Undead Walking
Fansided

Melissa McBride’s award worthy moments

By Neva Cunningham

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - JULY 19: Melissa McBride attends The Walking Dead Panel at Comic Con 2019 on July 19, 2019 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for AMC)
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - JULY 19: Melissa McBride attends The Walking Dead Panel at Comic Con 2019 on July 19, 2019 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for AMC) /
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Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier and Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon – The Walking Dead _ Seasn 5, Episode 2 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC
Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier and Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon – The Walking Dead _ Seasn 5, Episode 2 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC /

Episode 502: Strangers and Episode 506: Consumed

I’m a huge fan of Carbo (rambo Carol) and her bad ass moments like we saw in “No Sanctuary” and I still find myself teary eyed and squee’ing over her reunions with Daryl and Rick but it is her scenes in “Strangers” and “Consumed” that were in my opinion worthy of at least a nomination.

In Strangers  we once again got to witness the differences in Melissa’s delivery and body language.

Her scene with Rick is guarded but accepting, deflecting any credit for saving the group from Terminus and keeping Judith safe.  I especially like the scene where she refuses to take back the watch Ed gave her. Letting go of that last reminder that she isn’t who she was.  No big speeches, just a resolute look on her face and a simple uh-uhn.

With Tyreese you see how resigned she is to her fate and her actions. The one person who knows exactly what she had to do in The Grove and how each death affects her.  She questions why Tyreese feels the need to make the others accept the fact she killed Karen and David but he doesn’t want to talk about the girls.  Her line “they don’t have to” is delivered in a way that implies she’s just done being judged.

With Daryl, the person she has always been closest too, she is a bit more open, saying she doesn’t want to talk about it, she wants to forget it.

The water jug scene between Carol and Daryl harkens back to scenes in earlier seasons that highlighted her sense of comedic timing.

Much of the episode feels like she is just looking for a way to get away from the group and return on her own. When they get to the end of her time in this episode, you believe she really doesn’t know what she was planning to do. Melissa’s eyes and facial expressions are  important parts of that scene, because you once again see the confusion and warring parts of her. Should she stay or should she go?

Consumed has many wonderful scenes for Melissa but the most powerful one is her “everything just consumes you” speech.

"Me and Sophia stayed at that shelter for a day and a half before I went running back to Ed. When I got home, I got beat up, Life went on and I just kept praying for something to happen, but I didn’t do anything. Not a damn thing. Who I was with him, she got burned away and I was happy about that. I mean not happy but..then at the prison, I got to be who I always thought I should be, who I should of been…and she got burned away. Everything now just consumes you"

Each nuance is perfectly hit in this scene.

Carol’s history was on full display and you see her lost sense of self, her regrets, and the flicker of hope she has that they “ain’t ashes” as Daryl tells her.

If it’s been a while since you watched these scenes, I really recommending going back and taking a look. Much of what we see in later seasons was planted during this time.