The Walking Dead- "Thank You"

The name of this episode was "Thank You" but it could more accurately have been called "Nihilism Wins."

Even for a show as relentlessly downbeat at "TWD," this went to a new place. I'm not saying it was bad. In fact, this was the third consecutive episode to start this season to hit on almost all levels, a rarity for a show whose quality seems to wax and wane from week to week. The action was near-non-stop, as was the dread, which seemed to escalate with each passing moment.

But all that tension and excitement reached its inevitable boiling point with (do I really need to say SPOILER ALERT?) the shocking and and depressing death of Glenn. I say shocking because up until the end, I thought the show's MacGyver would find a way out. I say depressing because, while he wasn't the most interesting character on the show (Carol), the most mysterious (Morgan) or the coolest (Daryl), Glenn always struck me as the most relatable.

Glenn was just a pizza delivery guy who rose to the occasion during the most trying of times. He put himself at risk to save Rick at the beginning of the series. He ended up wooing and and winning Maggie (a gal he probably couldn't have dated pre-zombie apocalypse). And he always maintained his decency and regular guy attitude. While the horror of this world has turned Rick into something barely human, Glenn never lost his humanity. So that sucks.

I know the internet is rife with discussion and theories about whether Glenn is actually dead or not, all of which feels very Jon Snow-y "Game of Thrones"-ish. But for today at least, I'm less interested in that stuff than in allowing myself to mourn my personal favorite "TWD" character. Here's hoping someone stabs you in the head soon, Glenn.

A few random thoughts:

It was pretty cool to see Rick take out those zombies while listening to Glenn tell to him about his plan over the radio. Talk about multi-tasking.

A distant (but still disheartening) second to Glenn's death in the "bum me out" department: the guy who got bit in the shoulder not getting to tell his new wife how she gave his life meaning OR getting to have Michonne deliver the note he wrote to her AND getting totally chomped while trying to scale the fence. Couldn't someone have shot him and put him out of his misery?

I am so tired of the gang going into what seems like some abandoned building to hunker down quietly while the zombies pass by outside and not checking out the entire joint, including closets, to make sure there are no walkers inside. Protocol seems pretty standard for these situations:

1) Lock the doors if possible.
2) Check everywhere for stray walkers.
3) Kill said walkers.
4) Stay vewwy vewwy qwiet.

 Michonne's speech to ponytail guy about not knowing what it's like to be out there and sometimes being unsure if the blood on you was yours, a friend's or a zombies seemed heavy-handed even before ponytail dude saw his bloody reflection in the stream.

One small bit bit of solace/happiness/justice: When the gang first took on the zombies in the woods, the bald black guy stepped up to help and was rewarded by an inadvertent shot to the leg by cowardly floppy-hat wearing guy. I thought he was done for. But surprisingly, he survived and the guy who shot him and ran off got mauled real good. That's my glass half full note. I'll take what I can get.

Speaking of survival, one final thought: Black characters so often seem to be the first to get killed in the horror genre. It's become a cliche'. So it was refreshing to see that all (and by all, I mean a whopping total of three) of the survivors of the chaos and carnage were African-American. Progress?