The Same Boat

"The Same Boat" is the thirteenth episode of the sixth season and the 80th episode overall of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on March 13, 2016. The episode was written by Angela Kang and directed by Billy Gierhart.

This episode focuses on the characters of Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) and Maggie Greene (Lauren Cohan), who are captured by members of Negan's group known as the Saviors. It marks a turning point in an ongoing plot arc for Carol, one of the most cutthroat members of Rick's group, who is forced to re-examine herself as she is confronted by remorseless killer Paula.

Background

Carol Peletier and Maggie Greene are survivors in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies, colloquially referred to as "walkers," "growlers" or "coldbloods." Other members of their group, including Carol's close friend Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Maggie's devoted husband Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun), were recently led by Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) to make a pre-emptive sneak-attack against another community of survivors known as The Saviors.^[1] Daryl had previously been threatened by a group of Saviors he was able to kill,^[2] and Maggie negotiated a mercenary deal to eliminate the Saviors and their leader, Negan.^[3] Using ruthless tactics such as killing people in their sleep and gunning-down those attempting to escape, the group slaughter two dozen Saviors. Although one of Rick's most stalwart allies, Carol refused her assignment on the main attack and insisted on staying with a pregnant Maggie on the sidelines.^[1]

Before the apocalypse, Carol was a meek and battered housewife and she continued to place her fate in the hands of others and in religious faith until the missing daughter she'd been praying to be safely returned was revealed to have been turned into a zombie.^[4] Carol gradually became more self-confident and capable as a survivor to the point where she began making life-or-death decisions for the group.^[5] She displayed a cunningness when dealing with others who might threaten her group, disguising herself as a zombie,^[6] a suburban housewife,^[7] and a member of an invading force,^[8] and has been coldly pragmatic in allowing allies to die to protect the interests of her core group.^[5][9][8] Carol was particularly merciless in dealing with a murderous group of feral survivors called the Wolves,^[8] but became shaken when she contributed to the death of the Wolves' leader only to realize they shared the same goal: to protect her community's doctor.^[2] Carol has refused to discuss the incident while dwelling on the many lives she has taken.^[1]

Plot

Carol stops Maggie from joining the gun battle against the Saviors, and as they confront each other they are approached in the night. Carol shoots a man named Donnie before she and Maggie are surrounded and surrender to Paula (Alicia Witt), Michelle and Molly. As day breaks they observe Daryl capture a Savior named Primo, and to stop the savage beating inflicted on him Paula tells Rick over a walkie-talkie that they have Maggie and Carol. Rick tries to negotiate for a prisoner exchange, and while Donnie needs the medical attention Primo could provide, Paula feels they are at a disadvantage against Rick's group and decides to withdraw.

While awaiting reinforcements and deciding her next move, Paula and her group bring Carol and Maggie to a former slaughterhouse where the Saviors have cached supplies guarded by trapped zombies. Carol puts on an act of being frightened and weak-willed, while revealing that Maggie is pregnant in an effort to protect her. Donnie suffers excruciating nerve damage from a tourniquet and tries to physically take out his frustrations on Carol but is pistol-whipped by Paula. Paula says she doesn't blame him and casually accepts the violence, and through some direct discussions she and her companions each show a determination to fight regardless of Carol and Maggie urging them to deal with Rick.

Paula directs Rick to a location for a prisoner exchange but believes he is being duplicitous and tracking them. Paula, Michelle and Molly prepare to flee the moment their reinforcements arrive, or to ambush Rick's group should he get to the slaughterhouse first. Left unguarded, Carol is able to free herself and Maggie, who insists on killing their captors. They use a zombified Donnie to ambush Molly, taking her handgun and beating her to death. Paula catches them as they negotiate a gauntlet of zombies and Carol gets the upper hand but only wounds Paula as the zombies get loose. Maggie fights Michelle who slices at her stomach with a knife and is shot dead by Carol. They catch up to a wounded Paula who fights Carol but is impaled on a spike and attacked by a zombie. Carol takes Paula's radio and tells the Savior reinforcements to meet them on the kill floor, where she traps the five men with burning gasoline.

Killing the zombies on their way out, Maggie and Carol get to the entrance just as their own group arrive, and are embraced by Glenn and Daryl. Carol admits to Daryl that she's not OK, and Maggie tells Glenn, "I can't anymore." Primo tells Rick that he's Negan and proposes they chat but Rick brusquely apologizes and shoots the bound prisoner in the head as Carol looks on in shock.

Production and writing

The slaughterhouse set was custom-built for filming.^[10]

Reception

Critical reception

Melissa McBride (left) and Alicia Witt (right) both received critical acclaim for their performances.

The episode received critical acclaim, with the performances of McBride and Witt being singled out for praise. It holds a 100% positive rating with an average score of 8.2 out of 10 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The critics' consensus reads: "'The Same Boat' takes a strong female focus by continuing Carol's arc while deepening viewer anticipation for Negan's ominous arrival."^[11]

Matt Fowler from IGN gave it 9.3 out of 10 and praised McBride and Witt's performances and the episode's tension.^[12] Jeremy Egner of The New York Times commented positively on the complexity of Carol's division between ruse and real emotion, saying "Like always, Carol did whatever necessary to survive and protect her cohorts, and did so in particularly brutal fashion [...] but she seems increasingly unable to avoid reckoning with the toll. “Are you O.K.?” Daryl asked when he arrived. “No,” she responded, and that was before Rick executed the remaining Savior right in front of her. It’s going to take more than a few Hail Marys to make that image, among many others, go away."^[13]

TVLine named Alicia Witt their "Performer of the Week", praising her performance in the episode,^[14] while McBride was named "Performer of the Week" by Collider.com.^[15]

Lenika Cruz and David Sims of The Atlantic called it the "most overtly feminist episode thus far" and the episode "was an elegantly written and executed bottle episode, designed largely to subvert the trope of the helpless woman".^[16] Laura Prudom of Variety praised the episode and wrote that it is "an incisive chamber piece that serves as a compelling analogue to last week’s 'Not Tomorrow Yet' in its surprisingly deep examination of moral relativism, ably penned by Angela Kang and directed with claustrophobic intensity by Billy Gierhart."^[17]

Ratings

The episode averaged a 6.0 rating in adults 18-49, with 12.53 million viewers overall.^[18]

References

External links

• "The Same Boat" at AMC
• "The Same Boat" at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Same Boat" at TV.com