The Walking Dead S6E10: The Next World

More time has passed between episodes nine and ten than in the entire first nine episodes of this season together. A sense of normalcy has returned it to Alexandria as the walls are back up and all the walkers are cleared. Deanna’s vision for what this place could be is starting to take shape just as a mysterious roamer causes problems for Rick and Daryl and is brought back to town. Spoilers ahead!

Without a doubt the most interesting developments in this episode was Rick and Daryl’s discovery of Jesus. No, not the Nazarene. They didn’t find religion. Rather, a man going by the name Jesus runs into Rick and tensions rise for a short bit. It’s all a diversion however as Jesus lifts Rick’s keys from him and steals their truck while they are distracted. This Jesus is an interesting guy. As Rick noted, he is clean and well-groomed so it’s unlikely that he is surviving on his own on the run. He has a somewhat carefree demeanor, even joking at times when it would seem such an attitude were not appropriate. He also appears to be resourceful. He’s proven to be a good pick pocket, he is a good fighter and knows his way out of a knot. He even saved Daryl’s life right before Daryl decked him. As the episode draws to a close it appears that he has more to offer than just an interesting skill set. Jesus will soon be leading Rick on some kind of journey.

I say that was the most interesting development because everything else that happens either deals with characters that I don’t particularly care about (Spencer, Enid, Denise, Carl to a lesser degree) or things that are so predictable you would have had to be watching with your eyes closed and ears plugged to not have seen them coming. Rick and Michonne finally seal the deal on what flirtatious glances and comments have been leading up to for a while now. Be ready for #Richonne to start trending. Carl already sees her as family so I wouldn’t expect this development to cause any family problems. Odds are this is setting us up for another moment of love lost for Rick. The show hasn’t been too kind to the women that Rick takes an interest in.

You will recall at the end of episode nine that Rick is at the bedside of Carl in tears, ready to embrace this new world and make Alexandria a safe, permanent place. As an extension of that attitude we find that Ricky is now willing to bring people back to Alexandria whereas Daryl is now the one who advises against that. When they first got to Alexandria those roles were reversed. Daryl was anxious to go on runs with Aaron and bring people back to the safety of Alexandria. I think that attitude is still there somewhere in Daryl, he is just in a protective mode right now. Rick on the other hand has turned a corner and developed a hopeful attitude again, similar to what we saw from him when things were going well at the prison. If the past record of the show is any clue as to the future, this sense of hope will not be around for long.

In other news; Enid is still a loner, Carl and Enid are still friends, and Spencer kills his Walker mother Deanna. Don’t ask me how she got out of that house without being killed. I guess we need more reasons to feel sorry for Spencer. Personally, I’m over this guy.

My Rating: B-

The only thing that kept us out of low C territory for me was the handling of Rick and Daryl’s run in with Jesus. I found it to be a very good mixture of humor and intrigue. I immediately like this guy while also being suspicious of him. His “devil may care” demeanor was somewhat refreshing from the serious tones typically taken by our cast. A lot of criticism has been laid on the show for repeating the same formula over and over. Which is true, but the introduction of Jesus and whatever it is he needs to show Rick could add an interesting wrinkle into that formula and be a good driving force for the show moving forward.