Evie/Joe
Episode 1 of “Tales of the Walking Dead” introduces viewers to Joe, a character who lives in a basement with his dog Gilligan during the zombie apocalypse. Between watching football reruns and solving Sudoku puzzles, Joe’s life is relatively normal during the outbreak. ..
Joe begins to feel a sense of dread and hopelessness as he realizes that Gilly was bitten by a zombie and then killed. Joe begins to feel like he is losing his best friend, and this leads to a depressive state.
Joe goes on a road trip to find his ex-girlfriend online. He meets her in person, but things don’t go as planned. Joe reflects on the experience and how it changed his life.
Joe drives over spikes, he ends up caught in a net and looks set to meet a grisly demise… until a woman shows up and helps him. She also calls zombies “Toe-tags.” Is this the stupidest name for zombies in this universe? I think it may be!
Evie is an opportunist who cuts down Joe, but keeps him cuffed and tied up in her house. Joe is forced to work with Evie to avoid any further traps up the road. Evie obviously has her own agenda when she tags along with him. ..
The woman on the road is on a journey for love. However, when zombies come along, they team up to stop them.
We learn about Evie on this trip too, including how she’s regretful over falling out with her lover, Steven. It’s been over a year since the zombie invasion and she’s been waiting for a miracle to take her to his location - and now Joe has come along.
In exchange for taking her to Joe’s online pen-pal, Evie helps out Joe and shows him where his online pen-pal is located exactly on his map. If the weather holds, they should be there in less than 12 hours.
Joe and Evie are fighting for their bike when they’re ambushed by scavengers. Evie doesn’t have any bullets for her gun, so Joe has to fight them off.
Joe eventually makes it to his destination, where he notices a CCTV camera outside. Swinging his arms around wildly, he eventually stumbles down a hole into the basement. There, he meets his pen-pal – Sandra.
Unfortunately, Sandra is a dangerous woman who is crazed, distrustful and more than a little mental. She eventually ties him up, slashing Joe constantly across the neck, demanding to know what he’s doing there.
Steven finds Evie in the cabin and asks her to look at some paintings. The final one he finds is a portrait of Evie herself.
Sandra greets Evie and encourages her to have something to eat, which Evie gladly accepts. However, the woman we saw at the start of the chapter seems to have disappeared. Evie wonders what could have happened to her.
Eventually though, Joe kills Sandra but when she turns, the pair decide to run away as opposed to killing her outright. When they make it out together, Joe thanks Evie for her support and for showing him the way.
Joe and Evie decide to start anew and team up with each other, going on the hunt for salvation. With their lamb in-tow, they set out to see what they can find in the world.
The Episode Review
The show is set in a small town in Georgia, and the only thing that seems to be going on is the battle between the zombies and the people who live there. There are no characters, no plot, and very little development. The only thing that makes this show worth watching is the fact that it’s set in Georgia.
The story itself is not bad, but the acting is hit or miss and the comedic tone is completely out of sorts. The trouble with doing a story like this, with an undercurrent of comedy, is that it completely negates the threat of zombies or Sandra.
It’s incredibly contrived to believe Evie would just happily take some food and trust this woman when she’s shown herself to be really distrustful of Joe.
The moral of the story is that it’s better to stick together in times of chaos and catastrophe. This story does a good job of overshadowing some of the issues, but overall it’s an enjoyable read.
Zombie series always bring in decent numbers in anthologies, so the anthology format is definitely going to suit this show. ..
The preview for the next episode of “The Good Place” looks promising, but so far it’s been pretty average.
