'The Walking Dead' Recap: 'Monsters'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

While comic books as a whole are indeed a powerful medium for storytelling, since they can inspire our imagination in ways we never thought possible and they’ve given life to some big-time franchises, their biggest flaw is that sometimes, their short format doesn’t allow for genuine emotional depth to come through the pages to truly draw us into the story, and for proof of this, look no further than The Walking Dead’s largest story arc, ‘All Out War’.
 
Sure, it was filled to the brim with plenty of action and epic moments, but the tears we’ve shed and the pain we’ve felt as a television audience simply never materialized when we turned the pages because those special moments where something more presents itself did not exist in the printed version of this tale. Its focus was the inevitable final showdown between Rick and Negan and thankfully…this lack of depth is something that season eight of the television series is doing a fine job of rectifying. Because we’ve already seen a powerful shift in tone and design for the live action adaption of this story arc.
 
It’s looked at the hope our heroes have for the future. It’s analyzed the dangers of revenge and last night’s episode, ‘Monsters’, continued season eight’s exploration into every single aspect of war imaginable, this time going into far broader concepts by looking into the moral conflicts that come about from war and something that isn’t examined enough when it comes to the horror genre or tales of conflict in general for that that matter, in that sometimes the good guys are viewed as the villains.
 
Let’s start our break down with that concept, first, simply because of the fact it was handled in such beautiful and subtle fashion by way of the follow up from last week’s episode where Rick ran into Morales from season one. Because despite Rick’s pleas and attempts to explain to the man the evil that Negan represented, Morales only saw the second chance that the Saviors provided him with and it was eerie to see the contempt in Morales’ eyes and the fury that came with the fact that he only knew of Rick as a problem for the Saviors and everything they stood for and it is obvious that the disdain he tasted from an old friend gave Rick serious pause as to what he and the Alliance had become. 

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​If anything, what made this part of the story so unique, is the fact that in essence, the moral conflict of war and this theme more or less worked together hand in hand. Because the struggle in question came about from Jesus’ decision to let the Saviors live simply to prove to a point that the Alliance was better and could continue to be better than the Saviors and well, he was challenged at every turn by Tara and Morgan over this. To the point where it came to blows with Morgan and in that moment, Morgan said something supremely disturbing in that...it didn’t matter what these communities have worked toward, they are no different in the end.
 
What makes that statement so disturbing, is that we continue to see ugly behavior from the characters that reinforces Morgan’s observation. Tara it seems is hell-bent on executing the prisoners as soon as humanly possible and even Daryl is showing zero mercy in his fight with the Saviors since he was quick to put down Morales, despite knowing exactly who he was and he even executed the young man who surrendered his life and valuable information and at this point, it seems the only people concerned with not letting the group slip into total darkness and ‘The Savior Way’ are Rick, Maggie and Jesus and it’s going to take some work for them convince the others since let’s face it…Jesus is right. 
 
Yet this episode also didn’t forget to remind the audience and the characters about the spoils of war as well, because despite the string of victories the Allies enjoyed in this tale, there were still losses and suffering to be found. After all, King Ezekiel’s forces are in a bad place at the moment since they are under fire from the big guns that Rick was trying desperately to find and of course, we also said goodbye to Eric in this episode. Because despite Aaron’s best efforts to stay and help the love of his life, Eric demanded that Aaron return to the fight and as Aaron helped secure a victory for the Alliance, poor Eric bled out and turned and it was heartbreaking to watch Aaron say a tearful farewell to the shell of the man who brought him so much joy, shuffling away to join a herd of the living dead.
 
But it is moments like that, where we can feel the pain of the characters as well, that makes this iteration of ‘All Out War’ so much more powerful and quite frankly wonderful. Now this storyline has the gravity it lacked in print and now there is plenty to pour over and discuss when another chapter arrives on Sunday night and I love the fact that we are now being forced to question whether or not the Alliance and its members are doing the right thing and what exactly what they are fighting for because it all leads to one important point in that…what happens here today, matters tomorrow and if Alexandria, Hilltop and The Kingdom want to make a better world, they have to figure out how to become better people and we will soon find out if that is something that is possible or not, as the war continues to rage on. Until next time.  

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