A nice change of pace in this fourth episode, ACTION! In addition to that welcome sight, we have a callback, Simon makes an appearance in this episode, and it’s nice to see established characters, alive or not in the current timeline, show up. Maggie still sucks though, we can’t win them all.
So I want to start with the flashback, we see the steps that led to the Croat’s and Negan’s falling out. Simon tells Negan that they have a problem. The Croat was told to let a young kid go that they found, but he insisted that she knew something. The Croat tortured the girl until she “confesses” that she is from the Kingdom, and that the Hilltop has a weapons cache. The girl died, Simon gets in Croat’s face and says that kids is a line they do not cross, but the Croat seems to think his method was justified with the information he received, the look on Negan’s face AND his lack of talking speaks volumes to where he lies on the matter. Was good to see Simon again, and as the information goes, the Simon and Negan actors were happy as best friends in school to be back together again which was nice to hear.
Some things we learn if you are paying attention to some details, Maggie still sucks, she is hiding the fact she stole Negan’s matches, and in turn why she took the matches. The walkers in New York seem to be on the faster side of things above ground, they are not jogging, but they are not walking, they seemed to have a power walk speed to them, except underground in the sewers where they are exposed to methane and can barely move. The group briefly touches on the fact that Luther is now missing, but they chalk it up to him not liking the plan, the plan to get inside seemed a little to easy, they got inside Croat’s area without any problems to the lower levels. In one of the rooms is a tied up dead tortured boy, it was not Hershel, and this almost broke Maggie, who was about to come clean to Negan about Ginny when she sees the beeswax container that used to be belong to Luther and then gets all high and mighty on Negan and leaves. Such a double standard going on with her, she has just pissed me off from the tail end of the flagship and throughout this series, pretty unfortunate.
The plan went as well as a setup could go, the main arena area is empty, as the Croat’s people are leaving, the Croat hears Negan’s whistle and asks the person next to him if they hear that, which leads me to believe he might have been hearing things for awhile. He goes to try to find Negan, as the other person sets off a song timer, that blows up the entrances which fills the lower level with walkers to pin in Maggie and the others. Typical TV fashion, all the extras you don’t know die, leaving the two main extra characters, whose names I still haven’t bothered to learn with Maggie and Ginny, who Maggie spotted early on inside the arena. They are able to find a hallway to escape into and a small room. They are cornered so they reluctantly decide to take the sewer pipeline exit that was in this room.
Meanwhile Negan is playing cat and mouse with Croat and two of his companions. The Croat thought that Negan was after the Marshall, but he tells him he was after the kid. The Croat decides to toss the Marshall over the rails and he is able to hold onto a railing near Negan, who eventually gets him to safety(after the Croat shoots him with the Nail gun attachment weapon. Negan is able to lead the Marshall out of the arena to safety and the first chance he gets the Marshall turns on Negan and tries to arrest him again for his New Babylon bull crap, what a scum bucket.
So as the first four episodes close, lots of people that Maggie comes across dies, Maggie, Ginny, and the two others are in the sewers, while Negan and the Marshall are somewhere else above ground.
