Things are ramping up in Alexandria as we near the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead (TWD-minus one week). Tara came home without Heath to find out her girlfriend (Dr Denise) and best friend (Glenn) were murdered by the Saviors. The Alexandrians must toe-the-line in order to keep Negan from killing anyone else, especially Daryl, who is locked in a Savior cell and easy pickings. Everyone is too preoccupied to wonder where Carol and Morgan are even though they’ve been missing all season. Maggie and Sasha are hiding out at the Hilltop to stay close to Maggie’s OB-GYN. And no one knows that Carl ran off to the Sanctuary to kill Negan. Luckily for the one-eyed wonder, Jesus ended up hitching a ride in the same Savior truck and will hopefully provide some guidance.
So where do we go tonight? Will Rosita manage to find guns and ammo? Will Rick and Aaron find something “special” enough for Negan to protect their community for another week? Will Maggie hit Gregory again? Will Tara spill the beans about Oceanside? Will we get to see more Shiva? You know you want to see that tiger again.
We start out with Michonne visiting the burnt out corpses of Alexandria’s mattresses. It’s the Savior’s petty FU and it pisses her off. The fire inside her is building. Rick wakes up fondling his radio. She didn’t call. Why didn’t she call? Negan is screwing up a relationship the internet spent years fantasizing about. Like we needed another reason to hate him. Jesus decides it’s best to ditch the Savior truck before they reach the Sanctuary. He teaches Carl how to jump out of a moving vehicle. “It isn’t usually the fall that gets us. It’s trying to fight it.” Carl plays the “you go first” ploy and Jesus falls for it. Carl is doing this his way and his way is a shootout. He finds a gun in the truck and takes out some Saviors. It’s a bad plan. Dwight knocks him over before he gets Negan. Surprisingly, Negan isn’t mad. He loves Carl and his big balls. “Come on, kid. Let’s show you around.” Daryl, working the walker pit, is worried. He knows how Negan treats “guests.”
Negan gives Carl a glimpse into his life. Negan gives his troops an inspiring speech. See how they kneel for me? See how they adore me? Negan visits his harem of wives. See how beautiful they are? See how they love me? Negan confronts one of his wives about being seen with her former boyfriend. He threatens to send her back to her old life. She’s terrified so she tells him she loves him. See how they choose me? Dwight and Daryl show up. Negan makes a big scene of kissing Sherry in front of Dwight. See how they belong to me? Daryl asks Negan why Carl is there. Negan cannot suffer insubordination and immediately puts him in his place. See how they obey me? It’s as if he’s saying to Carl, “all of this could be yours…”
Spencer heads out with Father Gabriel. He asks the Father is it’s a sin to hate someone. “Thoughts are just thoughts. It’s our actions that matter in the end.” Spencer takes that as approval to go on his Rick tirade. Father Gabriel tries to reason with him but Spencer takes it too far. “Maybe the only good thing that could happen to us now is he never makes it back.” Father Gabriel gives him righteous side-eye and demands he stop the car. “What you’re saying doesn’t make you a sinner. But it does make you a tremendous shit.” With that, father Gabriel flounces out of the car and heads home on foot. Spencer heads into the forest. What is the douchelord up to now? He finds a walker he and Nicholas strung up in a tree. He pulls down his crossbow. Spencer’s re-arming.
Negan works on breaking Carl. He cycles through flattery, yelling, abuse. He has Carl remove his bandage and taunts him about his wound. When Carl cries Negan starts the cycle over. Then he demands a song, preferably one Carl’s mother used to sing to him. With Lucille pointed at his face, Carl starts singing “You Are My Sunshine.” Negan practices slicing the air with Lucille while Carl struggles through the song. Negan asks about Lori. When Carl admits he killed his mother Negan exclaims, “Damn. No wonder you’re a little serial killer in the making.”
Eugene thinks he and Rosita are going on a scavenging mission for Negan but she has other plans. Rosita has a bullet to make. She takes him to the abandoned workshop where he went with Abraham before everything fell apart. Eugene doesn’t want to be there. He doesn’t want to make a bullet. He wants to make a plan, with Rick, before they do anything. Rosita isn’t interested in logic. She harrases Eugene. She abuses him. She uses Abraham’s memory to guilt him into doing it. After she gets what she wants, she apologizes. He refuses to accept it. She’s gone too far. She’s losing her soul to anger.
Negan brings Carl to meet with his men. They all kneel, including Daryl. Negan has Carl hold Lucille while he takes care of business. The Savior that was sniffing around his wife needs to be punished. True, she was his girlfriend until Negan stole her away with threats and intimidation, but still… He’s going to get “the iron” and Dwight is going to help administer it. They burn his face with a red-hot iron while his friends and family watch. Negan announces that his face will be a reminder to everyone that rules matter. Sherry looks at Dwight, remembering his turn with “the iron.
Dwight and Sherry meet in the stairwell. They argue over who is doing worse deeds to survive. They both lose.
Alone again, Carl asks Negan why he hasn’t killed him, Rick or Daryl. Negan is still convinced Daryl is going to be a good soldier one day. Rick is already providing. And Carl is his future. “It’s more productive to break you. More fun, too.” Negan asks Carl how he should punish him for killing two of his men. Carl suggests he jump out the window to save him the trouble of killing him. Negan loves it. He decides to take his game back to Alexandria. Unbeknownst to them, they leave Jesus behind.
Rick and Aaron come across a gate with a big warning sign. They know they only have a day or two to find something “special” for Negan so they plow ahead, danger be damned. They find a houseboat in the middle of a walker infested lake. It’s now or never.
Michonne takes a Savior prisoner. “Take me to Negan,” she demands.
Daryl gets sent back to his cell. Someone slips a note under the door. It reads, “Go now.”
Negan finds Olivia at Rick’s house. Judith is nowhere to be seen so he doesn’t realize she’s babysitting. She complains that they’re running out of food and he fat shames her. She cries. To make it up to her, he asks if she’d like to have sex. She slaps him, hard. He leans in and growls, “I am about 50% more into you now.” He sends her off to make lemonade and tours the house. He squishes his toes into their thick carpet. He runs water out of their shiny taps. He plays darts in Carl’s room. And then he discovers Judith. He ends up on Rick’s veranda with Judith on his lap. He likes this life. “Maybe it is stupid keeping you and your dad alive…”
Next week: It’s the ninety-minute mid-season finale. The people of the Kingdom are worried. Daryl runs. Michonne looks for Negan. And Rick is scared.
I just finished watching it! I was so into it and didn’t realize the end was coming. I just always want more with this show.. except last week. UGH! Last week I did not want more. Last week’s episode was hard to endure. I’d rather be in Daryl’s cell listening to “Easy Street” than watch any more bottle episodes with boring characters who should be dead. But, man I loved this episode. Neagan is so intriguing. The way he interacts with people, totally unpredictable. When the chubby lady hit him, I thought she was dead! But, instead he offers to have sex with her. WTF? Neagan holding Judith had me on the edge of my seat. I was so scared he was going to hurt her. This should be a Netflix show. It’s too brutal waiting week to week.
On Talking Dead last week Alanna Masterson (Tara) mentioned that her episode was the first time they farmed out the script to someone outside the “family.” She was bragging because the screenwriter is somewhat famous but I think it answered a lot of questions about how boring the episode was. The guy didn’t know TWD world. I kind of liked the story itself but the script was the problem. I was quite relieved to see things back to normal this week.
Also, the part that scares me the most about Negan holding Judith is he’s kind of desperate for kids. Remember the first time we went to the Sanctuary, Sherry was taking a pregnancy test…
It made me think that I’ve never seen a baby or toddler zombie. Have I missed them? Not many child zombies either.
Yes there have been plenty of child walkers. In the first scene in the whole series, Rick kills a child walker. It’s weird that there are so many walkers though, considering the walkers eat a person until there’s practically nothing left. But, I guess as long as the brain isn’t harmed, they live and that’s why we see them walking around with half their intestines hanging out. Gross!
In the beginning of the series they had more children walkers. in the past few seasons. I don’t think we’ve seen any. The one I remember best was In Season 2; Carole’s daughter was lost in the woods and when they found her in Hershel’s barn, she had turned into a walker.
I was thinking the same thing about Neagan.. he is starting to think his wives are restless and they need a purpose. If he steals Judith and lets the wives raise her, that would give them purpose. I don’t know. Somewhere inside, Neagan knows that Rick ain’t a punk. If Rick loses Carl or Judith, there is nothing left for him to live for and Neagan is smart enough to know that he doesn’t want to contend with a Rick with zero fucks left.
I am having a hard time watching this show. It’s just too overly gory & not enough story line. I couldn’t wait for it to come back but so far it’s a huge drawn out disappointment. Sort of like when reading a book and the author over describes every detail and you just want to yell can we just get to the damn plot? All the separate story lines, none of them connecting, ugh, I just can’t! But, I’ll continue watching, hoping it all turns around. I can’t believe the mid season finale is next week, I feel like I’m still waiting for it to return!
I know what you mean, in the sense that I’m always waiting, wanting more than what they give us. Last week was HORRIBLE, a waste! But, this week, I did enjoy seeing Carl and Neagan interact. It was better than last week anyway, in my opinion.
I can’t believe we’ve only had Carol in one episode! She’s one of my favorites.
Did anyone else notice that Carl and Daryl appeared to whisper to each other in the harem room?
Carol was my favorite character, until she went crazy and decided that she can’t hurt murderers anymore. Now she’s with that idiot Morgan and his stick and I don’t care what happens to her, unless she had temporary insanity and comes to her senses.
The scenes with Carl got me bad, I had to leave the room, same thing happened during the first episode when I thought they were going to cut off his arm. I’m not sure why it bothers me so much, maybe because he’s a kid still in my mind and I cannot watch a child being harmed! This isn’t a typical show I would watch but my fiance loves it and I got sucked in. I was so thinking he’s going to steal Judith, maybe trade her for a wife or Daryl? Maybe that’s what wakes Rick up and starts the whole revolt against Negan? Maybe they combined forces with that women cult..I hope, otherwise I’m not sure why we had to sit through that crap last week lol.
I assume that at some point all the different camps will band together against Negan. With each episode we’ve watched how each group has struggled under his subjugation. There will definitely be some deserters among Negan’s ranks. He’s really been riding Dwight and I’d be shocked if he stood by Negan when the other camps come a callin’. At some point most of these people are going to turn on him, it’s just a matter of when. Call me wacky but I wouldn’t be to keen to defend a guy who’s burnt off half my face but I’m kinda funny that way.
Oh I wanted to add that Carol made me so mad, I feel like she jeopardized everyone with her runaway stunt.
Carol’s story line has been really disappointing. It was wonderful watching her come into her own over the years. She went from battered wife to bad-ass. Now she is afraid of her own power, which I find disheartening.
Carol is my favorite character. I had a hard time with her current weakness at first too but cut the woman some slack! She’s killed a lot of people. That has to take it out of you. She’s taking a little break from the zombie apocalypse. I think she’s earned it. She’ll be back in form as soon as she hears about what Negan did. In my head I’m channeling those old “Leave Britney alone” videos…
I am so glad Eugene did not accept Rosita’s apology, she was cruel to him . I am surprised she didn’t insult his mullet while she was at it. Please spray Daryl down with some soap and water, it’s getting to be so nasty that I can’t stomach to look at him. What is left of Carl’s innocence is going to be brutally stripped from him by Negan, that is sad. I miss Carol, not the I can’t do this anymore Carol, but the badass I’m mad as hell and I ain’t gonna take it anymore Carol. I am not pleased with how this season has been going but this episode is heading in the right direction. I must say that I am well aware that this is a fictional TV show so don’t say ..do these people realize that this is a show not real life.. it makes you look like you are the one who is one match shy of a box and not me. Love the recap The Lady C and great pictures Tamara.
It’s funny that you said that about the show not being real! I feel like this a safe show to comment on because we know it’s a television show unlike most of the reality shows that are scripted so it seems odd to comment on their behavior because they are most likely “acting”. I enjoy bad ass Carol too!