‘The Walking Dead’ Retro Recap: ‘Thank You’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Over the course of its first five seasons, the AMC series, The Walking Dead, was big on keeping balance within the story. Which is why supremely dark episodes, the kind that broke our hearts and rattled us, were quickly counterbalanced by something beautiful and/or a story where the characters began to work toward something bigger than themselves and the end of everything. Or it never let the ugly drag on for too long, all so that the audience would never feel overwhelmed by the horror elements of this brilliant series. But all of that changed in season six. For at the time, Showrunner Scott M. Gimple, was clearly curious as to how hard he and the writing staff could push the audience. 

Which led to a vastly different kind of season. One that still injected good and some balance into the mix, but also… pushed the envelope like never before and challenged the characters and the audience in ways we never thought possible and never was that more evident than during the first three episodes of season six. For not only did the show present us with the biggest walker herd the show had ever seen to date, which injected some risk and terror into the mix, but the arrival of the Wolves in Alexandria only made things worse and the horror was further amplified in Episode 603. By pitting a handful of heroes with their greatest fear to date, being trapped by the dead with no safety and no clean avenue of escape… with injuries present in the group no less.

That made ‘Thank You’ quite the intense and horrifying, and shocking tale. The latter of which we will discuss in a moment because we need to break down the sheer terror present here, the kind that made for an uncomfortable and hopeless tale. Because the living dead really were everywhere in this story, leaving all of us to wonder who would actually make it out of this tale alive. Especially when one considers that the dead tore through a bevy of Alexandrians as they inched toward home. In part because the good people of Alexandria had zero experience in dealing with the dead, but also because of those injuries and the sheer number of the dead and that alone… could have carried the raw darkness of this episode. Because this was just ugly through and through and the dwindling numbers of survivors by the end of this one, really hammered home the sheer danger of this world again and the true threat living death poses. 

But believe it or not, despite being forced to watch several Alexandrians be torn to shreds in a horrifying manner, with the fence death being perhaps the worst that the show had sent our way in a while, it still found a way to get darker and utterly shock us in the process. For Glenn and Nicholas’ journey in this tale led to the darkest moment of the hour wherein a reformed and mostly heroic Nicholas and the always intrepid Glenn found themselves trapped within a no-way-out moment. With the dead surrounding them and there was no possible avenue of escape. Which broke Nicholas and prompted him to take his own life and send Glenn into a sea of the dead in the process, and that in turn, made it appear as though Glenn Rhee, a staple from the beginning, was being torn apart before our eyes. In fact, it was so convincing that audiences at the time were utterly stunned by this move and left wondering if this was in fact, the end of a hero. 

Not to mention Rick found himself isolated and helpless when the Wolves busted up the RV with the dead closing in and well, it doesn’t get much darker than that. And truly, this is an episode that removed all hope from our minds at the time and still feels hopeless now regardless of knowing what comes next. But it just goes to show that Mister Gimple really did accomplish his mission of challenging everyone like never before and of course, for weeks on end people were worrying about Glenn and his fate. But while this episode pulled at our heartstrings and demanded a hug from our loved ones… thankfully that trademark balance was waiting in the wings for us. For the next episode in this tale offered something quite hopeful and beautiful, and served as a wonderful mental break from this trilogy of terror and prepared us in a strange way, for more of the tougher times ahead. Until next time.

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