Written by M.J. Rawls
The Walking Dead, “Hostiles and Calamities” Plot Summary:
Eugene (Josh McDermitt) is brought to the Sanctuary by Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) crew. Megan takes a liking to Eugene, while Eugene bonds with Negan’s wives. During all this Dwight (Austin Amelio) finds a note from Sherry (Christine Evangelista) which shows she helped Daryl escape.
At this point in The Walking Dead, there are so many characters and so much ground together, that everything splits like a proverbial choose your own adventure book. It’s hard to really feel an affinity to one character because you jump around throughout the season.
“Hostiles and Calamities” was actually effective at most points. It look lesser known characters like Eugene and Dwight and made them somewhat interesting with a little emotional depth as well. You can’t help but to feel somewhat bad for Dwight. He goes to the house on what he thinks would be a reunion with his wife, Sherry, and instead, it was a Dear John letter of her leaving.
Will Dwight eventually turn on Negan? I’m not sure. There’s not a lot for him to fight for at this point. Sherry is gone and the man he used to be is gone too as depicted in Sherry’s letter to him. Consequences will rear their ugly head at some point as he lies to say that Sherry is dead. Negan will find that she’s alive and Dwight may meet his end or watch her die. Speaking of which, how about that poor doctor?
Eugene is the quintessential case of failing upward. Instead of facing certain death for his false confession he gets put in the the casa del la reaper and talks himself into a position with an idea to fortify zombie bodies. Is there any reason to believe that he will stay local? Probably for the time being. It’s weird because Negan is not that naive when it comes to people joining the reapers, so why is he so accepting of someone from Rick’s crew? There’s a semblance of a mutiny going on as Negan’s wives try to conspire with Eugene to make a poison pill. Eugene does not fall for this – instead, uses this to further his position of power.
It shall be seen if Eugene will just be a plant or an actual thorn in the group’s side.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
