By Rodney Ho
November 10, 2014
Another day, another big fat lie revealed.
Eugene may be business in the front, party in the back but he is a muddle inside the skull.
He is an admitted coward when it comes to walkers. He has no stomach for killing. He is still oddly doughy considering how little they seem to eat. He appears better cast for an episode of "Comic Book Men" than this show.
But he is wily. In a flashback, he convinces Abraham, a military man who is very good at killing, to join him on a quest. He said he is part of the Human Genome Project, that he worked on man-made pathogens, that he has an idea how to stop this virus/infestation that has ruined the land. He just needs to go from Houston to D.C. Pre-zombie apocalypse, that would be a three-hour flight, tops. Going through zombieland? A bit tougher. And a lot of people died along the way to try to get him there.
Abraham is Eugene's watcher, his guardian, his primary reason he is still alive.
We learn this episode why Abraham is so gung-ho about this mission, why it almost seems to matter more to him than Eugene.
In a back story we view in snippets, we find out Abraham had to kill some folks pretty savagely, causing his family to fear for their lives. They run away, then die at the hands of hungry walkers. (Michael Cudlitz, during "Talking Dead," fills us in on the back story from the graphic novels: his neighbors had raped his family and he killed them in response, including using a can to bash someone's skull in.) Just as Abraham is about to just kill himself in despair with his gun, Eugene comes along and screams for help from walkers. Once saved, he tells Abraham of his quest, which becomes Abraham's raison d'etre, his way to try to make up for what had happened to his family.
For many episodes now, Eugene has been a bit of a cipher. Smart? Yes. Eccentric? Yes. Genius? Maybe. Vague about how to save the world? Definitely.
Now we know why. He first confesses to Tara that he tried to slow things up by sticking cracked glass into the fuel line of the church bus, a move that almost killed them. Abraham, 15 miles from the church lost control of said bus, and it ended up on its side, then on fire. Because this is a TV show and perhaps for expediency's sake, none of the humans in the bus were seriously injured.
Why did Eugene do this? He tells Tara he was worried he would go to D.C. and fail. He needed to slow things up.
What's stranger: he is also a bit of a creeper. Tara catches him watching Rosita and Abraham go at it. For a second, I almost wondered if Tara has a thing for Eugene but she said she's into the ladies, right? Why doesn't she tell the rest of the group that Eugene had almost killed them by sticking glass in the fuel line? Bizarre!
As the group walks north, they see a herd of walkers up ahead in the distance, a ridiculous number. Abraham wants to forge ahead. He refuses to take a side path or retreat, despite Glenn's entreaties. He just wants to move forward. He pushes Glenn away and grabs Eugene. Eugene freaks out and confesses: he is no scientist. He is not part of the Human Genome Project. He has been fakin' it the whole time. Then he stupidly says he was smarter than Abraham, despite it all.
With Abraham's whole purpose in life stripped away in an instant, he punches the living daylights out of Eugene. Eugene falls flat on his face and appears to be in a terrible, terrible shape.
Abraham goes off and falls to his knees in true despair yet again. What to do now?
The good news is they will likely reunite with the church crew again because at this point, what's the point of going to D.C.?
NEXT WEEK
Will we ever see Rick and Michonne again? Next week appears to be focused on Carol and Daryl's chase of the folks that kidnapped Beth. Presumably, we find out why Carol ends up in the hospital. There are theories that this is a ruse to get Beth out of said hospital. Either way, we knew Daryl gets back to the church at some point with... somebody (or more than one somebody.)
Death count: There were all those walkers that approached the bus after it crashed. It included Eugene's first kill, saving Tara. Later, he kills some more using a big hose on top of a fire truck. See? He's helpful after all!
About the Author
