Season 5, Episode 5: a powerful episode provided insights into Eugene and Abraham's past. About halfway through this week's episode of The Walking Dead, we saw Eugene (Josh McDermitt) engrossed in HG Wells's 1933 novel The Shape of Things To Come, a "future history" which predicted the outbreak of the Second World War and envisaged the eventual triumph of rationality and science. It felt like an apt choice of reading material. By promising that he could rid the world of Walkers via a mysterious cure or technology located in Washington, the socially awkward, mullet-sporting Eugene had assumed the position of a game-changer – a man who would make history. But by the end of the episode, we found out that Eugene had been lying all along: he was no scientist, and there was no cure. He was just a nobody, swept up in the same cruel chaos as everyone else, doing whatever he could to survive.
It was a devastating reveal, which was given the space and build-up it needed by the decision to devote an entire episode to the Washington-bound group. Fans desperate to see more of Rick and Daryl, or discover the payoff to last week's hospital cliffhanger, may have been alienated by the move. But it felt like the right choice, giving us time to fully understand Eugene and his motivation, and absorb the impact the brutal stripping-away of purpose would have on the group. Top episode 10/10
It was a devastating reveal, which was given the space and build-up it needed by the decision to devote an entire episode to the Washington-bound group. Fans desperate to see more of Rick and Daryl, or discover the payoff to last week's hospital cliffhanger, may have been alienated by the move. But it felt like the right choice, giving us time to fully understand Eugene and his motivation, and absorb the impact the brutal stripping-away of purpose would have on the group. Top episode 10/10