The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Review - 5 Ups & 5 Downs From "Become"
8. Down: The Derivative Subplots
If ever there was proof that The Walking Dead is maybe - just maybe - running out of narrative ground, it's in "Become," which allows Rick and Michonne to scavenge for supplies, cross paths with a new group of questionable allegiances, and talk about things they've already talked about.
It may sound harsh, but The Ones Who Live's latest is an exercise in numbing repetition. Rick and Michonne talk about home and their kids, work together to move their latest foes from their path, talk about home and their kids again, and none of it comes close to the dramatic highs of the much more affecting previous episode.
There are highs in here, of course - Rick and Michonne working as a unit again, Jadis hot on the trails - but for the most part "Become" is a Frankenstein's Monster of salvaged parts from the franchise's better years, full of exposition and characters who offer little to the conflict to come.
It's all just sorta there, and for a series meant for only six episodes (one more to go!), this sure speaks volumes about The Walking Dead as a whole.