‘The Walking Dead’ Retro Recap: ‘Spend’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Ask any casual zombie fan as to whether or not they think an actual zombiepocalypse could happen, and you’ll get a mixed bag of answers. Some of will course, answer in the affirmative, but a great deal… will not. And those folks will cite how the living dead are dead and slow and dumb, which should make them an easy foe to conquer. Plus, they’ll make mention of our military might and how people wouldn’t stand for that kind of problem, ergo… the dead would not win the day. But when one considers how the pandemic went… it is safe to say that our society could indeed collapse at the mottled hands of resurrected corpses for a bevy of different reasons.
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For instance, those that deny science and hold to conspiracy theories would help the dead thrive… as would, our arrogance and beliefs that humanity cannot be conquered. But at the core of it all, certain fundamental issues that we exhibit would bring mankind to its knees, such as fear and our survival instinct. For those elements prompt people to do wild things and it just so happens that those particular problems were explored in great detail in the next episode of The Walking Dead. For ‘Spend’ saw Glenn and his group head out with Eugene and Nicholas, and Aiden to gather some critical supplies for Alexandria and uh, that trip ended up being an utter disaster.

Because that arrogance was on display, and it led to an explosion when Aiden messed with a walker that had grenades. Which in turn, led to a manic rescue mission… one where that fear and survival instinct came into play. Since Nicholas did everything to ensure his survival whilst in a panic and his stupidity in that moment and desire to push so hard to leave others behind, resulted in a horrible end to Noah’s life and eventually… a beatdown from Glenn. But what matters more, is that this made it clear, how easily things would fall apart once fear and that need to survive came into play and one could even say… that this is perhaps a taste of what brought down humanity in this particular story, since the walking dead did indeed spread quickly in this universe. 

However, while it was fascinating to be reminded of how the pandemic went for those very reasons and of course… be treated to some genuine zombie-related horror again, since Aiden’s death scene and Noah’s are still horrifying to this day, there was more that this tale had to offer. After all, this is also a story that saw Abraham take charge on the job site to retrieve more steel for the walls. A moment that had a baby homage to 1978’s Dawn of the Dead, but more so served to establish that the Grimes Gang  was full of bold and impactful, and efficient leaders, and that made Deanna nervous. Largely because she was stunned at how well they integrated into the community and took over, but also because… Gabriel had to be cowardly Gabriel and did his usual whiny thing to her. 

Not to mention, there’s the whole mess with Pete and his family, since we basically came to learn that he is badly abusing his family in this tale. Which more or less made this episode, a setup story. For there are only a handful of episodes left in season five and well, this episode did an amazing job of not only offering up a zombie tale rife with commentary but of indeed preparing us for what comes next. Because clearly, trouble is on the horizon in the good community of Alexandria. The kind that won’t be easily resolved since the old guard is struggling to adapt to a new world and it will be interesting to revisit the big moments that lie ahead as we barrel toward the end of a phenomenal season of storytelling. Until next time.

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