For weeks now, “The Walking Dead” has been releasing sub-par episodes, expecting viewers to stick it out in hopes of a dramatic reveal in the finale, “Last Day on Earth.” The result, however, was yet another slow episode ending in yet another cheap cliffhanger intended to drag the show’s audience into the next season with some semblance of excitement.
The finale was stretched into a 90-minute episode, despite having little more than 45 minutes of decent plot to cover. To stall for time, the writers shoehorned in an essentially useless subplot between Morgan (Lennie James) and Carol (Melissa McBride). The two bickered over the same clichés about killing and survival that the show has already covered countless times, then wandered off with a new group.
The main action, if it can be called that, centered on Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the group trying hopelessly to get Maggie (Lauren Cohan) to Hilltop for medical treatment. One path after another is blocked by the Saviors, and the tension does indeed mount each time, though perhaps not as much as the writers hoped.
Inevitably, they run into Negan and the main group of the Saviors, in one of the best moments of the episode. A dramatic shot reveals how hugely outnumbered Rick’s group is, while the incessant whistling of the Saviors provides a haunting backdrop.
The moment is, however, ruined by a 10-minute monologue from Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Intense and terrifying at first, it drags on, leaving the audience waiting to be put out of its misery.
In this episode, like many in this season and the last, it is painfully apparent the show has run out of surprises to keep viewers on the edges of their seats. How many times can the group repeat the same heroic speeches about honor and debts of life? How many inexplicably rash decisions can the characters make for the sole purpose of setting up dramatic face-offs against enemies? Unless the payoffs get better, it’s unlikely that many more so-called showdowns can be tolerated.
“Last Day on Earth,” like the previous episode and one earlier in the season, falls back on the cheap trick of tempting the audience with a character death, but not revealing the whole truth. Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) were both recent victims of what seemed to be deaths before it was revealed they lived after all. They turned out to be victims of a much worse fate — the show’s increasingly desperate attempts to keep viewers on board by teasing character deaths.
The finale ends the same way. Someone has died, but who? The show’s writers are counting on viewers to tune in next season to find out because, quite frankly, there’s not much else to keep them watching.
“The Walking Dead” has been running low on compelling plot twists for some time now, and the season finale was only the most glaring example. A weak episode or two is forgivable in the setup for a stunning finale, but the show just didn’t deliver a sufficient payoff. It needs to find a meaningful driving plot to move the next season forward and to save it from relying on frustrating cliffhangers to maintain interest.
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