Having edited 21 previous episodes of The Walking Dead, Dan Liu makes his debut as a television director with this week’s episode, “Some Guy.” He kicks off the episode with one of the better cold opens in recent memory. We see Ezekiel as just “some guy” — the zookeeper with some acting experience — before he puts on his costume and transforms himself into “King Ezekiel,” the man thrust into a leadership position by circumstance and by necessity. “Fake it ’til you make it, baby” Ezekiel told Carol two weeks back. In tonight’s episode, he learns that some things cannot be faked. The cold open nicely establishes one of the night’s major themes before Liu hits us with a really powerful transition from Ezekiel standing with the Kingdommers huddled around him chanting “We Are One!” to the present, with many of those same men, now corpses, huddled on top of him after being gunned down by the Saviors and their massive artillery gun.
When Ezekiel finally does crawl out from beneath the pile of bodies, he’s faced with a new living nightmare: Nearly every single man he led into battle is dead, crumpled on the ground, riddled with bullet holes, guts hanging out of their massive wounds. Worse: Ezekiel’s leg is broken. Even worse: His soldiers reanimate as zombies and begin lurching toward him. Ezekiel and his fractured ankle can only scoot away helplessly He’s about to be devoured by his own soldiers when another surviving Kingdommer comes to his rescue.
That’s short-lived, however, because a Savior who looks like the young version of a famous serial killer in every Lifetime biopic arrives on the scene, kills the Kingdommer redshirt, and takes Ezekiel hostage. The Savior — who also looks like a guy who drives a wood-paneled van in a movie directed by Richard Linklater — thinks he’s going to drag a hobbling man all the way back to the Savior compound while being chased by zombies. The Savior — who looks like the villain in an ill-advised horror sequel to The Sandlot — does hit a nerve, however, when he calls Ezekiel “just a guy in a costume.” Eventually, however, Jerry comes to the rescue and kills The Savior — who looks like Robert Crumb’s much younger, much less successful little brother — at least until Jerry splits him down the middle with a battle ax.
Meanwhile, Carol spends much of the episode in something akin to a zombie apocalypse sequel to Die Hard, trapped alone in a building full of Saviors. She’s Carol, though. She’s got this. She guns down a half a dozen Saviors, and then she meets the rest out back for a game of shoot ’em up. Pinned behind a pick-up truck, Carol exchanges about 4,879 rounds of gunfire before she manages to open a gate and let a few zombies into the compound. That gives her enough time to retake the advantage in the gunfight, an advantage that is eventually frittered away when she notices that Jerry and Ezekiel need help. She offers it, saving Zeke and Jerry, but the Saviors make their escape with the heavy artillery.
No matter! Rick and Daryl are on the scene, and in a car chase sequence that looks like Fast and the Furious meets Deliverance meets a green screen, they kill the two Saviors and reclaim the heavy artillery, giving them a decided advantage in the All Out War.
Finally, the episode comes upon the “plot,” the meat of the episode’s story. The first 50 minutes of the episode probably could have been reduced to 10 minutes in a typical action movie, but the All Out War has 16 episodes to fill and only 2 episodes worth of story, so the show has been saving the substance for after the last commercial break. Here, we see Carol and Jerry carrying Ezekiel back to The Kingdom. A hobbled Ezekiel, however, keeps them from being able to outrun the zombies so he begs Carol and Jerry to abandon him. “I ain’t your King,” he cries. “I ain’t nothing. I’m just ‘some guy.'”
Just as it appears that Carol and Jerry will leave him behind, however, Shiva arrives and saves the day.
Unfortunately, Shiva is also ripped to shreds by the zombies in what may be the saddest death since Noah was devoured in a revolving door. RIP Shiva. Ezekiel is so distraught that he can’t help but to look on while scores of zombies eat his pet tiger. Afterward, when Ezekiel returns to The Kingdom, the once exuberant, confident Ezekiel can’t even bring himself to deliver the bad news to the remaining members of his community. He hobbles by them and returns to his room.
Ezekiel is still alive, but King Ezekiel died with Shiva.
“Some Guy” continues the uneven eighth season of the series, having spent the first four episodes in what is essentially a prolonged gunfight. Greg Nicotero announced ahead of the season, in what now feels like a warning, that The Walking Dead wouldn’t take a breather until after the fourth episode. Expect the series to slow down next week and assess the situation. After four episodes, it seems like Rick’s camp has a huge advantage in the All Out War. They’ve wiped out several Savior outposts; they’ve cornered Negan, and they’ve wrestled away the heavy artillery. However, Rick has also suffered some major casualties. Eric is gone, and so is nearly the entire Kingdom army, plus we still have no real idea how many Saviors there still are out there. Expect them to rally and, in the coming weeks, go back on the offensive. In the flash forward, after all, we see a rebuilt Alexandria. We have yet to see why it needed to be rebuilt.
It’s worth noting, too, that we haven’t seen Alexandria since the pilot. We have no idea what Carl, Michonne, and Rosita are up to. Siddiq has not reappeared yet, either, while Negan and Gabriel are still camped out inside of that trailer. The biggest wildcard, however, remains Jadis and the Junkyard Gang, who have yet to make an appearance this season. She may ultimately provide the reinforcements Negan so clearly needs to regain some momentum in the All Out War.
