Swear

As I've said numerous times before, I appreciate the approach that the showrunners are taking this season in giving each episode its own "identity", but I think this episode proved that the execution isn't always there.

I'm so incredibly torn about this season thus far. I loved the first 4 episodes, and thought the last two were rather mediocre. But the writers are doing what I want them to do. I don't want to know what I'm getting every week. I like the revolving cast and the change of pace between having Negan and walkers be the episode "big bad". For the most part the structure of this season has worked well, but I just don't think we needed a 71 minute episode that revolved around Tara. But nor do I think it should have been 9 episodes since the last time we saw her character.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the tonal shift tonight. Tara has always been a bright spot in an otherwise gloom and doom group at Alexandria, so having the episode take a lighter approach was needed. And it was about dang time we caught up with her and Heath's supply run. Since we've never gotten any sort of insight into Heath's character, I figured this would be a big episode for him, but instead it was solely focused on Tara's trip to Oceanside.

I don't read the comics, but apparently Oceanside doesn't debut until issue 139, and the show is approximately on 100 or so. The only reason to me they would debut them so early is because they will be a part of the inevitable team-up against The Saviors. Especially considering they were wronged by Negan when him and his group killed all of Oceanside's men and boys. As a whole I didn't think Oceanside was all that special, although those sand walkers were pretty dang cool.

After Tara's run in with Oceanside, she returned to Alexandria to some bad news about the deaths of Denise, Glenn, and Abraham. I really expected her to tell Rosita about Oceanside and all their guns, but I was glad to see she stayed true to her "swear" she made with Cindy. Out of all the people left at Alexandria, Tara may be the one "truly good" person left, and even that's a debatable statement. Overall, this wasn't nearly the eventful episode I was hoping for after last week's snooze fest, but there were a few redeemable aspects.

+Tara lights up the room

+Sand walkers

-No need for a full 71 minutes of this

7.5/10

While this episode standalone is decent, an entire episode revolving around Tara, a character who isn't that important or popular, was bound to not really work. I am aware Oceanside becomes more important later on, but this episode would've worked a lot better as a side-plot in another episode that focuses more on the main storyline.

This episode fits so well with the narrative of this season and it's sad to me that people don't see how. This season focuses on the saviors. The extent of their control over the area. It'd be completely ridiculous to have every episode be some fight between rick and the saviors. It'd also be ridiculous to have the battle with the saviors climax after 4 episodes and then be over. And you all know it. Instead we get to see where the saviors have put their control. I've been really wanting to know who else is out there and what's going on in the world around our group, and I've seen ppl talk about this since the beginning asking for more scope of the areas around them and how the world is fairing outside of our group, and they finally give it to us in a well crafted way that fits in with the story arc and you guys still find something to whine about. We see the different camps set up in the area and how they are fairing, their relation to the saviors. It all builds up for making an army to match theirs. And it's BRILLIANT in my opinion.

And the highest rated review on here at the time of me posting this is a 1 star-er who spends most of his review talking about Tara's weight as if that has anything to do with anything at all. She shouldn't have to starve herself to death for a role where she plays someone who's starving to death. Are you kidding me? Its her role that she's been playing for years, and maybe she tried to lose weight for it and couldn't, and that has no effect on her acting at all. Why do you even care? The fact that someone even noticed her weight gain and took the time to call her unprofessional for it is hilarious. unprofessional is the suggestion that directors are gonna force a girl to lose weight for a role she already does beautifully. She's a great actress, and yes she is a main character. She has been with us since the governor.

Rewatching this episode of TWD, despite what a lot of the others think this isn't a filler episode. This introduced a whole new community and they play a vital part in the fight back. There are good action scenes, and as for Tara's comment about liking running, it's called sarcasm!

I'm not telling that this episode is one of the best episodes in TWD but also it is not the worst , so i think it deserve better rating than this