If you ever wanted to watch a nature documentary about zombies, then “Amy/Dr. Everett” is the episode for you.
Well, maybe that’s not entirely true. The gist of the episode isn’t necessarily Dr. Everett’s (Anthony Edwards) ongoing scientific study about the dead — instead, it’s more of a philosophical debate regarding whether humanity is inherently destructive and evil. This is fine, but as with many of the Tales episodes, we’ve seen it before.
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The concept behind the episode is pretty nifty though. Dr. Everett is living on one side of a trench in the (Georgia, it’s implied) woods, and he’s continuing to monitor and study the dead using a series of video recorders, cameras and detectors. That’s all fine and good until another survivor, Amy (Poppy Liu) stumbles into a walker herd and almost takes out his key walker subject, and he’s forced to step in to save her… if only to save the walker.
I wish I could say the Amy/Dr. Everett dynamic clicks, but unfortunately, it lacks the spark that “Blair/Gina” had. The actors here are fine on their own, but much as in Episode 1, something in the chemistry is off. Dr. Everett’s dialogue, too, feels stilted; sure, he’s a professor, but having him talk like Eugene (Josh McDermitt) is distracting and draws more attention to his “big words” than what he’s actually saying. Speaking of which…
After Amy’s rescue, the episode pivots to a debate about whether people are good or evil, and whether human bonds are necessary for survival. Amy tells Everett she can help him track down his missing walker if he helps her get back to her group, while he insists that her people can’t settle on that side of the divide because it’ll interfere with the fascinating nature there. (There’s a kind of reference to Shiva in the fact that zoo animals are roaming free in Everett’s territory.)
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The episode isn’t exactly subtle with its messaging, which sides with Amy and humanity and echoes Fear the Walking Dead’s Season 5 “we have to help everyone!” days. In the end, though, despite Amy’s urging, Everett’s not convinced that people can be good. They find his cherished walker, but they’re too late to save it from being eaten by a crocodile — we also learn that the walker was a former friend of his who died of cancer, so the guy never totally wiped his emotional slate clean. They’re also too late to stop part of Amy’s group from being killed by a horde, and when Everett says they have to let nature take its course, Amy’s enraged.
She vows to find the rest of her group and warn them before the horde gets to them, too. Everett tells her she won’t make it in time, but she doesn’t listen to him… and if that seems foreboding, it is. Later, Everett stumbles upon the remains of her camp and finds her as a walker, and a trunk full of walker heads in one of the vehicles. Were her group really good people? We don’t know, and that’s how the episode ends.
“Amy/Dr. Everett” has its moments; Everett’s research shows walkers might have slight flickers of the people they once were, and the guy’s walker-skin coat is a pretty badass way to walk among the dead. But in its morality debate (and its out-of-place use of stock footage), it loses its uniqueness and becomes another cookie-cutter Walking Dead installment.
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Four weeks in, it’s hard not to wish that Tales played with the stereotypical TWD format a little more and took some bigger swings. Each of these concepts has had potential, but save for “Blair/Gina,” the episodes flounder as they force themselves to adhere to “Classic TWD” storytelling formats and messaging. The next two episodes sound intriguing — maybe they’ll break the mold.
Tales of the Walking Dead, Sundays, 9/8c, AMC
