If you were one of the millions of people that tuned into the stellar Season 6 premiere of The Walking Dead on Sunday night, you witnessed a bunch of future talking points, from sudden deaths to peanut butter protein bars. But something else you might have noticed is that Sasha isn’t quite as wide-eyed and manic as she was as Season 5 was wrapping up. Why the big change? She finally got out of her own head.
Following that moment last season when it looked liked Sasha would justifiably put an end to Father Gabriel, he led her in a prayer and struck a chord within her. Here’s how actress Sonequa Martin-Green puts it, speaking as if she is Sasha.
I have realized that I was acting like a crazy person. The veil has been lifted. I’ve seen myself, and I realized that I should be ashamed for the way I behaved and I need to honor the ones that I’ve lost and actually try to live life the way they did instead of living it like some psychopath – psychopath against walkers, but still very unnatural and perverted behavior. I’ve seen the light, if you will. And I’m ready to honor Tyreese and honor Bob and serve this community.
While corrupted by guilt and depression, Sasha was the kind of crazy that you actually probably would want from someone in a fractured group setting like that of Alexandria. She didn’t really antagonize any of the other survivors, and chose to take out all of her aggression on any walker that came into her vicinity. She was far more of a danger to herself, simply by jumping into dangerous situations. But now she’ll apparently have her head screwed on tight, with a focus on putting her walker-killing talents back into a structured existence.
Sadly, I guess that also means she won’t ever be responsible for killing Father Gabriel, as she also shared with EW that her decision to not kill him was “a turning point for him as well.” Unless they decided to spin it as her doing it and then feeling really bad about it. I’m fine with that, so long as this dude goes away.
All in all, it was good to have Sasha back on this side of normal for the Season 6 premiere. Her car scenes with Abraham offered up nice, quiet moments amidst all the zombie herd madness. Sasha’s still one of those characters that feels like she could die at any moment, since she isn’t always at the head of the storytelling. But I’m happy to see her feeling better about things, and she’ll hopefully take up Comic Book Andrea’s post as the watchtower sniper in the future. They need one of those.
The Walking Dead airs on Sunday nights on AMC.
