The Walking Dead S7E02: The Well

When the premiere episode for the seventh season of a show turns out to be the second highest rated episode him show history, you’re doing pretty good. In fact, the degree of your success almost becomes a problem in itself. Where do you go from there? What boundaries do you push? What storylines do you expand? These are problems that I’m sure The Walking Dead show runners are happy to have. As we return from the incredibly brutal and gruesome season seven premiere, things are taken down a notch. Or twenty. Spoilers ahead.

In season six, Jesus promised Rick and the Alexandrians that their world was about to get a lot bigger. This of course was accomplished with Hilltop and the Saviors, but we aren’t done exploring other communities in this world. After Morgan saved Carol last season, he was escorted by two horse-bound, armor-wearing men back to their community to nurse Carol back to health. As many comic fans guessed, this community is the Kingdom. Aptly named, as it is ruled by a king. King Ezekiel. And his tiger, Shiva. Yes, I said a tiger. Seeing this tandem on screen was one of the stranger moments I’ve ever witnessed on the show. Thankfully, Carol’s reaction was a pretty good expression of what I’m sure most viewers were experiencing. What in the world is going on? A king with a pet tiger? Ezekiel even speaks with an heir of Lordship. And everyone goes right along with it. Oddly enough, this wasn’t necessarily a problem with this episode. Khary Payton played the part well and the break in character toward the end of the episode with Carol was much needed to provide some relief from this stage-play environment we were being asked to buy into. Carol is basically our surrogate for learning of this community for the first time. Her reactions to the king are appropriate, and her description of the kingdom is fitting; “This is make-believe. It’s play time.”

This was a very middle of the road episode. Introduction to King Ezekiel and Shiva were pretty spot on. But it came after a glaringly tame and scripted introduction to the Kingdom itself via Morgan’s explanation to Carol of where she is. I think this execution and the toned down nature of the rest of the episode are suffering from a bit of the pendulum effect. The premiere episode was a huge swing in the direction of violence, murder, and emotional trauma. This episode was a big swing in the opposite direction of hope, cooperation, and peace. The contrast is a good one to make, but it was very heavy-handed here. I think the episode would benefit from doing it in a more subtle way so that it weren’t so clear how hard the show is trying to bring us back from the edge after the last episode.

That being said, I think we had some good character development with Carol. Her and Ezekiel end up sharing a heart-to-heart by the end of the episode. Although it’s mostly Ezekiel doing the heart sharing. He reveals to her his background while breaking character from the lofty king he plays around everyone else. It turns out he was just a zookeeper who helped an injured tiger, which is now loyal to him. One rumor leads to another and suddenly he is king over his own kingdom. As he removes this “mask” from himself, it also serves as an unmasking of Carol. We remember that in Alexandria she pretended to be a passive homemaker in order to play an angle against them. We almost see her return to that here in the kingdom, but Ezekiel sees right through it. He forces her to let her guard down by fully revealing himself to her. Tell me one other leader of any group in this zombie apocalypse that has done that. We have no indications of abuses or secrets just under the surface as we did with the Governor. We’re shown unflinching loyalty to Ezekiel by his soldiers. This is a wholly new type of leader than we have seen before. One who appears to genuinely desire peace and extend kindness to his community. This bit of trust extended to Carol will no doubt come in handy when the kingdom and Alexandria meet down the road.

We also have in Ezekiel a curiously consistent picture of meekness. This word describes power under control and is typically ascribed to Jesus (2 Cor. 10:1). We see it in Ezekiel’s command over Shiva, the kindness extended to everyone in his community despite his apparent Lordship over them, and in his cooperation with the Saviors. We learn that the Saviors have the kingdom under their control as well, taking half of their goods once a week. In the interaction with them on this episode Richard, one of Ezekiel’s lead soldiers, eludes to the notion that the Kingdom is not as weak as it might appear in them giving their things to the Saviors. A fight ensues, and rather than ordering his men to defend themselves and risking their death, Ezekiel commands them to stand down. This means Richard must take a few clear shots to the face, but he does so willingly. It is clear that Ezekiel’s peaceful approach is shared by his soldiers.

Also explored in this episode, though more subtly, is Morgan’s exploration of his position of not killing. Morgan is brought along to witness the exchange with the Saviors. Ezekiel wants him to see what is done to keep peace. We get the impression that Ezekiel means to show Morgan that he shares this desire for peace and non-violence with him, but it ends up planting a seed of doubt in Morgan. He pulls a gun at the conflict with the Saviors. Almost instinctively, like he would have used it as quickly as anyone else. Later at dinner he asks Benjamin, a disciple of sorts he has taken on, if they should be fighting the Saviors. We’re far from a complete reversal of philosophies for Morgan, but we do see the seeds of doubt starting to bloom.

My Rating: B

As I said, this was a very middle of the road episode. It served as a decent, although pretty contrived, introduction to the Kingdom and it’s King. Ezekiel is a solid adaptation from his comics character, and the graphics done to make Shiva come to life are excellent for a television show. This was one of my worries once I learned they would be bringing Shiva onto the show, and I am resting assured in what they’ve done. Look for Carol and Ezekiel to become romantically involved, as it appears she is taking Michonne’s place in the comics. If his happens they’ll have to work a little more at selling it. As of now I’m not buying it. Also pay special attention to exactly where Ezekiel stands in his views on the Saviors. Does he resent them and wish to rebel? Is he happy with the peace they’ve struck? Does he feel wronged? This will be important as he meets Rick, and we do doubt begin to explore the prospect of taking the fight to Negan.