10 Worst Episodes Of The Walking Dead (According To IMDB)
The Walking Dead has a lot of great episodes but it has also featured some pretty bad ones. Here's a look at the 10 worst according to IMDb.
After ten years of continuous zombie mayhem, The Walking Dead has recently pulled off a stunning return to form after a few seasons of subpar storytelling. It seems the show, despite a dip in quality for the better part of two full seasons, is once again back in the good graces of critics and fans alike, the Whisperers storyline eliminating the bad taste some might've had in their mouths after the lackluster war with the Saviors.
Nonetheless, there was a good long period of time in which the show struggled immensely, most easily evident by a sharp decline in scores on IMDB. With that in mind, here are the ten worst episodes of AMC's The Walking Dead, according to IMDB user scores.
10 "Mercy" (Season 8, Episode 1) IMDB Score: 6.8
Kicking off our list is the 100th episode of the series, the Season 8 opener "Mercy." While the episode was packed to the brim with cute nods to past events and easter eggs that eagle-eyed fans no doubt enjoyed spotting, the story itself was surprisingly boring, despite being the kickoff of the "All Out War" arc. Save a few tense sequences, this opener didn't inspire much hope in the season that followed.
9 "Some Guy" (Season 8, Episode 4) IMDB Score: 6.7
This is perhaps the only episode on this list that has absolutely no business being here. Khary Peyton delivers easily his best performance in the series in this Ezekiel-centric episode, losing both his army, his tiger, and his bravura, after a vicious attack by the Saviors, and his portrayal of the guilt and grief-stricken King is haunting to behold.
To top it off, audiences also get some classic Rambo Carol, and the episode ends with a wicked cool car chase. Say what you will about Season 8, but this episode is truly an under-appreciated gem. The King deserves more respect!
8 "How It's Gotta Be" (Season 8, Episode 8) IMDB Score: 6.7
For the most part, this episode is fine. But in the last two minutes, the producers not only rewrote the course of the season, but the series itself. This is the episode where they decided to reveal that Carl Grimes had been bitten. The decision to kill Carl was probably one of the most poorly received twists in the history of the show (and that's saying something). Not only did that decision fundamentally alter the future of the series (Carl is a main player all the way to the end of the comics) but it also reeked of one of the show's biggest and most frustrating habits: killing main characters to boost ratings.
7 "The Damned" (Season 8, Episode 2) IMDB Score: 6.6
While this episode is packed to the brim with action as the united Alexandrians, Hilltoppers, and Kingdom forces attack Savior outposts, the sequences are staged so poorly and shot so badly it's hard to actually care about anything that's happening.
Guns never run out of ammo, the main characters have plot armor thicker than the Battle of Winterfell, and the episode itself feels entirely weightless until its final moments when a long presumed dead character makes a surprise return (but we'll get to that later).
6 "The Other Side" (Season 7, Episode 14) IMDB Score: 6.6
Another episode in which characters walk places, talking poetically for long stretches only to make wildly irrational decisions, Season 7's The Other Side is an hour spent with Sasha and Rosita on their quest to kill Negan at the Sanctuary, an obvious suicide mission. Amazingly, the writers manage to botch the palpable friction of Abraham's former lovers squabbling on their way to kill the man who murdered their red-haired love, and the episode suffers greatly for it.
5 "Last Day On Earth" (Season 6, Episode 16) IMDB Score: 6.5
This episode is frustrating. Not because it's bad, it's actually one of the better episodes of the show as a whole. No, this episode is frustrating because it should NOT have been the Season Finale. The infamous choice to NOT reveal who met their maker by Negan's hand after his fantastic introduction not only robs that scene (and JDM's scenery-chewing performance) of its power, but it besmirches one of the most iconic moments in the comic series.
Had this episode been second to last in the season, then the finale could've been used to deliver the biggest gut-punch in the entire series, and fans would at least know that the deaths of these beloved characters weren't being used as a stunt. Alas.
4 "Time For After" (Season 8, Episode 7) IMDB Score: 6.4
In addition to forcing the audience to spend more time with Jadis and her weird Junkyard clan, this episode spends a lot of time setting up Eugene as a loyal Savior. He spends three-quarters of the episode fully leaning into his more villainous side, only for it to be completely undone it in the last few moments with no explanation. Believable character motivations are not the strong suit of Season 8.
3 "Monsters" (Season 8, Episode 2) IMDB Score: 6.3
Morales returns! Briefly.
Monsters isn't the worst episode of Season 8, that honor goes to the next entry on this list, but it does suffer from more of the problems that bogged down the whole first half of the season. Weightless action. A painfully evident lack of stakes. Characters making insane, irrational decisions without proper motivation. On top of that, Monsters bungles a long-awaited return (Morales didn't die and now he's a Savior! Small world, huh? Oh wait it doesn't matter because now he's dead, five seconds after he returned. Cool.) and rehashes the same themes the show had been spooning out since season one: where's the line between survival and pure brutality? Yawn.
RELATED: The Walking Dead Builds To The Final Showdown With The Whisperers
2 "The King, the Widow, and Rick" (Season 8, Episode 6) IMDB Score: 6.1
What a snooze. This episode takes the crown as the single worst of Season 8, taking the small amount of momentum the previous two episodes had stirred up and grinding it to a screeching halt for a slow, meditative hour where everyone is sad and nothing important happens. At least the action in the previous episodes was entertaining, if poorly conceived. This episode is...just really bad.
1 "Swear" (Season 7, Episode 6) IMDB Score: 5.6
Here it is, the single worst episode of The Walking Dead. Season 7's Tara side-quest, "Swear." Now there's nothing wrong with Tara as a character, and Alanna Masterson has always performed her well, but this episode is just a train wreck from beginning to end. There's no real purpose behind it other than to introduce Oceanside (something that could've been done much more gracefully) and to find a way to get Heath off the show (something this episode does very confusingly. He kind of just...leaves?). Topping it all off is the baffling decision to put an entire episode on the shoulders of a character who never really screamed "leading lady." Altogether, this episode stands as a strange and poorly executed excursion to a community that still hasn't gotten the screentime it deserves.
NEXT: Walking Dead: World Beyond Trailer Features Rick Grimes
Cameron Box is a freelance writer from the Chicago area. He began writing at a young age, and fostered his love of comics, horror and films at Columbia College Chicago. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Cinema Art and Science. When he's not working on articles or screenplays, he enjoys archery, hiking, swimming and playing the violin.
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