The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Only If You Let It
By Liam O'Leary
2) Things Get To You Only If Let Them.
I noticed something strange about this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, specifically that Carol seemed oddly pessimistic about the communities’ potential to survive further down the road. Carol said how things would catch up to them eventually, to which Daryl replied, “Only if we let it.”
This, we would discover, was a bit of wisdom imparted to Daryl by Leah. When Daryl told Leah how he believed that living in the wilderness would get to the two of them eventually, she simply said, “Only if you let it.”
A more reactionary person might take this as Leah diminishing the sort of effect being in the wilderness in the zombie apocalypse, or simply the things a person sees or experiences in it might have on someone. Still, I find such an assessment would be inaccurate.
The more I think about it, the more valuable I find Leah’s message.
Think about the worst states of mind Rick Grimes had been in the show. Specifically where he was after leaving Terminus and as the war with the Saviors concluded: He was just as violent and ruthless as nearly any of the villains he dealt with in the show, on one occasion, even killing a few ex-Saviors who had agreed to return to Hilltop with him and Morgan, despite promising not to do that.
Yet, around the same times, Glenn had told Rick to let out the other prisoners at Terminus, reminding him that whoever they were were likely just as much victims of the cannibals as the two of them and their people nearly were.
Carl, even though he was dying, even though Negan had killed Glenn, Abraham, and Spencer and practically forced Sasha to commit suicide rather than be used against Alexandria, still insisted that his father spare Negan and any Saviors that surrendered.
The difference between Rick and Glenn or Carl? Rick had let the situation change him; Glenn and Carl didn’t.
That’s the thing: Whether the apocalypse turns you into a bloodthirsty savage is up to you. You choose how you behave. You choose the person you become. Yes, the apocalypse can get to you, but, ultimately, whether it does or not is up to whether or not you let it.