WiC Watches: The Walking Dead Season 10
By Ashley Hurst
Episode 1009: “Squeeze”
The Walking Dead’s midseason premiere kicks off in wonderful style with an incredibly tense and thrilling episode that wastes no time providing answers to some of the burning questions we’ve had for weeks. If you’re into tight spaces, dark pits and zombies then this episode was made for you. If you’re claustrophobic, you may well find it a bit difficult to watch.
If you don’t remember, the last episode left us on yet another huge cliffhanger, something The Walking Dead loves to do. Alpha had led seven of our heroes — Daryl, Carol, Arron, Connie, Jerry, Magna, and Kelly — into a dark cave packed with Walkers. So how do they get on?
To start, I’ll say that I loved this episode, it was easily the most enjoyable hour of The Walking Dead I’ve watched this season. Our survivors realize they can’t escape from where they came in, so the only way to get out is to voyage deeper and hope there’s an exit. There’s an awful lot of tension, but I never felt it was too much because the episode doesn’t rely on it. The scenes between the two longest-serving characters on the show, Carol and Daryl, we’re really moving and provided a much-needed distraction from all the intensity.
As they’re trapped in a cave, likely suffering from a bit of cabin fever, we get some emotional dialogue between the two. “I can’t even turn my back on you anymore,” Daryl admits to her. He says this because she’s always wandering off on a lone mission to find Alpha. In fact, it was actually Carol’s wandering that got them into the cave in the first place!
Watching “Squeeze,” I never felt as though the characters in the cave were truly safe. My favorite scene was when they had to maneuver through a tight spot, and Jerry finds himself stuck with two Walkers in hot pursuit. I honestly thought that would be the end of Jerry, which would have been disappointing as he’s a great source of comedy. In homage of the title, that scene was a most definitely a tight squeeze!
It was an unsettling journey where anything could have gone wrong at any moment. This is The Walking Dead, after all, and things rarely run smoothly. Just when they are at the last hurdle and see daylight, Carol takes dynamite she found on the floor and, in a moment of folly, decides to blow up the cave to kill the Walkers. Daryl attempts to stop her, but accidentally knocks the explosives and the cave begins to crumble. In a last-minute escape, Daryl, Carol, Kelly, Jerry and Aaron make it out while Connie and Magna are crushed. This saddens Daryl, who had a wonderful dynamic with Connie. As for Carol, well, she clearly knows the magnitude of her mistake, which I suspect might come back to haunt her in the episodes to come.
And if the storyline in the cave was fantastic, the secondary story with Negan is…happening. Essentially, Negan is still finding his role within the Whisperer’s camp after pledging his allegiance to Alpha. When there’s talk of a spy within the Whisperers, Negan confronts Alpha to give her some advice. He thinks the spy is Gamma, and Alpha plans to take action. I love how Negan connects Alpha’s situation to his own past as the leader of the Saviors; at times I actually feel sympathy for him.
When Alpha sends for the spy — she wants them alive, notable — she asks Negan to follow her. She takes him into the depths of the forest, where oddly she requests Negan remove his clothes, and he bewilderedly obliges. They kiss as the camera zooms out, which is very odd considering their relationship in Robert Kirkman’s comics. There’s some nudity in this scene, which would explain the rare sexual content rating this episode was hit with.
The two have a fantastic dynamic, the contrasting personalities are just brilliant. And of course, the writers killed it once again with Negan’s sarcastic, straight-talking dialogue, which is always a pleasure to hear, made even better by Alpha’s stoic face and short, aggrieved responses.
One thing that annoyed me was how dark the episode is. I don’t mean dark as in gritty (although it was that), I mean it really is visually quite dark. I watched this episode on two different screens before I realized that it was meant to look like that. Some might find it aesthetically pleasing, I find it irritating. It reminded me of the issues fans had with the big White Walker battle in the episode “The Long Night” from Game of Thrones.
Overall, “Squeeze” was refreshing for the series. Melissa McBride’s performance was stellar and one of the best she’s done on The Walking Dead. There have been times in previous seasons when the show has been balancing too many storylines. Now they’re just working with two and it seems to be going well.