Action, adventure, heartaches, reunion, body count, you could even talk yourself into romance, this episode had nearly everything! It was one of the best episodes in quite some time, and I thought the previous weeks episode was great, even though it made me cry!
The episode picks up nearly right as last weeks ended, our friends are in a bad way, walkers are all over, Hilltop is on fire, inside and out, Ezekiel is working to get all of the children out safely, he can’t find Judith but Earl does right after she makes her first human kill that I know of. Magna ends up returning dressed up as a walker in the horde with Yumiko seeing her first. A retreat is necessary as we see pockets of survivors together. We very briefly see Aaron dragging a hurt Luke on a makeshift carrier, who comes across Negan. Negan tries to explain but Aaron won’t listen but has to fight off the walkers to save Luke. Negan continues on to grab and stash Lydia.
The next pocket of people is Alden, Kelly, Gamma and baby Adam, Alden wasn’t able to get the baby to calm down and finally relented and let Gamma try and she was successful. The three took a rest and talked about Gamma’s sister when Gamma’s excellent hearing heard walkers approaching. They took over and were overrun, Kelly found a rusted van to go and hide out in, Gamma was going to be the last one in, but she closed the door to van and led the walkers away. She screamed, which in the end proved to be her downfall, but she led the walkers away and was able to dispatch all of them. Sadly, Beta was there to gut her immediately afterwards, in the fight she ripped off part of his mask though, another Whisperer recognized him and Beta killed him too. Beta waited for Gamma to rise as a walker and Alden shot her corpse with an arrow, causing Beta to run away.
Beta takes out Gamma, and right when Gamma had to have been earning the respect and trust of everyone. Photo Credit: Jace Downs/AMC
Another group of people included Carol, Eugene, Yumiko and Magna, Magna tells Yumiko what happened and how they escaped, and that in the herd Connie’s hand slipped from hers and she wasn’t able to find her again. So as far as we know Connie is still alive. Yumiko and Carol have some words and Yumiko punches Carol in the face! Magna and Yumiko break up, because that’s important while in a forest after your home burns down apparently.
The last cluster of survivors included, Daryl, Rosita, Jerry, his wife Nebilla, and some others. They went to the rendezvous point which looked like some abandoned house, but that place was compromised as a walker came out. Nebilla freaks out wondering where the babies are, and they split out to find them. Jerry and Daryl stumble upon Ezekiel who was buried under some debris, he tells them that Earl has the kids. The trio makes it to the clubhouse that the teenagers used earlier, I’m unsure if this was a known backup spot or not. While this occurs, from the inside Earl comforts the children and goes in the other room, he was bit, and is about to die, he puts a spike through the table to try to impale himself so he doesn’t turn. Judith catches up and knows he lied, he says he did it to protect them, and she needs to protect the kids from him. It was very emotional, Earl does it, but ends up not doing it enough to kill the brain, later Judith goes to check up on him and walker Earl tries to attack her and she kills him.
Judith can’t believe she heard someone say they haven’t seen the latest episode! Photo Credit: Jace Downs/AMC
Daryl, Ezekiel and Jerry get to the clubhouse, Daryl is ready for action knife at the ready as he goes in and the kids start storming out. Daryl goes in and sees Judith sitting down on the floor clutching her knife, with a dead Earl at her side. It’s very emotional as Daryl surveys the damage, goes inside, takes Judith’s knife and sits next to her and comforts her.
Just a couple Alpha’s hanging out. Photo Credit: Jace Downs/AMC
Lastly, Negan tells Alpha that he has found what she was looking for, he leads her to a cabin, Alpha prepares to go kill her daughter saying it’s her destiny. During the cuts we see Lydia frantically trying to untie herself from the chair. As Alpha gets to the door we see Negan get his knife ready, at the jump cut we see Lydia open the door and sees a field and fog as she is at another location, as Alpha turns around Negan slices her throat. Shortly after we see a bloody bag with her walker head rolling like a bowling ball towards someone’s feet. It’s Carol, and she says, “took you long enough” as Negan and Carol give each other a look.
