Dead Digest: The Walking Dead (SSN 8, Ep 7)

Episode 7: Time for After

Was anyone else completely unprepared for a super Eugene heavy episode?

Rick is still being held captive by Jadis and her trash people. She uses his camera to take some pics so she can sculpt him “after.” Yikes, after what, exactly? He goes back into the storage container for now. More on him later.

Eugene confronts Dwight about being the mole, but says he won’t turn him in. The mullet-man also gives us a great an acronym for Alexandria, Hilltop, and the Kingdom. That is, AHK. I will totally be using that now. Eugene is kinda drinking The Savior Kool aide these days. The Sanctuary is in bad shape. Now surrounded by the undead and AHK snipers, they may only last two days tops with their supplies.  

Further adding to Eugene’s stress, he’s confronted by one of Negan’s wives. He’s supposed to fix her boom box in exchange or booze. The wife isn’t surprised he needs liquor to help him sleep. She knows he has a guilty conscience for not helping her and the other wives kill Negan when they could have.

Father Gabriel is pretty much on death’s door. It turns out he’s badly infected and they have no medicine. Gabe basically preaches to Eugene to have faith and do the right thing. Despite more painfully obvious feelings of guilt, Eugene still refuses to do betray Negan. After all, Eugene has always been a selfish coward. He’s now been approached by three different characters to right his wrongs.

Negan and Eugene have a nice little chat wherein Negan plays the other man like a damn fiddle. There’s all this mumbo jumbo about respect, and Eugene being the man to figure their way out of this mess. It’s made clear to us as the audience that he’s not exactly sincere. But, Eugene does come up with a plan that’s promptly thwarted by Dwight. Our acid-faced friend can’t bring himself to kill him, and again, Eugene has a chance to rat out to Negan and doesn’t.

In case there is any confusion, Eugene is melting the hell down. The man is drinking, crying, and having some huge crisis of faith here. Matters are not helped when the next couple of scenes go down.

Good news for me! Morgan didn’t go far away at all! He’s standing guard as one of the AHK snipers. He sees Daryl, Tara, Michonne, and Rosita arrive. The snipers will help carry out the Negan assassination attempt. Rosita and Michonne WISELY opt out. They have faith in what Rick and the rest of them have already plotted. Daryl and Tara are taking a self-serving risk, and I DO NOT foresee this ending well, people. Well, D&T crash a huge truck into the Sanctuary allowing in a ton of walkers and themselves. Chaos ensues inside. Everyone’s fate, for now, is unknown.

Back to Rick. Silly Rick is clad only in his boxers and drug out of the storage container once more. Jadis and crew bring out one of their freaky as hell blinded, armored walker slaves. However, the creature and his captors are no match for Rick Grimes! He not only gains the upper hand, but then manages to strike a deal with Jadis for their help. The motley crew take off for Negan’s house. Rick gets one look at the truck crashed into the building and makes the best silent, “oh shit” face I’ve seen in a while on this show.

What the bloody blazes will happen next week in the mid-season finale? I’m highly doubtful that D&T will be successful. And where are the snipers? Did they go in too? Why can’t Rick reach them on the radios? Is Eugene going to do what’s right and stand up for once? Naw, probably not.

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Dead Digest: The Walking Dead (SSN 8, Ep 6)

Episode 6: The King, The Widow, and Rick

The Sanctuary is still surrounded by Walkers and good-guy snipers. It looks like they won’t be going anywhere during this episode.

Maggie isn’t happy that Jesus is giving their excess turnip crop away to the Savior prisoners as food. They also get sips of water. Things could be worse, they aren’t being executed. Yet. Gregory tries to be the Bad Devil on Maggie’s shoulder. Meanwhile Jesus is keeping his stance on being the Good Angel on her other.  She decides to place the prisoners in a pen/jail thing inside The Hilltop and throw stupid Greg in there too. Maggie once again let’s her inner circle know the POWer’s could still be killed if she decides they need to be.

Rosita and Michonne are still healing up, hence why they’ve just been guarding Alexandria at home. Neither likes being out of the action so they take a little road trip. They need to see The Sanctuary surrounded for peace of mind. The ladies find ANOTHER armory outpost. Two Saviors there are planning to drive up with a truck full of speakers and lead the dead away with the noise so their army (and Negan) can escape.

Well, our two brave women of Alexandria can’t have that. Rosita explodes a guy with an RPG. Wow. He thought she was a bluffing “baby girl”. Hi creep, meet Rosita. Just when the other Savior is going to get away, Daryl and Tara come to the rescue. Those two are out for a drive to The Sanctuary too. Only they’re going to kill Dwight. This is not part of the official plan, so I am assuming it will go awry.

Carl meets up again with the young man from the gas station. His name is Siddiq. Carl gives over food and water, and asks the official, “Join our Adventuring Party Q’s.” These include, how many walkers have you killed, and how many real people have you killed.”  It turns our Siddiq makes traps and goes out of his way to kill the walking corpses. His mom believed it freed their souls, and he wants to honor her. Aww. They have a close call, almost getting chomped up by walkers, and end up bonding. I hope Siddiq is not a psycho in disguise. He probably is, right?

Jerry is still standing guard over the-artist-formerly-know-as King Ezekiel. Ez is busy moping and brooding about leading his people into battle and death. Carol confronts him with some hard truths. C’mon man! You built this place! The people love you! They need their king! Ezekiel manages to make Carol cry by confessing that she makes him feel real. Double Awww. Will her speech inspire him to get back into the fray?

Rick goes to The Trash People! His plan is so stupid, I can only hope it’s a deliberate setup. He swaggers in with his Polaroid pics of victory and gives Jadis an ultimatum. Join his side, or die. Not so shockingly, they decline. Rick, you “talk too much” for the Trash People. So now Rick is nearly nude and sweating it out (literally) in a storage container at the dump.

Again, I beg, I hope this is some sort of secretly brilliant plan because right now, it just looks like Rick is screwed.

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Dead Digest: The Walking Dead (SSN 8, Ep 5)

Episode 5: The Big Scary U

Considering this episode opens with a flash back to Father Gabriel praying at the altar for a purposeful death, we knew this episode was going to be a doozy.

Another flashback! This time it was a meeting with Negan and his generals, (Eugene, Simon, Dwight, Regina, and that other guy. He always looks so sad and tired.) talking with Gregory before Maggie/Rick/armies showed up and rained down hell. “The Big Scary U” Gregory speaks of is the “unknown.” Sage words indeed from that slimy creep.

We finally get to see how Negan and Father Gabriel got out of that trailer. Eventually. Before that, we get to hear some really amazing dialogue between the two men. Not to mention we see a softer side of Negan. It does exist! And it’s effectively brought to life by Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s phenomenal acting chops. Gabe refuses to leave the trailer (he even tried to attack Negan!) until he hears the other man’s confession. He thinks God put him right there for this reason. The priest also reminds us of his great sin, leaving his congregation for dead when the outbreak started. It turns out Negan has always had this thing about helping people. He used to work with kids. Whaaaaaa…?

He also used to be married to one, “real” wife. He cheated on her, and she got sick when the apocalypse started. But he really loved her and couldn’t kill her when the time came. Negan was too weak. Never again. Negan is SO self-righteous and feels justified in what he does. He and his group “save” people. Yet, he brought economy, society, and order to a chaotic group of people. He’s psychotic, but he gets results, damn it! Father Gabe and Negan escape by covering themselves in entrails. They do have to fight, and Negan doesn’t leave the other behind. We also get some REALLY nice close-ups of the walkers in all their nasty, gooey glory.

The generals are meeting on what to do now that Negan is “dead”, and the group is interrupted by the working class of the Saviors. They’re unhappy with the cut back on resources, and concerned about where Negan is. They have a deal after all; they do all the toiling, and the leaders keep them safe. Simon and Regina especially suck at leading, and Regina shoots an upset worker bee. WELL, Negan doesn’t like that, and they all dutifully bow down when he and Gabe come striding in. Sorry kids, dad’s home! The working peeps are glad though, because Negan delivers, after all.

Eugene is feeling the heat to find the one who betrayed them, and before long he figures out its Dwight. He’s got some choices to make. Eugene goes to welcome Gabriel in his cell, and the Father doesn’t look good! In fact, he looks like he’s dying…

Even though we all knew the Rick vs Daryl fight was coming, it was still unpleasant to behold. They BRAWLED. Daryl wants to kill everyone in the Savior’s compound, where Rick only wants to kill the bad ones and not the drones. While they’re wasting time wrestling, the truck with the high powered weapons goes up in flames. Wow. The two go off their separate ways. I wish they would just hug it out.

Rick is going to my Trash people, yay! I miss them! He’s giving them one last shot to join the good guy’s side. Oh, and he sees a HELICOPTER. Yeah, who the hell is that??

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Dead Digest: The Walking Dead (SSN 8, Ep 4)

Episode 4: Some Guy

We get a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it flashback scene of The Kingdom readying for battle before the all-out carnage begins. Ezekiel unburies himself from the bodyguards who sacrificed themselves for him during the ambush. Carol had gone on ahead to scout the building where the shots came from. All around the king is the brutal aftermath of what 50 Caliber ammunition does to body parts. Aaaaaand it’s brutal. Like, bits and pieces blow off, brutal. Immediately I can’t help but notice, where is Shiva?? Where is Jerry?? 

Unfortunately, the good king is not alone. Some random Savior who looks A LOT like Jeffrey Dahmer is taking him hostage and to Negan. The guy really lays into our hero for being a fraud and deceiving those who call him royalty and follow him. Uh, oh, Ez is taking it to heart. Don’t listen to this moron, honey! This ass’s loyalty is to a psycho who makes people call themselves "Negan" and abandon their identities for him. The Dahmer fan is getting sick of Ezekiel slowing him down, (his leg is smashed) so he decided to just take the man’s head as a trophy. Out pops our man, Jerry, to cleave the creep in two with his massive battle axe. SIIIIIIIIIICK. 

Carol is on the move in that building. She’s killing fools, naturally. This pocket of Saviors cannot leave with that heavy artillery! But when she sees Jerry and the King in a standoff with a pack of zombies, she chooses to help her peeps over getting the guns. She has chosen wisely. Carol is always saving everyone’s asses anyway.

But it’s ok! Daryl and Rick appear out of nowhere in hot pursuit of the Saviors and the scary weapons. Daryl is on a bike and Rick is in a jeep. The open top jeep is handy when Rick proves he’s an absolute nut and jumps from his moving vehicle into the one he’s chasing. But his crazy pays off. Guns are secured. 

Jerry, Carol, and a VERY cranky King find the source of that SLIMY dead guy I was really into. Now we have a new really gross breed of toxic waste walkers. It looks like some barrels of suspicious chemicals got into a creek…anyway, there’s the answer. Ezekiel CRACKS. He’s trying to get the others to leave him for dead because he’s “just some guy.” It’s actually a dicey fight against those zombies until the beautiful kitty, Shiva, comes roaring to the rescue. She dies saving them. And this time, I crack. 

Never did I ever think I would shed a tear over the death of an artificial television tiger but, I just did. Why oh why does this feel worse than any human’s death we've had on this damn show?? The trio makes it home. But Ezekiel is not okay. Will he be able to come back from this? Or is this the end of his reign?

King Ezekiel need’s to wake up and remember that his people NEED him. This man become the leader they WANTED. His bravado, his speech and theatrical nature gives them hope and a reason to fight on. You cannot build the amazing, caring, incredibly sufficient community of The Kingdom by just being “some guy.” Wake up Ez! We ALL need you! RIP Shiva, you went out fighting for your man.

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Dead Digest: The Walking Dead (SSN 8, Ep 3)

Episode 3: Monsters

Oh lordy, I love this title. We’ve all heard the show’s tagline, “Fear the living, fight the dead” these past seasons. I feel like we are going to be pushing and exploring that theme. Fissures are forming. Can the group of super friends stay together? Or will they be driven apart?

Good King Ezekiel kicks things off with a fancy speech. That beautiful man. It’s brief and full of Dungeons and Dragons-like prose. He and Carol’s team are a well-oiled machine for the whole episode until they get ambushed. It looks like we will lose some members of the Kingdom today, but we won’t find out who and how many tonight. I just noticed Ezekiel added a nifty red feather to his dread’s at some point. 

We all know the man with a gun in Rick’s face. We met him a LONG time ago, when Shane was still alive (remember Shane?!?)! He was lost until the Savior’s gave him purpose. We hear him doing the old, “we’re not so different, Rick, you and I…” speech until Daryl sneaks up and gives him a bolt to the head. Rick points out they knew him, and our resident biker seems indifferent. Probably not the reaction Rick was hoping for. After lots and lots of guns firing, (we win, yay!) it looks like Rick and Daryl will be heading out, when some geeky kid from the Saviors shoots at them. The nerve. Anyway, Rick gives his word that if the guy comes out and gives them info about where the heavy artillery was moved to, they’ll give him a car and he can leave. He obliges, and Daryl AGAIN shoots to kill. Rick, AGAIN seems taken aback. Clearly he and Daryl need to have a chat because they’re not on the same page right now. 

Speaking of, Jesus/Tara/Morgan’s group are marching on to Hilltop with the POW’s roped together. Jesus points out to the naysayers that they all kill, but to kill those who surrender would be execution. Which is tacky and wrong. The party comes under attack from walkers and one section of the chain gang runs off. Their leader is that one really nasty chap with the long hair. Anyway, we get to see some great gory zombie stuff. Including an especially gruesome head bite. Morgan takes off after the escapees and shoots one! Jesus interferes, saving the prisoners. Badass Morgan has met his match in Jesus who is apparently Steven Segal in disguise. Reality hits and Morgan knows he’s cracking. He knows he cannot stay here and stay sane, so he appears to…leave. Oh, do you hear that sound?? That is my heart BREAKING. My precious Morgan is leaving me. Again. I hate it when he does this. Come back soon, please.

ANNNNND on the topic of heart break, we have Aaron and Eric. Eric’s gunshot proves fatal, and the couple share a good-bye moment beneath a tree. As if this beautiful scene was not terrible enough, it gets worse. Aaron leaves to fight (at Eric’s insistence) and when he comes back for his man, he sees newly formed Eric-zombie shambling off. There wouldn’t have been time to save him, but talk about insult to injury. Aaron loses it, and so do we all. When he’s composed, he offers to take baby Gracie back to Hilltop. He and Eric were supposed to return there, and he needs purpose. Aaron, you are a beautiful soul that we do not deserve. I am officially not happy about Eric passing. I don’t like yet another queer character dying off. BUT splitting up couple’s with death is a common theme on the show. It’s happened before and will happen again regardless of sexual orientation. Why do we fans love this torture??

Disgraced Gregory shows up at Hilltop. He begs and pleads with Maggie and she lets him back in after she yells a lot. She knows she can’t trust him, and will probably kill him eventually, but for now she chooses mercy. Jesus and the gang show up with the POW’s. Maggie isn’t pleased to see them, much to Jesus’s dismay (I assume). Yet, what can she do? Keeping these people alive is the righteous thing to do. 

These cracks are slowly but surely forming and splintering our friends apart...Let’s close on an image of the Slimy Walker from the other night that I loved.
 

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