After the episode “On the Inside” (11×06), about which we would never have expected to say at this point in The walking dead (Frank Darabont and Angela Kang, since 2010) which is one of the most chilling experiences we have had in the entire AMC series, has been released “Promises Broken” (11×07), from which the same level is not expected.
Because repeating it would be difficult for screenwriter Julia Ruchman (The Son) in his fifth contribution to the zombie apocalypse and the director Sharat Raju, which has so far been in charge of three chapters of this television fiction, another three of Fear the walking dead (Robert Kirkman and Dave Erickson, since 2015) and one of The Walking Dead: World Beyond (Matthew Negrete and Scott M. Gimple, since 2020).
The first thing he does, in any case, is pull the thread again on the bad relationship between Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) for the criminal past that separates them. Then, of what faces the group of Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt) and Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) in the Commonwealth and, finally, Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) with the Reapers, who are headed by the lunatic Pope (Ritchie Coster ).
A morbid satisfaction in ‘The Walking Dead’
In “Promises Broken” an incontrovertible fact is once again emphasized: the great dramatic footprint left by the gruesome Whisperers of Alpha (Samantha Morton) and Beta (Ryan Hurst) in The walking dead; as had already happened in “Out of the Ashes” (11 × 05). And seeing that some of the protagonists decide to imitate their techniques to confront their enemies gives us a certain morbid satisfaction. Like the encounter of Father Gabriel Stokes (Seth Gilliam) with his namesake, Mancea (Dikran Tulaine), among his antagonists.
On the other hand, the honest conversation between Negan and Maggie Rhee contains quite a tremendous discursive turn that we must value in its fair measure. But we can’t say we expected less from the talkative former Saviors leader, either, and we are not disappointed in that regard.
The virtue of sustained tension
The first break of the final season of The walking dead occurs after “For Blood” (11×08), a chapter in which Sharat Raju repeats as director, who also has in his curriculum, on the other hand, episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (Dick Wolf, since 1999), Criminal minds (Jeff Davis, 2005-2020), How to defend a murderer (Peter Nowalk, 2014-2020) or The Good Doctor (David Shore, since 2017). But who has written it is Erik Mountain (Person of Interest), which he had only dealt with before the intense “One More” (10×19).
The last sequence of “Promises Broken” prepares us for the great attack of other times; The one starting here, which shows the effectiveness of the Whisperers’ terrifying strategy with their hordes of the undead, has an impact on that rugged gustirrinín we were referring to. Then, they bring us closer to the situation in Alexandria, more compromised by one of the extreme weather phenomena that the zombie franchise began to take into account in a very reasonable way during the fourth season of Fear the walking dead.
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The sustained tension in two alternate narrative focuses is one of the virtues of “For Blood”, with an appropriate setting, foggy and unpleasant respectively, and an audiovisual device that is not splendid but it is timely. The uncertainty of incompatible loyalties, on the other hand, they play a good role in suspense, its resolution could not occur in other words by the desolate vein of this apocalyptic series and, to finish the job, we are left with both cliffhangers until February next year. So we will need a little patience.