The Walking Dead Honor

It is official, the shift of the Walking Dead officially happened again, I don’t like it, but it’s my reality, just like now it is Rick and Michonne, and the rest of the surviving members of the group.

We get to see more of the “Old Man Rick” flash forwards, and a little more context. You see that Carl isn’t apart of it at all, in this version you see that Jerry is still alive, and still loves desert as he makes a journey to Alexandria for some deserts, I can’t help but love and laugh with Jerry. Sadiq is still around, which with everything happening is somewhat reassuring that Carl’s death wasn’t a total loss.

We finally got the answers to the questions we wanted to know, but didn’t want to acknowledge, what exactly happened with Carl. The sad reality is, he got sloppy, he was trying to honor Sadiq’s parents, and we later found out a way to honor his mom, by killing walkers, and he let a walker get to close and bit him in the stomach. This is the reason Carl ended up shooting the walker in the head.

Carl ended up getting the idea to write everyone letters because Michonne wanted to go see the Sanctuary and left a note for Carl telling him what she is doing. He realized this is the best way to give personalized messages to everyone that isn’t there these days. Carl is such a little bad ass during this whole thing. Like Lori said a long time ago, he is so strong, and so brave. He is able to write letters, spend quality time with Judith, take some selfies, and ultimately save everyone else in Alexandria before the bite took him over. I’m not going to lie, I’ve watched this episode multiple times, and still while writing this up I’m getting a bit teary eyed.

A number of things are changing, leading to the head on battle that has been a season plus in the making. We start the focus with the Saviors, the Saviors formulated a plan to escape the Sanctuary, they had a number of shooters on the second floor, shooting walkers by the entrance, to try to create a walker barrier, so they could come outside finally, and try to gun down more walkers so they can escape. Morgan and some other snipers were near, which the Saviors knew and started hunting them down so Morgan and the others had to escape. Morgan gets to a main road to see where the Saviors were headed and he tracked them, to The Kingdom.

The Kingdom gave us a lot of connecting parts. After Ezekiel sacrificed himself to lead his people to freedom, Carol led them to the cottage where they had stockpiled supplies and where they would be safe from the Saviors who don’t know about it yet. Henry, the kid, wants to join Carol on her mission against the Saviors but Carol insists he stays put. He wants to avenge his brothers death.

Carol gets to the Kingdom nearly the same time as Morgan. They both know that Ezekiel is held captive. Morgan wants to go clear mode on all of them, Carol wants to avoid them until they have to in case someone sees and gets away. The duo slowly make their way through the Kingdom until they hit the courtyard and they have to take out some Saviors or risk being exposed in the open. Carol insists she can do it herself but Morgan says he can too. Morgan is nuts and seems to enjoy spiking them all in the head, Morgan goes rogue and ends up leaving him vulnerable where Carol had to make the save. Gavin tries to get some of the others to respond, and he realizes they are dead so he has the remaining Saviors bring Ezekiel inside.

Ezekiel and Carol fight the Saviors in the auditorium, Morgan gets pinned down, goes savage and literally rips out some guys insides. He is falling fast back down into something, or into something new. Everyone is dead except Gavin, who Morgan tries to shoot with a gun. Morgan goes, Jason Voorhees and stalks Gavin through the Kingdom until he finds him. He has him dead to rights, with Carol and Ezekiel telling Morgan he doesn’t have to do this, he doesn’t want to, they all know that, Morgan says he has to. When all of a sudden you see a spike go through Gavin’s neck from the backside!!!! It’s Henry, who ended up following Carol, you can see it crushes Ezekiel and Carol. Henry insists he had to do it for his brother.

Hey Morgan, you have created a little “Clear” killer in Henry. Top notch! Photo Credit: AMC

Of the leaders of the Saviors over colonies, I think I liked Gavin’s leadership the best, but in a round about way it’s a good win for the group against the Saviors, even if Carol and Ezekiel as struggling with it. They will be making their way to the Hilltop soon enough.

Lastly, back at the remnants of Alexandria, Carl has his final swan song, he goes through very emotional moments talking with his dad, and Michonne. He told her she is his best friend, and don’t hold this one with her, it just happened. He talks about why he brought back Sadiq, how he needed us, he couldn’t have made it out alive, and it wasn’t the Saviors he just happened to get bit.

He had time with Judith, it was pretty intense, he gave her Rick’s hat, saying it helped him get strength and maybe one day it will give her strength, he said that back in the prison mom said that he will survive this world, but he didn’t, but he knows that she will. He also said something very wise that, sometimes you don’t have to listen to your parents, that sometimes the child is the one who has to show their parents the way. It makes sense, and you can see that Rick is taking that with him.

A lot of intense moments and thoughts on what they should do, Dwight says they should just wait out until the Saviors are out of ammo and leave before they try to do anything. Once they are done they can go to the Hilltop which is what Rosita and Daryl thinks is the best idea. Daryl says everyone together is their worst damn nightmare, I still think they should all go to Oceanside to regroup first. When it’s time to leave, Daryl says he will take Judith to Hilltop while Rick and Michonne stay with Carl. Daryl looks at Carl and says thanks, that ‘you saved all these people, you did that.’ During all of this is when we learn that Sadiq was a resident doctor, which is a valuable commodity, Rick wonders if that was the ultimate reason that Carl brought him here. Sadiq thanks Carl and says he will honor him in his life and make sure it wasn’t for nothing. Carl being Carl, tells Sadiq congratulations for being apart of the group. The rest of the survivors minus Carl, Michonne and Rick go to the Hilltop.

Rick and Michonne get Carl out of the sewers and gets him into the church. Carl tells Rick that their has to be a better way, they can’t just go and kill all the Saviors, their has to be something after, for them and for us. He did it in the past with the prison, he was able to take enemies into their circle and live together, he can do it again. Carl thinks that their can be more to this world, Rick says it was all for him, the farm was for him, the prison was for him and Judith, he says he will make this world for him. Carl says that he has to be the one to do it, he has to shoot himself. It’s going to kill Michonne and Rick but they agree. He does it and it was so very sad hearing the silencer…….They dig him a grave and we see during the episode that the flashbacks are all what Carl thinks the future can be.

He sees Judith grown up more, Rick with gray hair and a cane, Michonne looking around the same. Alexandria has crops, and new buildings, and people working. We see Jerry and Sadiq working together. Judith sees Eugene with some apples being Eugene, at the very end of this episode we see Judith go up and talk to an older grayer Negan!!

Going forward, we will be getting an update on Aaron and Enid at Oceanside after killing the leader of the group. I also expect everyone to know the fate of Alexandria, the Kingdom, Carl and really start to push back.

Is this week the last we will see of Aaron and Enid? Or does the group get that much more stronger in the fight back against the Saviors? Photo Credit: AMC