The Walking Dead – The Lost and the Plunderers

By: Kelly Kearney

After last week’s heartbreaking loss of his son, Rick barely has time to grieve for Carl before he and Michonne set out to finish their war with Negan. In a story told through six points of view, “The Lost and Plunderers” show how each community is dealing with the aftermath of the attacks.

Michonne

We open on Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) staring at a wooden cross of sticks protruding from Carl’s (Chandler Riggs) freshly dug grave. Knowing Carl’s wish for his father to make peace with their enemies’ forces Rick to think twice before he hangs his revolver off the end of the make shift memorial. Cut to Michonne whose giving Rick a moment of contemplation while surveying their home which is now, nothing but ashes and walkers. She tries closing the ASZ front gate, but the dead are battling their way in and Michonne takes out her frustration by cutting the walkers down one by one. Knowing their town cannot be saved, Michonne gathers a bleary-eyed Rick and the two, start scavenging their town’s ruins for supplies. While most of the ASZ was destroyed, Rick’s home is still standing and Michonne happens upon the blue hand prints Judith and Carl made on the porch before he died. Like a knife that cuts her in two, the loss of Carl and their town brings the woman warrior to her knees. Her despair is cut short by a herd of walkers creeping towards the house. Michonne, fueled by her anger, takes off into the herd slashing her way through them like a violently gruesome dance. Its elegant and gory and its evident Michonne is acting on emotions and not common sense, especially when she notices the flames coming from the gazebo Carl used as his favorite look-out perch. As Rick’s loading up their truck with supplies, which includes a walkie talkie he ripped off a dead Savior, Michonne grabs a fire extinguisher and desperately tries to put out the flames in hopes of saving a little memorial to Carl. Its not long before Rick joins her, but the walkers are headed towards the fire and they have no other choice but to let it burn and leave the ASZ.

On the road out of town, Rick’s a mess and wipes tears from his eyes while asking Michonne if Carl really wanted peace with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). “Did he want us to stop fighting,” he asks Michonne, almost as if he didn’t hear a single word his son said. This deathbed wish seems impossible to Rick and when Michonne shows him the letters Carl wrote, including one addressed to Negan, Rick out right refuses to read them. It’s clear Rick is angry and wants someone to pay for his losses, the letters do not fit into his revenge plan – a plan that includes Jadis and her people who have no idea the Saviors are coming for them. Negan knows Jadis double crossed him and Rick decides to go and warn her before the Saviors light her garbage heap on fire.

At the trash dump, things seem quiet with no signs of Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) or her people. Making their way through the piles of garbage, Rick accidently sets off a trap that winds up blocking their only way in or out. Within seconds a herd of Scavengers turned walkers start filtering in and send Rick and Michonne on the run!

Negan

Shifting between the timelines, we cut back to the Sanctuary where Negan and Simon (Steven Ogg) have a powwow over what to do with the escaping Alexandrians. He has no idea where they are nor does he know what happened to Carl, but Negan seems happy with Hilltop’s willingness to work for him. Little does he know Maggie (Lauren Cohan) has no interest in being his provider and she proves that by sending him a coffin containing one of his men she turned into a walker. It’s a warning that Hilltop won’t be under Negan’s rule without a fight. Simon, who is bored when he’s not killing Rick’s people, wants to take them all out and move on in search of other communities to raid. Negan makes it clear that they need the AHK to provide for them and under no circumstances should Simon go on a murdering spree. He’s ordered to stick to the plan and head to the junkyard and remind Jadis who’s in charge. Negan reminds him to do as they have always done, murder one to teach them all a lesson. Simon reluctantly agrees, but its clear he has his own ideas on how to handle anyone who gets in their way.

Enid

The last time we saw Enid (Katelyn Nacon) she killed Oceanside’s leader to save Aaron’s (Ross Marquand) life. Now, both have been dragged back to the all-female community as they wait to hear their fate. Cyndie (Sydney Park) is tasked with deciding their fate and after much deliberation she informs Enid and Aaron they will be executed on the beach in honor of their leader. Somehow Enid manages to talk Cyndie out of killing them by reminding her that Rick and company will come looking if they don’t return to the ASZ. Without their leader, Cyndie realizes they are no match for Rick’s group and grant Enid and Aaron a reprieve if they agree to never come back to Oceanside. She makes it clear they have no interest in joining forces to defeat Negan so, of course, Aaron decides to ignore her orders and stay behind to convince them to join in the fight. Not the brightest idea considering Oceanside hasn’t once changed their stance on this. Why Aaron thinks he can convince them after Tara (Alanna Masterson), Rick and Enid could not, is beyond understanding but the guy just lost his husband so perhaps he’s not thinking clearly? Leaving Aaron behind, Enid heads home not knowing there isn’t a home to go back to.

Simon

Over at the Scavenger’s trash heap, Simon shows up with a heavily armed presence and he’s just looking for a fight. He demands Jadis apologize for working with Rick against the them and she grits her teeth and gives him what he wants. As punishment for her treasonous acts, Simon orders her people to hand over all their weapons and she reluctantly agrees. As the Saviors strip the Scavengers of their only means of defense, Simon notices a helicopter launch pad and a series of solar panels at the back of the dump. When he questions her about it, she shrugs it off saying it was there when they took over the dump. Could this be a clue related to the helicopter Rick spotted flying above the woods? Simon drops the questions when he finishes what he came for. Pulling his gun, he kills two of Jadis’ commanders as punishment for defying Negan. Jadis loses it and punches Simon and he, in turn, orders his men to kill all her people. It’s a total slaughter leaving Jadis the only one left standing. After betraying his boss’ orders, Simon heads back to the Sanctuary with the guns but conveniently forgets to mention he killed the Scavengers – a decision that could earn him an iron to the face or even a dreaded date with Lucille. For the time being, Negan is blissfully unaware his general ignored his wishes and lends his focus to Gavin (Jayson Warner Smith) and why he hasn’t called in with an update from Hilltop. Again, Negan is in the dark and has no idea Gavin is dead, but he does get a walkie talkie call from Rick which changes his focus from Hilltop back to the ASZ.

Jadis

Going back to when Rick and Michonne set off the trap at the junkyard, the two are chased by the Scavenger walkers all the way up the trash pile until they see a distraught Jadis in her nightgown looking very much the worse for wear. Dropping her usual broken word speech, she explains that this junkyard was a place her and her people could become something new. Before the end of the world, she would come to the dump in search of canvases to paint, but once the walker virus took over the world the dump became their own little world.

Rick doesn’t have sympathy for Jadis and blames her for the death of her own people. If she wouldn’t have waited to join Rick, maybe her people would be alive today. Then, he grabs a car door to use as a shield and he and Michonne fight their way through the walkers as Jadis begs him to take her with them. Rick has been stabbed in the back by Jadis too many times and he ignores her pleas as he pushes through the trash pile to make their exit. Jadis is left fighting the herd as Rick fires his gun alerting even more walkers to her whereabouts. So much for Carl’s dreams of peace and forgiveness.

Managing to fight her way up the trash pile, its clear Jadis only has one option to survive. While slurping applesauce from a can, she wrangles her people into a giant garbage disposal turning the Scavengers into zombie hamburger meat. As she says goodbye to her friends, she’s faced with the horrible outcome of her choices as a leader.

Rick

On the road, Rick tells Michonne he didn’t fire the gun because he wanted Jadis dead – he just wanted her gone. Michonne mentions something Carl said about having to choose which direction they want their lives to go which forces Rick to pull over and read his son’s letters. Opening the letter to Negan, Rick sees that Carl also asked Negan to lay down his weapons and make peace – something Rick says is impossible when he gets Negan on the walkie talkie. Negan’s gloating and pleased with how the fight turned out at the Kingdom and ASZ until Rick mentions Carl’s death. In one of the only times we’ve seen a glimpse of humanity in him, Negan asks if Carl’s death was his fault. Rick tells the truth and says it wasn’t because of the raid and any decency Negan had turns to blame. He blames Rick’s choices for the loss of Carl and goes on to say he had hoped the young boy would grow up to lead this world. Rick, who just blamed Jadis for the death of her people, can’t see past his anger or hypocrisy and the two men hurl threats back and forth. Negan warns that Rick will lose more people he loves unless he surrenders, but the grieving father has no interest in that at all. They will fight until there is only one man left standing. No matter what Carl’s dreams foretold, this is ALL OUT WAR!