TV Review – The Walking Dead – First Time Again

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Spoiler alerts The sixth season starts with a breath-taking episode in more ways than one. First the sheer number of zombies seen on screen at any one time is probably greater than in just about any movie. There were 1,000 extras and a lot of CGI zombies in the quarry and road Exodus scenes. The zombies were simply accumulating in the quarry because there was no path out, so it was filling up like a bath-tub. The original Alexandria settlers had let the cancerous growth amass because the natural barrier was saving them having to defend the community, but Rick sees the barrier is due to breach at any time. The solution is a daring controlled release – using car and bike engines to draw the zombies out on a set path out of the town to anywhere else. Though there are casualties in the way, the plan almost works until a treacherous siren horn alerts the swarm of zombies and lures them right to the community they so nearly missed. This is all set against a series of back story flashbacks bridging the gaps between the need for the exodus and the earlier season five struggle that left the now half-crazed Rick in an uncompromising charge of the community. Learning of Carter’s plans to overthrow his leadership and kill him, Rick declines to kill Carter for what he sees as treason, because he believes carter will get himself killed anyway. Sure enough, Carter gets himself too close to the zombies and gets himself bitten. Rick finishes him off with a told you so arrogance that is quite chilling. Contrast that with Glenn and Nicholas who have a similar conflict of interests going on. Nicholas has got others killed through his cowardice, but Glen has given him a fresh chance and now Nicholas saves Glen and others from the zombies. Maybe Carter would have come through given more of a chance. Now with a colossal herd of zombies moving in on the house at the call of an as yet unrevealed traitor to the living, (possibly the Wolves) more characters are likely to be wiped out in episode two, and it is anyone’s guess who. With the sheer numbers attacking a small outnumbered community, this looks like the only option is to abandon Alexandria to the zombies and for the next evacuation to take the humans from Rourke’s Drift to Dunkirk. It promises to be a very tasty season. Arthur Chappell