The Walking Dead, Crossed - TV review: Battle lines drawn as mid-season bloodbath approaches

Aren’t homecomings supposed to be a good thing?

In this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, Rick ventures back to the city where the show began – but living standards in Atlanta have slipped somewhat.

The series gains momentum in the run up to the mid-season finale in an episode that is full of action and builds to a compelling climax.

After weeks of isolated stories, Rick Grimes and his post-apocalyptic extended family are brought back together as their storylines overlap.

Armed with the knowledge of Beth and Carol’s whereabouts, Rick leads a band of survivors into Atlanta. While there, a clash with some of Dawn Lerner’s officers puts their rescue mission in jeopardy. Father Gabriel sets off for pastures new, while Maggie and Rosita take turns looking after an increasingly unstable Abraham.

‘Crossed’ is an episode that highlights the strengths and flaws of the fifth series. When it works, it delivers some of the season’s finest scenes.

Daryl’s brawl with one of Dawn’s officers while surrounded by a sea of rotting zombies results in a suitably grizzly fight scene (resourcefulness points to Daryl, who detaches the skull from a zombie, then uses it like a rotting bowling ball against his attacker).

Rick and Sasha are also on fine form, both characters relentlessly driven in their efforts to find the missing members of their team, albeit for individual reasons. Sasha in particular is at her most engaging this week – her visible grief for Bob leads to the moment of weakness that concludes the episode.

Father Gabriel is shown at his most neurotic here. Initially introduced trying to scrub dirt off the church floor (an OCD Lady Macbeth act if ever there was one), his paranoia builds until he has his own personal Shawshank moment, burrows out of the church… only to have his foot pierced by a rusty nail.

This being The Walking Dead, it’s likely that he will learn how to defend himself in the weeks to come – if the zombies (or tetanus) don’t get him first, he’ll be a machete-wielding killing machine by this time next season.

Of all the storylines, Abraham’s is by far the weakest, mostly because little of real significance happens. Rosita and Tara provide just enough heart and humour to keep their scenes afloat, but we can only hope Abraham rediscovers his backbone in time for next week’s bloodbath, the others are going to need him.