What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead (Mid-Season Finale)

The Walking Dead: Season 8, Episode 8 “How It’s Gotta Be” (B-)

I know that, technically speaking, most shows have fall finales that I haven’t been identifying as such, but this show always airs its seasons in two parts, and I think it’s important to differentiate those two halves. I also think that this is going to be the last episode I watch since I just can’t get over how endless this show seems, particularly because I’ve read that it might continue on forever, which is an unbearable thought. The recently-started device of zooming in on each character’s face continues to be irritating since it just emphasizes how little and how rarely they’re featured, to the point that I forgot that we hadn’t heard anything from Morgan in a while or that he was even still alive when he showed up to see Ezekiel being held captive. It’s been a full season and a half since Negan first showed his face and made an unforgettable impression, and it still feels like our friends won’t ever be able to get out from under him, no matter how many times it seems like they’ve regained control. Maggie is ready to go to war, and, while a good number of the characters survived, they don’t have the facilities they need, and their mole on the inside of Negan’s operation has been revealed and is only going to be helpful from a strategic perspective rather than an operational one. I accidentally saw a headline about Carl portrayer Chandler Riggs’ father being upset about what the show did to his son’s character before I watched this episode, and so seeing him go out with a whimper was pretty lackluster. I just don’t care anymore, so I can’t imagine I’ll be compelled to watch the second half of this season when it returns in February.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 8, Episode 7 “Time for After” (C+)

During this episode, I kept wondering to myself how many more episodes were left before this show went on its annual midseason hiatus. This season has been so aimless, and having an entire hour focused on Eugene, a character who doesn’t make much sense to me anymore, feels like a true waste, especially since Rick was able to use his calm, determined nature and overcome his many captors in the final scene in a way that doesn’t feel remotely believable. When Eugene first revealed that he wasn’t a scientist, that made him a very compelling character, someone who had done something dishonest but not violent to stay alive. But after he didn’t help Sasha enough and then has repeatedly failed to pick the right side, spending time instead cozying up to Negan, it’s hard to understand where he’s supposed to be in terms of his allegiances. I’m honestly lost about what side Dwight is on at this point, and he’s becoming such an unappealing character that I don’t care at all. I’m equally tired of Jadis and all of her people, and, however absurd it was, having Rick manage an impossible escape might mean that we’re finally rid of them. The way that I’m feeling about everyone on this show, especially the formerly intriguing Negan, I can’t imagine that anything about the midseason finale coming up this weekend is going to compel me to decide not to drop this show from my watchlist. I just don’t see the point anymore.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 8, Episode 6 “The King, the Widow, and Rick” (C+)

This episode’s title is strange to me since I guess it’s meant to indicate some sort of unity since this episode featured three main characters all in separate, unconnected places, but this show is still so disjointed and all over the place that I’m not buying that it’s actually headed somewhere. I read recently that this show could go on forever, and I believe it, since things have been going round and round for so long now that it’s hard to see any sort of direction in the near future. I had forgotten how much I hate the Yoda-speak women, and now they have Rick boarded up, which he doesn’t seem to mind at all. Maggie is making big decisions and heeding Gregory’s advice much more than he realized, bringing the prisoners in and kicking him out. Carol is giving Ezekiel her latest pep talk, and I’m wondering now if I liked Carol more when she was obsessed with finding Sophia way back in season two. Tara and Michonne survived some ominous whistling and a near-getaway thanks to Darryl’s good timing, and Carl saved some guy in the woods that his father would have let die. There are so many threads extending from what feels like just as many centers, and the pacing of each of these episodes is just so glacial. Firing a torpedo to obliterate a person can only liven up the show so much, and with only two episodes left until this show goes on its hiatus, I don’t imagine we’ll get anywhere interesting.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 8, Episode 5 “The Big Scary U” (B-)

We’re back again to fractured plotlines, starting the episode out with a flashback to what happened just before the events of this season’s premiere. I’ve always found Xander Berkeley to be an excellent actor, but I’ve grown very tired of Gregory as a character. He’s just not worth all that much, not that it matters since everyone’s probably going to die anyway before the next big villain shows up to threaten all the good guys and help turn them into unsympathetic killers like everyone else on the show. There’s no denying that Negan is able to deliver speeches that could go on for hours and still remain relatively interesting, and the notion that Gabriel would want to take his confession is intriguing since, after spending almost an hour with just the two of them, Negan revealed just a bit about himself: that he used to work with kids before all of this and that he couldn’t bring himself to kill his one true wife when everything began. Other than that, all we saw was discord being sewn among his top leadership when they thought he was dead, with his return timed perfectly to quiet the chaos and return things to normal. Darryl and Rick fighting isn’t going to help anyone, though it is worthwhile to take note of which people are still wary of killing the masses, pretty much just Jesus and Rick at this point, and how everyone else is compromising their morals on a regular basis. I guess the important takeaway of this episode is that Gabriel wanted to get taken prisoner so that he could encourage Eugene to help him spring the doctor, hardly the most optimistic plan in my mind.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 8, Episode 4 “Some Guy” (B)

This show has been in the middle of the action for its entire season so far, and we’re seeing selected flashbacks to explain just how calm and serene things were only a short while ago. Ezekiel’s triumphant “And yet I smile” speech was indeed pretty inspirational to his flock, and cutting from their big group hug to lots of dismembered body parts on the ground was brutal. This episode felt much more violent than all of the other hours in which we see the undead ripping into the barely alive, probably because we saw so many dead bodies in pieces and then Ezekiel’s captor cleaved in half by Jerry. Carol holding her own against some determined Negan followers put her in a convenient place to show up and save the day, letting the guys get away with the guns but rescuing Ezekiel and Jerry from certain doom in the process. It makes complete sense that Ezekiel was a zookeeper, someone capable of taming a tiger but in a way that tracks with a pre-apocalyptic world. He’s obviously not ready for the realness of what this world sometimes looks like, as compared with the cool-under-pressure attitude both Jerry and Carol have. Ezekiel doesn’t want to be a king anymore, just some guy, but he’s still got a tiger, which always seems to manage to show up and save the day. While the other three were stressed trying to stay alive, Rick and Darryl seemed like they were having a blast, playing video game target practice with the two Negan allegiants they ran off the road while losing a theoretically very useful vehicle and nearly getting shot to pieces in the process. Believable? Not so much, but at least Rick and Darryl are loosening up a bit.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 8, Episode 3 “Monsters” (C+)

I’ve come to a point where I just don’t care what happens to any of these characters. Any of them could die and I don’t think I’d care, even someone like Maggie who’s been around since the beginning. I also feel like there are so many landscapes and buildings that look exactly the same that it’s hard to keep track of where the good guys are, where the bad guys are, and why it is that they seem to be getting continually ambushed after having the upper hand. There are just two people who don’t want to kill everyone they meet, and Jesus is literally fighting with his allies about it while Rick isn’t bothering to argue when less understanding forces like Darryl are around and ready to shoot first. Morgan has lost it completely, expressing an uncontrollable desire for blood while others like Tara simply say that they don’t see the good in keeping people alive. Maggie nearly turned Gregory away at the gates, which would have been a fitting punishment for his traitorous actions, but then she let him in and had to argue just moments later that it wasn’t smart for Jesus to invite in all the prisoners. I don’t believe that there’s going to be a time anytime soon that will be post-Negan since this show is so endlessly cyclical and we haven’t even seen the big bad in a while. Or, worse, they’ll become Negan, because like a dead man said, “Yeah, I’m Negan, I had to be to make it this far.”

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 8, Episode 2 “The Damned” (B-)

I’m not sure where this new device of zooming in on all the characters’ faces came from, but it really doesn’t add much other than to once again remind us that we don’t know a lot of these people as well as this show would hope that we do. I still feel that there’s an expanded core of leads who play a relatively big role on this show, and this season has been unusual in that two episodes so far have included most of those faces without abandoning them to zero in on just one character who’s off somewhere else on their own adventure, though I imagine that’s coming soon with a Maggie-centric hour that will leave the war with the Saviors for another week. We didn’t see Negin at all this episode as a few factions of good guys wander around trying to maintain eye contact with the camera and kill anyone they think isn’t good in the proces. We did learn an important lesson from the man that Jesus wanted to spare about “pissing yourself on purpose,” and it’s rare to find someone like him who wants to kill as few people as possible, even stopping Morgan, the former angel of peace who’s once again becoming undone as a result of everything he’s witnessed. Rick coming across a baby was an interesting scene since he’s one of the few people in this dystopian world who had a child born during this apocalypse, and things aren’t looking good for him in the episode-ending encounter. Ezekiel is a memorable personality, and he does give a decent stirring speech complete with tiger finale.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead (Season Premiere)

The Walking Dead: Season 8, Episode 1 “Mercy” (B)

Here we go again. I went into this episode without much excitement since I feel that, even more than rolling my eyes at how cyclical this show has become, I just don’t care what’s happening anymore. Negan is likely the most formidable, evil villain this show has seen yet, though I’m partial to the Governor’s first season since I think the show was much stronger back then. At this point, Rick has demonstrated something he hasn’t felt for a while, which is that he’s confident, and his people are organized. Negan didn’t seem bothered when they showed up, but he did run when Rick and crew started firing at them. Darryl riding and causing explosion after explosion to keep the walkers behind him was cool and seemed to serve some purpose, but Negan was still the one asking Gabriel if he brought the right pants because of the big surprise that he had in store for them. Gregory proved totally useless, trying to scare off the Hilltop residents and failing, and then bailing and taking one of the vehicles with him. There was something enticing about seeing Ezekiel, Jesus, Rick, Maggie, and Gabriel having a pow-wow before battle, but all the quick shots of the supporting characters reminds me how little we’ll learn of most of them before they disappear for episodes at a time and then return to be shot in the eye with an arrow. Our good guys aren’t being nice anymore, killing on sight and setting walkers on those they leave alive, and there’s an odd silver lining to all this, featuring a gray-haired Rick in some probably imagined future. I don’t get it, and I don’t think we’ll have clarity anytime soon.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead (Season Finale)

The Walking Dead: Season 7, Episode 16 “The First Day of the Rest of Your Life” (B)

I’ve written before that this show tends to be highly cyclical, and when it goes off the air every March or April following the conclusion of two half-seasons, it’s important to look back to the beginning to see if anything has been accomplished. Season seven premiered in October with the big question of who Negan had killed with his baseball hat. Despite his appearance in this episode in memories or hallucinations, whichever they were, to Sasha, Abraham hasn’t been seen since then, and the same is true of Glenn, especially since Maggie just had one big episode and not too much more. Rick had finally put together a resistance force to take down Negan, and all hope of that died in an instant when their new allies turned out to have been bought at a higher price than Negan, and Dwight’s side-switch proved to be entirely false. The two things that turned the tide were Sasha’s post-iPod suicide that provided a distraction when her walker form caught Negan by surprise and the “Lord of the Rings”-style tiger backup which succeeded in saving our friends but not, most crucially, in allowing them to kill Negan once and for all. Unlike a Governor situation where he just survived to cause more harm slowly but surely, Negan is now ready to rally his forces to eviscerate those that he previously just wanted to control. I don’t know if that takes us anywhere new in season eight and beyond, since apparently the comics are so many issues ahead to provide endless source material, but at the very least I guess it’s more of the same and now there’s a tiger. Let’s hope for some worthwhile originality coming soon.

Season grade: B
Season MVP: Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 7, Episode 15 “Something They Need” (B)

There are some episodes of this show which recently have given us intimate insight into Negan as a character, not menacing people from afar and using his power to terrorize the masses. With Sasha captured by the Saviors, she got to experience Negan one-on-one, showing up to decry that one of his minions was about to rape her, even though what he does to men and women alike through the power of intimidation and fear is no better. He’s also very fond of giving people weapons to dare them to try to use them against him, only to further torment them by showing them the futility of such an effort. I’m getting tired of this cycle, and of course Eugene’s weapon of choice for Sasha to end her life was poison rather than something she could actually use to take Negan out. I think the most fitting resolution would be for Eugene to use that same poison against Negan when he thought he was the most submissive servant, but I’m not sure that’s how things are going to go. With Tara’s help, our friends were able to conquer another group – with only mild and pretty much singular resistance – and finally arm themselves to go after the Saviors. Dwight’s defection couldn’t come at a more opportune time, and it seems that Rick, no longer content to take abuse from anyone, is perfectly willing to stoop to Negan’s level to ensure that those who get his protection fully earn it. Let’s hope for a solid and productive finale.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 7, Episode 14 “The Other Side” (B-)

We’re getting closer to what’s sure to be an explosive end to the season, but we’re still inching towards it piece by piece with a continually segmented approach. We haven’t visited the Hilltop in a bit, and therefore it’s somewhat stirring to see the intensity of the training that’s going on to ensure that, when everyone finally decides that it’s time to rise up, they know how to fight. The dramatic music to go along with that was pretty effective, and unfortunately the rest of the episode didn’t quite match it. I think we’ve seen Maggie, Sasha, and Rosita plan to trek over to the Saviors’ compound and take their revenge enough times already, and it was remarkably simple for them to get there and have Negan in their crosshairs within moments of arrival. The shot wasn’t taken, of course, and then Eugene didn’t even want to leave with them despite a clear path of escape. It’s hard to tell whether Gregory is going to give the mutineers up or if he’s playing them so that he can allow his people to take them out by seeming like he’s cooperating, but I’m betting on the former, which is bad news for everyone involved. I’m getting very tired of seeing the Saviors show up and tell the good guys how great they have it, and how they should be grateful for the privilege of not having every single thing they have and find immediately pillaged from them by the more powerful.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 7, Episode 13 “Bury Me Here” (B-)

It seems to me that we are headed toward an inevitable conclusion to this entire Negan saga, in which everyone either bands together against the oppressive dictator or they become a casualty along the way. Each time we see Ezekiel the king brought down a couple hundred pegs by the unkind and disrespectful treatment by the Saviors, the likelihood that he will soon revolt against their oppression increases. It’s just as true that Morgan won’t be able to be nonviolent forever since he doesn’t exist in a world where others play by those rules, and while he can survive without resorting to violence, he won’t be able to protect others. I’ll admit that I didn’t expect him to beat Richard to death just to show how far he’s descended, but it’s all representative of the same general idea. People can only take so much before they either kill or are killed, particularly in a world overrun with zombies. Carol learning the truth was an important but also predictable moment, and I think we’ve been ambling along for way too long, and it’s about time we see some definitive and transformative action on the part of our main characters. The difference that remains between the “us” that constitutes everyone aside from those within Negan’s camp is that they still hold to different standards; they do what they need to do but not to excess and not punitively. It’s just a matter of how long they can last before they all explode like Morgan, and hopefully they’ll stop killing their owns and focus their efforts on the true threats.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 7, Episode 12 “Say Yes” (B-)

There are certain episodes of this show that I’d describe as “hunter-gatherer” installments where all the characters just scavenge around through the abandoned devastation of the world to find things and nearly get killed by walkers. Usually, such hours don’t involve much action or plot progression, and I don’t think this episode was an exception. Rick nearly getting eaten by a whole pack of walkers could have been a monumental, game-changing development, but we got that fake-out with Glenn a while back and it wasn’t worth it. Michonne froze for a good few seconds after that, and fortunately Rick emerged from his hiding place and got to throw her famous sword at her for a bizarre action moment that felt out of place on this show. Every once in a while, characters invoke names of the dead to remind us of their existence, and for me it’s more of a signal of better days in the past rather than continued quality now. We’ve seen Rosita and Sasha amp up to go after Negan before, and let’s hope that this finally does something. I’m getting tired of broken sentences between Rick and his new friend Jadis and celebrating small victories like renegotiating their deal to ensure their survival until they find more guns. We have four more episodes left in this season, and I’d like to see a dramatic shift in pace and a redirection of the story trajectory towards everyone going in guns blazing against Negan, taking out the biggest threat they’ve ever faced and coming out the other side with a tiny bit of hope.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 7, Episode 11 “Hostiles and Calamities” (B-)

After a satisfyingly multifunctional episode last week, we’re back to this show’s standard style of focusing on just one person and their trajectory over the course of an hour. I liked Eugene when he was odd and awkward, and now he’s all alone and even more of that without being nearly as entertaining. I think that Abraham getting killed turned him into a much darker person, and now he’s hopeless to start any sort of resistance after volunteering his complicity in designing the bullet that hurt Lucille and nearly killed Negan. That opening shot of Negan silently holding his bat while Dwight was being beaten was powerful and effective, and then we got back to the nightly presentation of fear which found Negan interrogating the doctor, seemingly forgiving him after his confession, and then literally throwing him into the fire. The wives had a plan to get rid of Negan, and I wish that they had succeeded since this show needs to be able to move on to somewhere with a tiny sliver of hope that isn’t just canned pasta and tomato sauce as a backup to lobster and as many hours as Eugene wants to play videogames. He’s exactly the seed of resistance needed right now who could take down Negan without showing any emotion, and now that flicker is all but extinguished unless he’s playing the long game, which I can’t imagine that he is. I just hope we end the season with an epic takedown of Negan and the start of something new for the rest of our friends.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 7, Episode 10 “New Best Friends” (B+)

Look at this, a multitasking episode that features more than just one plotline and set of characters! I was genuinely shocked when, after dwelling on Richard and Morgan as they tried to keep peace between Ezekiel’s kingdom and the saviors despite their troublemaking actions, we got to see Rick and his new friends. It’s time for the Saviors to be taken down, and after the only consequence of Richard’s backtalk was Morgan getting his stick taken away, it seems like things may finally be turning in the right direction. Rick smiling is always an eerie sight, and the fact that he demanded to see Gabriel and had his request granted by the creepy hive mind was a great start to negotiations. Getting pushed off a trash heap and forced to defend himself against an armored walker of sorts was an intriguing test of loyalty, and I like that Rick was confident enough after surviving the experience to push back and insist that Jadis only get a third of what they’ll eventually take from the Saviors and not half. I feel like the nonplussed demeanor that this collective has is just what’s needed to fearlessly take on the Saviors once and for all. Darryl’s reunion with Carol was another nice tender moment, and Morgan was right to pick up on the fact that Darryl had lied to Carol so as not to make her dive back into a depression and also to keep her away from the conflict that he knows is on the horizon.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead (Mid-Season Premiere)

The Walking Dead: Season 7, Episode 9 “Rock in the Road” (B+)

I don’t usually come out of this show’s frequent forays into hiatus feeling like I want to see more of it since it tends to be very cyclical in nature. Fortunately, this mid-season premiere suggested that things are finally picking up pace as Rick, reunited with Darryl before the show took its most recent break, is now resolved to fight against the Saviors after sitting back and taking it for the first half of the season. Gregory is useless, as fantastically portrayed by Xander Berkeley, but everyone is determined enough, even Jesus, that they don’t need him. It turns out that they were well aware of the existence of King Ezekiel and Morgan was just around relaxing, ready to put in a good word for his old friends even if he doesn’t support their latest idea which will bring much bloodshed upon all kingdoms. Hearing Negan on the radio ready to come hunt for Darryl was an excellent opportunity for the core group to band together and pull off an impressive and successful mission, leading Michonne of all people to utter the show’s new anthem: “We’re the ones who live.” Negan’s people coming to toss the place and promise to punish everyone if they ever find Darryl there seemed like more of a nuisance than a real threat, and the eerie sight of Rick smiling at the end of the episode indicates that things might actually be looking up, though those people really don’t look like new friends. And what is Gabriel up to?

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead (Mid-Season Finale)

The Walking Dead: Season 7, Episode 8 “Hearts Still Beating” (B+)

I’m still very disturbed by this show and wondering why it needs to feature such dark, depressing ideas of the depths of humanity, but there’s no denying that this was a totally captivating hour of television. Somehow, Negan shaving his beard made him seem more threatening. I suspected that there was no way he would appreciate the boldness that Spencer employed by showing up to Rick’s door to suggest that he should be in charge instead, and asking him if he had guts so that he could slice him open for a very brutal visual display of power was pretty horrific. Seeing everyone gathered around with mouths agape and tears falling from their eyes was harrowing, and I was shocked that Rosita pulled out her gun and fired one of Eugene’s homemade bullets at Negan. That would have been far too easy a way for him to die, and instead Negan just threatened her and then had a random person, who turned out to be Olivia, killed. After Rick refused to say thank you, Negan just left, leaving things off on a much calmer note than expected, with a sentimental hugging and smiling party, including escapee Darryl, to close out the hour with hope and optimism. With Eugene taken in to make bullets for Negan and nothing actually having changed regarding their situation, I don’t see what cause there is for celebration, and I predict that things will be just as grim when the show returns in February. Maybe I’ll be wrong and they can actually be happy for a little bit.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 7, Episode 7 “Sing Me a Song” (B+)

This episode was immensely disturbing, as just about everything involving the magnetic Negan is these days, but I found it to be much more compelling and effective than most of what we’ve seen this season. Carl, hardly the best character on this show, managed to trick the usually crafty Jesus into bailing out of the back of the truck so that he could sneak into Negan’s camp all by himself. He didn’t do a great job of hiding, yet for some reason Negan seems interested in him and opted to show him around the Saviors’ camp as if he were a guest instead of a prisoner. Negan’s brothel is a horrifying concept, and the fact that he would publicly brand someone because he dared to sleep with his own wife when the dictator is a public polygamist demonstrates how delusional he is about his situation and his immortality. Forcing Carl to take off his patch and then bringing him back home so that he can torment Olivia by propositioning her shows that, for the moment, he still has all the power. Rick picked the wrong time to go out on an off-the-books scouting mission, and Negan holding Judith on his lap while talking about how he should shoot Rick and Carl was a very foreboding ending. Good for Eugene for standing up to Rosita when she eviscerated him, and I hope he’ll be motivated nonetheless by her words to help with the resistance. Maybe Michonne will have more success with her new captive. The best part of the episode was actually the unexpected humorous and uncensored moment where Gabriel called Spencer a shit after offering some more sophisticated wisdom about how Rick showing up may have prevented the deaths of others.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 7, Episode 6 “Swear” (B-)

We have Negan now, who is definitely the most electric character since the Governor, and so that’s something new, but I’m getting back to the overwhelming feeling I’ve had before on this show that it’s so insanely cyclical. The bigger issue is that, as usual, we’re spared everything interesting that’s going on with Negan and our friends in Alexandria to spend an entire hour focused on one character who’s never been the most interesting player. I do like Tara, but I didn’t even remember that she had been separated from the group. There was nothing new about the experience that she had getting back to her friends, nearly being shot on sight as an imposter and then becoming acclimated to a group that didn’t want to let her leave. We’ve heard conversations before about why people in this post-apocalyptic world feel the need to kill those around them because they’ve learned from their experiences, and expecting that the next person is just going to betray them has become commonplace. What separates Tara from the likes of Carol or Morgan or Michonne or Andrea or anyone else who got marooned away from the group is that she, like Jesus and Aaron, takes life around her a lot less seriously, continuing to exist and thrive despite her casual approach to everything that should get her killed right off the bat. Returning to Alexandria at the end of the episode put us one step closer to the eventual uprising against the Saviors, but I feel like that’s not going to come until season eighteen at this point.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 7, Episode 5 “Go Getters” (B-)

So this show is capable of multitasking, though we don’t get to see quite everyone in this hour, with just a brief glimpse of Rick and no sign or mention of Ezekiel’s kingdom. I just wish I found this part of the plotline more engaging. I’m a big fan of Xander Berkeley and have been puzzled to see his name in the credits each episode when he hasn’t appeared prior to this episode, but now he’s back as Gregory who, recovered from what he calls a stabbing misunderstanding, isn’t eager to do anything else to make the Saviors angry. It’s good to see Jesus, who initially showed up as a troublemaker, turn into the best friend that our group could have asked for and a loyal ally in their efforts to resist and eventually kill Negan. It was good to see Maggie and Sasha take charge of the situation and team up with Jesus to stand up to Gregory, who was ready to give them up right before the Saviors made him kneel just to humiliate him. Maggie saying grace at the end of the episode was a nostalgic callback to Hershel’s preacher past, and a rare moment of calm coupled with Carl’s rollerskating outing. Seeing Jesus hop into the back of the Saviors’ truck at the end of the episode was at least some sign that excitement and action is soon coming, hopefully in the form of freedom for our friends, and it’s a good thing that he’s there since Carl was ready to get himself in big trouble by going after Negan alone.