"The Walking Dead" Season 5- Episode 504 "Slabtown"

"The Walking Dead" Season 5- Episode 504

 "Slabtown"

Beth, meet Officer Lerner...

Dawn Lerner, meet Beth Greene.

Noah, a survivor from Virginia.

THOUGHTS

Okay, I'm going to get right to the point here: I really didn't care for this episode too much. It wasn't the acting, as always the cast deliver a pretty great performance. This episode slowed the momentum as set by the first three episodes to a crawl. No, scratch that, it didn't slow it down...it slammed on the brakes with both feet to the floor board squealing tires to a complete and utter uninteresting stop.

We wait all this time to find out what happened to the ever-singing, sometimes suicidal, usually crying Beth Greene and this is what we get? Really? At best, this episode was foreshadowing other, more interesting developments. It felt almost like an afterthought.

 "Oh, yeah, let's show what happened to Beth! Anybody got any ideas?"

Matthew Negrete (widely known as former writer for powerhouses such as "Timon & Pumbaa", "The Penguins of Madagascar" & "Power Rangers RPM") and Channing Powell (known for such contributions as...well, just "White Collar".) raised their hands in the back of the writer's room.

I think this episode, as a vehicle for character Beth Greene, was lacking. I know, I know, I hear you all screaming "Not every episode can be an action episode!!"...

Why not? The most popular episodes of the series to date have been "run & gun" mixed with just enough character development to move the characters forward and the least favorite episodes have been the pure "soap opera with zombies". So tell me again how writing a "bridge" between two thoughts makes for a great episode of "The Walking Dead"?

It doesn't. The episode doesn't fit right with the rest of the established narrative for Season 5. It just doesn't work. The new characters are simple, one-dimensional and needlessly stereotypical "bad cops". There were no surprises or revelations. Really, when Carol was brought in on a stretcher, you were surprised? Put two and two together: Daryl & Carol were last seen beginning to chase a car similar to the one that took Beth. 

Her wounds look like a car crash to me, so there's probably a chase somewhere in our future. 

Well, there you have it. After all of the speculations, assumptions and general "pull-an-idea-out-of-your-ass" thoughts, we have our answer to that burning question: "What happened to Beth?!"

I bet you're glad you asked, aren't you? What is seen cannot be unseen, my friends and I wasted an hour of my life wanting the blinking advertisement to appear stating that "as a DirectTV customer, you're in danger of losing 'The Walking Dead'"! 

I honest to God thought she was going to sing again.