The Walking Dead left us heartbroken this week as we said goodbye to a beloved friend and watched another lose himself in grief. What will happen next? Here’s our recap of “Some Guy”!
WELP, I’ve been saying since the season premiere that something bad was going to happen in 8.4 based on the clock, and boy was I right. I still wasn’t prepared, though, which is why I’m totally heartbroken.
I’ll spend most of the time on this recap discussing Ezekiel and his character arc along with Shiva. Also, Carol and Jerry and their roles in helping get Ezekiel back where he needs to be mentally.
That being said, I’d like to start with the ending that featured Daryl and Rick. They chase down the Saviors with the guns. Daryl takes a spill on his bike but gets back up to do one of the coolest chase sequences in the show where Rick switches lanes and shows Daryl behind him. Daryl shoots and kills the Savior manning the gun, and Rick ends up driving up next to the Savior, taking the wheel of his truck and crashing them down a ravine.
They have the guns and explosives, though, so YAY! Unfortunately, that huge gain is overshadowed by what went down with the fighters for The Kingdom.
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The episode opened with Ezekiel coming into this dressing room and getting ready for the day. This isn’t a coincidence that they’re making it look like a dressing room in an old playhouse. Ezekiel is getting into character, and when he leaves the room, he is King Ezekiel of The Kingdom.
He’s the man who gives rousing speeches to his people and dreams of a world where they don’t have to suffer. He’s a good man who instills hope, but what we see through the episode is that this world takes hope, rips it apart, and makes you realize that you’re just “some guy”.
So, how did The Walking Dead break King Ezekiel? Let’s have a look…
At the end of episode 4, “Monsters”, Ezekiel spots the guns from the Savior outpost and tells his men to scatter. When the bullets start flying, his men don’t run away, they cover him and protect him.
“Some Guy” picks up earlier that day. After Ezekiel gets ready, he watches his troops say good bye to their families from his window then he goes down to his people, and he talks them. “You will be brave because you are brave.” He says this to Benjamin’s little brother, but it may come back to inspire himself later on.
This is probably one of the best characters of television because Ezekiel does this to normalize things for himself, but he’s truly trying to give these people who follow him hope.
“We face dire challenge and chance. Our lives, our way of life, it hands in the balance, a fragile glass hanging above the asphalt as we pray for not one drop of rain under an overcast sky. And yet, I smile. We will fight and we will bleed. And yet I smile.
And we will face men, some cornered into their role by circumstance. Some desperate murderers thrilled by blood. We shall end them all. As is our charge this day. As if our sorrow. And yet, I smile.
We will leave our loved ones to traverse a dangerous road. Rushing out of peace into war. And yet, I smile. For we will mine glory from the rock of struggle this day. We will honor and protect this bastion of life in this land of the dead and we will win!
You trust the king. We will win.
I smile. I laugh. I rejoice this day. For on this day, we are joined in purpose and vision. We are of a singular heart and mind. Of this day, we are one!
We are one!”
From there, the scene switches in an incredible shot transition, so all the people he promised wouldn’t die being dead and he being on the bottom of that pile.
Now, Ezekiel must face the devastating consequences of war up close. Until this point, his attempts to hurt Negan have all been very subtle. He gives them pigs that eat walker meat, and he plots with Rick in secret. Negan never knew of Shiva.
Even still, he knew there would come a time for war. That’s why his men have weapons and armor. It’s to play up “the kingdom” narrative, but it has a purpose. If Negan thinks he’s playing fairy tales and is batshit crazy, he’s easily put back into his place. However, Ezekiel is anything but crazy.
He sees Daniel, a Kingdomer we’ve come to know well, dead and eventually turn. He screams and cries as he looks over the dead. Soon, all the people that fought with him and for him have turned and begin to stalk after him as he tries to crawl away. He took a bullet to the leg and can’t walk properly.
In all of this, Shiva is missing. Probably scared off by the bullets from before. Another member of The Kingdom finds Ezekiel and helps carry him away only to be shot himself by a Savior who is looking for his big break.
This Savior is the absolute worst, and for a bit, I hated him more than I hated Negan. He looks like he’s been hanging out in his mom’s basement since the 80s and is garbage. He manipulates Ezekiel, who is already crushed, and breaks him totally.
“I will not let you use me to hurt my people.”
“Your people? You mean all those people you rooked into thinking you’re a king? Yeah, I heard your story. We all did. You work at a circus?”
“No.”
“I thought maybe, but nah. They don’t treat animals too nice at the circus, and that cat just loves you. Gave you everything, didn’t it? Gave you an angle. A story. Gotta hand it to you. You played your cards good. You played “your people” good. They ate that horse shit right up. They grew food for you, built those walls for you. Hell, look at ’em now. You gotta ’em all killed and their still following you. Take away that tiger and what’s left? Just some meaningless conman in a costume.”
Those words know him down further. He’s lost men who trusted him, who he feels responsible for, and now this outsider hits him where it hurts. Ezekiel isn’t truly a King, but I don’t think the people that follow him think he is anyway.
Ezekiel embodies honor and he has larger-than-life persona with Shiva at his side. In a world that’s gone to shit, he gives them a bit of magic. He will never just be “Some Guy”.
When Ezekiel tries to hit the Savior from 80s Hell, he’s knocked down and the Savior further humiliates him by painting lines on his face in blood. When they reach the fence, he realizes that he can’t get over with Ezekiel, so he threatens to put his head on pike (serious freaking comic!anxiety at this line, people), and also says they’re not supposed to kill him, the Widow, or Rick, but ohhh well.
Ezekiel prepares to die and tilts his chin off the ground. It reminded me of Abraham straightening up before Negan killed him, but there’s a battle cry and JERRY SAVES THE DAY!
Finally, this asshole Savior is killed by Jerry, and together he and Ezekiel make a final stand at a locked fence. Ezekiel with his cane sword and Jerry with the handle to his axe since the blade broke off when he tried to open the gate.
“Your majesty.”
“You don’t need to call me that.”
“Dude, yes I do.”
It’s during this time we get a flashback to Ezekiel explaining to Carol how he saved Shiva. He tells her that he did think about the consequences of jumping into that enclosure, but he knew he had to do it. It was the right thing to do.
This plays back to Carol because she must choose to save Ezekiel and Jerry or stop the Saviors with the guns. She chooses saving them, but all hope isn’t lost because she soon hears Daryl’s motorcycle and knows that the Saviors won’t actually get away.
Throughout this episode, Carol has been her trademark badass self and slipped into the compound and killed some Saviors and almost took control of the guns again. Carol even does her own bit of acting to make the Saviors think she’s given up, when in reality, she’s waiting for the right moment to press the button to open the gate and watch them get eaten alive.
Finally, Carol is back this episode.
As walkers surround them, Carol and Jerry help Ezekiel escape into the woods. Once in the woods, they get to a creek that’s got several walkers creeping around in toxic waste.
Ezekiel uses this opportunity to make a final stand, telling Jerry and Carol that he’ll hold them off. He’s ready to die the same way his people did, and he feels like a complete fraud.
When Jerry calls him “your majesty” again, he loses it, and it’s probably one of the best monologues in The Walking Dead. He finally yells that he’s not a king, he’s just “some guy”. The hurt is palpable.
At that moment, Shiva makes her reappearance and gives her life to save the man who saved her. Here’s the thing, he mirrors a lot of how he saved her. She didn’t think about the outcome. Shiva knew her master was in need of help, and she saved him.
You need to watch this.
Moving forward, Ezekiel doesn’t have his tiger anymore–the last connection to his past. The animal that trusted him above all others and gave her life to save him. This will take some serious time for Ezekiel to came back from.
As they enter the Kingdom, Ezekiel doesn’t address the crowd of people gathered there, instead, broken, he moves past them and away.
Carol knows what it’s like to be pretend and then be stripped of it by reality, so she can offer him advice. Probably the most important person he can speak to is Jerry or even Henry, Benjamin’s little brother.
They know he’s not truly a king, but like I said earlier, he may not be a king, but he’s a leader. He cares and he hurts when his people hurt. He makes tough decisions and he will bear the burden of them.
With Shiva’s death and Ezekiel’s spirit destroyed, what will this new future hold? All I can say is that I still trust the King, and I will forever miss Shiva.
What are your thoughts on episode four, “Some Guy”? Let us know below!
