[SPOILERS] Last Night’s Walking Dead Episode Was the Best Ever

I don’t normally do episode recaps for “The Walking Dead”, but last night’s mid-season premiere “No Way Out” may have been the best episode to date and I feel pretty compelled to talk about it.  This will be an uncensored post, so expect lots of spoilers to follow.  And we’re talking ginormous spoilers. So consider yourself warned.

“No Way Out” kicked off right where the post-credits scene for the mid-season finale left us.  Daryl, Abraham, and Sasha had just commandeered a truck full of fuel and a rocket launcher and were on their way home when a group of bikers forced them to stop.  We soon learn that these guys are Negan’s men (and that’s a big deal for non-comic readers) and they want what our heroes have.

Fortunately, they aren’t prepared to handle what our heroes have.  As Daryl walks off with one of Negan’s men, the leader of the group prepares to kill of Sasha and Abraham.  But Daryl, proving that he is still king badass, returns with a surprise rocket launcher.  This was one of those moments where even if you knew it was coming it was still rad as hell.   And it created probably the best opening to any “Walking Dead” episode.

I have to give special credit to the leader of the bike gang in this scene, he doesn’t have a whole lot of screentime, but he does a great job with what he has.  Even though he winds up being a throwaway character, he has the presence and gravitas of a new main cast member, which makes his death all that more shocking.

Meanwhile, Rick and his group are still trying to navigate a huge zombie horde while covered in undead offal.  In the mid-season finale they telegraphed the fact that local screw-up, Sam, was going to ruin the whole thing for the gang.  However, like a perfectly timed detonation, Sam waited till the absolute perfect moment to derail Rick and company.

Which is great because they give Sam plenty of opportunities to back out and go somewhere safe, but Sam tries to be brave for Mom and muscle onward.  To be fair to Sam, his meltdown is no fault of his own.  They make it pretty clear that Carol planted the seed of doubt in his brain ages ago by threatening to let zombies eat him if he ratted on her.  Ever since then Sam has been traumatized and reasonably so.

I don’t know if the show will ever touch on this again, but it does create another interesting argument in the ongoing morality battle between Carol and Morgan.  So far Carol’s drastic measures have been used in service of the greater good and it’s mostly worked out in her favor.  Now we see a moment where her actions have indirectly lead to the death of three people and the near death of Carl.  And all it took was for her to be cruel to Sam.

Still, I’m going to blame Sam for the shit show that follows.

Apparently zombies can tell you’re human, even when you’re covered in zombie guts, if you breakdown and cry.  This was like the scene in “Neverending Story” where they cross the Swamp of Sorrows.  If you start to lose hope in the Swamp of Sorrows you sink in. If you lose hope in the Walking Dead zombies will bite into your head like it’s a fresh apple.  The only difference between this scene and the scene in Walking Dead is I felt god awful when the horse died and nothing when Sam went under. Sorry Sam.

So Sam gets quickly consumed by a pack of zombies right in front of his poor mother.  Rick tries to keep the group going, but obviously things have gone horizontal once a mother sees her kid devoured by zombies.  Soon they turn on Jessie and at this point it looks like Rick’s hope for a new family are all but diminished.  But wait, there’s one more kid left! Maybe he’ll join the Grimes clan! What do you say Ron?

Oh, I see, you’re going to continue to be a little shit too.  Ron seizes the opportunity to finally get revenge for his lame duck father, but thankfully Michonne is there to deliver swift justice.  Unfortunately, Ron still gets a shot off.  And while it doesn’t hit its intended target, it’s still extremely devastating. Long time comic book readers knew this scene was coming, but seeing it in “real life” is far more horrific than I would have expected.

Going back to Michonne real quick, I have to say it’s beautiful how she’s become such a part of the Grimes family.  After Rick carries Carl’s body to the infirmary she’s one the one to take the disgusting poncho off of Rick.  When she leaves the infirmary to go help Rick she gives Carl one last loving kiss on the head.  And when the chaos is all over we see her holding baby Judith.  I don’t know if I’d say Michonne was a mother figure or sister figure, but she is definitely family when it comes to the Grimes.

Perhaps the biggest shocker of the episode, though, is that they remember other people live in Alexandria.  When Rick brings Carl to the infirmary we finally see characters we haven’t seen in ages like Heath and Aaron.  And when Rick decides to single handedly fight an entire undead army we see other characters like… uh… that guy who does construction and… other people! Okay, I can’t recall their names, but it’s nice to see the show acknowledge that this was a fairly big community with a lot of people still left alive.

With Rick on a rampage other people are inspired to join him in one last stand to take back Alexandria.  As Eugene puts it, it’s a moment where “no one is allowed to clock out.” It’s a fantastic montage of chaos as people come out of their homes and engage in one of the biggest zombie slaughters in Walking Dead history.  Not only is this a cool moment to watch, but it’s also important as it establishes Alexandria’s community as one that is willing to fight for theirs and not be useless sheep following Rick around. Hell, even Gabriel finally takes a stand and becomes a character that can actually do something.

And if you happened to think “Man, this killing montage would be great if someone set it to ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’” Well, someone decided you were right.  Check it out here, it’s absolutely perfect.

And while this is all happening Daryl, Abraham, and Sasha finally show up to the party.  And just in time too because Glenn nearly gets himself killed again by allowing himself to be surrounded by zombies.  Come on Glenn, get it together.

This episode had everything.  Big explosive action, horrible gruesome deaths, actual consequences for main characters, an entire cast of characters playing important roles, and important story moments.  This was truly the best “Walking Dead” has been in years and I think it’ll be an absolute challenge for future episodes to top this one.  What do you think? Agree or disagree? Let us know down below.