Praise the horror gods!! Pollyanna McIntosh, (Offspring, The Woman, various other good scary movies) has arrived as Jadis, the leader of the mysterious Scavengers clan. These are the people who did in fact kidnap Father Gabriel and steal everything out of the pantry last week. Hooray for the redemption of Father Gabriel! "The Scavengers" is a way cooler name than “the hoodie people” which is what I was referring to them as last week. “We take, we don’t bother” is the motto of this tight-knight gang of dumpster divers. I actually totally love this group. They have their own lingo, cult-like hive mind, clever hand gestures, and a serious hoarding problem. Literally, these people live in well-organized heaps of trash and it’s pretty damn brilliant. (Do you think Jadis is her real name? Or did she just pick it because of the witch from “The Chronicles of Narnia”??) Regardless, Jadis has Rick fight their mascot, Winslow-the-absolutely-fucking-terrifying-porcupine/walker, to prove he is worthy of their help. Since Rick is 100% awesome, he’s now won the aide of the Scavengers to fight the Saviors. Jadis just wants lots of guns and cans of food in return. Only one problem, where the hell is Rick & the fam going to get an arsenal of firearms?!? Stay tuned.

Brave knight, Richard of The Kingdom, proves he’s willing to pay any price to get Ezekiel to fight the Saviors. Luckily, Daryl thinks using Carol as human bait/sacrifice is a bad idea. Despite Morgan lying and saying Carol isn’t at the Kingdom, Daryl finds her anyway. Naturally, the two’s reunion was beautiful. Morgan isn’t the only liar-liar-pants on fire either. Daryl lies and says that everyone back home is fine. Wow, couldn’t be further from the truth. People are dead at Negan’s hand, Mr. Dixon himself was kidnaped and tortured by them, and war is freakin' imminent and on the horizon. But sometimes you fib to the people you love to keep them safe and happy, because Carol admits she was losing her damn mind. And if she knew what the Saviors have been up, she would have led the charge against them and dissolved the remaining shreds of her humanity. I love Carol and I do sympathize with all she’s been through but...I’m kind of mad at her. Rick & the gang didn’t get to take a vacation from the harsh reality of their lives. In fact, stuff has gotten A LOT worse for them. No breaks to go read novels in a cute cabin while Jerry (Ezekiel’s fabulous bodyguard) makes you cobbler, and you just get to have some real “me” time and find yourself. Carol’s sabbatical has got to end soon. We can only hope that maybe this break will give her room on the middle path between passion and keeping her sanity. Because frankly, it’s not fair if she’s gotten to have this time away and doesn’t end up learning and growing as a person after it.

In other news, Morgan is still a pacifist.

1. Sorry it’s the obvious answer, but Winslow. The Scavenger’s made a creepy death pit and filled it with a spiked monster. That just wins.
2. Daryl and Shiva the tiger shared a bonding moment. Adorable.
3. Rick giving Michonne the trash-sculpture cat from the Scavenger’s collection. They’re a cute couple, I love them.
4. Week 2 and still NO NEGAN. The showrunners are demonstrating tremendous restraint by withholding him from us for yet another episode. The tension is BUILDING.