The Latest ‘Walking Dead’ Was Exactly What Women Needed 

Dear Scott Gimple: The Latest ‘Walking Dead…

Mon, March 14, 2016 9:18am EDT by Emily Longeretta

‘The Walking Dead’ is a male-driven show — we know that, and we love it. However the latest episode put one hundred percent focus on the women, and set a new precedent.

has had amazing characters, both men and women. But there’s almost never an episode without an arc for Rick, Daryl, Glenn, etc. and last night proved that the women on

are the hidden stars — and damn good role models. So this is my thank you to Scott Gimple. (And my plea for Melissa McBride to finally get an Emmy nomination!)

Nearly half of the staff (90% females) at HollywoodLife.com watch

and have heart-to-hearts about it every Monday morning. This week’s conversation was just as excited — but had a little different angle.

What was different was the content: Carol and Maggie took down a badass villain, also a woman, Paula, played by the amazing Alicia Witt. Let me just state, Scott has always done an excellent job with strong women on this show. For years, Carol especially has proven how badass she is; Maggie has saved everyone; Rosita is a badass every freaking week, etc.

But this week was an opportunity Scott could have shied away from, and instead he embraced it. The emotional aspect of the storyline was necessary – Glenn, Daryl and Rick doing everything possible to get back the women they loved in one way or another. We saw that in the last scene.

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But the fact that we didn’t see the men through the episode is what I’d like to give praise to.

fans are both men and women, but it’s naturally a male-driven show. It is

. However, Scott wasn’t afraid to show the strength, relationship and emotion between Carol and Maggie — something we’ve been waiting for for a long time. And not only did he show it, he dedicated a whole episode to showing how strong these two are, together and separate.

Carol and Maggie have had their fair share of conflict but this episode showed two women who put their lives at stake repeatedly to save the other.

And then there’s Paula. Just the fact the villain for the episode was a woman is applaud-worthy. She was also freakin’ terrifying. Alicia Witt wowed everyone with how scary she really was, and in a way, how relatable she was. Sure, we knew she’d be dying at some point and we knew that rosary would help. But even seeing her inner struggle was powerful.

Don’t get me wrong: I love Rick, I’m team Daryl, Glenn’s love for everyone and everything is something I adore. But I couldn’t not notice the girl power on this episode. Even on

, the only man was Paul Fieg, the director of the female-led Ghostbusters. So thank you, Scott Gimple. Love, women everywhere.

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