‘The Walking Dead’ Retro Recap: ‘The Distance’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

One thing that we can all agree upon, is that having our trust broken in a devastating manner or over and over again… changes us for a time. Because it hurts us deeply to have something so sacred, violated in such a terrible manner and that in turn prompts us to close off our ability to trust and it also motivates us to isolate ourselves from other people outside of our inner circle. Because if that’s all people are going to do is hurt us like that, what’s the point of opening up in the slightest? But eventually… we come to realize that being isolated in that manner, isn’t healthy and we eventually work to trust again but even then, such an act isn’t easy. For it requires work on our part and unique steps that aren’t immediately apparent to us. Making it something of a miracle when we do trust again since we seem to do it out of the blue.

Which does beg an important question. In that… what is it specifically, that motivates us to open ourselves up to the world and trust again? If anything, that’s a question that the next episode of The Walking Dead was happy to answer. For ‘The Distance’ is a story that established that Rick Grimes was done with trusting others, as was most of his group and rightfully so. After all, they put trust into people’s better angels at a critical time, only to have that trust be shattered in utter violence, and any trust they put into hoping for a better tomorrow at Terminus, was also violated. Since Gareth and his cannibalistic buddies preyed upon that trust and used it to their advantage and that cost the group dearly in the end. Not to mention, the sliver of trust they put toward Dawn to do the right thing… also evaporated before their eyes.

Which is why it made so much sense to see Rick treat Aaron as nothing more than a monster. One that made all the right promises but offered no immediate proof that such promises were legit and that led to one harrowing tale. Wherein Rick sent off his friends to see if Aaron was indeed telling the truth and where they all made a concerted effort to travel to his ‘camp’ at night to try and get the lay of the land on their own. That latter decision of course, ended in disaster. Since Rick’s call to use a different road that Aaron warned against, brought forth an onslaught of the living dead. So many in fact, that it is a miracle that anyone escaped with their life. But what mattered more here, is that seeing Rick be so gung-ho and nervous about being burned again… served as the perfect setup to answering that aforementioned question.

Because Rick’s wild and panicked behavior here, helped to remind us that sometimes the walls we put up regarding trust are incredibly detrimental in nature, and can keep us from seeing the truths we need to see when good is indeed right in front of us. So, if we lower that guard and look at the facts and the reality of the situation and objectively look at the actions of a good person asking us to trust them… we can see clearly that they mean us no harm and we can in fact, give them our trust. And that is a lesson that Rick applied here, since he finally lowered his guard and saw that Aaron didn’t lie to him in the slightest and met all of his conditions and terms. Which brought the group at long last, to the tiny little community of Alexandria, where warm sounds and a better tomorrow waited for the group behind the gates. All because Rick Grimes, learned to trust once again after being burned in the worst possible ways. 

Which makes this, quite the uplifting episode when all is said and done, which is funny… since so much of this story is mired in darkness and anxiety. For Rick really does ramp up the tension here with his behavior and of course, back in the day… we had no clue if Aaron was for real or not. But that ending wipes away all the ugly here and really does reward both the viewer and our characters. Because at long last, they’ve weathered the storm and come out of the other side for the better. And while their time in Alexandria has been full of ups and downs, the safety it provided from this point on and the consistency it gave so many, allowed for these characters to heal and grow and become so much more and now that we’ve reached the end of an ugly journey, the time has come to explore the next steps for these characters. Specifically… how they come back from the darkness and find their way forward with people around them once again. Until next time.

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