Review: The Walking Dead 85

Non Spoiler Review:

Issue 85 takes a breather to let us take stock of the dead and wounded. As Abraham and his crew dispose of the heaps of bodies, everyone has the opportunity to reflect on their survival and the future.

Following up such an insane couple of issues, this one was a welcome respite. It focused entirely on the relationships and offered up some new troubles for characters, as well a opportunities. 

Spoilers Now!

Abraham is organizing the burning of the walkers while Rick sits with Carl. They happen across the reanimated body of Jesse (with semi-detached hand), and a horrified Glen can't bring himself to shoot her, leaving it to Abraham, who is pretty much fed up with the whole mess.

Denise wants Rick to eat something, but he chooses that moment to confess how he sacrificed both Ron and Jesse (including cutting off her hand) during the attack. Denise doesn't really know what to say, and doesn't really want to hear it. And when he suggests they keep it between themselves, she offers him an "Oh, of course."

Spencer wants to hang out with Andrea later that night, but she's not sure what she wants to do at the moment, much less with him. Maggie and Glen are just happy to be back together and feeling totally guilty about that. Abraham cleans up after the day's work, and Rosita decides it's time to let him know she's known all long he's been sleeping with Holly, so she moves out on him. He makes it even worse by trying to explain how he was initially with her because he thought there wasn't any other choice, until they moved to Alexandria (door slam).

Rick speaks at the funeral for their dead, then afterwards has a community meeting (main characters only, please). It's quite productive, echoing his thoughts from last issue about making the community thrive, and rather than simply surviving from day to day, re-establishing some sort of civilization.

Back at Carl's bedside, Andrea comes in to sit with Rick, who is feeling certain his son will never recover. Then Carl coughs.

The Verdict:

It worked. This was a chill issue, and all the drama that's been suppressed the last few months comes out after everyone has time to think and reflect on their survival. Abraham's words were the harshest, but really rang true with what the survivors have had to deal with the last couple of years. Especially given Rick's new motivation to make this life work for everyone—now they all have options, including with other people. We do need a sense of the entire town, though, as right now it's regular characters filling up the background.

Somehow Rick's confession to Denise doesn't strike me as the wisest move. Every time it looks like he's a little bit stable, he says really creepy things like how he had to sacrifice Jesse despite that he really liked her. It's bound to come back and bite him in the ass.

The waiting game continues with Carl...