showed that TWD hadn’t yet figured out how to do the “slow down” episode. There are still many unknowns and we didn’t check in on Abraham, Sasha, or Daryl, but having “Now” follow last week’s incredible “Here’s Not Here” showed that TWD hasn’t completed the seeming transformation it has undergone during the early parts of Season 6.