“The Distance” is a title that most likely refers to the space between Rick and his group and Alexandria; however, it also speaks to the emotional journey each character on The Walking Dead faces this week, tracing their path from curiosity to paranoia, to ultimately trust of Aaron, the mysterious man promising the group a return to a life of normalcy. Boiled down to its essence, “The Distance” asks a single question: can these people still trust anyone besides each other?
Over the seasons, The Walking Dead‘s biggest improvements have come from its lead character, Rick Grimes. Not only has Andrew Lincoln’s performance vastly improved since season one, but the writing around it has provided some much-needed pathos to the journey of everyone’s favorite zombie cowboy. We saw it earlier this season when Rick made a choice about the people from Terminus chasing them, and when he found out about the priest’s history – Rick’s become a person who can’t reconcile protecting his family by trusting strangers, something that strikes deeply at the emotional changes Rick’s gone through since his farmer days at the prison.
He’s a man who has completely lost hope; even as Aaron comes to them, and basically tells him they can turn back the clock to the pre-apocalypse world, a feeling represented wonderfully in the old-fashioned, sepia-toned pictures of Alexandria Aaron shows to the group. Upon hearing this, Rick’s response is to hit the man so hard he passes out – while the others in the group seem reluctant to give up their last vestige of humanity, Rick’s already embraced the life of an animal in the jungle, something also represented beautifully through the messy, unkempt mess of hair and beard that Rick has become, turning him into a caveman with a revolver, a man who can’t understand language or emotional nuance, and only responds to physical movement, the only thing he thinks a person does you can count on. Words can lie, but actions cannot – and that debate frames the episode around the ever-present themes of survival and humanity, and how those two often come at odds with each other.
While much of this puts the focus of “The Distance” directly on Rick, the episode finds balance in important moments, contrasting Rick’s darkness with the outlook of others like Glen, who refuses to give up the most common decencies of life (in this case, letting Aaron stay with his injured boyfriend), even in the face of unknown horror. At some point, there has to be a line drawn in the sand, or one might find themselves completely lost: and when Rick confides in Michonne that nothing could convince him to go through the gates of Alexandria, it captures that dichotomy between characters with a grace not usually seen on The Walking Dead.
It also perfectly sets the stage for the closing scene, in which Rick finds out there is still one thing inside him that springs hope: the sound of children playing. At one point, he talks about arriving at Woodbury and Terminus and hearing nothing but silence; there were no sounds of happiness, no sign that safety would be ever-lasting (especially at Terminus, when they spent about four seconds outside of a shipping container upon arrival), and how he couldn’t ever bring his family into a situation like that again. And when Rick and Michonne first arrive at Alexandria, director Larysa Kondracki’s camera zooms in on Rick’s eyeballs, capturing the moment when Rick’s entire mentality shifts, upon hearing the sounds of children playing inside the thick, steel walls of Alexandria. Once again, hope has found its way to Rick’s feet – and although it’s a feeling that likely produces more anxiety than pleasure, represents an important step for Rick in maintaining whatever shred of humanity hasn’t been erased by Shane, The Governor, the weirdos at Terminus, or the many other people Rick’s encountered and killed on his way to Terminus (a number he can’t even remember anymore, far outweighing the two Aaron details when asked “the questions”).
There are a few moments where “The Distance” puts Rick aside to briefly glimpse at Abraham and Rosita and their slowly healing friendship – or a high-tension drive through a zombie horde in what was once a white Cadillac – but the majority of the episode is about the reconciliation of Rick’s paranoia with the combination of anxiety, desperation, and hope that embodies the rest of the group. It isn’t mined for cheap, loud conflict either: “The Distance” treats these internal and external debates with care, slowly building to the moment where Rick’s faith in the world is (momentarily) restored, one of the most effective climatic moments of the season.
[Photo via AMC]
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