The Walking Dead 105: Wildfire

Do not enter the city. It belongs to the dead now.

Rick Grimes

In 1986 Spike Lee made a film about a bed hopping single black female. She’s Gotta Have It was revolutionary at the time: a film with an African-American female lead, a film directed by a black man, a non-accusatory film about (black) female sexuality. Lee incurred the wrath of (white) America with his pertinent Do the Right Thing 1989. He awakened ghosts, frightened the living and had to battle Warner Bros¹ with Malcolm X 1992. He is the pre-eminent African-American film director in the history of motion pictures. His films for the most part challenge, provoke, entertain, involve and engage. His films are cinema.

Ernest Dickerson² made his name during the Spike Lee years (1986-1995) as his director of photography. Having served his apprenticeship he was rewarded with a studio released debut feature Juice 1992 starring Tupac Shakur. At this point Ernest Dickerson was the next big (black) thing³.

A career in the arts is a marathon and not everyone can be Alfred Hitchcock. Dickerson floundered at features. Others have too. Allan Moyle was a notable disappointment. Richard Kelly is a notable disappointment. Television is become a refugee camp for the once promising movie director. Television is what keeps Dickerson in the visual arts.

He used to be a contender.

The pre credit scene is a harbinger. Unlike the preceding three episodes there is a point to it; Andrea now knows how to use a gun – and accepts the leadership of the cops by consent and not coercion. The immediate question raised is the genre’s pièce de résistance: the transformation from dead to walking dead.

The very first sequence after the titles displays the difference of this episode. Morales and Daryl carry a corpse towards the bonfire. Glenn accosts them. He is strident.

Our people go in that row over there. We don’t burn them. We bury them. Understand? Our people go in that row over there.

Glenn

He controls himself. He is insistent. Glenn is a boy. Morales and Daryl are men. They are not chastened but they do not argue. They bury their dead.

For the first time since this series began there is consequence. The characters are to dwell in the aftermath of the machinations of the plot. This is the blitz. On some occasions when Churchill and/or King George VI visited the bombed out districts the crowds would boo them⁴. They had survived that night. They would have to survive this one.

After catastrophe comes chaos. Daryl declares the massacre as punishment for the camp deserting his brother. Jim begs Jacqui not to out him. She does. Shane considers murder – a sight seen by Dale. Andrea kills her sister’s walker.

Dickerson’s skill as a director is to dwell on the actors. It is the reaction shot. The actors – all of them – raise their game accordingly. The survivor’s register shock, horror, dismay, revulsion and fear at the revelation of a bleeding bite wound on Jim’s stomach. Jim pleads for his life then has to sit and wait as a people’s tribunal decides his fate.

There are bouts of sentimentality – Gale’s soliloquy and Amy’s zombie death – but these are negated by her burial. They are negated by the tribunal arguing to a near point of violence about what direction to take. The camp is to separate. The farewell scene invokes images of Somali refugee camps in Kenya and the blind choices a man must make to save his family. No actor is wasted where they hitherto have been. This is the skill of Dickerson.

For the first time Sarah Wayne Callies as Lori gives a worthy performance. Rick approaches his wife for help. She can’t give it him. She won’t give it him. These are people falling apart. They are frantic, desperate and propelled by fear. The realisation is settling in; they are living in false hope. Rick, Shane and Daryl want to defeat the enemy while Lori and Glen insist on retaining their humanity. It takes all sorts of mechanisms to cope.

Shane is given more motivation. His family are dead. That’s more than enough to tip any man – much less a self believing cop – into the insanity of jealousy. Jacqui has her best scenes yet. Jim’s demise is a good (off screen) death. In a world of 6.5 billion people what’s one more zombie in the scheme of things?

 

The climax to this episode rivals 101. It doesn’t supersede it but it does come close. It is action and drama. It is cinematic. It is magnificent. Ernest Dickerson is the biggest mistake of this series because he has exposed the potential of The Walking Dead. He has shown what could have been. What it should be. He hasn’t lost his talent.

He is wasted in television.

Read more Thrill Fiction: The Walking Dead 104: Vatos

1 Spike Lee Inside the Actors Studio

2 IMDb

3 Juice 1992 Entertainment Weekly

4 World War 2 The Complete History

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The Walking Dead 104: Vatos

Vato: The word Mexicans use for homeboy(sic).

The Urban Dictionary

Not to be confused with the Hispanic street gang Vatos Locos.

knowgangs.com

400 years ago Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. To celebrate his failure the British burn effigies atop bonfires every November 5^th. The fires burn at public gatherings and in private backyards to a firework display finale. Bonfire night aside throughout the year people use fireworks to celebrate a myriad of occasions: sporting events, the openings of restaurants, nightclubs, birthdays. Other countries celebrate with fireworks too. The fact is human beings are mesmerised by flashing lights in the night sky. Just like the zombies in George A Romero’s Land of the Dead 2005.

The Walking Dead is a fireworks display: all smoke no mirrors.

Monsters 2010 is an apocalypse-set film in the tradition of Cloverfield 2008. Whereas the latter positions itself in the horror genre the former is set firmly in drama. Monsters tells the story of two Americans stranded in Mexico who attempt to walk their way through the ‘infected zone’ back into the United States. In this apocalyptic world the characters have nothing left but time – and a survivalist’s urgency. It is a time to re-examine themselves. It is time not afforded to us in our world of capitalism and consumerism. There comes a tipping point in that time where the characters realise that this is the end of the world and all hope is gone. At the end of time will people gravitate to each other out of lust or despair?

The Walking Dead attempts to position itself as drama yet after more than three hours of broadcast television it has failed to establish tone. There is not a sense of static time or hopelessness. Rick Grimes’ quest seems to be leading to a point but post Armageddon all points are futile. The show does not convey this. Civilization would have to start over but these characters act like they’re waiting for a rescue. The series balances itself between horror and drama – Atlanta and the campsite – with no equilibrium. The last two episodes have seen the drama fail at camp. This episode sees the horror fail in Atlanta.

The fail is the writing. Time and again the program makers waste the pre credit sequence. Rather than establish the episode they signpost the climax – with a bludgeon rather than a blade; the conversation between two blonde women about fishing tackle is at best inane at worst sentimental. These two characters then expose the series as fraud. Where did that boat come from? Did a refugee carry it on their back whilst fleeing escaping flesh eating zombies? How long have these people been in camp because they act like this is the first time the sisters have caught fish. Yet the girls are lifelong amateur fishermen. They catch a bounty bigger than the Cornwall fishing quota.

Jim wanders off and occupies his time digging holes in the ground. That causes consternation amongst the campers. Apparently he’s scaring Lori’s son and Carol’s daughter. Notably his digging is not scaring Juan’s children. I guess the only time a white man scares them is when he wants to deport them. Nevertheless we must protect the (white) children so Shane handcuffs Jim to a tree.

Do not be deceived. This episode does not deal with the inevitable nervous breakdowns following Armageddon or even the camp dynamics. Jim’s ‘sunstroke’ is a setup for the conclusion. A society can be judged by the way it treats its mentally ill. How would Shane or anyone else treat a liability who screams at night as a beacon for the walkers? Why hasn’t anyone challenged Shane his leadership position especially after Ed’s beating in 103 and now Jim? There should be murmurings and grumblings of a coup d’état most likely from Lori. Alas this show has no interest in human motivation and condition. This is soap opera and General Hospital has been running for 50 years.

In Atlanta the racist stereotyping continues. The only good Injun is a dead one but these Latinos are good guys. They may come across as gangbangers but they’re really just looking after their grandmothers – for shame. Atlanta is a majority African-American city but in the wonderful world of white fantasy where are all the black zombies?

They’re unemployed.

There is a token black zombie. T-Dog is given a gun. He gets to use it as well. He gets to shoot a zombie. Guess which one.

I’m your worst nightmare.

I’m a n— with a gun badge.

Eddie Murphy

Another 48 Hours

Read more Thrill Fiction: The 100 Best Horror Films #1

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