‘The Walking Dead’ Retro Recap: ‘Secrets’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

From a supremely early age, we are taught that telling the truth is the secret to success in life. For people will view us in a positive light when we hold to the truth and trust us, and our moral center will become incorruptible by always holding to facts. But while there is a great deal of merit that comes with being always honest, what’s fascinating about this particular childhood lesson/concept… is that it simply is not as pure and as wonderful as our parents would like to believe. Because while the truth creates integrity for a person, it can also create strife in their lives. For some people that receive a dose of honesty, aren’t ready to hear it and that can put them in a tough place mentally. 
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Plus, for some folks, they need to be emotionally ready to handle a tough truth and well, those unfortunate side effects to honesty, are what motivate us to abandon the lesson and lie, when necessary, in a desperate gambit to handle the complexities of the human condition in a stable and controlled manner. If anything, all of this, is relevant to our discussion today… simply because the complications that accompany the truth was put on full display in the next episode of The Walking Dead. For ‘Secrets’ saw a great deal of people lie for different reasons, one of which was… to protect everyone from severe mental distress.

After all, outside of Glenn, the group hadn’t a clue that the barn just beyond was filled to the brim with walking corpses and despite his best efforts to keep that truth hidden, Glenn was unable to keep from expressing it to Dale. In large part because he hasn’t quite yet learned the importance of nuance and guile. But despite leaking that terrifying fact, after a talk with Hershel… Dale realized that it was important to keep this hidden from everyone. For to speak it aloud would expose the fact that Hershel was mentally in a poor place, one where he could not reconcile the fact that the dead were returning to life and craving the flesh of the living and of course, it would bring about incredible trouble. For the fear it would engender would bring about chaos and conflict, so he kept his mouth shut. 

But what was quite fascinating about this particular tale, is that it also took the time to explore why we sometimes lie to those we love. A feat that was accomplished by way of Lori’s journey. For she doubled down on hiding the truth about her pregnancy, simply because… she didn’t want to hurt Rick and believed that keeping him the dark about another child would protect him at a time where he needed to focus upon bigger matters. Such as finding Sophia and making peace with Hershel, and while she eventually told him and actually received mostly positive results in doing so, her actions really do make it clear… that a fear of harming the ones we love and putting them in emotional distress, makes the decision to lie quite easy for us. 

In the end however, all of these elements made this quite the fascinating tale for certain. Because this really was a quality and raw examination of a part of the human condition that we try to shy away from so we don’t have to confront the fact that the truth is about as grey as anything else in this world. And this episode deserves a round of applause for not offering answers, just reality and for also returning to a concept that George Romero touched upon in several of his Dead films. Since his universe also saw people hoard the dead in an effort to preserve their memory or to cope with the harsh reality that our biological purpose in life had now been robbed from the world by living death and well, now that this quality and fascinating chapter has come to a close… it is time to turn our attention to one devastating story. One that informed audiences everywhere, that this series was playing for keeps and that no one is safe in the land of the dead. Until next time.

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