The Walking Dead 6×6 Review: Always Accountable

I have a feeling that we’ve just been introduced to The Walking Dead’s next ‘big bad’ – or at least I have to hope so, because if not then there was literally nothing for me to care about in “Always Accountable”.

Not only that, but if nothing long-term comes of what happened in this episode, it’s going to be impossible for me to look back and not feel like its entire plot was forced and unnecessary.

But I digress. Unfortunately, Rick’s grand plan for the zombie horde hit snags from beginning to end, this last one being that Abraham, Sasha, and Daryl were attacked by a group of strangers on their way back to Alexandria. To be honest it almost seems like a bit much, even for this show, for everything to go wrong seemingly all of the time.

I also didn’t care for the scene with Daryl going in and out of consciousness after being captured. Once again it felt like the show was trying to be artsy, and it wasn’t working for me. I don’t know about anyone else, but I couldn’t understand most of what he was ‘overhearing’ – the only line that I clearly heard was one of the girls asking the guy (who was later introduced by the name Dwight) if he knew ‘how to use one’ and Dwight saying ‘yeah’. At the time the girl was putting Daryl’s crossbow into a bag, so that’s obviously what she was asking about, but if this was the only thing we were supposed to gain from that scene, I can think of several more concise ways that this could have been done.

Of course, anyone who has read the comics knows that there is an important character named Dwight who is part of the Saviors, which is the group led by Negan, the character who Jeffrey Dean Morgan was recently cast as. And the Dwight who is part of the Saviors carries a crossbow. That said, though, the Dwight we were introduced to in “Always Accountable” – his appearance, his demeanor, and the means of his introduction – don’t really match up with the Dwight we see in the comics. Normally I don’t like bringing the comic story lines or characters into my episode reviews, but to be honest I was so confused by this episode, and by what was going on with Dwight, Honey, and Tina, that at the moment the only way I can come to grips with any of it is to hope that, though of course there are/will be quite a few differences, we’re about to see the show tackle another comic book story line.

While Daryl was off being no more than a plot device, Abraham and Sasha had some interesting scenes together. Unfortunately, I’m using the word ‘interesting’ lightly, here – because most of their conversations consisted of them going back and forth calling each other out on the crazy things they’ve been doing lately, and this led to…Abraham hitting on Sasha? I get that he’s not with Rosita any more, so it’s not like there’s anything really wrong with him hitting on Sasha, but at the same time I’ve been hoping that we would get to see Sasha develop as a character in her own right since the deaths of her lover and brother, so I don’t want to see her relegated to simply being Abraham’s current hookup/girlfriend.

But hey, at least Abraham got that RPG from that one zombie, and even after losing his crossbow and motorcycle to Dwight and Honey (I can’t see that turning out well for them, to be honest), Daryl conveniently found a truck that was camouflaged in the woods, and then found Abraham and Sasha’s hideout too, and they’re all together again! But then they had to leave us with some sort of cliffhanger, and this time we get to play the “who’s on the other end of that walkie talkie?” game. I know a lot of people are hoping that it’s Glenn, and to be honest that’s probably what would make the most sense, but then this is Walking Dead we’re talking about. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what they come up with next.

Author: Tara Lynne

Tara Lynne is an author, fandom and geek culture expert, and public speaker. She founded Ice & Fire Con, the first ever Game of Thrones convention in the US, and now runs its parent company Saga Event Planning.

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