'The Walking Dead' Recap: 'Swear'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

If by chance, the world as we know it was to end just like that...what would come next for those that survive? Would they try and rebuild civilization exactly as it was before, or would they try to correct all the mistakes we made and build a better life for future generations of a brave new world? These are fascinating questions to ponder upon and as the seasons progress, what comes next is clearly becoming the focus of The Walking Dead.

Gone are the days of fighting off hordes of walking corpses in order to see another day, those flesh eating monsters have been replaced by something far worse...human beings that are completely in control of their destiny in a world without rules and when it comes to figuring out how to rebuild our world, the show has offered little insight or concrete direction thus far, instead opting to put forth a cautionary tale. One where fear and the instinct to survive is exploited by Negan and the Saviors, since so many people have handed control of their lives over to a man who enjoys the thrill of outright messing with people's minds and last night's episode, 'Swear' provided us with some fascinating insight as to what the future could hold for Rick and the people of the Alexandria Safe Zone...if they continue to hold onto their fear. 

Oddly enough however, this fascinating lesson unfolded without Rick or any of the principal characters, it instead came about by way of Tara and Heath...well, mostly Tara as we finally caught up with the pair on their supply run through the countryside. It turns out that despite being out in the world for a little over two weeks, their mission has been an outright failure. So far they've gotten their hands on a little bit of canned food and that's pretty much it and the disappointment of that, combined with the guilt he now carries over what the group did to the Saviors, is wearing upon Heath's conscience to the point where he is beginning to find himself concerned about what kind of people he and the group are turning into.  

But before his philosophical thoughts advance much further, the pair stumble upon an abandoned community that barricaded itself onto the top of a bridge, and the two venture inside of it in the hopes of finding something to make their trip worthwhile...but alas they only find terror when they accidentally uncover a tiny herd of the dead, forcing them to fight for their lives and in the process of getting back to the truck, the two of them are separated when Tara falls over the railing and into the river...eventually washing up weak and worse for the wear on a beach where she is helped out by a young woman who leaves her food and water.

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The young lady heralds from a small community not far from the beach named Oceanside, and unfortunately for Tara...the people that inhabit this community are far from friendly. Upon discovering her presence in the camp they immediately open fire and corner her, demanding to know who she is and where she comes from before later informing her that she must either stay with them to protect the community...or face death. 

Thankfully Tara is able to talk herself out of this mess and they eventually agree to let her return to Alexandria, but Tara is suspicious of how quickly they agree to this, and rightfully so since once again, she finds herself under fire and that's when the show began to delve into its cautionary moment. Because this camp of survivors, also met the Saviors a long time ago...and they chose to fight Negan and his men and paid the price dearly. For their insurrection resulted in the execution of every man and boy that was over the age of ten to make a point that such insolence would not be tolerated and rather than stay behind and live a life under Negan's rule...they left their community in the middle of the night to find Oceanside, which they promptly secured before taking a vow to murder any stranger they encountered...

Thankfully with the help of the young woman that saved her life in the first place, Tara was able to escape and eventually return to Alexandria to learn of what Negan has done to her friends and surrogate family...and girlfriend for that matter, but the lesson remains clear for Rick...the fear that he has chosen to embrace and demand from the people of this community, will make all of their lives a living hell. By giving in to Negan completely, by not using this mess to his advantage to spy upon and learn about his enemy so he can find a weakness or a way to properly resist this monster and his madness...he is no better than the leadership of Oceanside, Gregory at the Hilltop or King Ezekiel for that matter since everyone on that list...is okay letting Negan bring out the worst in them and in the process they are allowing the new world to be formed by what is in essence evil.

If anything, while the show offers no easy answers on what the new world should look like it does make one thing inherently clear...that evil should not be in control. The end of civilization should signal the opportunity for a new beginning, one where people could potentially work together for a change, and instead they've let the worst parts of mankind rule and at this point, it's really a matter of how much more of this everyone we've met this season is going to take. Because the seeds of discontent we've seen planted all year long are starting to take root and grow and all these people need now, is the right leader to give them a gentle push in the right direction to rise up and take back their lives from Negan and the Saviors...the only question now is...who will that leader be and I'm hoping that it will be Rick Grimes and that something will happen soon to snap him out of his funk. Either way, this was quite the cerebral little episode and I think it's wonderful that the series took the time to analyze a bigger problem in a new and unique way...and that it reminded all of us of the dangers of what we can become when fear infects every inch of our soul. Until next time.

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