A Festival of Friendship.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Man, what a weird episode.
Were the Garbage People of Trashlandia a part of the comics? The show is now past where I stopped reading so I don't know what's a straight adaptation anymore. Either way, I need some answers here. Maybe answers are coming. Maybe we'll get an explanation as to why these oddballs act like they've been living in a Mad Max apocalypse for two generations and not just a handful of years like everyone else, but until that happens the verdict is that these folks are pretty damned goofy.
Yes, "New Best Friends" introduced us to a entirely new community of zompocalypse survivors, but unlike the Saviors and Hilltop, who act like real people (and real d-bags), and the Kingdom, who live in an agreed upon delusion, the Garbage People feel like they all escaped from the same mental hospital.
An argument can be made that The Kingdom is pretty out there and silly, but their society works. It thrives. They eat well and they have happy, well-adjusted lives. Graded on a sharp curve, sure, but you know what I mean. These new people willingly live in trash. And mostly don't speak. And when they do speak, they act like they're hundreds of years removed from civilization and have now crafted their own quasi-language because the old ways died with their ancestors back in the time when humans acted like foolish gods and arrogantly flew in the sky on the wings of metal birds.
How did these people decide to be silent, non-emotive junkyard filth in just a few years? What were their initial meetings like when they chose to be creepy and quiet? How do they recruit? And why, for the love of all that's good and holy, would they make Rick fight a walker (that looked more like a Resident Evil monster), Thunderdome/Rancor Pit-style, as a way to prove he can go get them guns?
They'd already SEEN him get guns. From a very dangerous set up too. Why risk killing the guy you want to go get guns when he could still die just trying to get the guns for you? Just make him go get the guns. Now he's injured and going off to get the guns at less than 100%. Why does this society collectively make sense to everyone in it?
And why was Rick still so happy when he made the deal at the end? He was smiling ear-to-ear at Michonne, saying "We did it!" What did he do? He made a deal with a group of a-holes who he'll probably have to kill after they all kill the Saviors. But before the garbage goblins who think they're in Cloud Atlas can even help out, he has to go fetch for them. He just got beat up, stabbed through the hand and came to a shaky agreement with psychos and was like "We did it!" This is all very concerning. At least he grabbed that cat sculpture for his near-death troubles.
"New Best Friends" wasn't all about the greasy garbage people (who aren't even that formidable one-on-one if Tara was kicking their asses) though. No, there was much going on over at The Kingdom when Richard, who I've actually liked up until now, decided the Carol was expendable and would make a lovely catalyst for war. It's an understandable move as many of us last week saw Carol as someone who could convince Ezekiel to fight back, but this ploy certainly darkened up Richard in a hurry.
Of course, for her to convince Ezekiel to fight would mean she'd have to want to fight back herself and that wasn't going to happen because there's now a protective bubble around Carol provided by Daryl, Morgan, and Ezekiel. The best moment of this episode was Daryl's reunion with Carol followed by his refusal to tell her about Abraham and Glenn. That was really powerful. Daryl wants deep and desperate revenge on the Saviors but it won't come at the expense of Carol's well-being, physically or emotionally - even if sparing her the news of her friends' deaths means that the Kingdom won't join the battle.
Daryl does leave though, at the end, to go back to Hilltop. Leaves her there knowing that Richard had ruthless plans to likely get her killed by the Saviors in order to jump-start a war. So that was strange. I know Daryl threatened Richard in a huge way, but it still felt a little off for him to leave her there knowing that something might happen to her.
Still, it was great to see Daryl and Carol have some time together. Perhaps even their last moments together. You never know with this show. Daryl's not from the comics and Carol's very different from the comics (and has out-lived her comic self by seasons now). Nonetheless, their bond has been one of the best parts of the show over the years. His teary "Why'd you go?" WAS SO SAD. His voice cracked and everything.
In closing here, it figures that the show once again played the manipulation game with us by only showing us select shots of Gabriel's story back in the midseason premiere. Basically, they just took out the part where he was forced, by the Trash-Os, to steal all of Alexandria's supplies so that we'd think he'd gone rogue. Or so we'd just be confused. Regardless, the payoff here wasn't worth the effort.
The Verdict
"New Best Friends" introduced us to a brand new survivor community (who were somehow instantly less likable than the Saviors) while also providing us a way back to the island of armed women that Tara met. All of this means that there'll be a much bigger force facing the Saviors this time around (something will eventually give way in the Kingdom too) but - sheesh - this new junky group made very little sense. They're actually more ruthless than the Saviors if you break everything down into smaller parts, so Rick's newfound smile is a little hard to take in.
The Carol/Daryl scenes here were very good. It was as if a lot of the other nonsense could stop, or slow down, and we could focus in on one of the best pairings the show's ever produced. The moment when he spared her the news (and she probably knew he was sparing her too) was amazing.
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