Final Thoughts from The Walking Dead Episode "No Way Out"

I kind of figured Jessie's (Alexandra Breckenridge) youngest son, Sam (Major Dodson) wouldn't make it through this episode alive. I wasn't expecting his death to cause a pretty big chain reaction with Jessie also being killed by walkers and her oldest son, Ron (Austin Abrams), being taken down by Michonne (Danai Gurira) because he finally snapped and tried to kill Rick.

This does, in my opinion at least, once again raises some questions about Rick's decision making skills again. Heading to the armory made sense. But, it didn't make sense to take everyone with him (Jessie could have simply barricaded herself and the kids inside the house). And, his last-second decision to try to get to the vehicles rather than first try to make it to the armory only made it worse.

I completely forgot Daryl (Norman Reedus) had a rocket launcher at his disposal until he first used it. And, while noisy, I could see some potential with that.

Of course, while it's a pretty nice weapon, it also isn't overly practical. Unlike his crossbow, for example, it's not like it's easy to find more ammunition for it. Plus, I imagine it might be a bit too heavy to be lugged around everywhere and it isn't that great of a choice for close-range fighting.

Shouldn't they be making more of an effort to re-build the wall that collapsed. It looked like the whole town was gathered around the infirmary right after.

Considering the gunfire, explosion and flames would be sure to attract more zombies, it just seems like they should have been trying to at least build a temporary barricade before hanging out and having a conversation, even if they are tired out from killing all the walkers.

Morgan (Lennie James) chose to keep the Alpha Wolf alive because he believed people can change. And, when he was with Denise, there were admittedly signs he might have, especially when he essentially sacrificed his own life to save hers on more than one occasion. 

Of course, I'm also curious if Denise was really trying to return the favor when she led him back to the infirmary or if she knew Carol (Melissa McBride) was waiting to gun him down. I really would like to believe the former. But, she didn't seem too upset when he was killed.

Either Glenn (Steven Yeun) knew his friends were there or is the luckiest guy in the world considering, if it weren't for some really good timing, he should have been walker food in this episode once again.

Based on the number of times it looked like he was going to die and he somehow managed not to, I suspect, when the writers do finally decide to kill him, it's going to be something completely unexpected, like accidentally tripping over a piece of carpeting and falling through a second-story window.

This, admittedly, was a pretty decent mid-season premiere for this series and arguably one of the better episodes I've seen from this show in a while. Of course, I'm still waiting to see if the series can build from this momentum or, as has been the case before, fizzle out quickly.

My Grade: A