As expected this episode was off the charts, it was amazingly epic and sad but left me so optimistic for the future direction of this show. To say that Judith Grimes is the star of the episode wouldn’t be far-fetched based on the short time she was shown.
We pick up right where the previous episode left off, but we see current Rick back in the Atlanta hospital looking down at his original passed out self. Outside are a bunch of birds swirling around, and they turn into helicopters and race towards Rick’s face. We here a voice that sort of sounds like Morgan that says, “What’s your wound?” Then the passed out Rick looks at the hurt Rick and says, “ya wake up asshole.” Rick wakes up on the slab, he takes off his belt and slings it above his head to some other rebar. He uses that as leverage to pull himself up off of the impaled one and gets back on the stupid bitch ass horse. He walks down the road and sees a mailbox so he heads to the house to find something to patch himself up with. He hallucinates again while on the chair of himself walking into Atlanta and seeing Shane!
Oh man, it was awesome to see Shane again, even if dead Shane is also a dick. Shane asks Rick how his family is and how his baby girl is. Rick says she has your nose, and Shane says hopefully not my ears. Shane tells Rick he needs to find that fire, that asshole in him, he needs him to dig deep and find it, he needs to wake up! Rick snaps out of it again as the herd gets close to him inside the house. He gets to his horse and continues down the road and hallucinates again on the horse, this time he sees Hershel. Another all the feels moment as Rick apologizes to Hershel for all that happened to him and his family, Rick says he is tired and wants to know if he can stay and find his family here. Hershel says he can’t and he has to wake up.
He is in his gown walking down the hallway like earlier. We hear another voice saying, “What’s your wound?” Which this time sounds like Abraham. He walks to the door that was locked before that said don’t open dead inside, but now it says open dead outside. He steps outside and sees a very bright light. It’s everyone he has ever known, all dead and piled one on top of each other with all sorts of wounds, we see Daryl, and Jesus, and Beth. From behind comes Sasha! She talks with Rick for a while, saying that people who died did so for a reason, everyone did their part, and now it’s time for him to wake up.
Rick has to see what he has been missing all these years. Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC
In Alexandria, Maggie finally arrives, and Michonne gets word of Maggie’s long-awaited arrival. Michonne meets Maggie in front of the cell to Negan Maggie says she has to get through for justice for Glenn, Michonne says she has to try to find a way to live with it and she says she can’t. She also tells Michonne if he left her alone to raise a kid by herself in this world he would have been dead a long time ago and she knows it. Michonne, steps aside and gives Maggie the key.
Inside Negan is not shocked to see Maggie, he figured between the two she would win. She is shocked that Michonne was just willing to give up the key though. Negan is broken and doesn’t want to look at Maggie, he is a big sad sack right now, saying he wants to die, he wants to see his family. It has to be her because he can’t do it himself, he screams and begs for her to kill him. But upon seeing how bad he is, she tells him to get back in his cell, that she wanted to come and kill him, but he is worse than death and this settles it. He goes back inside and sad and broken and shuts his own cell door. Outside Michonne is shocked to see the crowbar with no blood, Maggie says that it is settled, someone comes and tells Maggie and Michonne that something bad has happened at the camp and they hurry off.
Turning back to Rick he makes his way back to camp, the camp is abandoned, and some walkers are milling about that weren’t apart of the herd, so Rick makes his way to the bridge like Daryl suggested. Rick collapses while on the bridge, he imagines all of his ‘family’ coming to his aid and killing the walkers. Michonne asks Rick to keep fighting, he says that this isn’t real, Michonne says that it is, and he needs to wake up. He does wake up, and blood is gushing like crazy, he makes his way to the other side of the bridge, he stands with his back to the walkers, thinking the bridge will collapse. He is just standing as a walker is closing in on his neck, and an arrow goes through the walkers head, Rick looks over a little surprised to see Daryl but keeps holding strong. Everyone else tries to get to the walkers on the other side and divert and fight off the herd. Daryl continues to pick off walkers that get to close to Rick, one of the walkers ends up knocking some dynamite from a box and Rick locks in on it. Rick gets it in his sight and focuses, Daryl doesn’t want him to do it. Rick with his pinpoint accuracy shoots the dynamite.
The bridge explodes, Rick can’t be seen, a huge hole in the bridge with fire everywhere. The walkers keep pushing forward mindlessly and fall into the rushing river. Daryl cries, I cry, you cry, we all cry, Michonne is absolutely distraught and is held back by Carol and Maggie. It is really awful, we see Ann in a field who is listening to a radio call, and honestly, we couldn’t care at all. But that’s what we think, as Ann sees Rick hurt on an embankment she tells the helicopter that she has a B, not an A. She never had an A, he is strong but hurt. She wants to know if they have a deal if they will help her, it’s not a trick, not anymore. She is just trying to save a friend, a friend who saved her. The helicopter lands, we see Rick awake in the helicopter with Ann above him, saying we are going to save you. I bet Rick has lost his mind at this point thinking this is all another hallucination. A helicopter flies off and this is the last we see of Rick for now.
We see some fast forward motion of the trees in the area, we see a new group that is fighting off walkers. They end up getting surrounded by walkers, one says they need to fight them all off, another says they just need to open up a seam. Suddenly gunshots reign down and we get 5 headshots on the walkers, a voice comes out saying, “come on this way it’s clear.” In the woods, the 5 new people catch up to the little girl who says, “you got names?”
Magnus responds saying, “Magnus, Connie, and Kelly, Yumiko, Mark.” Magnus asks hers. She picks up her hat and says, Judith, Judith Grimes.
Queen! Photo Credit: Jackson Lee Davis/AMC
MELTING MY MIND! Judith is queen, she looks like a legit little ass kicker with her little sword and pinpoints gun accuracy. She is going to be a star for sure.
