Last week’s Tales of the Walking Dead provided a heartbreaking glimpse at Alpha‘s final days before joining The Whisperers. This week, the series takes us inside a conflict between two very different survivors. One of them (Dr. Everett) is a scientist dedicated to observing/studying the walkers and their effect on the world. The other (Amy) believes it’s time for humans to reclaim the land from the undead.
As always, the recap portion of this review will contain plenty of spoilers.
Unnatural Encounter
Tales of The Walking Dead (AMC)
The episode opens in a manner that makes what we’re watching appear to be a well-produced nature documentary. Dr. Everett explains how the undead (who he’s dubbed Homo mortuus) have become nature’s apex predator. Thanks to a large man-made trench, he’s able to observe both the walkers and nature’s reclamation of the land surrounding him with minimal human interference.
In addition to a drone camera, Everett also has specific walkers he’s tagged and observed, allowing him to track their migration, herding, and feeding patterns. He even managed to attach an electronic tracker around the neck of a zombie dubbed Specimen 21.
Everett’s narration is interrupted when his drone spots a pile of headless walkers. After walking over to them, he speaks into his recorder about how “skull hunters” represent the greatest threat to the Homo mortuus. The ones who manage to breach the trench collect walker skulls as trophies — a practice that disgusts him far more than anything the zombies do.
Right on cue, Everett hears a suspected skull hunter (Amy) escaping in the nearby woods with a walker head. He sends his drone to investigate and discovers that Amy has gotten herself surrounded by walkers. She attempts to signal for help, but to no avail. Instead, Everett walks into the woods for a better view of nature taking its course.
Amy puts up a heck of a fight (thanks in part to a knife attachment on her amputated left arm), but is eventually overwhelmed. When the walker with the electronic tracker falls on top of her, she stabs the device and shorts it out. Whether it was Everett’s humanity or concern for his equipment, he’s finally spurred into action and helps her escape.
He also utilizes a walker skin cape to hide them (which was admittedly pretty cool).
Tales of The Walking Dead (AMC)
When they reach the clearing, Everett rejects Amy’s thanks, instead declaring that she shouldn’t be there. He then turns around and walks away as Amy pleads for his help. She explains that her group was attacked, leaving her injured and on her own for several days. After complaining of a persistent stomach ache, she assures Everett that she hasn’t been bit by a walker, but he remains unmoved.
When Amy’s protestations become forceful enough to make Everett take notice, he only stops long enough to say he “doesn’t work with humans” before continuing onward.
Everett heads back into the woods, checking on a limbless walker surrounded by caution tape (along with the nearby equipment) before heading home. Amy follows him all the way to his two-story shelter (an old ranger station) and begs to be let in. When he refuses to do so, she uses her knife to reach the shelter’s ladder, climbing to the second story just in time to avoid a herd of walkers.
After reaching the second-story door, Amy utilizes a potent mix of pleading and annoyance to convince Everett to let her in.
Purging the Unknown
Tales of The Walking Dead (AMC)
When we return from the commercial break, Amy is in the process of awakening from a much-needed nap on the bed in Everett’s shelter. Meanwhile, Everett concocts an herbal remedy that he insists she drink. Amy initially refuses, but changes her mind when he digs through her bag and finds the poisonous nightshade berries she’d been eating. He also warns her that the next 24 hours will be severely unpleasant.
That evening, Amy wakes up to puke and notices that Everett isn’t there. The next morning, however, she awakens to find him back in the cabin checking his camera feeds. She also feels exponentially better than she did before. Amy attempts to connect with Everett, but he brushes her off. During the course of their mostly one-sided conversation, she mentions an interest in biology during her life before society fell.
Everett eventually works up the nerve to ask Amy if she’s a skull hunter and if the walker bodies he found stacked in the nearby field were her doing. Amy reveals that she’s part of a group of humans trying to resettle the “Dead Sector.” They weren’t responsible for the trophy hunting, but they did work with skull hunters to help them get past the trench. Everett responds with his belief that it’s time for nature (including Homo mortuus) to reclaim the land. Amy counters that it’s time for humans to stop ceding land to the dead.
Predictably, this puts the pair at odds. Everett finishes the debate by requesting that Amy leave.
Tales of The Walking Dead (AMC)
As she’s about to depart, Amy notices that the doctor has extensively photographed and documented the walker he dubbed Specimen 21. When she asks about it, Everett insists that he has no personal attachment to the zombie — it’s simply a specimen he utilizes to study Homo mortuus’ behavioral psychology and migration patterns.
Amy pushes back on the walkers having any sort of thought process or emotions, but Everett insists that they do. He tells her about multiple instances when Specimen 21 killed a creature only to leave it for the other walkers in his herd to devour. While Everett sees this as a display of generous/protective behavior, Amy chalks it up to Specimen 21 hearing or smelling other prey and heading toward it. She also insists that Everett’s fixation on Specimen 21 is due to a previous personal connection.
Everett angrily counters that Specimen 21 is simply a means to help him study Homo mortuus. He also explains that she destroyed Specimen’s 21 tracker yesterday, thus requiring him to find the walker and retag him. Amy is apologetic at first, but becomes annoyed/disgusted when she realizes that him saving her the day before was more about protecting his favorite zombie.
As the pair depart the shelter, Everett points Amy in the general direction she needs to go. He also warns her that it’s a mistake to try and resettle the area, especially when nature has made it known that it won’t give up as easily as before.
Nature vs. Nurture
Tales of The Walking Dead (AMC)
After walking alone for a while, Amy eventually comes in contact with a lone walker…and wouldn’t you know it, the undead fellow just happens to be Specimen 21. Instead of immediately killing the zombie, Amy proceeds to follow it, marking her path on nearby trees.
That evening, Everett stops to do some upkeep on the limbless walker before arriving at his shelter. He’s surprised to find Amy there, who reveals that she spent the afternoon tracking Specimen 21. She also promises to help Everett find his favorite walker if he agrees to help locate her group.
Despite a transparently desperate need to ensure Specimen 21’s safety, Everett isn’t sure. When he tries to warn Amy again about how dangerous the area is, she responds that it’s dangerous everywhere. She then insists that her people are good/kind and just want a place to live. They also mean everything to her.
After taking a moment to think it over, Everett agrees.
Tales of The Walking Dead (AMC)
The next day, Everett and Amy follow the markings she made to track Specimen 21. Their interactions are also significantly more cordial than before. At one point, after Amy asks why he does what he does, Everett shows her some beautiful drone footage of nature’s progress in the area.
Everett goes on to explain that he was part of a research team studying the environment after society fell. The group was eventually fractured by disagreements. In the end, most of them gave up their lives for their work. Because of this, Everett feels a need to honor their sacrifice and continue what they were doing. Amy sees this as him doing something for his community, but Everett stubbornly disagrees.
As they continue on their journey, Everett reveals that he’s been observing the limbless walker surrounded by caution tape for seven years. His goal is to observe and analyze with minimal interference. When Amy points out that he interfered to save Specimen 21, Everett claims he was simply making a judgment call based on what was best for his research.
Amy states her belief that Everett is much more sentimental than he presents himself to be. She then explains how memories of the people she’s lost are what keep her going. In the end, human connection is all they have. Everett responds that she should connect with people on the other side of the trench and allow nature to continue thriving.
Despite how different they are, the pair eventually find common ground over a shared love of poetry.
Tales of The Walking Dead (AMC)
Later, Amy points out how Homo mortuus’ survival isn’t sustainable if humans die out, which Everett agrees with. Their discussion of this natural paradox is interrupted when Amy spots a Victorian crowned pigeon, which was thought to be on the verge of extinction before society fell.
Upon seeing her delight at this discovery, Everett decides that the pair may be more alike than he previously thought. He asks Amy if she would be willing to assist in his research and potentially take things over once he’s gone. Amy counters with an offer to live with her people. Everett says he’s lost his faith in humans, but Amy insists that things can be different. They can learn from humans’ mistakes of the past and find a better way to live with nature.
Amy also states her belief that Everett’s unwillingness to live with humans is a result of him being scared. As far as she’s concerned, his work is all for nothing if it doesn’t teach people to be better.
At this point, Everett finally reveals that he wasn’t always so content without human contact. When his research group first broke up, he wandered the area for two years. He eventually found the ranger station and one of his colleagues (Dr. Mosely) living there. Their reconnection gave him new life. Unfortunately, he discovered a few months later that Dr. Mosely was dying of cancer. Everett’s colleague made him promise not to kill him and study his undead transformation instead.
Once he turned, Dr. Mosely became Specimen 21.
Tales of The Walking Dead (AMC)
Before that revelation can be fully unpacked, the pair find a headless walker lying near an encampment that Amy identifies as belonging to her people. Everett accuses them of being skull hunters, but Amy insists that they only helped her group cross the trench. She then hears the scream of a woman she knows (Hannah) and runs toward her.
Amy finds Hannah along with another friend from her group being eaten by walkers. She tries to stop them, but is held back by Everett, who insists they allow nature to take its course. Amy breaks free and puts down one of the walkers. Hannah kicks off the other one, causing it to tumble down a nearby cliff into the river and begin floating away on a large piece of driftwood.
Everett realizes that the walker is Specimen 21 and chases after it. Before he can reach the river, the doctor trips and falls, injuring himself. He then begs Amy, who is grieving her dead friend, to help him save the walker.
As you might imagine, this doesn’t sit very well with her.
Tales of The Walking Dead (AMC)
Everett apologizes and admits how selfish he is, but continues begging her for help. When it becomes clear she won’t do it, he tries to hobble out to the river on his own. This causes Amy to give chase and attempt to stop him from doing something that will result in his death. Everett insists that he has to save Specimen 21 before taking out a rope and pleading with her to help pull the zombie back to shore.
Everett eventually manages to lasso the zombie’s arm. Amy reluctantly helps her new friend pull Specimen 21 back in. When they almost have the walker back on shore, an alligator swims up and pulls Specimen 21 underwater. Everett desperately tries to save his undead friend, but is stopped when Amy cuts the line to save the doctor from being pulled under, as well.
As Everett cries out in anguish, Amy berates him for his blatant hypocrisy. He did nothing to save her friends, but had no problem nearly sacrificing himself (and her) to save Specimen 21. Everett counters that he didn’t do anything because her friends were already dead. After pointing at a circle of vultures, he explains that her group placed their settlement right in the migration path of a large horde of zombies they’ll have no chance of surviving.
Tales of The Walking Dead (AMC)
Amy counters that Everett could warn them (which is solid logic), but he insists that nature cannot be beaten. He then begs Amy to come back and help him with his research instead of rejoining her people — a decision which will undoubtedly result in her death. Amy responds that she would rather die than end up like him. She departs and runs through a horde of walkers, eventually reuniting with the rest of her people.
Sometime later, we see Dr. Everett in the ranger station recovering from his injuries. He then goes out to continue his research. As a voiceover of him reciting Emily Dickinson’s poem “Nature is What We See” plays, he explores Amy’s decimated settlement. He walks among its undead inhabitants, discovering a box full of walker skulls. He then makes an even more startling and heartbreaking discovery:
Amy, undead and now part of the very same nature he has pledged himself to study.
The Verdict
Tales of The Walking Dead (AMC)
I wanted to like this episode a lot more than I did. I love the concept of a naturalist studying the walkers as part of earth’s new ecosystem before having his role questioned by meaningful human contact. I also thought Anthony Edwards and Poppy Liu did fantastic work in their respective roles.
Unfortunately, the timeline of “Amy/Dr. Everett” felt far too compressed to have the impact it should. As beautifully haunting as the final scene was, everything that came before it was unnaturally hurried to fit the episode’s 40-minute runtime.
The most blatantly obvious example of this was when Amy helped Everett pull Specimen 21 to shore despite him refusing to help her friend, who she’d just watched get eaten. This was accompanied by such a perfectly framed example of Everett’s hypocrisy that it completely took us (or me at least) out of the moment.
It also didn’t help that the tacked-on revelation about Amy and her people actually being skull hunters played out like a cheap emotional ploy instead of an earned moment. Aside from seeing her with a walker’s head at the beginning of the episode, there wasn’t a whole lot behind the subplot before it came back to smack us in the face at the end.
And then you have the relationship between Everett and Amy, which never felt genuine at all.
Tales of The Walking Dead (AMC)
I can believe that Everett began to trust Amy based on an unexpected desire for human contact, but that barely got explored except for one very good (and very short) scene of dialogue. Otherwise, it was an emotional journey guided by required story beats instead of an organic narrative. Along the way, we lost an opportunity to explore the Human vs. Nature debate in a way that had all types of potential.
Perhaps this type of storyline isn’t something that can be properly explored in one episode (although I’m not sure it could keep us entertained with a full episode arc, either).
On the positive side of things, the acting and cinematography of “Amy/Everett” were top-notch. As I mentioned before, the final scene was absolutely gorgeous, both in how it was scripted and how it was shot. It was also a lot of fun getting to explore the walkers’ effect on nature and the all-too-brief discussion of the biological paradox they create.
It’s worth noting that the series once again took a risk and tried something different, which has thus far been Tales of the Walking Dead‘s strongest aspect. This episode wasn’t necessarily aligned with my taste, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the effort to tell a different type of story.
Considering that the next episode is supposed to be a noir-themed thriller, it looks like this series will continue doing things with the franchise that haven’t been done before.
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