Wait, what was that? A little ray of sunshine in the world of Walking Dead? Granted, Kirkman couldn't possibly keep killing off characters (not without introducing some new ones anyway) but he actually let the characters breath a small sigh of relief.
Usually, every time Walking Dead hints at something horrible hiding around the panel it ends up being just as bad, if not worse, than you imagine. This time Kirkman actually used that expectation to lather good happy thoughts on us. Oh no a zombie's got Carl and... Michelle to the rescue. Oh no a "clap clap" and Carl's in the car alone... but it's just some old friends.
The layout and pacing were great and while the usual gripe of it reading too fast still hold true, at least this time we aren't left biting our nails guessing who's going to be raped and/or gruesomely murdered next, but hoping that good things will be on the horizon... even though we all know better.