I’m not sure I entirely enjoyed “Slabtown” if only for the fact that while Beth has always been an interesting character, she’s not really going to go anywhere. I don’t really see this arc with Beth ending on a light note. In fact I foresee this being the final episodes with Beth in this zombie apocalypse. While it will suck not seeing the utterly gorgeous and talented Emily Kinney anymore, I think it might just be the sacrifice that’s worth it. While I don’t particularly agree with the methods that are practiced in this dictatorial and exploitative safe haven, the leader of the pack Dawn makes some interesting points about Beth’s survival. Ever since we met Beth, everyone’s priority has been about saving her and placing her in a higher priority. Beth has always been rescued, but she’s barely done anything to really pay people back.
Beth is a survivor and can handle herself, there’s no doubting that, but she’s been saved more times than she’s done the saving. Even when Daryl spent his time hunting and running around with her, she repaid him with a hissyfit about drinking wine, and flipped him the bird. Beth has been very coddled in this new world, and it’s almost karmic justice that she’s in a place now that doesn’t idealize her. For once Beth is in a place not obsessed with protecting the fragile Southern flower, and demands that she pay back everything she takes from their small society. I’m not saying that I think she deserves being held prisoner in such a scenario, but it is likely that kick in the ass she desperately needs.
And no way in hell do I condone rape. Gorman is a sleaze ball who gets his rightful end, but the insistence by people like Noah that being vulnerable helps no one in this safe haven is a good alarm for Beth to start pulling her own weight. When we first see Beth, she awakens in a hospital room very similar to Rick Grimes’ own introduction. Where Rick opens the door to a hospital completely destroyed, Beth is in a hospital that’s maintained order. For better and for much, much worse. Dawn is that rude awakening where she demands something in return for Beth’s safety. Beth is obviously not a girl that’s had to do much before the dead rose, and here she has to commit to grueling activities, and is also exploited left and right by people with their own goal to see another day.
Much like Woodbury the hospital Beth is in is like a cult. You have to give of yourself if you want something, and you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. No one is really who they seem to be in this new safe haven, and Beth has to really walk lightly when she realizes she’s by no means a damsel in distress. The safe haven is also a very well rounded prison where people can only leave if they pay back what they consume or use. And that’s an endless cycle when it’s shown that they count everything from food eaten, to clean clothes.
Beth really will only leave unless she stops eating and wearing clean clothing, and if she ceases to use those resources, she will become useless thus sacrificed. Much of the scenes feel very superfluous this time around and there’s a lot of unnecessary ambiguity that I didn’t see working, unless it meant something to the final half of the arc. Keisha Castle Hughes also has a small role here as a victimized young nurse in the vein of Beth, who is obviously being used as an unfortunate center of sexual and physical abuse for perverse security guard Gorman, and she’s only there to pose some kind of limp irony in the final scenes of the episode.
What’s profound about the episode is that Beth is not being saved anymore. She has no room to complain, or cry, and has to either play by the rules or be murdered without anyone to help her. The final scenes where she’s fleeing from the hospital with fellow prisoner Noah (Tyler James Williams) depict how this world is about every man being for themselves. Noah jets for the outside while leaving Beth in the dust, clearly indicating that while they’re in it to survive, no sacrifices are going to be made. I think the fact he left her behind as she is restrained and dragged back in to the hospital may just be the wake up call the character needs.
I wasn’t too big on “Slabtown,” but I assume (and hope) it bears an importance as part one in the last stand of Beth Greene. The only logical directions I see this storyline ending is Beth saving someone else for once (e.g. Carol) for the greater good, or Beth coming out of the situation with Carol realizing that someone else in this world has to survive above her, and often before her.
Next week, Abraham’s mission to Washington might be FUBAR.