The story of The Walking Dead:

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The episode opens strong, with a powerful look at the source of Michonne’s pain and how she copes with it. She’s running from past trauma, distractedly killing walkers, almost as if they aren’t there. It’s haunting, and it drew me in immediately. Her suffering does not make her weak, but being good at killing walkers doesn’t make her strong, either. Instead, staying busy and distracting herself keeps her from falling apart, and that makes her more interesting than someone who’s just good at surviving.

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Her struggle with PTSD symptoms and how she deals with them is the most impactful part of the episode. She sees the ghosts of the people she’s lost everywhere, and how she reacts to that trauma is handled well and respectfully — she doesn’t seem silly or like she’s overreacting, even though the people around her are confused by her outbursts. Seeing the almost too-familiar world of The Walking Dead through Michonne’s eyes keeps it from getting stale, since I genuinely care about her story.

The overall plot that begins in this episode, however, isn’t terribly unique, especially by Walking Dead standards. The antagonists are the typical morally dubious leaders of a makeshift settlement, and everyone’s a little messed up from the whole apocalypse thing. Randall in particular is over-the-top evil, and although it sort of seems like a setup for an important reveal later, it’s also not new. It's tired, and The Walking Dead has done all of this better before.

Additionally, Michonne basically carries the entire episode herself, though she does it well. Talking to each of the other main characters generally serves one purpose: furthering Michonne’s captivating development. Interactions with Pete, her more optimistic companion, feel the most important, since his undying compassion in a bleak world helps to reveal that her own still exists. While Pete himself isn’t necessarily flat, and neither were most of the other characters, I only cared about them as much as they affected Michonne.

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Though the typical Telltale-style quick time event combat can be as awkward as ever, the fights they initiate are wonderfully choreographed and visually striking. Having to react quickly in fights kept me invested for the full hour and a half, beginning with Michonne seamlessly slipping between reality and her traumatic memories as she’s fighting walkers. Point-and-click exploration provides a respite from intense zombie scenes, and this episode is paced so that it remains suspenseful throughout.