The Walking Dead New Episode Review: 'What Happened and What's Going On' Kills Off Beloved Character

The Walking Dead returned with its Season 5 midseason premiere on Sunday night entitled "What Happened and What's Going On." By the end of the hour, the survivors were down another member, but the situation was not as hopeless as it seems.

[WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BOTH TV SHOW AND COMIC BOOK]

The Walking Dead had already killed off Bob earlier in Season 5 and Beth in the midseason finale, but the roster got thinner with the death of Tyreese in this episode. The show succeeded in some aspects here but failed in others, and the result was a mixed bag that left me feeling conflicted.

First, the good. Tyreese's death fit with Bob's and Beth's. These were three characters who represented optimism and hope, and who refused to give up no matter how dire the circumstances around them became. Bob believed that they could fix the world, and he used baby Judith as an example that there were still reasons to hope. Beth was bubbly and bright and used song to keep the faith.

And Tyreese remained a kind-hearted, generous person in a world filled with death and despair and dread. His conversation with Terminus member Martin in the Season 5 premiere made this abundantly clear. There is no advantage to living the way Tyreese did in this world; in fact, all it does is get you killed. If you don't kill your fellow man first, then he's going to take you out sooner or later. But Tyreese refused to change.

His death served to make an already bleak world even more depressing. It's no coincidence that the writers chose to remove Bob, Beth, and Tyreese in this first portion of Season 5. The show is plunging the survivors into despair so that the eventual discovery of the oasis becomes even more impactful.

Thematically, Tyreese's death worked, but the execution left a little something to be desired. Andrew Lincoln has said the second half of Season 5 feels completely different from what the show has done before, and it seems he's right so far. Director Greg Nicotero made some interesting and stimulating visual choices in this episode, and he shot the hallucination scenes very well. The transition from The Governor to the zombie was particularly frightening, and the removal of Tyreese's arm was also shocking.

But Scott Gimple, who has done an excellent job since taking over as showrunner, missed the mark here to a degree. The deaths of Bob and Beth were so fresh that their presence in the hallucinations didn't have any real weight. We just saw these people a few weeks ago, so it's not like an older character came back to give fans that "wow" moment. But an older character like Shane or someone else would not have worked because of Tyreese's late introduction to the series.

Plus, Tyreese's death was honestly kind of...dumb. He's too skilled of a person to get emotionally sucked into a photograph to the point that he wouldn't hear a zombie behind him. The death didn't track with the character.

The rest of the episode focused on Rick, Michonne, and Glenn and explored how bleak and dire the world has become. They took a trip north on the chance that Noah's family's gated community would have survived, but of course it was nothing but a smoldering heap. Rick and Glenn had all but given up, but Michonne convinced them that it was a smart idea to head to Washington, D.C. anyway even though Eugene was lying about having a cure in the city. She still believes they can have a chance at life, real life, not scrounging like animals in the wilderness.

Anyone who has read the comics knows the survivors are headed for the Alexandria Safe Zone. Of course, the show will likely remix this story and location in some way, just as it has done for the last four-and-a-half seasons.

Notes:

- Chad Coleman was stellar in this episode. What a way for him to go out.

- Poor Sasha. First Bob, now Tyreese. And in the show's time, this all happened in probably a week or so. This girl is a wreck.

- Why is Glenn not with Maggie after her sister died?

- Kudos to the show for not dragging out this journey north. It was a little bit much to just hear the character say they had travelled 500 miles rather than showing some of it, especially considering the difficulty involved in traveling on this show. But I'm glad we're not stalling here.

What did you think of "What Happened and What's Going On"? Let us know in the comments section.