Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC
Well, okay. Eugene is a fraud. Fake. Crock. Full of it. And on and on and on. At least we can now officially put it down on paper. And, I think for most it really isn’t much of a surprise either. If you’re a fan of the comic book series, you’ll know that it had to turn out this way — well, unless the TV writers had a plan of purposely turning upside down the story Robert Kirkman intended to tell. And, even if you’ve never read the comics, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist (or a Eugene!) to realize that if Eugene were the cure, then the series would literally be over. Cure the disease, go home, and life begins again. End of The Walking Dead. Yeah, not going to happen.
But, honestly, as big as the Eugene reveal seems to be, that wasn’t the focus of the episode, and that isn’t what made the episode so good. Instead, what made this episode stand out is what it said about the characters, particularly Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Eugene (Josh McDermitt). Anybody is able to put on a smile and be a “good” person when things are going well. That’s easy. It’s only when things get really bad that a person’s truly colors show.
Eugene Is a Coward — But a “Good” One
Yeah, Eugene is a coward, and in fact, could be the poster child for the word. I mean, here’s a guy who crushed light bulbs and put them in the freaking fuel tank of the church bus, knowing full-well that the engine would seize which could kill him and everyone else on the bus. Oh. My. God. This is how desperate the guy is. Then, after the crash actually happens, he just freezes with terror, and barely can even move to defend himself. I can’t even begin to imagine living with that kind of fear.
Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels/AMC
Fortunately, no one was really hurt in the crash, and the group is able to find shelter in an abandoned book store while Abraham tries to find another vehicle and come up with a Plan B. It turns out that the group is in luck because they find a firetruck which Abraham is able to get running. But before they can even drive it out of the parking lot, a whole slew of walkers emerge out of the firehouse. They are completely out-numbered, and just when we think Abraham is about to go down, Eugene saves the day by pulverizing the entire group of walkers with the high-pressure water from the firehose. After it is done, a faint smile appears on Eugene’s face, and that, in turn, made me smile. Probably for the very first time, Eugene is able to save the lives of the very people who have kept him alive all this time. Eugene truly does want to help and contribute but he simply doesn’t know how.
Eugene’s lie had been slowly coming apart at the seams for most of the hour, and in the final few minutes of the episode, the bottom finally falls out. The group encounters a mega-horde (quite possibly the same horde that overran Terminus since they aren’t that far out), and it is so wide that there’s no way to go around it. Of course, Abraham’s only concern is the mission, and he’s willing to try to plow right through it even at the expense of everyone else in the group. A huge fight erupts, and Eugene finally decides he has to come clean. Otherwise, Abraham is going to force everyone to push on, which would probably get them all killed.
So, now the big question — does this all make Eugene a truly bad person with what he did? No, I really don’t think so. It’s obvious he wants to be part of the group and to help, but someone’s got to teach him (and Abraham protecting Eugene all of this time really did him a big disservice). I think the question to ask here is would Eugene actually kill someone to save himself? He may have indirectly cause the deaths of people who were trying to get him to D.C., but I don’t think he could actually take someone’s life. And, that makes him a good guy.
Abraham the Bad-Ass — With an Emphasis on the “Bad”
Abraham is another story. Oh my God, this guy’s got some serious issues. In a series of flashbacks, we get a full 360 picture of Abraham’s backstory, and it’s not a pretty one. Abraham, his wife, and his two children are holed up in a grocery store, and when it is attacked by another small group of survivors, Abraham literally bashes their heads in with canned goods. No mercy at all. And, this is all in front of his family.
Seeing what Abraham is capable of terrifies them so badly that they flee him only to be quickly devoured by walkers. Of course, the punchline is while Abraham may have saved them in the grocery store, he actually got them killed because they would have never left if it weren’t for him. This takes Abraham to the brink of suicide, and if it hadn’t been for Eugene showing up at the very moment to tell him of his “mission”, he’d be dead.
This same angry, out-of-control Abraham that got his family killed we see again at the end of the episode when he tries to beat Eugene to death. His hands are bloodied all over again, and even Rosita (Christian Serratos) grabs for her gun and has the same terrified look on her face that Abraham’s wife had before she fled with her children.
Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels/AMC
The takeaway we get from all of this is at the end of the day, this entire mission has been all about Abraham. Think about it. Why did Abraham decide to lead the mission? Because it gave him a purpose and it made him forget what he had done to his family. Notice all of the “hims” in that last sentence. Lastly, don’t get me started on what he’s doing with Rosita. I’m all for a widower finding someone else, but it’s common decency to take your wedding ring off before you do it, you know. Shame on you, Abraham.
All in all, another really good episode. We got lots of much-needed character development, and Michael Cudlitz and Josh McDermitt’s performances were fantastic. Wow. And, for those who enjoy the gruesome walker-smashing, walker-slashing action, well you got plenty of that too.
The only question now is what in the world is this group going to do. I’m actually pretty worried about them. They are 15 miles away from the church, have no working vehicle, and they have a giant horde heading straight for them. And, what about Abraham? He was ready to take his own life before Eugene came along, and now, knowing that Eugene is just one big lie, will he try again? He just might. In the comics, Abraham still had a purpose after Eugene’s lie was revealed in that he became Rick’s right-hand man. Well, Rick already has a right-hand man, and that is Daryl. In other words, Abraham is starting to look very expendable. I don’t know if the writers would actually go there, but it certainly looks like a possibility. Regardless, there’s only two episodes left before the mid-season finale, and so I suspect we’ll probably get our answers soon enough.
The Walking Dead airs on Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.
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