The Walking Dead – The Key

By: Kelly Kearney

All out war peaks in a fiery climax when Negan and Rick, finally, come face to face. Elsewhere, a mysterious package leads to a surprising discovery that forces Maggie to make some tough choices for the community she’s been selected to lead. Its new allies and old foes on this week’s episode.

Ditching Orders

Picking up where last week left off, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Simon (Steven Ogg) and now Dwight (Austin Amelio) gather the Saviors to prepare for their attack on Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the survivors. The plan isn’t to kill them, but to infiltrate their community by infecting as many as they can with the walker virus. It’s a biological attack and, if done right, could destroy Hilltop with very little effort from Negan and his people. Knowing that Rick won’t give up, Negan puts Simon in charge of the troops while he travels alone with Lucille and a bucket of walker guts. That bat is a menace on a good day, but dipped in walker gore makes Lucille more lethal than ever. One scratch from her barbed wire will set off a chain of events that Hilltop won’t be ready for. The plan is solid. It’s an apocalyptic Trojan horse that should be fail proof if it wasn’t for Negan’s captain having second thoughts. After ignoring the boss’ orders and killing the Scavengers, Simon is looking for a way out from under Negan’s thumb. He knows the punishment that comes from defying their leader and he’s ready to do what it takes to avoid the spikey end of Lucille.

Speaking of traitors, Dwight tags along with Simon who has no clue his traveling buddy is the mole that helped Rick attack the Sanctuary. While on the road, Simon tests Dwight’s loyalty by bringing up his doubts about Negan’s leadership and their current risky plan. Dwight plays the good little soldier, standing firmly behind Negan and at this point his life depends on it. He can’t trust anyone, even if Simon is hinting around for a way out of all of this. Breaking down the entire plan, Simon talks about why this could finally be the war they can’t win. He says, “We’ve thrown a lot at Rick. The widow and the King and they just keep coming. They keep fighting. They don’t scare.” He wonders if this is all worth it or if they’d be better off allowing Negan to fail and then rebuilding the community all their own. Simon is desperate to hide the trail of bodies he left at the town dump while Dwight just wants to fly under Negan’s radar long enough to slip away and search for his wife.

Rick Takes Matters Into His Own Hands

Over at Hilltop, Rick and Michonne (Danai Gurira) finally make it back and while they’re happy to be surrounded by friends the loss of Carl (Chandler Riggs) makes the reunion somber and tense. Daryl (Norman Reedus) follows Rick and finds him kneeling by Glenn’s (Steven Yeun) grave. They start talk about all they’ve lost as well as the mistakes they’ve made. Daryl doesn’t necessarily apologize for ignoring Rick’s orders when he attacked the Sanctuary, but he does admit it was a decision that was made in the heat of the moment. Their relationship has been strained since Daryl went rogue and that knock down fist fight on the side of the highway a few weeks back was proof of that. Now, with Carl gone, the two friends decide to put the past behind them and let it stay there. These brothers in arms will always stand beside each other even if they don’t agree on how best to keep their family safe. After their talk, Daryl notices Rick seems off and he knows that look on his friend’s face is usually the calm before the Grimes storm. He voices his concern for how the man is handling the death of his son, but Rick shrugs it off and Daryl drops it letting him have his privacy. Only the archer was right to be concerned, especially when Rick signs up for scouting duty and spots the Saviors en-route to Hilltop. Instead of alerting the others, he takes it upon himself to finish things once and for all. Jumping in his car he heads towards the traveling army that’s coming to destroy Hilltop and the people he loves. It’s a rash decision, like the one Daryl just apologized for, but Rick isn’t thinking clearly and just wants this war to end.

As the Saviors head out toward Hilltop, Negan’s traveling alone and following Simon in the lead car. Speeding through the streets, Simon spots an unfamiliar car barreling down an alley and heading straight for them. He plays it cool as the mystery car misses him, but slams into Negan sending him careening off the road and out of the formation of the pack. Simon hits the breaks to gather the troops and fill them in about the crash. It’s obvious he’s in no hurry to find Negan since this might be his chance to step into the leadership role and claim the Saviors as his own. Simon orders his soldiers to stay behind warning them that this whole thing could be some sort of elaborate trap. While the group stays out of sight, he and Dwight plan to check out the crash and rescue their boss if he’s still alive…at least that’s what he says, but it’s more likely he wishes Negan’s never found.

An Offering, A Meeting and a Possible New Ally

Back at Hilltop, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) is gearing up for war and with hungry troops and limited supplies she knows this fight is going to be tough. She’s smart enough to know the Saviors will be coming so she climbs the look out to scope the town’s perimeter. That’s when she notices a mysterious set of crates and when she drags them back home she finds a note offering a trade and requesting a meeting. This doesn’t seem like a Negan tactic and Michonne thinks it could be a possible new community that could offer them food and an alliance. Maggie is reluctant to grant the requests, but Michonne manages to convince both her and the very suspicious Enid (Katelyn Nacon) to take the meeting with the anonymous faction because at this point they can use all the help they can get. Food is dire now that the survivors have joined Hilltop and if this group could offer them any supplies, the danger would be worth it. Not to mention Michonne sees this as a way to honor Carl’s dying wish to work towards peace and not to kill first ask questions later. The fighting must end sometime and the rebuilding will require as many helping hands as they can find.

Michonne manages to convince Maggie the meeting is worth it and along with Enid and Rosita (Christian Serratos) they’re met by three women who appear to be clean, nicely dressed and very welcoming. Their leader, Georgie (Jayne Atkinson), offers an interesting trade – her knowledge for food and records. Maggie’s not buying it and takes the women hostage, dragging them back to Hilltop until they can figure out if Georgie is on the up and up.  The only problem with bringing new prisoners to an increasingly famished community is the lack of food and the fact that a Negan attack is eminent. Georgie asked for a sign of good faith and Maggie just threw that offer right out the window by acting more like Negan than a welcoming community in need of supplies and allies.

Elsewhere, Simon and Dwight find Negan’s car flipped on its side and covered in blood. Whether or not the blood came from Negan’s bucket of walker guts or if it’s his own, is a tough call and Simon isn’t desperate to find out. He torches the car and decides then and there to lead the Saviors on his own and continue with the plan at Hilltop. Only, there’s a twist to Simon’s interpretation of his boss’ orders. He tells the group of Saviors that instead of infecting Hilltop, they’re going to kill them all and finish this war once and for all. After Hilltop and Rick’s people are dead, the group can move on to enslaving other communities outside of Virginia.

The Showdown

With no one coming to help him, Negan is on his own and under attack from Rick who has him cornered in a small town with gun fire. Dodging bullets, Negan runs into a building and Rick is close behind. Now out of ammunition, Rick hurls his hatchet towards Negan knocking the man over a second-floor railing and landing in the building’s basement. On the long fall, Negan manages to lose his grip on Lucille, evening up Rick’s odds with finally putting Negan to rest.

Rick chases Negan through the dark basement like a volatile game of hide and seek where they both taunt and demand the other’s surrender. Feeling cornered without Lucille, Negan offers Rick a deal – he will let Hilltop survive and instead of taking his usual half of everything he will only take 25% as long as Rick agrees to being Negan’s personal lackey. Rick laughs the deal off and asks Negan why he would ever trust him after he murdered all the Scavengers. Negan never ordered the extermination of Jadis’ people as that was a rogue decision of Simon’s and now that decision could get him killed. With no deal, Rick gains the upper hand when he finds Lucille and lights the bat on fire. Now swinging the ultimate weapon, Negan pops out of the shadows and tackles Rick into room full of walkers. Like a Louisville Slugger, Rick hits home runs with the flaming bat as he sets zombies on fire and it’s clear he’s willing to die to end this fight. Negan starts to realize the lengths Rick will go to and screams about getting them both killed. Nobody is more dangerous than a man who just lost his son and is now running on anger and vengeance. Rick Grimes has nothing to lose. The men trade a few blows, but Negan manages to escape before both wind up ravished by fiery walkers.

Back at Hilltop, Maggie decides to let her new captives go before the Saviors attack. Georgie was hoping she would make the benevolent choice. Noticing how rations are low, Georgie changes their deal and asks only for records in exchange for knowledge and the food that they had in their van. While the food is a nice gesture, the knowledge is a game changer. It’s a textbook full of medieval survival tactics, farming, irrigation techniques and anything they would need to rebuild a civilization that’s been demolished by war and the apocalypse. Georgie says she’s offered this to other worthy communities in hopes they can all rebuild a society from the ground up. Maggie thanks her and after years of tearing down society this is their first bit of hope at turning their rubble into a functioning community.

The episode ends with a battered and exhausted Negan riding shotgun in a car driven by Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) who’s holding a gun to the man’s head. A gun. She doesn’t appear to be in a forgiving mood after being forced to turn her entire group into walker ground beef. Where is she taking him and will she join Rick and Co.? It’s too early to say, but Negan can add Jadis to his long list of enemies that now includes some of his own people. His days of scaring people into submission seem to be numbered but, this is Negan and he’s not going down without a fight.