Connecting The Walking Dead: ‘The Sky Is A Graveyard’

1) Silas’s Father

While we’ve gotten tiny snippets of the incident which led to Silas’s transfer to Campus Colony, and suggestions about what happened, in this week’s episode, we not only saw what happened, but, the events that led up to what happened.

As Silas recounts through a series of flashbacks (And even a couple of flashbacks within flashbacks), we learn that Silas did indeed kill his father in a blind rage, beating him beyond repair. However, we also learned that, despite what he himself might think, Silas was not the monster in this scenario, as we discovered that Silas’s rage was unleashed when his father attacked him essentially unprovoked, beating and choking his own son for a minor infraction before Silas struck back.

Furthermore, we also learned that, while the relationship between father and son wasn’t always so fractious, the same could not be said between husband and wife, as Silas remembers an incident of finding his mother after suffering at his father’s hand.

Seeing the dynamics of the Plaskett family reminded me of another family we met in The Walking Dead, living in a community very much like Omaha, Doctor Pete Anderson.

If you recall, Pete (Or “Porchdick Pete” as he was dubiously known on Talking Dead) was the husband of Jessie, and father of Ron and Sam, he was also Alexandria’s principal physician.

He was also an abusive drunk.

As we learned quickly in the latter portion of season five of The Walking Dead, Pete had a severe drinking problem, which led him to abuse both his wife and eldest son, even breaking the latter’s arm during an incident Jessie recalls when Ron airs his suspicions about Rick.

I feel like the comparison between Gary and Pete is an easy one to make, as both had a nasty habit of taking their aggression out on their wives and sons, though, while Pete’s behavior could be attributed to his alcoholism, Gary’s seems far less predictable, as he appeared to lash out at either his wife or Silas at the slightest provocation, while at other times, as seen when Silas was younger, he was perfectly normal.

While it’s a sad comparison to have to make, it makes sense that, eventually, we’d come upon another abusive husband/father in the Walking Dead universe. With so many people in such a terrible situation, one was either bound to become abusive in the face of the apocalypse, or have always been, and just been smart enough or lucky enough to survive.

When showing a zombie apocalypse, you have to show the sides of humanity that are ugly, whether it involves the dead or not.