‘The Walking Dead’ Recap: ‘Open Your Eyes’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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

Over the course of the past few weeks, we’ve talked a lot, both directly and indirectly, about how The Walking Dead is more or less a chameleon, storytelling wise. Because season ten has featured stories that feature a vastly different array of themes and concepts. At times, we’ve seen some chilling stories involving the darkest parts of mankind’s souls or the sheer horror of flesh hungry walking corpses. But we’ve also enjoyed tales that make one ponder upon our world and what makes mankind tick, and this is just brilliant to see when all is said and done. Because it not only speaks to the versatility of the series as a whole, but to quality writing that knows how to captivate us like never before.
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If anything, this is on my mind today simply due to the fact that once again, this show found a way to tell another unique story, by taking the time to revisit a theme it touched upon a couple of weeks ago; fear. But as an added treat, ‘Open Your Eyes’, also felt the need to offer up quite the game changing surprise in regard to something fans everywhere have been pondering upon, but we will get to that later. Because we really do need to talk about the fascinating exploration of fear that this story embarked upon, one that showed us how fear can transform us the longer it infects us. Specifically, it touched upon how the longer it resides in our hearts, the more it encourages other negative emotions to grow, such as anger for instance. For we feel wronged when someone genuinely terrifies us and the anger that comes out of fear prompts us to punish those who scared us by way of revenge.

But how this was explored is what matters the most, because Carol exemplified this notion since her capture of a Whisperer motivated her to exact a little revenge, despite the fact that she tried to abide by the rules at first. For she tried to kill her captive with kindness early on, since she offered the man food and creature comforts, a suggestion on Lydia’s part, all in the hopes of getting him to turn on Alpha and leak some secrets about the horde. But despite her best efforts to make the man feel welcome within the city limits of Alexandria, he rebuffed Carol every single step of the way, even going so far as to spit a wonderful selection of jellies into her face, and that’s when the fury in question came into play. Because Carol wanted nothing more than to instill the fear of God into this man and make him understand that she and her friends were not to be reckoned with, which brought about merciless beatings and torture in the hopes of getting some answers.

Yet despite her best efforts to dish out what the Whisperers have provided her with, the man simply would not crack, and while he eventually died due to medical negligence (more on that later), he did offer one particular tidbit that Carol would exploit. For the man did reveal that Alpha told her clan the great lie that Lydia died for the sake of their safety and Carol was quick to bring Lydia along to one of the meetings that Aaron conducts with Gamma, so someone from the clan could see the truth, and well, not telling Lydia that she was going to be a pawn was problematic. For that did not sit well with her and she quickly disappeared into the night and her exit is what hammered home the lesson present here about fear. Because Carol had truly transformed thanks to the fear residing within her soul and it made her conniving and bitter and ruthless and vengeful and, in many ways, no better than the monsters who wished to scare her in the first place. 

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However, I did make mention of a big surprise present within the framework of this tale and that oddly enough came by way of Siddiq. For his journey in this tale brought his struggles with PTSD to a head, but not before he suffered more of it, and suffered more in general. Because everything that could go wrong for Siddiq in this story, most certainly did. Because he began to see losses when it comes to the good fight against the stomach bug ravaging this community, and he also saw his skill set begin to falter. For according to Dante, he was the one who packed the medical kit that put down the captive Whisperer and seeing more patients die and making supposed mistakes put him at his lowest point and it kept the dark memories coming, prompting Siddiq to go off the deep end since he was at his wits end with all of these revelations coming to light.
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But thankfully, Rosita was there to lift him up and prompt him to be honest about how horrible that fateful night was in the barn, and finally being able to open up about the horrors of that night lifted the weight upon his chest, and it prompted him to do better and to be better and to solve the mystery of what was making so many people in Alexandria as sick as can be. Which motivated Siddiq to ponder upon the facts before him and eventually he came to surmise that the water was the key to this entire mess and of course, the fact that he provided so many with potentially tainted H2O only sent him further into the darkness and that’s when the surprise in question arrived. Because Dante went to see his friend in the hopes of cheering him up in his time of need, but a key phrase from his lips finally helped to jog Siddiq’s memory and he realized too late that Dante was a Whisperer he met in the barn, and I say too late because Dante got the better of the intrepid doctor and quietly murdered him in the middle of the night.

Which is a stunning twist to say the least, one that I did not see coming and it’s also a terrifying reveal as well, since it loaded with troubling implications. Because Dante truly understands the inner workings of this community and the instant, he gets the opportunity to tell Alpha all the details he learned about Alexandria, who knows what she will do with that information and how she will exploit the community’s weaknesses. But all shock and dark implications aside, the bigger issue here is that Alexandria has now lost its doctor, and a good man for that matter as well, and this kind of secretive death will rock this community like never before and perhaps that was the plan all along. For Alpha loves to mess with people psychologically and seeing their own disappear or learn that a spy was in their midst will do just that.

Either way, this was a magnificent twist to throw into the mix and it definitely leaves the audience uncomfortable when all is said and done because now, we simply don’t know who to trust when it comes to any of the new people, we’ve met this season. But that’s the nature of a war of this manner, one where the enemy hides their faces and I really am curious as to what kind of fallout is going to come from all of this. However, I suppose that not all is lost, for despite Carol’s selfish and wild behavior in this tale, she did in fact land quite the blow. For Gamma now knows that her master has lied to her and that particular seed could very well grow into something more and all of these events likely mean that we are in for one powerhouse midseason finale, one that might be filled to the brim with painful farewells as this war escalates to new heights. Until next time.    

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