By: Kelly Kearney

Picking up where the previous episode left off, finds Maggie, Negan, and friends still hiding from Carlson and the Commonwealth troops. After a big reveal, Maggie and Riverbend’s new leader, Annie, work together to devise a plan to save their friends and end this siege once and for all.

Redemption is an Arc Negan is Trying to Earn

After a much-awaited update on Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Maggie (Lauren Cohan) finds out the man who brutally slaughtered her husband has found a home with the Riverbend group and seems to be an accepted and respected part of the community. Maybe that has something to do with the fact he is married to Annie (Medina Senghore) and the two are expecting a baby? Besides Maggie’s obvious detest for this happy news, Lydia (Cassady McClincy) is also struggling with her hurt feelings knowing the man she viewed as a father-figure abandoned her and started a family of his own. The pain in her face reads like an open book and it isn’t soothed by Negan’s admission that he left Alexandria for everyone’s sake – hers included. Now that Maggie is back and marinating in her anger and rage, he knew his days walking the earth were numbered. No matter how many times he proves he has changed by saving her and Hershel, the daily reminder of Glen’s last moments hang over his head like a guillotine. He found his fresh start with people who were willing to give him a chance; not with people who thought change after years of imprisonment was impossible.

When Annie decides the best course of action would be to split up and hunt the hunters, she orders Negan to stay behind and keep the others safe while she and Maggie search the building for a way out of this mess. Negan’s wife is smart because when the Commonwealth troopers find Hershel (Kien Michael Spiller) hiding in his mother’s truck they drag him into the Riverbend complex and radio Carlson (Jason Butler Harner) with their find. The trooper doesn’t get a chance to finish off the young boy because Negan spots what is going down and knocks the trooper out. While the ex-gym teacher was always drawn to children, Negan and Hershel have this unspoken secret between them that is brought to light when the boy asks him why his mother warns him away from this man. Instead of lying, Negan comes clean and admits he was the bad man who killed his father and that death was one of any mistakes he has made in his life that he is trying to make up for. His honesty and noticeable guilt doesn’t factor into Hershel’s next move when the kid picks up a gun and aims it at Negan. Negan, for his part, sits down like he is almost welcoming an end to this Glen torment. There is just one problem: the revenge this pint-sized Rhee is looking for will result in a drastic outcome for all the people hiding from Carlson and the troops. One shot and the sounds will ring out throughout the building and put everyone, Maggie included, at risk. This is enough to make Hershel lower the gun and run off to lick his wounds. Thhe focus then turns to Lydia, who witnesses the entire exchange. While her face displays a mixture of fear, pain and resolve, we see Negan, on the other hand, break down in tears with a bit of relief that he didn’t eat a bullet. What went down between the two doesn’t change his mind that this situation needs to be settled and later he tells Hershel to find him when he is older and they will do just that.

The Plan

Meanwhile, Maggie and Annie’s plan requires Aaron (Ross Marquand) and Gabriel (Seth Gillium) to distract Carlson up on the roof while they take out whoever is left of his troops in the building. Once the two men, who are quickly becoming a deadly duo, lure Carlson to the roof where Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari) is waiting to slit his two guards throats and leave Aaron’s boss out numbered. After recovering the gun Carlson was holding, Aaron wastes no time in shooting him in the chest and knocking Carlson off the very roof he tossed Riverbend people down from to their deaths. Those same people are still down there, turned and hungry for the paralyzed man who is now their first meal. Getting eaten alive by your victims is a fitting end this ex-CIA assassin most definitely deserved. With Carlson not making it back to Commonwealth Aaron and Gabe have to go and explain what happened and why they never found the cargo and guns. If they don’t, Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) will be suspicious and assume they are lying and this whole standoff will turn into a full-blown bloodbath over nothing. Riverbend might be a lot of things but they’re not killing young soldiers and hijacking supplies, which was someone else. Who that was Maggie and the others will have to figure it out.

Speaking of the Commonwealth, Daryl (Norman Reedus) is really embracing the cop life when we see him heading back from Carol’s bakery with a donut in hand and a lunch date with his bestie n his mind. “Noon at the diner?” Carol (Melissa McBride) asks. “It’s a date” Daryl says, and cue the sighs of shippers hanging on to their “CARYL” hope for twelve years. Unfortunately, it looks like their date will have to wait because after Daryl mocks Sebastian’s (Teo Rapp-Olsson) rotter slaying skills, the privileged punk has his guards pull Dixon and Rosita (Christan Serratos) out of their work assignment for a much more dangerous mission outside the walls. The mission: walk through a horde to get inside a house owned by a pre-apocalypse pal with a doomsday prepper panic room full of supplies, drugs and money. Their job is to get in, open the safe (with the code Sebastian has provided) and bring the money back to him. Apparently, Mommy cut off her bratty boy’s allowance and now he can’t live in the lap of luxury he has been used to. The concept of money and lavish lifestyles seem so foreign to Rosita and Daryl, who assume this must be some sort of joke. But nobody is laughing when Sebastian threatens their children if they don’t follow his orders and get the cash. This sets Daryl off, who draws his knife and viciously grabs the kid reminding him to never talk about their children again or else he will face consequences beyond his worst nightmares, which (considering he has been insulated in this safe community) aren’t even remotely close to how bloody-creative Daryl is going to get if he comes near R.J., Judith or Coco. Regardless of the threat, Daryl knows if they don’t get this money then Sebastian will make their lives difficult, so he agrees and the two slather themselves in walker guts and head towards the house.

When they finally slip inside the massive walker surrounded mansion they’re met with a few fresh puddles of blood and the occasional wandering walker that they take out with ease. Once they locate the door, they realize the key pad to unlock the safe room will not work without electricity. Lucky for them a woman named April (Wynn Everett) is trapped behind the door and tells them they have to turn the generator on first, but they need to hurry as she has been in there for a while. April is desperate to get out of that room and while Daryl heads towards the generator Rosita stays behind and learns what Sebastian has really been up to. April was one of twelve in her group sent on this same cash finding mission, and unlike the threat to their kids, this time Sebastian used their unpaid debts against them. Most of her group didn’t make it through the horde, but when the ones who did turned on each other, she hid in the panic room and got locked in when the power failed.

Mission Complete. Now What?

After a brief scuffle with two walkers in the generator room, Daryl manages to get the power on and the door opens up to a very grateful April. Daryl rips the safe open and just as he starts to fill a few duffle bags with cash the power flickers and the keypad alarm goes off. It is ear piercingly loud and it starts drawing the horde Inside the house. They have no choice but to barricade themselves behind the safe room’s door and that’s when they hear it – gun shots, entire rounds of them approaching the house and the door. They can hear bodies dropping to the floor and the growling sounds of walkers falling to a whisper and that’s when Mercer (Michael James Shaw) and Carol walk in like the coolest killer duo we never knew we needed. Daryl asks how they knew they were in trouble and Carol just nonchalantly mentions he didn’t show up for lunch. Apparently, Daryl Dixon has never missed a meal with Carol Peletier and the first time he did, she grabbed the biggest, scariest General she could find and took out a horde to save him. How she convinced Mercer to tag a long on this “I’ve been stood-up so let’s go find him” plan is a testament to her position in this community because I doubt Mercer spent much time hunting down missing Pookies before she rolled into town.

With everyone safe and the money bagged Rosita realizes April is vulnerable without walker blood covering up her human smell, so she hands her some of her own bloodied gear and the foursome start their trek back to Sebastian. Rosita, Daryl and Carol are pros at the horde blend-in, but April is new to the game and she almost immediately gets attacked by walkers inside the house. It’s tense for a minute but the other three manage to kill all the threats and make their way through the horde and back to safety. Sebastian is now gone, but his two guards are waiting and they are shocked the group made it out alive. They laugh over the thirty or forty who died before them. However, when Mercer hears this he pulls out his gun and executes them both. Everyone is shocked and then the orange suited General turns to Daryl and tells him to take the money to Sebastian or else Daryl will make Sebastian’s hit list – and nobody needs a spoiled rich brat making their lives difficult.

Back at the Commonwealth Sebastian is practically rolling in the cash like a pig in slop; thrilled that his money worries are over. He tosses a stack of bills at Daryl for his effort, letting him know that corruption is alive and well in this world, not unlike the previous one. At least now maybe Sebastian will leave their kids alone, but the mood surrounding this safe haven they’ve joined is starting to turn to suspicion.

Keep Your Friends Close and Your Enemies Closer

After returning from the prepper house mission, Carol heads to Lance’s offices to tell him what happened and conveniently leaves out the part where Mercer killed two of his men. When Lance learns Sebastian sent forty people to their deaths prior to Carol’s friends for this money all he seems concerned about is whether or not they succeeded. He says he is glad they made it out alive but the real motivator for him is the cash, not the shady deals Sebastian is up to or the body count he is racking up. Greed and power is what makes Commonwealth so similar to other villains our survivors have faced and we are reminded of it when Lydia, previously, compared them to The Whisperers without the masks. They use displays of power and prosperity to subjugate, oppress and colonize and when guys like Lance don’t get what they want, they are no more civilized than Alpha, the Governor or Negan’s Saviors. Watching his charming façade slip for a brief moment forces Carol to cement a smile on her face and play along with feeding his ego, something he craves now that we’ve seen Mercer and Milton overshadow his fame and glory. She tells him she is on his side and as a former leader she understands why these risks are necessary to maintain order inside Commonwealth. However, when she turns to leave his office her smile drops into a familiar cold glare. These people risked Daryl ad Rosita’s lives and now the Queen of the Apocalypse is going to make them pay. Lance has no idea who he is dealing with and that’s the kind of scenario Carol thrives in. Cookies and smiles by day, murderous plots by night – they will not see her coming. And she isn’t the only woman in Daryl’s life with murder on her mind. In a flashback to when this whole Riverbend missing cargo shipment started we see who was really behind the hijacking…Leah (Lynn Collins)! It was Leah and from her brutal slayings of the young troops and the feral look n her face this could be a set up to lure Maggie and Daryl into some trap. Dixon should have never wandered into the cabin because now his friends might pay the ultimate price for his ex’s unhinged rage.