For some people, Valentine’s Day is all about flowers and chocolate. Me? I just want zombies. Well, I’m a lucky girl because it’s finally time for The Walking Dead mid-season premiere! To celebrate, AMC is running a marathon to get you prepped for Sunday. Or you can just reread the “best Walking Dead recaps on the web” right here, at TamaraTattles.com.
It’s been an intense, uncomfortable season so far. We started things off losing two of our favorite characters. Negan viciously killed Glenn and Abraham to gain control over Rick and the Alexandrians. And it worked. For the first time since the show began, our friends gave up all hope. It was a huge turning point for the show and many die-hard fans felt betrayed. While I understand the disappointment, and horror, it was clear the show was taking us on a journey and I, for one, was willing to go along. Almost as if to make up for the horror of the premiere, we next got a charming and humorous episode at the Kingdom. Morgan and a physically and psychologically wounded Carol met King Ezekiel and his pet tiger Shiva. Morgan loved the gentle community, and it’s wacky leader, but Carol wasn’t willing to care about people anymore. If you love someone, you’ll kill to protect them. And Carol was done killing. As a compromise, Carol moved just outside the Kingdom gates, the perfect place to be wooed by King Ezekiel.
Next we got to see what life was like at Negan’s Sanctuary. Dwight was the Big Man On Campus but his status hid the truth. Negan had stolen his wife and branded his face. He tried to convince himself he was happy but it was all a facade. Nevertheless, he tortured Daryl for Negan, feeding him dog food sandwiches and blaring sadistically upbeat music 24 hours a day. Eventually Negan decided to visit Alexandria and ransack their stores. Carl pointed a gun at Negan so he decided to take all of their weapons, including the ones Spencer hid. Rosita had other plans. She took a gun off a walker and found an empty shell casing. Knowing just what to do, Rosita visited Eugene. “Make me a bullet.” Maggie and Sasha were hiding out at the Hilltop, in close proximity to the OB-Gyn. Gregory, the Hilltop’s sleazy leader, wasn’t very happy about it. He tried to turn them over to Negan’s Saviors but Jesus outwitted him and the women stayed safe. When she saw Gregory had stolen Glenn’s watch, it was all too much for Maggie. She punched Gregory in the nose and Jesus realized who should really be running Hilltop. Enid arrived to watch over Maggie while Jesus and Carl hid in a Savior truck, headed for the Sanctuary.
Tara and Heath missed everything. They set out on a scavenger mission directly from the Savior bunker siege so they thought Negan was decimated. They got separated and Tara discovered a community of kick ass women. First they tried to kill her, then they tried to adopt her. When she turned them down, they tried to kill her again. It ends up they were also Negan’s victims and were terrified he’d find them again. Tara got away but only after promising to keep their location secret. Back at the Sanctuary, Carl attempted to kill Negan and failed. Instead of punishing him, Negan tried to turn him. He is quite fond of the “future serial killer.” Eventually Negan bought Carl home. Rick wasn’t there, but Judith was. Negan closed out the episode sitting on Rick’s porch with his daughter on his lap. You could tell he liked being Rick.
In the mid-season finale, all of the disparate stories started weaving together. Daryl escaped from the Sanctuary with help from Jesus. Rick and Aaron led a new enemy back to Alexandria. King Ezekiel’s top guy begged Morgan and Carol to help him convince the King to fight Negan. Michonne saw how big the Sanctuary was and realized she couldn’t take Negan on alone. Spencer tried to convince Negan to kill Rick and let him run Alexandria. Negan wasn’t interested in working with someone who was too scared to kill his own nemesis so he gutted him. Literally. Rosita shot at Negan but only hit Lucille so, in retaliation, a Savior shot Olivia in the face. Eugene admitted he made the bullet and Negan took him back to the Sanctuary. Michonne reunited with Rick and begged him to join her war. He finally agreed. They all headed off to the Hilltop where Rick told Maggie she was right; they had to fight. Daryl handed Rick a gun. The sheriff was back and done kneeling. Now they just need to build an army…
And now we’re caught up for the second half of season seven. Be sure to tune in Sunday for the Mid-season premiere and come back to read my recap. See you in the comments section!
cannot wait for the new season to start. My ideal scenario would be for them to capture Negan, and put him in a pit with walkers and let them deal out justice…. slowly.
Can’t wait and yes, I will be watching TWD marathon for the 10th time!
Good recap! I’m so ready for the 2nd half of this season and for Rick to kick to Savior butt!
I was one who was ready to slam the door on this show after that brutal episode, but you talked us through it and I still watched. Glad I did, and am looking for a big payoff in the second half of the season.
Thanks for the recap. You make it look easy, and I know it’s not, not at all. Here’s to all the warrior women on this show. They’ve demonstrated the most pluck and sense, for the most part. Hear them ROAR!
Lady C,
I just love Ladies of London and have s enjoyed your thoughtful, charming reviews of it, episode by episode, person by person. . Will miss it mightily- and your comments. I often fail to participate, much as I would like, simply because I am reading them a day later, or after the fun has moved to the next recap.
That being said, I thought your TWD summary was efficient, effective, and terrific. I’ll miss the lovely settings in London and the world those ladies live, to have them offset by the misery of Alexandria and ugliness of Negan. But the wit, spark and pithiness of your comments shine through- and bring balance and perspective, and much needed distance enough to consider each highly charged scene in WD appropriately.
Thanks much for that- it is so appreciated and compelling. I think intelligent viewing of TWD is a acquired taste- it is one thing to abhor the violence, the gruesome settings intent on revulsion/shock. After a while they become commonplace. But this season production has deliberately ratcheted the game up a notch, especially with the loss of Glenn and Alexander and Negan’s Machiavellian mind twist games.
Looking forward to seeing/hearing your perspective as midseason bring TWD ‘s resumption
Awesome comment – I agree!
Finally, the gang’s (most of them anyway) back together again and I can’t wait!!
Thank you for a great recap Lady C. I am ok with Abraham’s death but I will never get over Glen’s. I still watch but the thrill is gone . Maybe the show will get better the second half; maybe it has run its course and jumped the shark with the brutality of the first show of season 7. We shall see and hope it gets better the second half.
I’m so thankful that Lady C is back recapping this show. Scripted shows are A LOT harder to recap than reality shows. At least for me. It’s very time-consuming and we are very lucky to have her.
Thank you for recapping. I will be returning regularly to save time. I’m just about done with TWD since the current writers and show runner have just about ruined the show for me after killing Glenn, then not killing Glenn (with a bunch of camera tricks) then only to end the season with a lot of more camera tricks (blood dripping down the camera), breakaway camera shot so I can’t see who Negan kills. Then they make me wait six months, then really kill Glenn in the most brutal way possible. Apparently they think jerking their audience around & throwing a bunch of gore onscreen will make up for it. Not so much.
We have a great villain now in Negan who after a couple decent but unnecessarily brutal episodes just talks us to death & it builds up zero tension who just repetitively tells me how awful he is for four episodes in a row. I’m like, get to the point, bro, we get it, you are a bad MF, you gonna torture some peeps if they don’t comply, etc, etc, etc. Rinse, Repeat.
The great discoveries we used to make about our characters past lives, like Daryl/Merle and Michonne & her child, there’s no more of that. The character development of the new people Carol & Morgan are coming upon, what about them? Nope. There’s been no more character development we need to care about the story & the people. Then they started throwing in more gore, more graphic violence and cheap camera tactics like blood dripping down the camera “point-of-view” during the bat death scene to keep it interesting.
There are also just too many other peripheral characters and locations now that many times I just can’t keep track who was where & why they were there, etc. Last half season, they covered 6 locations in 6 episodes. At least when a show like Games of Thrones does it, they do it in the same 2-3 episodes.
The amount of characters in play alone is a reeeeaaalllllly good reason to have recaps. Hell, we may need a glossary of characters, whether someone like Dwight was a Savior or Hilltop, good or bad guy and whether or not he may be having feelings about jumping ship to help Rick and company.
I forgot the new season was here!! Yippee and I love your recaps both here and Ladies of London.