The Walking Dead Season 7: 6 Ups And 2 Downs From 'Hostiles And Calamities'

by James Hunt

1. It Was An Episode Built Around Eugene

The Walking Dead Negan Eugene
Gene Page/AMC

How will this episode be remembered? Most likely, it's going to be known as 'the Eugene episode'. While Dwight gets a lot of great scenes, it's Eugene who is placed at the very centre of this instalment, which is a thing I didn't expect to see on The Walking Dead, and didn't particularly need to either.

He works fine in a couple of scenes, like the science one, but otherwise it's just him veering between the same two sides we've always seen: weak and scared, or arrogant and dickish.

It's fine for a couple of scenes, but to structure a lot of the episode around a character like Eugene doesn't really work, and leaves you with a feeling of 'Did I really just watch almost an hour based around *Eugene*?' The stuff with Dwight works much better, and a part of the problem comes back round to choosing not to focus on any other locations. It will be interesting to see if Negan has truly broken Eugene, or if he's playing the long-con. Just, y'know, not enough to devote at least half-an-episode to.

What do you think of this Hostiles and Calamities? Let us know down in the comments.

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NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.