Tonight was the premiere of Season Six of The Walking Dead. The first episode, “First Time Again”, lasted for 90 minutes and was a beautiful mix of black and white scenes, which showed what happened immediately after the end of season 5, interspersed with color scenes, showing the present day.
Overall the episode was amazing. It was a perfect entrance into season six and it did a great job at showing what has happened since the end of season five and where everyone is now. It offered drama, a funny moment or two, and plenty of zombies. There were a couple of complaints, but overall it was a strong episode.
If you keep reading, you can expect spoilers, so if you haven’t watched the episode, stop reading here. After the photo there will be spoilers!
The black and white scenes are one of my favorite parts of the episode. The cinematography is beautiful and the writers do a nice job of filling us in on how things have changed in Alexandria. It’s clear that Deanna (Tovah Feldshuh) is having a problem with her husband’s death (Pete killed him at the end of season 5). In the midst of her mourning, she’s let Alexandria fall out of her control and allows Rick (Andrew Lincoln) to run things.
This is a problem for a lot of the residents of Alexandria, especially for Carter (Ethan Embry). Carter seems to hate Rick so much that he’s willing to form a coup to try and take the community back from Rick. While the initial scene with the coup and Rick taking quick control felt pointless in many ways, it served to show a possible rift in Rick’s group. While Rick and Carol (Melissa McBride) are still ready for anything at any time, Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Morgan (Lennie James) seem more relaxed about things, and Daryl (Norman Reedus) even mentions the importance of finding others to build the community.
Rick is back to being the more decisive, cop-like Rick and that is a good thing. He’s a bit of a loose cannon, but he appears focused. Everything he is trying to do, needs to be done. He’s hard on everyone because he honestly believes he’s trying to save them. It quickly becomes clear that most of the Alexandrians can’t defend themselves, even with Rick as backup, and it just proves why he has to be the way that he is.
Rick and Morgan take Pete out in the middle of the woods to bury him because Rick doesn’t believe they should bury killers inside the community. Morgan points out an obvious fact when he says, “You’re a killer Rick. We all are.” This just leads to the idea that its possible that some dissension will occur in the group this season.
Things with Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge) are pretty much over, even before they had a chance to begin. Rick caught her son, Ron, out in the woods and had to save him from some zombies. He yelled at him and tried to let him know he needed to know how to protect himself. Really, all Ron wanted was to see where Rick and Morgan were burying his dad. Afterwards, Jessie told Rick that she will teach her kids how to defend themselves, after someone teaches her.
Ultimately, it looks like this season may end up having fans be either #TeamRick or #TeamMorgan. It’s clear that Rick is willing to do whatever he needs to do to survive and to protect the people that have become his family. Morgan on the other hand, seems to take a much more peaceful approach to life. He doesn’t seem to want to hurt anyone living. Both sides offer something to consider, but ultimately, people are going to want to follow one philosophy or the other. Rick has tried Morgan’s way and it didn’t work for him. It’s nice to see him willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.

The color sequences of the show mainly deal with a quarry filled with hundreds of zombies. It becomes clear that the reason that Alexandria never had a huge zombie problem was because they were all stuck in this quarry and the more noise they made, the more zombies showed up. So, when the show wasn’t in black and white, the group was in present day, working on a project to move the zombies away from Alexandria.
Despite the huge amount of zombies, the first big kill scene didn’t arrive until nearly an hour into the show when Glenn (Steven Yeun), Heath (Corey Hawkins), and Nicholas (Michael Traynor) shoot up a store window in order to remove the zombies from the building. Despite them needing to kill a dozen or so zombies, there was never an immediate feeling of danger. There were a few close calls, but we’ve seen this so much in the previous seasons that it feels more obvious when real danger is afoot.

Danger does come though. At the end of the episode, when the zombies are almost away from the safe zone, a horn sounds and it leads them directly for Alexandria. It looks like the next episode (hopefully the next couple of episodes) will be filled with a huge zombie showdown between the currently ill-equipped Alexandrians and a zombie hoard unlike anything we’ve seen thus far. Considering it’s more than likely that the horn was the work of the wolves, it will be interesting to see how the Alexandrians handle them, as well.
I loved this episode, but being fair, I do have a couple of complaints. Here they are:

Ethan Embry

I could really just end this comment right there. Embry received a fairly big part in this episode and he’s not talented enough to pull it off. He lacks authenticity and just comes off as whiny and childish the whole time. It’s clear he can’t take care of himself so staging a coup is just laughable. His unfortunate demise and Rick’s line about Carter getting bit in the face actually made me shout out in glee, because I was so afraid he’d be around for awhile, and would drag down the show as a result.

Not Enough Carol, Michonne, or Daryl

Carol is still currently playing the housewife, so the only time we see her she is schlepping drinks or smiling demurely. Michonne is on camera a little bit more, but she barely speaks the whole episode. The same could be said for Daryl. This is probably the most forgivable of gripes, as all three will definitely play a bigger role in the episodes to come. Come to think of it, Carl (Chandler Riggs) wasn’t around much either.

Best Moments of the Episode:

Heath: “This is supposed to be a dress rehearsal.”
Glenn: “I’m supposed to be delivering pizzas.”
Abraham: “I’m grabbing the bull by the nutsack.”
Little asskicker being little asskicker.
Seeing the zombies fill the rear windshield of Sasha and Abraham’s car #ZombiesintheWindshield.
Next week, the zombies come to Alexandria and Carol gets to use her gun again!