The Walking Dead - Recap: True Lies

Then again, calling it a "twist" seems hyperbolic, in a certain sense. Was there even the slightest chance Eugene wasn't just lying about having a cure to the walker outbreak? It seems incredibly obvious now, enough that I feel kind of stupid for willfully ignoring the signs. Nevermind that he doesn't exactly look, talk, or act the part, Eugene just doesn't seem all that invested in actually getting to D.C., at least not as much as Abraham. Hell, he sabotages their bus just so they won't get there so soon. And while I suppose you could argue any number of reasons why Eugene would want to avoid reaching the destination, the most likely reason was that his secret would come out once they got there. And once his secret was out, he'd no longer have any value to the group, and would likely be ditched. So it probably shouldn't be a surprise that this is exactly what Eugene's rationale for lying ends up being once he reveals his secret at the end of the episode. Josh McDermitt does a tremendous job in illustrating how Eugene might still be sympathetic in all this, since we're given the impression that this wasn't a malicious act on Eugene's part, so much as an act of self-preservation. There's no way he would have survived without Abraham and Rosita (Christian Serranos), and Abraham's flashbacks reveal that he wouldn't have joined up with Eugene in the first place if not for the lie.

Credit: Gene Page/AMC

So even while Eugene comes across as a massive jackass for jerking these people around, he clearly has a certain amount of regret and shame for having felt it necessary in the first place. If he could take care of himself, he wouldn't have had to lie. And maybe all those people who died getting him to this point would still be alive. Their deaths seem to weigh heavily on his conscience, and it adds to the depth of McDermitt's performance, as Eugene could easily have been a cartoon character in lesser hands. Eugene is a guy who just wants to survive, but he can't think of any other way to do that but to lie, since he doesn't know how to fight or forage, nor does he seem to have a talent for being around other people. Case in point, the scene in which Eugene spies on Abraham and Sarita while they're having sex. I think the reason the scene is there is less about illustrating Eugene is a perv, and more about showing that this is behavior that probably wouldn't be tolerated, but for his lie. Abraham shrugs off Eugene's voyeurism because, well, what else is he going to do? They need him. But if they didn't? He probably wouldn't have put up with that peeping tom nonsense. And it's hard to imagine any other group would have either. Realistically, this Eugene story only had three possible solutions: 1) Eugene dies before he can implement the cure, 2) They get to D.C., but Eugene's cure doesn't work, 3) Eugene has been lying about the cure since the beginning. The show was never going to actually have a cure work, because that would essentially mean the end of the show. But I admit that I was of the belief that #1 would be how this all ended. So color me surprised at the events of the episode (even though I feel I might have been the only person in the whole of the internet who was actually surprised to find Eugene was lying). But that's not the direction it took, and it's a development that was both unexpected (well, to me) and entirely welcome.

Credit: AMC

It certainly helped that we not only got some significant character development on the Eugene front, but also from Abraham. A series of jarring flashbacks depict his past with his previous group, including (presumably) his wife and children, all of whom end up dead. It's a backstory that was inevitable once the flashbacks started, yet Michael Cudlitz is such an outstanding actor that he was able to make that emotional journey feel relatable. His pain is visceral, and it seems almost natural that he would stick a gun in his mouth after finding the decomposing bodies of his loved ones. Eugene's arrival onto the scene, pleading for help from a herd of walkers, may give Abraham the impetus he needs to keep on going, but really, he has to have known, at some level, that Eugene was lying about being a scientist. In that moment, when Eugene tells the grieving Abraham that he has an important mission, you can see the hope in Abraham's eyes, the desperate need to believe what Eugene is saying, regardless of how implausible it sounds. Because the alternative is hopelessness, and suicide. So of course Abraham takes it hard when Eugene reveals the truth that he made up his whole scientist backstory. That said, it's kind of surprising just how intense Abraham gets, as he starts pounding on Eugene until he faceplants into the dirt, bloody and unconscious. Abraham sinks to his knees, the full weight of his life's futility hitting him like a ton of bricks.

Credit: AMC

It's a stunning end to the episode, and one of the most effective closers the show has done. Where does the group go from here? How will Rick and co. react when they learn the truth? What's next for these people? These are questions I'm anxious to get the answer to, as Abraham and Eugene went from being afterthoughts to key figures in the narrative whose plot I'm genuinely interested in following. And that's probably the biggest success of "Self Help", that The Walking Dead can still get audiences invested in characters they hardly know.