The fourth episode of Tales of the Walking Dead showcases a zombie researcher who comes upon a young woman who opens his eyes to a greater world. But while the story answered a few burning questions we fans have had for years (what will happen to the undead when humans are all gone?!), the episode ended up being wordy and rushed.
I’m giving Tales of the Walking Dead a chance to redeem itself after last week. We’ll see.
— MoJo Seeker (@SeekerMojo) August 29, 2022
Warning! This review contains major spoilers for Tales of the Walking Dead Episode 4: Amy/Dr. Everett
Episode 4 starts out as a bit of a nature documentary narrated by Dr. Charles Everett (Anthony Edwards). He talks about what he calls the Homo Mortus, or dead humans. He studies their migratory patterns, feeding trends, and even their psychology.
When a young woman named Amy (Poppy Liu) finds herself alone and in danger of being eaten by the chompers (what she calls the undead), the good doctor steps in to save her. But, as we find out later, it wasn’t so much that he was saving her as he was saving his precious Specimen 21 zombie.
“They don’t do anything other than walk around and try to kill us. There, study done.” Amy quirked.
Dr. Everett reluctantly helps Amy overcome a nightshade berry poisoning problem (saving her life a second time) and has a few spirited arguments about his research and the duality of man.
He wishes Amy good day by pointing her in the direction of her people’s camp, and heads off in the other direction to find the lost Specimen 21, whose radio transponder was smashed by Amy during her struggle.
But Amy is the one who actually stumbles upon Specimen 21, and she uses his location to coax Dr. Everett into accompanying her to her people’s camp.
It’s during this walk that this episode really lost me. I felt like they were trying to pack way too much info into this 42-minute episode by explaining Everett’s research and his entire backstory. And guess what? Amy was right about Specimen 21 being someone Everett knew before. She only mentioned it 2348756 times, so we got the hint, but this is the point where Everett admits that Specimen 21 was his predecessor in undead research, Dr. Mosely. Surprise!
I did find some of the theories interesting, such as Amy’s questioning about how the undead need humans to survive, and Dr. Everett’s conclusion about the paradox of it all.
But those few minutes in the woods were just so forced. I felt completely taken out of the episode and the whole trust-no-trust thing between the two was completely unrealistic. I get that trust would be hard to earn in the apocalypse, but they would flip their trust switches back and forth ad nauseum.
“I would rather die than to end up like you”
Eventually, the two make it to Amy’s camp just in time to catch some chompers attacking the group. Everett remarks that “nature should run its course,” which freaks Amy out. Everett later explains that there’s a large migration of undead headed straight for that camp and that group would never survive it.
But, of course, Amy decided to stick with her original group and give Dr. Everett a big F-U. “Well I would rather die than to end up like you,” she tells him.
And the next time we see Amy, she’s growling and comping at Dr. Everett, trying to eat his brains.
Good luck to you, but Tales of the Walking Dead is not for me after seeing the first 4 eps. I do give spin offs a chance, cus I like Fear TWD. Then again, I didn’t like World Beyond. Looking forward to the return of both Fear and the OG TWD.
— Polka Dot Planet (@PolkaDotPlanet) August 29, 2022
Overall, I think this episode wasn’t horrible, but it just seemed unprepared and rushed. There were a few times when I questioned Anthony Edwards’ acting ability over the last few decades (I mean, the guy was in the original Top Gun, c’mon!). But the premise itself was interesting enough to make the episode worth a watch for TWD fans.
So far, Tales of the Walking Dead has been a bit hit-or-miss, but that’s usually to be expected with any anthology. While Episode 4 didn’t top Episode 3 in my mind, I feel like the show might be gaining ground. But we only have two episode left for that to happen, so we’ll see!
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