‘The Walking Dead’ Recap: ‘The Bridge’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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From an early age, we are taught to do one important thing that applies to every single aspect of our lives; always keep fighting. Whenever trouble comes our way, regardless of what it is, we are expected to fight that good fight to keep our heads above water and survive whatever it is that is making life difficult. We need to battle when it comes to our relationships to ensure we maintain them, and we absolutely have to start swinging in order to achieve our career goals and happiness in life and well, this is sound advice in many ways since it does push us to move to new heights and achieve wonders along the way.
 
But the only downside to this advice, is the sheer fact that no one teaches us, when it is okay to stop fighting the good fight. Sure, we survived a tough time, but we often find ourselves ready to battle more trouble when there is none to found. Or we’re pushing to maintain a relationship that isn’t worth saving. Or…we’ve reached the top and can’t even enjoy our success because we’re too busy fighting to stave off potential poachers that may or may or not exist. The bottom line is that we are a species bred to battle our own personal wars, and recognizing peace and happiness is difficult because of that and oddly enough, our inability to put down our emotional weapons and enjoy what’s in front of us was at the forefront of this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, ‘The Bridge’.
 
Because in this tale, we found Rick Grimes and all of his friends/lieutenants struggling with that very battle as the communities came together to rebuild that all important bridge we saw washed out in the series premiere and well, I’ll say it now, this was a fascinating piece on interpersonal conflicts and our inability to move on when we have indeed made some major personal milestones because I’ve never seen the original group this angry or this outright isolated when it comes to their beliefs and that simply boils down to the fact that that they haven’t a single clue what to do now that there is peace and oddly enough, cooperation amongst the five communities making up this part of the world.
 
That aspect made for a frustrating tale, which I’m certain was intentional because let’s be honest, the group and its leadership have outright accomplished some wonders. I mean that bridge was mostly put together when we pick up with the story and for the most part everyone worked together like a well-oiled machine to make that happen, yet the fighting persisted between the former Saviors and well, just about everyone else and while it’s easier to blame the bad blood between these communities on said Saviors since those very people were once pointing guns at others and demanding their food and supplies, I honestly think what’s really at fault here, is that Rick Grimes has painted a picture of a perfect utopia for everyone involved, the kind where everyone magically puts aside their differences and stand together in harmony. 

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Which is an unfortunate perspective to put forth because the dream has overtaken the reality, in that, trust is something that has to be earned and no one is working together to properly earn that right now. They’re just pushing, and ironically, fighting for a better future without really putting together the pieces to make sure that such a dream becomes reality and what’s leading the conflict, is the fact that others want their own personal elements included in this magnificent utopia or they flat out don’t have a clue what they want from a new world filled with peace and prosperity and what was wonderful about this particular episode is that this exploration on continuing a good fight when it is no longer necessary, found a way to give us a more intimate approach on the matter by way of Maggie’s journey in this tale.
 
Because when we caught up with her, we once more found her in full on tough leader mode, belting out punishments as she saw fit and making every demand she saw as necessary for Hilltop’s well-being, without realizing in the slightest that she was part of something greater and honestly, in many ways it felt as though Maggie hasn’t grown in the slightest since the war. She’s still protective and firmly expressing her belief that others are out to get her and well, it took a moment of intimate discussion with her prisoner to help remind her of the fact that people sometimes falter, and the wrong kind of people can influence all kinds of trouble and that she needed to lower her guard to do the right thing, and be better, and for now, there is peace in Maggie’s heart and seemingly between the communities once again since Rick was able to see everyone come together.
 
But, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t major trouble brewing on the horizon. After all, one cannot forget that some of the former Saviors, the ones who walked off the job, have suddenly gone missing, and judging from the closing minutes of this episode, there’s someone responsible for that and they’re not done settling the score from the War and well, our concerns from that were further compounded by the fact that Negan was quick to point out everything we’ve discussed thus far in this recap to Rick, but he did take it one step further, by implying that all of this was going to fall to pieces at some point, and it would take a man like Negan to restore the order and peace that Rick and his friends are currently enjoying, and well, that was quite the ominous way to end this tale.
 
Because one now has to wonder if it really is possible for Rick to maintain this perfect world that he believes he is building or if it will indeed collapse into ruin and really, it’s a precarious time right now and time will tell if Rick will able to teach people to understand that they no longer have to fight one another. Either way, season nine is turning out to be downright fascinating thus far, simply because it’s exploring some unique subject matter and it’s doing it well because I was definitely entranced by this particular tale and I’m dying to see where this conflict is going to go, and whether or not the good people in this story can finally take a breather, and stop fighting and build the wonderful new world they all clearly want to be a part of, in some capacity. Until next time.

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