REVIEW: The Walking Dead, S10 Ep3 – Ghosts

This was a hectic chapter of The Walking Dead as the leads had to contend with a continuous onslaught of walkers, a tense confrontation with Alpha, a question of Negan’s true loyalty, and Carol’s own demons haunting her. After the first two episodes of the season set up the story, the show does not slow down and tries to build from the momentum established.

The episode opens with a montage of the different communities fighting seemingly endless waves of walkers over an extended period of time. While the walkers themselves are not particularly threatening, it’s the sheer number of them that proves challenging to the characters even though many of them are already capable fighters. They naturally suspect that these encumbrances were sent by Alpha but Lydia contests that this is not her mother’s strategy. So the fighters continue to ward off the walkers with hardly any rest in between for several days. With such an incessant onslaught, even the hardiest warriors succumbed to exhaustion. All this began to take its toll on the living and it was fascinating to watch. 

The episode would have benefited from spending more time on this part of the story than simply showing a quick montage of the fighting. There was enough material in that for a whole episode of The Walking Dead. But alas, there was other ground to cover with other characters.

Michonne, Daryl, and Carol have a serious talk with Alpha, who reveals that she knew about the different instances when they crossed her border, including the time with the satellite. After being taunted, Carol attempts to shoot the leader of the Whisperers but Michonne somehow stops this. Alpha surprisingly does not retaliate but instead asks them to run.

In one of the more interesting interactions, Aaron and Negan are forced to fight together. Aaron is understandably skeptical and even the audience isn’t sure of whether Negan can be trusted, despite the good will he has shown so far, particularly with Judith. Negan has become one of the more intriguing characters on The Walking Dead now precisely because this ambiguity. Even when he does end up saving Aaron, Negan is still an unpredictable element and that’s what makes him more compelling than most of the other characters.

The episode also explored the trauma Carol continues to experience from Henry’s death, showing the extent to which she has been suffering, including severe hallucinations as a result of heavy medication. There’s a very scary moment when Carol hangs upside down and still manages to kill a group of walkers. But Carol is still a crucial member of The Walking Dead and even such a harrowing experience will not be enough to defeat her. She considers stopping her medication.

Somehow, everyone survives the waves of walkers, or at least if anyone died, it wasn’t anyone we know or care about on The Walking Dead. No major conflict yet with the Whisperers but perhaps this is lucky because all the fighters need to recharge after that exhausting ordeal.