A reclusive scientist and nature documentarian, Dr. Chauncey Everett, accompanies a stranger, Amy, as she tries to find the group of survivors she was separated from in an area of the Wiregrass region now called the Dead Sector. Amy's attempts to connect with Everett are largely unsuccessful as he sees the undead, which he has dubbed homo mortus, are the next stage of nature's evolution while humanity is the danger. Everett is focused on saving one of his missing research specimens, dubbed Specimen 21, who is later revealed to be one of his former colleagues, but Specimen 21 is eaten by an alligator. Amy and Everett have a falling out after he stops her from saving two of her friends before Everett reveals that her camp is in the path of a massive herd and is doomed. Amy rushes off to warn her friends, but Everett later discovers that they have fallen to the herd and turned themselves. Everett begins tagging his new specimens for study, including a now undead Amy, although Everett displays some hesitation when faced with his former friend.
Here, we basically have a more "scientific" look, somewhat naturalistic and curious in terms of mythology for the series' universe. I like how the direction and editing try to incorporate this visually. The editing consists of images of the environment, animals, and large landscapes in the style of Animal Planet or National Geographic documentaries, including narration by the scientist. And filmmaker Haifaa Al-Mansour has a good composition of scenes in the forests and in situations that depict the ruthless cruelty of the ecosystem. By the way, it is worth noting how the episode explores the threat of zombies, something that has been forgotten within the TWD universe.
However, the stylistic choices end up being somewhat gratuitous considering that the script is extremely limited in terms of discourse and drama to be able to dialogue with the direction and editing. It's like watching an interesting idea like "let's use science and nature" in TWD, without a good progression of the premise, considering that we basically have hypocritical lectures from Everett and little exploration of his research and zombie behaviors. Honestly, if this entire episode were the scientist wandering around and analyzing zombie behaviors, we would have a very cool chapter considering the filmmaker's work.
But no, we needed to have a million expository dialogues about "human connection." All of the doctor's interactions with Amy are boring, whether the female character is giving long speeches about her love for humanity or Everett himself is declaring his hatred for Homo sapiens a million times. The text tries to give a false philosophical and humanistic interpretation in these superficial conversations, but it's hard to hide the thematic and reflective poverty in cliché phrases like "humanity doesn't learn." Would it be so difficult to give us a nature documentary as the premise suggests and the direction tries to execute? Complicated. Beyond the terrible interaction and dialogue between the main duo, it's also a bit hard to buy into the "trust-don't trust" adventure between Amy and Dr. Everett. Fortunately, Haifaa Al-Mansour's direction manages to make the episode more dynamic and visually interesting, while the premise holds the story within a minimally curious idea.