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Walking Dead Postmortem: ‘Slabtown’

By Ed Carroll

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Looking for a place to discuss or mull over last night’s The Walking Dead episode? Welcome to Walking Dead Postmortem, a new regular feature on Fansided which will debate and review the juiciest parts of every Walking Dead episode the day after it airs.

“We’re all gonna die and you let this happen. For nothing.”

I was one of those who raised an eyebrow when Emily Kinney was promoted to a series regular during season four, nothing against Kinney personally, but more out of annoyance with Beth’s character, who was much-improved from the suicidal bundle of emotions we met on the farm in season 2, but we really didn’t know a lot about her, or why we should care (but we knew she could sing).

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I’m not wondering how Beth fits into the puzzle after watching “Slabtown,” which might be the finest episode this season. The Walking Dead had really shown some restraint when it came to Beth’s kidnappers (which was last season, remember), and it really paid off in this episode. Kinney was forced to carry the show by herself this week, and my goodness did she come through in another nuanced episode that perhaps featured some of the biggest chills this series has seen. It wasn’t an overly gory episode, but the sense of hopelessness Beth was in, being in a debtor’s hospital where every favor cost you something more, not to mention without too many people to trust, was genuinely creepy. Kinney, to her credit, really sold it and carried it throughout the episode. Beth’s gone from being an annoying character to one with some real depth to her, and it’s interesting to see the zombie apocalypse from a young adult’s perspective that isn’t Carl.

Eric Jensen was also pretty solid as Dr. Steven Edwards, a doctor who seemed reasonable and decent at first, but we grew to learn he was certainly not blameless in what was going on at the hospital. Perhaps I simply missed the clue while I was watching, but I thought it was a bit of a stretch for Beth to make the assumption that Edwards had her kill the other doctor (or that it was known it was a doctor), but it did make sense, plot-wise, and was a minor quibble in an otherwise terrific episode.

Last week, I lamented over the sudden demise of the Terminus cannibals, but after seeing what’s going on at Grady Hospital, I must say I don’t mind losing those freaks quite as much.The second half of season four and what we’ve seen in season five have really shown us the different ways humanity has coped since the walkers hit, from a band of nearly lawless rapists and murderers, to a commune of cannibals, a cowardly religious figure who simply keeps everyone else out, and lastly, to this messed-up hospital which sees Officer Dawn Lerner (Christine Woods) making “compromises” left and right. I don’t necessarily think the hospital people are more dangerous than the Terminus or Woodbury people (and it certainly seems like they’re less in touch with how bad the world has really become, due to the isolation), but putting a character like Beth, who isn’t necessarily the strongest of the survivors but is someone with a surprising will to live (especially considering where she was when we met her) in a will-breaking and hopeless environment was a smart move. It’s chills on a smaller, more psychological level, yes, but it was handled well and we needed a breather anyways.

It’s certainly been interesting to watch how the show is exploring the dead world (or, how little of it they’ve actually explored), and this hospital in particular was able to give us something not too many of the other locals could: a view of the decimated city. “Walking Dead” has had its reasons, but it’s mostly been in the country, and getting a chance to see just how ravaged the city was from the top of the hospital was a sobering reminder of how little was left in the world.

Two of the creepiest scenes in this episode involved Officer Gorman (Ricky Wayne), someone who made it blatantly clear from his first scene that he was not an upstanding officer of the law. The lollipop scene was one of the more disturbing scenes this show has done, borderline rape and the discomfort on Kinney’s face as Gorman jammed the lollipop into Beth’s mouth was obvious and appropriate. It was hard to watch and made the next creepy scene even more effective.

Gorman confronts Beth in Dawn’s office, and this time simply corners Beth before he starts to impose himself on her. Her not killing the walker when she first found it does kind of fly in the face of what we’ve learned on this show (and it was TV luck that he cornered her there, and the walker didn’t get her), but damn, I cheered when she hit him over the head with the bottle (and after a gross comment by Gorman about Beth’s lack of fight) and did smile a bit when became a walker lollipop.

Credit: Zombie Prophet

The scene where Beth and Noah (Tyler James Williams) attempted escape was also exceptionally well done, from the creepy pit of corpses the two landed in down the chute to the color shift after they got out of the hospital, in an episode high on suspense and short on actual action, that scene was a lot of fun to watch. Yay, Beth head stomp!

Credit: Zombie Prophet

In the end, Noah got out, and it’s probably not a stretch to assume he will meet up with some of Rick’s crew before the season is said and done, especially since Beth got caught and taken back into Grady.

Of course, even if Noah hadn’t escaped, kind of hard to not start wondering about the reveal at the end:

Credit: Zombie Prophet

Beth and Carol have been two characters who have perhaps evolved the most since when we first met them on the show, so an episode together could be a blast.

Quick thoughts:

— We’ve seen amputations on this show before (Hershel in season three springs to mind), but amputating Joan’s arm using a wire was pretty gross (so, awesome job, AMC!)

— It doesn’t have to necessarily be the next episode, but I do hope we get to see what happened to Daryl and Carol that led to Carol being brought in, and it’s probably just a coincidence, but anyone else noticing both Beth and Carol got nabbed after being with Daryl? Doubt Daryl is doing anything sinister, but it’s still odd.

— Really hope it doesn’t turn into a “we have to rescue Beth” narrative for the rest of the season. Beth and Carol can take care of themselves, and if the show really needs it, a Beth-Carol-Daryl escape/love triangle could be a lot of fun for an episode.

— Part of me wouldn’t mind seeing Dr. Edwards stick around this show for awhile, but I’d like to see him do something to earn our trust; it’s already annoying having one wild card character you can’t trust in Fr. Gabriel.

Verdict: This episode might not have been for everyone, and really asked a lot of Emily Kinney,  but “Slabtown” was one of the most suspenseful and disturbing episodes of “The Walking Dead” yet this season, even if the payoff wasn’t too great in overall plot development.

8.1 out of 10

Thanks to Zombie Prophet for the GIFs and please feel free to leave any thoughts, questions or quibbles in the comments below!

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