When we last left The Walking Dead, Negan’s men had stopped Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham and were about to steal their guns and trucks and take them captive. Meanwhile, back in Alexandria, the zombies had overrun the town, Carol and Morgan came to blows, and Rick and company were trying to get to safety after covering themselves with zombie guts. This week, everything was tied up in a nice big bloody bow and not everyone made it out alive.
There was a big problem in the first half of the season and that problem still exists, and that problem is Carol. I have a huge problem with Carol right now and I see her heading down a very dangerous road. However, I will get back to Carol later in this review, and I want to start out at the start of the episode and talk about how amazing this entire thrill ride was from start to finish. It all started with Daryl and a rocket launcher.
Now, when I am watching The Walking Dead, I also follow the Twitter conversation because I need to capture embeds of tweets for my work for Time Warner. It is often funny seeing people who have never read the comics seemed shocked at things that happen in the show, and often misreading the entire event (see what happens to Carl later in this recap). However, I was flummoxed by people who were disappointed in the beginning because they considered that it ruined the cliffhanger from last season.
It was actually the complete opposite.
For those who do not know, Negan is a very bad man and probably will become more hated than even The Governor as the show wears on. That is because Negan is even more evil than the Governor. I actually thought that the three would get taken to Negan and that storyline would start soon. Nope. The ringleader of the biker gang ordered one of his minions to accompany Daryl to the back of the truck to see what was in it. He then prepared to kill Sasha and Abraham for asking too many questions when THE BIKERS BLEW THE HELL UP.
Yep, remember that rocket launcher that Abraham found on the dead soldier? Daryl used it to great success. He might have lost his crossbow, but he has a new toy, and he isn’t finished with it. But, seriously, Daryl blowing up Negan’s men was just awesome. It will also bring Negan hunting for them and that will move the story forward. Seriously, it was a fantastic start to the episode.
Moving out of order slightly, Glenn and Enid show back up in town and get past the gate and into the church where they look for a gun. Glenn wants her to stay in the church while he tries to save Maggie on his own, but after he names off all the people that he loved who died over the course of the series, she demands to help him. It was a nice moment for Enid to finally understand that she is living for the memory of her parents, and it almost made it sound like Glenn was preparing to die again.
Speaking of dying, remember last episode when Rick was leading everyone out of the church, and they were trying to pass the zombies, and that little ignorant kid Sam kept saying “mom?” If anyone was like me, they thought he was about to get everyone killed. Well, he did. After Father Gabriel finally stepped up and promised he would get Judith back to the church to protect her for Rick, and Rick actually trusted him, Sam refused to go with them and wanted to stay with his mom.
That marked the end of the Anderson family.
Here is part one of my problems with Carol. She is a sociopath, I am sure of that. She will protect the ones she loves, but she is just as much of a stone cold killer as The Governor was. Remember when she threatened to kill Sam by tying him up outside where all the monsters would eat him just so he wouldn’t tell on her for stealing guns? He was a good kid until that moment. It was Carol that made Sam scared to death of the monsters. She did it to him.
While the group was walking towards the armory, Sam remembered everything that Carol told him about the monsters and freaked out. He was so scared that he moved away from the group and zombies got him and tore him to pieces in front of his mother. Jessie, who was watching her son get devoured, screamed, and then she was attacked and eaten too. Then, just because he is a psycho little dick like his dad was, Ron pulls out a gun and points it at Rick. Luckily, Michonne is there to drive her sword through Ron, but then he fires a shot right through Carl’s eye.
Twitter exploded with people who were angry that they allowed Ron to kill Carl.
Of course, anyone who reads the comics knows that Ron never killed Carl, and Carl lost his eye in the comics. That just happened here, and as the final scene of the episode shows, Carl is alive.
Back to Carol.
She and Morgan finished last episode unconscious as the Alpha Wolf kidnapped Dr. Denise and left with her at gunpoint. Well, the entire argument between Carol and Morgan was that Morgan believed that people could be redeemed and Carol just wants to shoot and kill anyone she doesn’t like. She even says in this episode that she should have killed Morgan. Well, in this episode something interesting happens. The Wolf and Denise are trying to get by the zombies and he wants to save her. He actually does, when he attacks zombies to rescue Denise from them, only for Carol to shoot him three times for his heroics and murder him on the spot.
Yes, Carol thinks she saved Denise. However, there was enough here to show that Morgan was right and that the Wolf was actually on his way to possibly finding redemption. He might have found redemption before Carol killed him, but Carol wouldn’t care. She is a stone cold killer. In this episode alone, she was responsible for Jessie and her family dying because she poisoned a young child’s mind and then killed a bad man who had just saved a woman from zombies.
It’s hard for someone to defend Carol to me.
Let’s move back to Rick.
Carl has been shot in the eye and Rick takes him in for Denise to save. He then goes out, along, with an axe, and starts killing all the zombies he can by himself. Soon, Michonne, Aaron, Heath, and more head out to help him fight. Then, people who were hiding in their homes grab weapons and join in the fight. The gutless Father Gabriel hands off Judith to a woman and tells the people they have to fight as well, before heading out. Even the cowardly Eugene heads out to fight.
Everyone gathers around to help Rick and the town finally proves they are ready to join in the fight for survival.
Glenn stupidly chose to lead the zombies away from Maggie, who then stupidly tried to yell for them to come back to her, making the sacrifice worthless as Enid tried to save her. Then, just as Glenn was about to die again, surrounded by zombies, the cavalry shows up and Abraham mows down zombies with a machine gun before asking Glenn to get the gate for them. Daryl then gets the great idea to pour gas into the lake and then use the rocket launcher to burst it into flames, and the zombies all follow the light to the fire to die.
The episode started off with an explosion and ended with a giant fire. This was just a brilliant episode and was needed because huge wins need to happen sometimes when so much bad things normally occur. It was sad to see Jessie die, since Rick really liked her, and it was shocking to see the moment where Carl loses his eye. However, the death of Negan’s men was awesome and Ron getting bladed was great as well. However, Carol is digging herself a hole and is becoming a very dangerous person.
What were your thoughts on this week’s episode of The Walking Dead? Let us know in the comments below.
