This week’s episode of the The Walking Dead sees our familiar survivors after another significant time jump that was implicated at the end of last week’s episode and we see how the communities are continuing in the absence of Rick Grimes. As ever, spoilers follow!
1. Reasons To Hope
This week’s episode opens with a monologue from Michonne, contemplating time and the path that the communities are on, fearing the darkness that she feels is surrounding them. There are only brief “flashes of light” to give reason to hope and to keep going and so we are instantly confronted with Rick’s absence. Despite six years having passed since Rick’s departure from their lives, the characters are still affected by it.
As Michonne talks, we also see Daryl, who seems to have decided to live outside of the communities now, presumably as a self-imposed exile, although his reasons for this aren’t fully explained – perhaps it is a sense of guilt for not being able to save Rick or maybe it is because he’s lost his link to the groups now; as much as he cared for the other survivors, with Carol now fully considered Queen at the Hilltop, Daryl’s two strongest relationships have been severely damaged.
As we follow Daryl in the wilderness, we get presented with a wonderful visual metaphor with a walker that seems to have gotten stuck against a tree, which has since grown up through its arm. We then see a blue bird land on its shoulder, peck a worm from the walker’s head and then fly back to its nest to feed its young. With many years now having passed since the zombie apocalypse started, this scene indicates the constant presence of walkers in amongst the world, literally entwined with nature while also reflecting the parental themes that the show has often engaged with over the years, and indeed, in this episode.
2. A New Beginning
Next up, we get a continuation of the scene we saw at the end of last week’s episode, with Judith insisting that this new group of survivors, made up of Magna, Luke, Connie, Kelly, and Yumiko are brought back with them to Alexandria. When they get back, there’s a strong hostility towards them. Michonne arrives back from her scavenging/personal reflection and instantly questions why they’ve been brought inside; it’s a violation of the newly established security rules.
In terms of an introductory episode for this group, we only learn little snippets about them as the group, minus Yumiko, who is being treated in the infirmary, are questioned by the Council of Alexandria and are then set for a home at the Hilltop by the end of the episode. Magna gets the most development of them all, with her desperation to stay in Alexandria driving her to the point of planning to convince Michonne by force. While Magna ultimately doesn’t act, I appreciated the fact that she was so cunning in hiding her weapons and it reinforces the fact that, by this point in the zombie apocalypse, unless you have miraculously lived in a safe haven for the entire time, you’ve had to learn how to survive by any means necessary.
By the end of the episode, the new survivors are leaving for the Hilltop, but given that last week’s episode was Maggie’s final appearance of the season, it is unclear who is running the Hilltop now, or where Maggie herself has gone.
3. Problem Solving
With Judith already trying to embody her father’s legacy by trying to help the group of survivors, she seems to have a strong sense of maturity regarding the world around her, despite her age, so when we saw her sat on the steps close to Negan’s prison, I was quite shocked and fearing that Negan would be able to manipulate her into freeing him. These fears are quickly alleviated because, instead, Judith is trying to get him to help her with her math problems. In this scene, I got the sense that Negan was trying to influence Judith but ultimately fails. He, in his own twisted way, is trying to educate Judith on the risk that outsiders pose by telling her about the stray dogs he tried to help when he was younger. Instead, she knows that Negan is not a suitable role model and rejects his suggestions with the utmost sass: “Look how great everything turned out for you.” After initially being sceptical about how Judith would function in the series now with her growing up, the performance by Cailey Fleming in the episode has certainly got my attention.
Continued below4. Reparations and Risk
Meanwhile, over at the Kingdom, we get to see Henry, another character who is all-grown-up now and so, played by Matt Lintz. Henry is growing too old for the Kingdom, which is in much need of reparations, exemplified by the fact that one of the pipes burst again. While, Henry is capable of performing these fixes, he’s desperate to do more to help out; he wants to learn and has his sights set on going to the Hilltop to learn from Earl Sutton, their blacksmith. Comic book readers will recognise this plot line, although in the series’ source material, it is Carl who leaves from the Hilltop to learn; whether or Carl’s comic book plot line from here onward will be remixed with Henry is uncertain but is an interesting proposition.
In amongst all of this, there’s a brief mention that Ezekiel is planning to hold a community fair to connect all of the settlements once again.
Henry then sets off for the Hilltop accompanied by Carol but, as to be expected, this journey is not going to be simple and when Henry hears cries of help he leaps to the rescue without considering the risk and walks into a trap by the remainders of the Saviours, led by Jed. The group then take all of the supplies that Carol and Henry were travelling with and for a second time, Henry is naive and tries to attack Jed, despite being surrounded. Here, the stark differences between one of the series’ longest surviving characters in Carol, with someone less wordly in Henry; Henry still acts impulsively in a world where, when dealing with the living at least, this isn’t always the best thing to do.
Following this, when the pair have set up camp for the night, Carol sneaks back to where the Saviours are camping out and burns them alive. Yep, you read that right, Carol burns the last of the Saviours alive and this scene is presented as shocking – quite rightly. Carol now, much like Rick has in the past, is now desperate to protect her son and will do anything to protect him. I personally am very intrigued to see if Carol continues in this vein or whether she recognises the extremity of her actions.
5. Radio/Silence?
Finally, in this episode we get to see Gabriel attempting to use a set of radio equipment to communicate with other survivors and communities. Rosita joins him and they discuss the plans on where to plant a relay box to amplify the signal and Rosita tells him not to worry about it, to leave it to her and Eugene and then, she kisses him, indicating another new development that’s happened during the time gap. Eugene and Rosita then set off and discuss the surprising relationship between Rosita and Gabriel, which provides the episode with a little bit of humour as Eugune suggests that, “generally speaking,” there are other potential suitors for Rosita, of course, trying to subtly suggest himself.
Then, things quickly get worse: as Eugene starts to climb down the water tower, a herd starts to approach. Eugene then rushes and drops his bag, which spooks the horses, leaving the two survivors without a quick getaway. From here, the tension continues to rise as Eugene then injures his knee when he drops down the water town and they scramble through the woods to escape them. This escape culminates as the pair smother themselves in mud in a ditch beside the path and have to lie silently as the herd walks perilously close to them. The herd however, isn’t silent, it’s noisier than we’ve come to expect from the zombies and we hear voices from the herd say “Don’t let them get away.” The episode ends on this cliffhanger leaving us desperate to get answers about these talking zombies. Of course, comic book fans will remember this but I’ll give nothing away.
All in all, this ending caps off another interesting episode with the time gap allowing a lot of new developments to alter the way our characters behave and interact with each other, whilst crucially hooking us in for the next episode.
