Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
Anyone who has taken a road trip knows it’s a great way to get to know someone. Locked in a car with little personal space and a lot of time on your hands inevitably leads to some very interesting and insightful discussion. “Death March” takes this concept and puts it to good use by giving us some key pieces of information about character we don’t know much about while also doing some strong character building for those who we thought we knew quite well. It’s not effects heavy, and the action is slim, but “Death March” is one of the smartest episodes of the season. It also has a hell of an ending.
The 2nd Mass find themselves on the final road to Charleston with little else to do than sit around and wait. There’s a lot of discussion about how far they have left to go and a lot of doubt as to whether or not they’ll actually make it. If that wasn’t grim enough, Max hands his father a will – just in case. That appropriately sets the tone for the rest of the episode.
One of the surprisingly engaging conversations was between Tector and Weaver. So far, I’ve admittedly dismissed Tector as a secondary character who would probably never have any real involvement in the meat of the story. However, “Death March” establishes him as a key asset and does a lot to develop him into a potentially pivotal character from here on out. Through plenty of prodding from Weaver we discover a lot about Tector and his time in Afghanistan and Iraq. We learn a lot about his self doubt and why he is the reckless person he is today. Not only does Weaver manage to find the soldier within, but Tector gets to return the favor in the final few minutes by helping out Weaver in his time of self doubt. It’s a great bit of character building and I expect we’ll see a lot more of Tector from here on out.
Hal, Maggie and Pope are tasked with some advance scouting working. With Hal and Maggie now an item, Pope decides to be Pope and attempts to shake things up a bit. This time however, Pope was absolutely right and he goads Maggie into revealing her darkest secrets to Hal. As far as the story goes, I’m glad they finally got this out of the way as well. There has been a dark cloud floating over Maggie ever since her first appearance and it’s good to finally get that deep dark secret out in the open. We learn that she turned to a life of crime and drugs after she recovered from cancer and eventually ended up in prison. The real kicker is that she had a child while in prison.
Hal’s reaction to all of this news was cold but at least it seems like he was coming around in the end. Yeah, it’s a lot to digest, but we’ve seen them go through a lot of obstacles to be together. Throwing another curveball into the mix now would have killed the momentum of their story, which I fear will inevitably end in tragedy.
The wildcard this week was Jenny. This harnessed kid spends a little time with the 2nd Mass after being hit by Tector and Weaver’s truck. There’s not much to her character but she does give Max someone to talk to and through her he develops a lot more self doubt as to whether Ben will ever return. It’s an interesting little side story but the weakest story in the episode. It will be curious to see whether or not Max spilling the beans about Charleston to Jenny will have horrible repercussions in the next couple of weeks. I’m thinking yes.
With everything so horribly bleak the real kick in the teeth hits them as they arrive at Charleston, only to discover that the entire city has been destroyed. I absolutely loved the reaction of the characters after they discover that one shred of hope they had been holding on to was a pipe dream.
Tom’s reaction was especially moving as he consistently finds a way to be the voice of hope and reason for the rest of the group. He’s absolutely crushed and this time around it’s Dr. Glass who helps Tom find a quantum of hope in another wise hopeless situation.
Weaver, with a little help from Tector, musters up the courage to rally the troops once more. Weaver’s speech may not have been of the same quality as President Whitmore’s from Independence Day but I thought it was well written and he did a pretty good job of giving everyone a little bit of hope.
But wait!! The real twist presents itself just as the 2nd Mass is heading out when long thought dead Colonel Porter walks out of the brush to great Weaver and Tom! Apparently the new Capital of the United States Charleston is well hidden amongst the rubble of the city they saw.
I wasn’t sure how to take this twist. At first I was a little disappointed that they didn’t have the stones to stick to their grim ending, but, you know what, I think this is ultimately the better route to take the story. We’ve seen them on the grim path, holding on to a shred of hope for a while, let’s see what happens when they get their little bit of paradise. With a third season looming, I imagine things will go south eventually for Charleston and the 2nd Mass.
Source : ign[dot]com
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