This Emily Post contains spoilers for the 2d episode ofThe Walking DeadSeason 7 , " The Well . "
The Walking Deadreturned for a seventh seasonlast week with an unfortunate premiere . It answered the long - awaited doubt posed by the previous time of year ’s much - loathed close cliffhanger — namely , who would be the victim of new villain Negan ’s baseball chiropteran ? — with precisely the kind of audience - punishing sluggishness and ruthlessness even the most patient fans have come to expect of this show . It teased the threat of Negan ’s reign to come , and devote Jeffrey Dean Morgan further social occasion to stagily glower . And it impart our heroes in the most unenviable state we ’ve seen them in over the course ofThe Walking Dead ’s seven years : shaken , defeated , and utterly hopeless . The only interesting question left to ask was where the series could maybe go from here .
This week ’s episode , " The Well , " provided an unexpected answer – in the build of a new location , a new group , and at least one major new character . The stage setting is a bucolic agrarian biotic community many miles from the Alexandria Safe Zone telephone The Kingdom , well fortified from walker and amply furnish for by a community garden . ( The pomegranate supply is off the chart . ) The Kingdom ’s residents seem – refreshfully ! – peaceful but well armed and well trained ; they jaunt in the main by horseback , in uniform and a variety of Alice Malsenior Walker - morsel - preventing body armor , and have a robust system down for hunt and gathering beyond the community ’s walls .
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The major new character is the most " comic account book " character in this comic adjustment ’s history . Ezekiel , or , as he calls himself , " The King , " talks like he ’s a fixture at a Renaissance carnival . His Lordship decree the Kingdom with sniffy panache . He ’s regal . He ’s outrageous . He has a pet tiger .
From the moment he ’s introduced , Ezekiel seems like a mistake – a crying conceptual erroneous belief that should never have made the saltation from page to screen . A character this ridiculous , this over the top , might work in a comic , where things can support to get a little cartoonish . But on TV ? It will be next to impossible for anyone to take a guy with a pet tiger and residential area - theater rhetoric seriously . Ten minutes into " The Well " and I was ready to announce it : The take the air Deadwasn’t likely to recoup from that season premiere follow by this .
Except it was all a artifice . The Walking Deadwanted us to greet Ezekiel with healthy incredulity , if not outright hostility — because it happens that Ezekiel is n’t as ridiculous as he appear to be at first .
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This we discover through the incredulous eyes of our most reliable interview surrogate . Carol , recovering from the injuries she sustained at the end of the last season , in the bed Morgan procured for her at the Kingdom , finds herself front to brass with this new community ’s rarified leader and can scarce stifle her laughter . Carol feigns amazement and gratitude , once again fall away into the function of ineffectual suburban mom for the sake of self - protection . But she ’s as appalled by the whim of this guy ’s thespian panache as we are . “ It ’s make - think , ” she scoffs to Morgan after the merging . She ’s long - ago accepted – as indeed we have – that only the ruthless and realistic are suited to the world as it is now . As far as Carol is concerned , these the great unwashed are about as safe here as if they ’d holed up in Disneyland .
It ’s when Carol makes to abscond from the Kingdom in the middle of the night that we find out the truth . Ezekiel corner her and makes it clear-cut that he know she ’s putting on an human action : " Do n’t bullshit a bullshitter , " he explain , before dropping the act himself . Ezekiel confides to Carol that all of this – the pet Panthera tigris , the kingly atmosphere , the pretensions , the magniloquence , even the voice – is mere showmanship , roll of tobacco and mirror impact as a leadership strategy . The Kingdom needs a rule , and King Ezekiel , however how veritable he may be , is the well man for the chore . What he ’s doing is n’t much different from what Carol does when she acts meek in front of people she does n’t know . He ’s being tactical . He ’s being voguish . Ezekiel ’s doing what he needs to do to endure .
That disclosure transforms Ezekiel from a conceptual mistake into a originative manna from heaven , and on the whole , " The Well " paint a picture that this fascinating leader may beThe walk Dead ’s most promising fibre — its first opportunity in a long while to show us things we have n’t construe before and , after last week ’s terrible premiere , a inkling of hope for the direction of the time of year .
Ezekiel is already serving Negan and the Saviours : no real surprise there , given the fix of the Kingdom , and relations between them seem about as smooth as one can hope for . ( Ezekiel also seems supernaturally practiced at delicacy : not a high-risk skill to have when you ’re under the thumb of a group like the Saviours . ) But perhaps Ezekiel and his people will become the ripe allies – especially once word reaches him of the recent passing and how desperate the situation has become – for Morgan , and a multi - community alinement is the solution to everyone ’s Negan problem . Meanwhile , Carol was more or less pull ahead over by her New confidant . She ’s left the Kingdom to found more private fourth not far off the lot , but it bet like Ezekiel will if nothing else be a frequent visitant – and very perhaps something more . But that ’s just one more level of machination in a character who ’s quickly looking likeThe Walking Dead ’s last best Leslie Townes Hope .
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