The Walking Dead: 10 best episodes by new showrunner Angela Kang

The Walking Dead; AMC; Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan; Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes
The Walking Dead; AMC; Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan; Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes /
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The Walking Dead; AMC; Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier; Lauren Cohan as Maggie Greene; Alicia Witt as Paula
The Walking Dead; AMC; Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier; Lauren Cohan as Maggie Greene; Alicia Witt as Paula /

1. “The Same Boat”

Season 6, episode 13

“The Same Boat” was regarded by both critics and fans as an exceptional episode of The Walking Dead. Maggie and Carol are taken prisoner by Saviors, lead by Paula.

At first, The Saviors wanted to kill them but they saw Rick and the others attacking Saviors in the yard at the outpost and decided to work out a prisoner exchange instead. Maggie and Carol are taken to a slaughterhouse that The Saviors are using as a cache house to await the arrival of Rick and the others.

While they wait The Saviors deal with Donnie, a Savior who was attacked and is seriously injured. Paula won’t let Maggie or Carol be harmed even though Donnie wants to kill them. Carol goes into her meek as a mouse housewife act and plays up her violent past with Ed. Carol can see elements of herself as she used to be in each of the women that are guarding them. But she sees a very strong connection to herself in Paula, played by Alicia Witt.Carol and Maggie outwit and outmuscle each of The Saviors, in turn, freeing themselves and trying to hang on until the rest of the group arrives. Paula manages to catch them and she and Carol have an emotionally and physically wrenching fight. Which Carol ultimately wins. But Carol is shaken by how much she sees herself in Paula and is horrified by what she will become if she doesn’t stop killing.

Carol takes Paula’s radio and pretends to be Paula, telling The Savior reinforcements who are arriving to meet her on the kill floor. She and Maggie have rigged the kill floor with gasoline. One The Saviors are inside Carol tosses in a lit cigarette and she and Maggie slam the door. The Saviors die in a fireball.

When Rick, Daryl, Glenn and the others arrive they find Maggie and Carol emotional and shaken, but alive.

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Why “The Same Boat” Is Number One

It wasn’t easy to pick a top episode from this list. Angela Kang is a great writer and she writes the characters that The Walking Dead fans love so skillfully and with so much depth that really a lot of the episodes she’s written could have been considered the best.

This episode is at the top of the list because of the immensely intuitive and artful way that Angela Kang writes about the complications of being human in a horror-filled world where killing and death and terrible things are par for the course. It’s tough to continually balance human frailties and the effects of trauma with the strength that these characters have. Especially for female characters like Carol, and Maggie, and Paula. But Angela Kang does it beautifully.

Next: Top 100 moments from The Walking Dead

Judging by these episodes she’s going to take the characters that fans love and continue to give them multi-faceted development as the story of The Walking Dead moves forward and it’s going to be very exciting to see where she takes the show.