I found this episode to be hugely disappointing.
I had heard from a few different sources during the break that the show was taking a new direction and all I saw was more of the same.
I'm not sure the show is in decline, but my expectations for series' have grown from watching shows like Game of Thrones and American Horror Story. I was a huge fan of TWD in past seasons, but now it seems to lack complexity.
I think the producers should have introduced other groups, followed them, and gotten the viewers invested in them to the point of rooting for them as much as Rick's group. Then gradually put the different groups on a collision course. That would have tested the viewers allegiances.
The way the show works now, Rick's group has questionable morality. But there is never a doubt that they are morally superior to the other groups they encounter. So we always root for them, and they suffer casualties but always persevere.
Just my opinion. Don't want to turn anyone off to the show. But there is a good chance I won't watch another episode.
I heard an interesting theory on Walking Dead's disappointing nature for many, simply that its 'story engine' is poor. I think this is easy to miss because presumably surviving in apocalyptic world of Zombies is never-ending feeder of story, but obviously with no minds to those villains the zombie engine only provides BOO! moments and action sequences. They've almost never told a zombie story because the zombies are by definition inexplicable and a plot trap. Only the CDC episode was a zombie think-piece storyline.
They've continually forced human villains to make story. Problem is most of these have been short-lived or too drawn out. And as tdrink point out rather than make it ambiguous other groups its always purely good vs evil (Governor, Claimed, Terminus, Hospital)
So the natural stories are what happens when you go here or there and what happens when you stay put. The depth to layer into this is morality and how the grim reality weighs on you. They try to show this inner struggle but it is hard and easily missed OR when they do speak about it, it seems melodramatic or trite. They do seem to be adding road-weariness to the characters, but if they aren't hoping or trying to find nirvana it is kind of hard to relate to frustration at being stuck. The audience says/thinks if you are so damn frustrated try something new!?
I think the natural story should be trying to find a safe place or nirvana, but because Kirkman is so dead set against any solution or any truly safe spot he steers way clear of this. Exception of course was the group all trying for and re-uniting at Terminus. Not coincidentally that plotline is where the series gained its most viewers and critical acclaim.
A smarter show would now have them trying an island but failing, trying skyscrapers but failing, underground cities, treehouses, boathouses etc... Instead they put them in a doomed by its nature prison to ceaselessly beat home the doomed theme. Hopefully the quest for Washington is legit and that carries this mini-season, maybe with sprinkled in WOLF villains that stay either unknown or ambiguous.