The Walking Dead season 10 episode 4 review: Tensions flare in Alexandria

Tensions in Alexandria boiled over on The Walking Dead this week, and the looming conflict with the Whisperers continues driving paranoia among the survivors.

The Hilltop took a hit from a very large tree this week on The Walking Dead, but most of the action took place in Alexandria. Ever since Lydia was given refuge at Alexandria she’s had problems. She doesn’t really fit in, and some of the people in Alexandria think that she could be a spy for Alpha. Others hold her responsible for the pike victim deaths since it was her mother that was responsible for their deaths.

It was disappointing to see Aaron tacitly endorse the harassment of Lydia. When he saw Gage and the others bullying her he didn’t tell them to stop and allowed it to continue. If anyone in the leadership at Alexandria had stepped in earlier it might not have ended with an assault on Lydia and Margo getting killed.

But it’s interesting to see the show once again delving into the humanity of the characters and the complexity of their relationships with each other. It’s easy for a genre show to slip into the pattern of turning all of the characters into caricatures that are always supportive of each other, always do the right thing, and always represent the best of humanity. The Walking Dead isn’t doing that this season. The characters are flawed and sometimes awful, which is refreshing to see.

Maybe Alpha is right and the communities will never last because ultimately they can never put aside their differences and petty grudges and realize that they need each other to survive.

What Is Aaron’s problem?

Aaron needs to get his anger under control. In his confrontation with Negan in the last episode he talked about Eric’s death. It’s understandable that he’s still angry with Negan, I’m still angry with Negan for killing Glenn, but Eric’s death was six years ago and not directly Negan’s fault. If Aaron hasn’t moved out of the anger stage of grief in six years he’s got some deeper issues to deal with. Aaron didn’t stop the teens from bullying Lydia, and he crossed the Whisperer’s border on the bridge. He’s acting reckless and he’s making poor decisions that could be a problem for the group later on.

The kiss

The infamous Ezekiel/Michonne kiss that was teased in the SDCC trailer this summer happened in this episode and thankfully it wasn’t the start of a relationship between Michonne and Ezekiel. Ezekiel was just grabbing onto anything he could to find some purpose after nearly committing suicide. Michonne talked him down like a good friend and told him, after the kiss, that they’re both too stubborn for a relationship between them to work.

Besides, it’s clear that Michonne is still in love with Rick even though she thinks he’s dead. The kiss was even more awkward in context than it was out of context in the trailer so it’s a relief that there isn’t going to be some kind of awkwardly forced relationship between them.

The Negan problem

Negan came to Lydia’s rescue which no one else in Alexandria did, but Negan’s presence is still a problem. No one is really sure what to do with him. Aaron and some of the others don’t want him to be considered a member of the community, but he can’t be indefinitely kept in a cell either. At this point it’s probably time to reassess what Negan’s role at Alexandria is.

Rick left him alive as a symbol of mercy and how everything could be different but is it still important to have that symbol? The Saviors that survived have been part of the community now for a long time and the ones that didn’t don’t care anymore what’s right or wrong. Negan escaped and is on his own now, but he’s escaped before and come back when he realized he was alone.

Will he return to Alexandria this time or will he go off his own to start over? If he returns the council needs to either make him a full member of Alexandria or not let him back in. They can’t afford to continue to keep him a sort of prisoner that doesn’t contribute to the community.

Oceanside

At the end of the episode Michonne takes a group that includes Judith and Luke to Oceanside because Oceanside may have had a Whisperer sighting and Michonne wants to check it out. Alexandria had to deal with walker waves, Hilltop had a huge tree mysteriously fall over destroying a section of their wall, and now Oceanside might have been found by the Whisperers.

There’s no proof that Alpha sent the walker waves or that the Whisperers chopped down the tree that fell but it’s possible. The Whisperers could be messing with the communities to keep them on edge and off balance. The communities can fight just about anything, but they can survive a psychological war without cracking and bringing down their own communities out of paranoia and suspicion? That will depend on how the rest of The Walking Dead season 10A unfolds.

What did you think of this week’s episode of The Walking Dead? Sound off in the comments below.