This is the balance between nihilism and hope that we all pined for in the early seasons of The Walking Dead, an ability to find the small rays of light scattered across the bleak landscape of towns overrun with zombies. Do the two men need each other now more than they did then, or was their union just the catalyst for unnecessary death and destruction, two broken and blind men leading each other straight into Hell? It’s a microscopic Greek tragedy, complete with the philosophic ending: while Eugene lays on the ground, possibly dying (though probably not), Abraham drops on his knees to the pavement, and the episode closes in the moment they met, when Abraham saved his life.
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What really amazes me about “Self Help” though, is how it’s able to deliver this story: sure, Eugene’s dialogue comes across a bit pointed at times, but the utility of Abraham’s flashbacks (which really only span the course of a few hours) in brief spurts, detailing the wound that Abraham can never close, even with the help of “a little ass” or few stitches (as we even see visually: Abraham’s hand just won’t stop bleeding, an important moment in the episode’s climatic moments). Abraham’s flashbacks may give definition to the man’s dedication to never stopping or looking back – but it also helps give great dimensions to Eugene’s character, displaying the inspirational abilities within himself to unite others under a single (if false) mission (again, bringing Eugene back to Rick, uniting the slick-haired duo once again).
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Their lies gave inspiration to other characters: Glen, Carol, and Maggie into being more independent human beings when Rick stepped down, and in Eugene’s case, giving Abraham a reason to live, a way for him to move farther and farther away from the horrible truths he faced at home with each breath he took. Throughout the episode, “Self Help” slowly uncovers the dramatic ironies of Eugene and Abraham’s relationship: too cowardly to face the zombie apocalypse alone (knowing his chances for survival were literally zero alone), Eugene threw himself into another identity, something many other characters have faced themselves over the show’s five seasons. In a way, he was like Rick the Farmer: a man convincing the world of a lie he wanted to believe himself, Abraham trying to fool everyone into thinking he was a scientist, and Rick into a man who was no longer able to be a leader. And although the episode ends up focusing its attention on Eugene, “Self Help” is only able to explore that through the lens of Abraham, deftly tying the pair’s desperation together by a moment of fate post-apocalypse, when a frightened Eugene passed upon Abraham, after the latter had discovered his wife and children dead on the side of the road (only hours after leaving him, we can infer). He literally pulls the gun out of his mouth to go save Eugene’s life at the end of the episode’s final flashback: while it’s a very convenient moment dramatically, their destinies crossing paths explores existential angles The Walking Dead‘s only splashed around in the vicinity of for years.
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This isn’t to say they’ve been terrible characters, but beyond their unique looks, have been characters thinly defined by their mission to get to D.C.
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That being said, “Self Help” is yet another pleasant surprise from The Walking Dead‘s fifth season, an episode that not only gives great emotional context to one of the show’s most important, unexplored relationships – but also goes to great lengths to define the characters within that relationship, capping the episode off with a scene that elevates “Self Help” from ‘good’ to ‘great’.Īt face value, Eugene and Abraham were almost laughable characters to this point, defined by two characteristics their shared mission, and their physical attributes, the most comic book-like pair the show’s introduced since Rick ran around with his sheriff badge and cowboy hat back in the show’s pilot. Forget The Walking Dead: flashbacks are hard to pull off on any show without feeling like their existence is only to massage the audience’s emotions or retcon important character information – not every show is able to handle them like LOST‘s first season, in other words (and it baked right into the show’s formula, giving it a distinct advantage over other comparable stories). The Walking Dead‘s record with flashbacks is spotty at best – so even though we’re living in the much-improved era of The Walking Dead, the first few shots of Abraham’s first post-apocalypse days gave me great hesitation (remember the multiple flashbacks with Lori early on? *shudder*).