This 5th episode of Tales of the Walking Dead tells the fractured story of Davon, a man who finds himself accused of murder with no memory of the deed. But as the episode pieces itself together, we learn that the story goes much deeper than a simple murder mystery.
Warning! This review contains major spoilers for Tales of the Walking Dead Episode 5: Davon
Davon wakes up in the woods, handcuffed to a walker who is actively trying to eat him. He bashes the zombie over the head, desperate to keep it quite as a French-speaking mob searches for him in the thick darkness.
But when the attached undead begins giving him clues about regaining his memory, things start to get really weird.
This episode features a lot of flashbacks, so you really have to pay attention. We see Davon as he’s first rescued by sisters Amanda and Nora. We watch as they nurse his injured leg, but we don’t get an explanation of that injury until later when Davon explains that he was shot by a very bad man.
Why is everyone speaking French?
The setting for this episode is Madawaska, Maine. This small town is situated on the northern-most border of Maine with Canada, right across from New Brunswick. According to Wikipedia, 83.4% of Madawaska’s population speaks French, which explains the episode’s dialogue.
But what I don’t really get is how everyone in the village looks straight out of 1875. From what I can tell, there’s no real explanation or basis for that in the show. And the town, as it stands today, doesn’t seem to be stuck in any sort of time warp. I mean, they have a Tractor Supply, c’mon.
Episode 5 of #TalesOfTheWalkingDead is a lot of fun. But then I’m biased. Pretty cool to see A-Train from The Boys as a part of the @WalkingDead_AMC universe though. @twdeadlatam @twdufans @onterrorstreet https://t.co/2oCZvnILPK
— Riju Dasgupta (@rdore2000) September 1, 2022
Anyway, Davon eventually falls for Nora and the two seem on the verge of something beautiful, but Davon soon realizes that the person he supposedly murdered was the same zombie chained to his arm and the same person who nursed him to health: Amanda.
As Davon’s memory comes back to him piece by piece, we see a strange story unfold in front of us that just opens up more questions. Why would he kill Amanda? Why does she keep saying “sometimes murder is mercy?” Is this even during the zombie apocalypse?
Of course we can tell that Davon didn’t actually murder anyone, but the townspeople keep insisting that he did. When we flash back to the place in time when Davon faces the angry mob, we see that every single person, including Nora, believes that killed Amanda AND a bunch of children. Whaaaaa?
Davon is sentenced to death by crushing via an excavator, but he manages to escape. At first I wasn’t sure if this was the point when he escaped the first time, as we saw at the very beginning of the episode, or what. But we learn that it’s not. He eventually tracks down Amanda’s creepy son, Arnauld, and finds out that he has Nora’s son (his cousin) locked in an old cabin. Here we get the traditional explanation of the villain’s entire scheme in 2 minutes or less, and Davon sets out to expose Arnauld as the real child murderer.
“Sometimes murder is mercy,” Arnauld repeats as he explains that killing children was something he was doing to help them escape this weird post-apocalyptic world.
My final thoughts on the episode
Overall, I thought this was a really good episode. There was certainly enough of a thrill ride to keep me interested and paying close attention throughout the whole thing. Other than the few oddities I mentioned above, I feel like it was a solid episode that stands up against Episode 3 (still my favorite). Of course that makes sense when you consider the fact that Channing Powell wrote both episodes (and no others).
Next week’s episode (entitled La Doña) will be the final one for this season before the main TWD series comes back in October. I have hope that this final episode of TotWD will be good enough to open up the doors for a second season.
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