The Walking Dead – Still Gotta Mean Something

By: Kelly Kearney

On this week’s “The Walking Dead,” the Rick-tatorship struggles in the face of Carl’s dying wish. Can Rick put down the gun and make peace with Negan to build a better world for his people? The answers he’s searching for might be in Carl’s letters, but Rick isn’t ready to say goodbye and avoids reading his son’s last words. Elsewhere, Carol and Morgan go beyond Hilltop’s gates to search for Henry while Daryl and Rosita hatch a plan to take out Negan’s bullet maker.

Jadis Vs. Negan

The last time we saw Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) she was holding a gun to Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) head. This week, we flashback to how the Queen of the Dump managed to stay alive as Simon (Steven Ogg) executed her entire group. We open on Jadis playing dead as the Saviors slaughter ever one of her people. Once the coast is clear, the enraged and distraught woman strips off her filthy clothes to reveal a clean white nightgown underneath. Flashforward to the present and Jadis stands in her pristine apartment that’s hidden amongst the trash. With its clean lines, futon bed, hardwood floors, skylights, closets and Negan’s bat propped up in the corner, it’s clear there is more to this woman than her monotone speeches and throwback hairstyle. Time elapses and we see her packing a suitcase and crying while writing in her journal. What she’s writing we don’t know, but when she’s finished she wipes her tears, grabs Negan’s bat and heads out into the junkyard to open the shipping container that’s holding Negan. Strapped to a dolly, the head Savior is irate and demands to know what’s going on.

Over at Hilltop, Carol (Melissa McBride) is keeping busy by chopping wood when she’s interrupted by Ezekiel (Khary Payton) who wants to look for Henry (Macsen Lintz). He has an idea of where the escaped Saviors are and believes Henry can’t be far behind. With her history of missing kids, Carol assumes the boy is dead and isn’t about to search for him only to be let down by the inevitable. She declines to go with the King and he is shocked that such a brave woman would let her fears dictate her choice to save the boy. She is in denial of her fears and the King storms of angry that she’s not joining him.

Speaking of denial, Daryl (Norman Reedus) doesn’t believe Tara (Alanna Masterson) when she claims Dwight (Austin Amelio) saved her life with an untainted arrow. The archer is convinced the Savior was trying to kill her, but Tara knows Dwight’s stuck his neck out for her before and truly thinks that arrow saved her from whatever end Simon had planned. Daryl, who has been itching to kill Dwight since he stole his bike and winged vest, thinks trusting the man would be a mistake. Tara lets him know that he can kill Dwight if he wants to but it’s not what she wants. Instead, it would be to soothe his own vengeance and she wants no part of that.

Grief and Regret

When we first met Michonne (Danai Gurira) she was lost from losing her family and friends and to avoid her truth, she stayed on the move. Thanks to Andrea (Lori Holden) she was able to stop moving, feel her losses and eventually make a human connection. Now, with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) avoiding Carl’s (Chandler Riggs) letters he’s quickly becoming the cold killer his son never wanted him to be. Michonne wants to be Rick’s touchstone in the same way Andrea was for her. While reading Carl’s letters, she lets Rick know she’s been in his place, but she loves him enough to give him space and hopes he reads the letters and finds some closure.

Rick isn’t the only one struggling as Morgan’s (Lennie James) guilt over Henry wreaks havoc on his sanity and the man is seeing ghosts everywhere he goes. If only he had killed all the Saviors then Henry wouldn’t have blood on his hands and maybe wouldn’t have gone missing. He tells Carol he’s going to find the Saviors and knowing her friend is mentally unstable, she offers to tag along. Meanwhile, Daryl, Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Diane (Kerry Cahill) have a meeting about how to stop the Saviors. If their ammo is low so is the Savior’s and that’s when Rosita remembers that Eugene (Josh McDermitt) has bullet making skills. She even thinks she knows where Eugene is gathering his supplies and assumes if they can stop the bullets being made than they can downgrade the Savior’s threat to Hilltop.

Over at the dump, Jadis makes a fire as Negan tries reasoning with the silent woman to let him go. He does his best to convince her that Simon went rogue and while he did order the man to intimidate her into cooperating, he never ordered them to be killed.  He asks her to allow him to make this right, but Jadis ignores him and glances at her watch like she’s waiting for something. Negan keeps rambling promises about making Simon pay, but Jadis is done listening and swings Lucille – landing inches from his head. It’s a warning he hears loud and clear, Jadis isn’t in the mood for a deal.

Morgan Sees Dead People

While Carol and Morgan are tracking the Saviors through the woods they spot a turnip and assume they’re on the right track. Noticing movement in the trees, Morgan thinks it’s Henry and rushes forward to see it’s only another one of his ghostly visions. Bleeding from the neck, vision Henry tells Morgan, “You know what it is you’re supposed to do,” and Morgan screams that none of this real. Carol finds him shouting “You are not here,” and she confesses that she came along more so to keep an eye on Morgan than to find Henry. These two characters have a way of pulling each other back from the brink of self-destruction and Morgan feels comfortable opening up about his “I see dead people,” problem. She reminds him that just like her that he can come back from this grief, but when they spot another clue the discussion ends to continue their search.Tanks to Alden’s (Callen McAuliffe) tips about an outpost and bar they could’ve run to, Rick heads out to search for the group. Before he leaves, Alden implores Rick to let some of them live since many Saviors are good people who put their trust in the wrong man. This is just another example of Rick at a killing crossroads. His son, Michonne and now Alden have all presented him with options to stop the killing and make the world a better place, but all Rick wants is to keep moving forward and end this by any means necessary.

Back at the trash heap, Jadis threatens to toss Lucille into her fire and Negan manages to wheel himself over to her suitcase and find her gun. He also finds some photos he threatens to burn with a flare if she doesn’t start talking. Eventually, she does and asks him not to destroy the only photos of her former life. Looking at the fire, he tells her how Lucille is a reminder of his wife and like the photos was the only thing he has left of her. In the middle of Negan’s quid pro quo, Jadis’ watch alarm goes off and the sound of a helicopter is heard above them. Jadis throws a walker at Negan, manages to strip him of the flare but accidently drops it in a puddle extinguishing any hope that it would be seen from the air. Jadis takes off to find another flare, but the helicopter is gone before she can set off any alerts. Angry, she’s about to torch Lucille, but Negan reminds her that he respected her enough not to burn her photos and asks for the same respect in return. Jadis falls to the ground in tears as these two are at a stalemate.

Bouncing around between characters, Carol and Morgan follow the tracks to a herd of walkers and spot one of them impaled with Henry’s spear. Carol wants to search in the direction of the herd even if she finds a dead Henry, at this point the not knowing is worse. Morgan, who like Rick keeps moving to avoid unpleasant truths, refuses to go and the two friends part ways. In the woods, Rick manages to stumble into Morgan and the two men agree to finish these Saviors once and for all. When they find the bar Alder mentioned, the escapees manage to get the drop on them both and take them hostage. Inside the bar many Saviors are sick and the entire group is arguing about what to do with their captors. Jared (Joshua Mikel) thinks delivering Rick to Negan would put them in his good graces, but Grimes has a better offer – let them live and he will give them medical care and protection at Hilltop. That’s when a herd of walkers breaks in and the Saviors trustingly cut Morgan and Rick free to help in the fight. The two men take down the walkers and then turn on their captors. Cutting them down one by one, even the sick ones begging for mercy, Rick and Morgan slaughter them all. Jared manages to get away, but when Morgan traps him behind a gate a herd of walkers deliver a satisfying death by tearing the man to pieces. Morgan accomplished his task; Benjamin’s death has been avenged and maybe now Henry can trade in his spear for being a boy.

Surprise, Surprise

Speaking of Henry, Carol eventually finds him alive and hiding under some tree roots on the banks of a stream. Ironically, it’s the exact hiding technique Rick told Sophia to use when she went missing earlier in the series. Finding him was a relief for the woman who desperately wanted to find her daughter but wasn’t strong enough to lead the search. She takes Henry home where he’s met by Morgan with the news that Jared is dead. The boy apologizes knowing his thirst for revenge led Morgan to the brink of insanity. Morgan sulks off to cry as Rick arrives, bloody faced and glaring at Alden. It’s clear he ignored the man’s request and killed all the escaped Saviors. Now faced with what he’s done, Rick finally decides to stop moving and open Carl’s letters.

The episode ends with Jadis freeing Negan to handle Simon in his own way. She stays at the dump crying over all she’s lost while Negan and Lucille head home. On the drive, he sees a friend standing on the side of the road and pulls over to laugh at the condition this faceless person is in. We never see who he’s talking to, but when they arrive at the Sanctuary Negan asks the guards at the gate to keep his presence a secret as he wants this to be a surprise. Whatever the man has in store for his followers, you can bet Simon will pay for disobeying his orders and if Dwight was smart he would leave before this mystery person outs him as the team traitor.