The Walking Dead – Do Not Send Me Astray

By: Kelly Kearney

Finally, after two seasons, countless deaths and over the top threats, the Saviors bring their war to Hilltop. With Negan captured by Jadis and assumed dead, Simon steps into the leadership role and commands his troops to dismantle Hilltop by any means necessary. Meanwhile, Maggie battles with her own conscious and wonders if she risked the lives of her people for some Negan style payback over Glen’s murder.

THE SAVIORS ARE COMING!

Picking up where we left off last week, the survivors of The AHK remain at Hilltop and prepare for the fight they know lies ahead. It’s a tense night as they wait for the Saviors to descend on the community and Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) doing her best to lead them into battle. Thanks to her thirty-eight Savior hostages, the pregnant leader assumes she has a bargaining chip. After all, Negan prides himself on the lives he’s saved and she hopes hostages can convince him to backdown. If he doesn’t, Maggie has no problem using the prisoners as human shields to protect the gates of Hilltop. Unfortunately, thanks to Rick’s (Andrew Lincoln) show down with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his subsequent kidnapping by the trash queen, she has no idea Negan is out of the picture and the less than sensible Simon (Steven Ogg) is now calling the shots. It’s unlikely Simon will listen to any deals that Maggie puts on the table since he’s banging the war drum and ordering his people to kill everyone they see. This is a reversal from Negan’s plan to taint their weapons with Walker blood and let the virus do all the work from inside the community. Simon wants this over and be damned the resources the Sanctuary may lose in the process.

As the Saviors arrive outside the Hilltop’s gates, Simon reiterates the change of plans, but Dwight (Austin Amelio) is playing both sides from the middle so he reminds him that Negan could still be alive and he wouldn’t approve. Simon admits that even if Negan is out there somewhere, he would rather beg for his life than let Rick, The Widow and King (Khary Payton) win. Ordering his people to attack the gates, the Saviors have no idea that Maggie is ready and waiting for them. The front gate opens to Daryl (Norman Reedus), on his motorcycle, blasting away with an assault rifle and sending them scurrying behind their vans. The archer turns his bike around and Simon screams for his group to follow before the gates close. They almost make it in, but Maggie orders a school bus to block the entrance and Simon’s cavalcade goes crashing into the yellow barricade. At this point, a massive shoot out between the two factions escalates. The Saviors run for cover as Maggie, Carol (Melissa McBride), Michonne (Danai Gurira), Morgan (Lennie James) and Ezekiel lead the ambush while the rest of the survivors back them up.

As the bullets are flying, Dwight and Simon manage to stay out of sight until they get the jump on Tara (Alanna Masterson), who is otherwise occupied with the shootout. Simon plans on taking her out, but Dwight (who has saved her life before) steps in to take the shot. As the two men approach, Daryl spots them and yells but it’s too late. Dwight launches an arrow at Tara, tagging her in the arm. Whether or not Dwight’s intentions were to kill Tara or save her from Simon remains unclear since Negan ordered his troops to dip their weapons in Walker blood. A tainted arrow could mean Tara will die anyway, even if the shot wasn’t a mortal wound.

The gun fire continues with survivors working together to push back the onslaught of Saviors and in the middle of all of this, many lives are lost and many more are injured. One of those injured happens to be Tobin (Jason Douglas), who takes a knife to the gut right in front of his old flame Carol. Leaving her post, Carol dodges and weaves through the battle as she tries to help Tobin, but the cut is bad and he’s bleeding out. Luckily, Siddiq (Avi Nash) shows up and offers to help the man while Carol does what she does best, slays the enemy and protects the ones she loves.

With massive casualties on both sides, Simon has no plans of giving up, but when the AHK gunfire stops and all the community’s lights are cut off Simon thinks this might be surrender. Of course, it’s just another brilliant trap by Maggie, who manages to lure the Saviors into the gates with a false sense of security. Once inside, gunfire erupts from the shadows and the Saviors scatter like rats. Blinding them with spotlights aimed in their path, the Saviors are trapped and have no other option but to retreat, especially when Rick shows up and starts hacking his way through the crowd with his hatchet. Dwight and Simon manage to get away, but Maggie is livid because she wanted them all dead, especially Negan who she noticed was amongst the missing.  Rick noticed Negan wasn’t there either and he admits to Maggie he went off on his own to kill the man but failed. Maggie thanks him for trying and it’s clear these two are out for vengeance, which isn’t much different than Negan’s tactics at this point. Are Rick and Maggie in danger of turning into the very people they hate?

The Turning…

Assuming the Saviors ran out of ammo and left to regroup, Hilltop tries to assess the damage and patch up their wounded. Daryl finds Tara helping and she blows off his concerns about her arm by claiming it was just a scratch. Tara, who wanted Dwight’s blood on her hands for killing her girlfriend, has had a change of heart. She thinks Dwight tried to save her, not kill her and it wouldn’t be the first time he risked his life for the AHK. She tells Daryl about the woods and how Dwight risked his life and his cover to save her from the Saviors but, Daryl isn’t buying it. He still sees Dwight as a threat and doesn’t agree with Tara’s comparison of her time with the governor and Dwight’s waning loyalty with the Saviors.

The following day is spent gathering their dead and setting up a triage with Siddiq and Hilltop’s physician. Another attack in inevitable, but their ammo is low and Maggie assumes they can’t hold them off with what they have. Needing time to rest, Maggie orders the wounded inside her mansion hoping the Saviors allow them one night of peace. Everyone is exhausted, but thankful for her selfless leadership and most agree they wouldn’t have made it that far with Gregory (Xander Berkeley) at the helm. Quietly, Maggie questions if the choice to send Negan a walker in a coffin was more about her own vengeance than keeping the community safe. After all, she sent the message in hopes it would draw Negan to her front gate, so she could finally make him pay for killing her husband. Luckily, Hilltop only lost a handful of people, but many are wounded and appear to be coming down with a fever and as their leader she feels guilty. One of those people is Tobin, who gets a visit from Carol. Carol talks about what went wrong with their relationship. Always the pragmatically honest one, she admits she was putting on an act and using Tobin as a distraction from the reality of this savage world. Things changed the minute it went from a lie to her feelings having some weight. She left before she cared enough to miss him when it mattered most. Tobin asks if she plans to leave again after they defeat Negan and she admits she’s come to terms with this new life. There is no end in this war, there’s just tomorrow and anything can happen tomorrow.

That night while Hilltop sleeps, Tobin’s fever turns deadly and after a few shallow breaths he awakens in a walker fury. He attacks everyone in the triage areas and it’s not long before a gang of zombies starts staggering through the town and biting anyone they find asleep. The screams and gnashing of teeth turn the peaceful night into a total chaos and mayhem. Maggie and company never planned for an attack from inside the gates and immediately the unaffected survivors start taking out walkers. Carol comes face to face with a very dead and grabby Tobin and makes the choice to put him down as Daryl, Maggie, Rick and Michonne run in to help her. Negan’s plan worked and once they go through Hilltop exterminating the threats, the leaders start to understand the severity of this Trojan horse warfare that landed in their laps. They break news to an injured Tara, who solemnly admits that if she dies it’s her time because, “Karma is a bitch.”

Henry Goes Rogue

In a flashback to before the fight, Henry (Macsen Lintz) asks Ezekiel and Carol if he can join the troops and both tell him to stay inside and out of the way. He ignores their orders, grabs a gun and demands the prisoners hand over the person who killed his brother. This kid is fuming with hate and says he will shoot them one by one unless they start talking. He opens the prisoner’s pen to show them he means business and a walker manages to slip past him, sending the group running for safety outside their fenced in area. Henry gets knocked down and Jared (Joshua Mikel) steals the boy’s gun as some Saviors flee and surprisingly some decide to stay and fight with Hilltop. Flashforward to the morning after the walker fiasco and Morgan has been having visions of a very dead Gavin (Jayson Warner-Smith) who keeps uttering the phrase, “You know why.” The warrior is filled with guilt over Henry’s lost innocence and its been affecting him every since. Too distracted by his unraveling mind, Morgan stays behind as Carol and Ezekiel scan the community but disagree about Henry’s fate and the search’s outcome. Carol assumes the boy is dead and decides to stay at Hilltop while Ezekiel checks the surrounding areas outside Hilltop’s walls. The king is shocked she’s written Henry off and calls her a coward for not attempting to find him. It’s a low blow by Ezekiel who often sees Carol as the bravest member of the group. He is unaware of her history with kids so, he expresses his disappointment in her choice. His words have little effect since she’s been there, done that and did it in a field of flowers. She is not signing up for another dead child, no matter how much Ezekiel tries to guilt her into it.

The episode closes on Maggie, staring at a sea of freshly dug graves and wondering if her vengeance is worth all this loss. Is this what Glenn, Carl, her sister or even her father would want? Is this the sign of a good leader or one that risks it all for selfish reasons? The question will continue to be a battle she will have to fight knowing this war is far from over.