The Walking Dead: All The Confused Head Tilts

We can’t talk about this season without treating time (and to some extent music) as a distinct character. This episode was the first time since the beginning of the season that the movement of time felt really necessary instead of a cheap device. The introduction of monotony into Alexandria is done well with the repetition of the morning routine: Olivia checks the pantry; Father Garbiel walks by casually toting a gun; Eugene assumes the gatekeeper post while Sasha looks on from atop the wall; Morgan practices… with his stick; Carol smokes a cigarette. This is Norman Rockwell adapted to the time. We get to see how routine life has become and, for a group that has not known routine since the prison, this is important. They are settling into life here. They are making the home and life that Deanna had hoped for. So, at the end of the episode, with the death and the abandonment (more on that in a sec), the fact that the routine is largely unbroken (Olivia, Gabriel, Morgan, and Sasha’s role remain unchanged; Rosita plays the part of Eugene, but assumedly only until he is well again) is important because it betrays not just routine, but complacency. Speaking of complacency: Rosita. Let’s start with a disclaimer: I have no slutshaming in my heart. I’m not mad at her for having a bed-warmer, even if it is a boring and cowardly one. My question is a philosophical one, not a moral one: why? It seems like between the Abraham breakup scene and the Denise monologue (more on that in a sec)…