Warning: This article contains spoilers from “The Walking Dead” Episode 613 What’s the heck is happening to Carol on “The Walking Dead”? Over the past couple of seasons, this fan fave (played by Melissa McBride) has only gained in intensity. We’ve been led to believe the former battered wife has become a ruthless killing machine — illustrated by her ongoing philosophical argument with pacifist Morgan (Lennie James). Her recent baking of beet-acorn cookies read as a perverse joke because we assumed Carol is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, her finger always on the trigger rather than on the oven control. But maybe it wasn’t really a joke. Turns out Carol is a lot more conflicted than we thought. A mostly self-contained episode, Sunday night’s “The Same Boat” was a companion piece to last week’s first-person-shooter episode, “No Tomorrow Yet.” But while there was violent gore, a lot of the action consisted of mind games between Carol and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and their Savior captors, led by Paula (Alicia Witt, lately of “Justified” but who for some of us will always be creepy little Alia from “Dune”). The situation was bad: Maggie and Carol are held in what we later figure out is an old slaughterhouse. And against all odds it’s Carol who’s having a breakdown — hyperventilating, fondling a rosary and nervously sucking on a cigarette. Her behavior has been interpreted as an act by most recappers — so the mollified Saviors would drop their guard — but as we go along, Carol’s unrest appears to be real, if amped up for strategic purposes. Sure, she does use that rosary to cut off her bindings, but you can sense the character is genuinely shaken by what’s happened to her and to everybody else. Aside from that, “The Same Boat” was written with particular zip by Angela Kang. Among the several great lines is the piece of advice given by Savior Molly (Jill Jane Clement) to Carol: “Honey, you need to take some yoga breaths and calm your ass down.” Aside from the insights into Carol’s psyche, the rest of the plot/character developments were minor. We learned that pregnant Maggie is still badass, perhaps even more — she steps up with no hesitation when Carol falters (“We have to finish this”). There also was more buildup to Negan’s big entrance. This time around we were told that he’s created some kind of cult where his acolytes are “all Negan.” Which frankly is kind of stupid because what kind of leader thins out his power that way? We all know there’s only one Negan and everybody else is following his orders. With only three episodes left to go this season, our gang should know the real deal soon enough.
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