Dead Digest: The Walking Dead (SSN 7, EP 8)

Episode 8 - "Hearts Still Beating"

WHERE TO BEGIN. I can’t do this Dead Digest as my usual recap. There is just too much going on. Too much WONDER. To say I was pleased with tonight’s mid-seasonal finale would be a vast understatement. It didn’t go how I thought it would, and I am so totally happy with that.

• For starters, Daryl is safe. Well, safer. He’s on the lam after that little love note last week helped him escape the compound. He met up with Jesus and killed the heavy-set gentleman who was supposed to be on watch. Negan is gonna be hella mad when he finds out his handy-dandy bargaining chip has escaped. Luckily, Rick & the gang all have alibis. But I’m still recommending Daryl lay low for a while now that he’s “safe” at The Hill Top. Yeah, I know, it’s not going to happen.

• Spencer is dead. I knew that would be coming soon. I never liked that preppy, spoiled weasel. His only redeeming factor was that he made Rosita kinda happy. Negan gutting that loser was gross AND satisfying. He massively underestimated Negan. Negan is smart. A diabolical genius who doesn’t take too kindly to the fake nonsense Spenser was spewing. Good riddance. Oh, and Rick stabbing zombie Spencer in the head was even better. Take that you alcoholic mama’s boy.

• Michonne. She is so beautiful, and oh so wise. I could probably just watch her read the phone book for 90 minutes and be totally happy. I get it; she had to see the compound of The Saviors with her own two eyes. Waltzing through the front gate for an assassination attempt is not going to work. Even if you are an epic badass like she is. Most importantly, this realization led her to that gorgeous monologue she shared with Rick. They’re a family, a team, a unit, and they can only fight this evil as a united front using their combined super powers. Or something to that extent. Whatever, it was a touching moment. Father Gabriel has been saying this for like, several damn episodes now and no one was listening. Except me.

Running up to Negan + shooting him in the head = BAD. Blindly living in servitude to Negan = BAD.

• Rosita still had to try and shoot Negan with Eugene’s homemade bullet for some stupid reason. This will come as a shock to absolutely no one, but that plan didn’t work. Lucille took the hit for her man, and he got REALLY angry. Denise the inventory lady is dead now. Eugene manned up though and confessed that he can craft ammunition and was carted off as property of The Saviors. I think he’s going to be ok though, he’s too useful to them.

• Carol, it was lovely to see you! Too bad you’re still being an emo child, sulkily reading books and pouting on the outskirts of The Kingdom. Morgan was his regular Zen/chill self as always. One of King Ezekiel’s knights was trying to get our pair on board to attack The Savior. He knows he needs them to help get the king on board with the crusade. Yeah, they were none too pleased with that notion. Which brings us to

• The sweet, uplifting, and hopeful ending. We see Rick and all the key players meeting up at The Hilltop! And the teaser for the show picking up again in February is clearly setting up these three communities as uniting to take Negan down. But how will they tumble this despot?!? They’re really going to have to put their brains together to solve this pickle. Not to mention, who is this mysterious hooded figure watching everyone from afar? Is it a man or woman? Are those electrical wires really effective as shoelaces?! And more importantly, is this person friend or foe?

Okay, I need to stop now. It’s late, and my cat won’t go to bed until I do so I need to wrap this up. Now begins the long, cold winter were myself and the other Walking Dead fans go through the stages of grief until our beloved show returns.

P.S. I still think Negan’s downfall ultimately will be at his own hand. Also, why didn’t Carl get grounded for sneaking into that truck and killing men with a machine gun? I hope his punishment was to clean up Spencer and his guts off the asphalt.

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Dead Digest: The Walking Dead (SSN 7, EP 7)

Episode 7 - "Sing Me A Song"

Spoiler Alert: Negan is an asshole. Perhaps that could be the tagline to the whole of Season 7 thus far? We got another awesome 90-minute episode this week before next Sunday’s mid-season finale. I’m dreading the break of course, but I can’t help but be totally excited for the upcoming episode. Here’s a quick breakdown: Rosita bullied Eugene into crafting her a bullet(s?), Michonne stealthy struck off on her own to kidnap a Savior and go after Negan, Rick, and Aaron are still out scavenging, Spencer found a cache of goodies, and probably still hates Rick despite a-come-to-Jesus chat with Father Gabriel. Oh, and Jesus! Jesus and Carl were still on that truck back to Negan’s main camp. Carl tricked Jesus into thinking he would bail out with him, but instead stayed on.

I will admit, it was kind of badass to see Carl pick up a machine gun and mow down two of Negan’s men once they arrived. Obviously, this was a poorly constructed plan; but, a believable thing for a testosterone-ridden teen boy to try to pull off solo. Negan decides to take young Carl on a little tour, since he is having a hard time deciding on how to punish him for his crimes. We get to meet the wives! The wives hang out in this fancy room full of booze and plush furniture, more like an upscale brothel than a home, which I suppose it is. And they all wear black cocktail dresses just to make it even more awkward. Sadly, one of the wives strayed and hooked up with the guy she, presumably, actually loves. Negan has “no choice” but to give the lover-boy the iron. Just like Dwight! The iron is exactly what it sound like, a red hot household iron stuck in the furnace and then onto some dude’s face. Ouch.

Negan also demonstrates to Carl what a good cult leader he is. His people bow to him and are rewarded with fresh produce. He gives a nice speech about how The Saviors are restoring order and civility to a world gone mad swarmed by the undead. Negan also exacts some pretty uncomfortable psychological torture by having the kid remove the wrapping off the empty eye socket (ewwww!), and sing him a song his dear departed mummy used as a lullaby -- Hence, the title of the episode. Negan then decides he better take Carl home...this can’t be good. He demands to look over the Grimes’ home and discovers baby Judith. The episode ends with Negan holding Judith, sitting with Carl on the front porch. Some sort of sick Americana tableau.

Negan seems rather taken with little Judith. I don’t think he’ll hurt her, I think he intends to kidnap her. And what would Rick & the Peeps be able to do to stop him? Michonne is headed to the compound when she should be back in Alexandria where Negan actually is. And what about Rosita? Will she take a shot at the Big Bad Wolf while she can? Perhaps the most exciting thing, Daryl is back in the hole after threatening Negan to not harm Carl. Someone slides him a note under the door to escape, including a key and a match. It looked like a women’s handwriting to me. Could it be wife Sherry, Dwight’s former lady? Or maybe even Dwight himself? Who cares!! Run, Daryl!! RUUUUUUUN!!!

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Top 4 Moments of the Episode:

1. As previously stated, I am a totally trash Daryl Dixon fangirl. So naturally my heart burst into song when he got that note. I hope he makes it!
2. Carl’s yucky empty eye socket. Negan says he should leave it uncovered and no one will fuck with him. I am inclined to agree.
3. Iron to the face. The poor dude eventually passes out from pain. It’s horrible, awful, and very effective. This is a horror TV show people; this is what we wanted after all!
4. Since Negan hasn’t “punished” Carl yet, I’m a little tense about how that will shake out. We know Negan’s MO is usually to punish a loved one of the person who acted out…who will it be?

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Dead Digest: The Walking Dead (SSN 7, Ep 6)

Episode 6 - "Swear"

Words cannot express how excited I was to see Tara and Heath. I had kind of forgotten about those two seeing how it was like, 9 episodes ago when we last saw them. After Rick & the gang (including those two) attacked the Neegan outpost, Heath and Tara set out in the RV on a two-week scavenging mission. Heath was not in favor of the killing mission. It seems he’s still struggling with it, and what this means for their future and survival. The pair get separated with Tara going into a river and washing up on a beachy shore in Virginia. Oh, and it looks like Heath just let her go over without helping her. Not cool!

A nice young lady spares her life and leaves her supplies. There’s a weird little girl with her who gleefully wants to stab Tara in the head. Now, here is where things get really interesting. Turns out that Tara is an unwelcomed guest at this compound called Oceanside. The villagers there have a kill on sight policy. The girl who saved her, Cindy, is the optimistic grandchild of leader Natanya. Once they discover Tara’s intrusion, the wild women of Oceanside try and shoot her down. Cindy intervenes AGAIN to save our friend. Natanya and her two sidekicks offer Tara the chance to stay on with them. It turns out the group of ladies are hiding out from the Saviors, who killed all their menfolk. Tara has no choice but to come clean and tell the troop about Alexandria, her friends, her girlfriend (whom she doesn’t know is dead!!!), PLUS that she thinks they killed Neegan at the satellite building, and that she just wants to find Heath and go home. Tara tells them she will build an alliance and Alexandria and Oceanside can help each other.

Natanya’s right-hand women, Beatrice and Katherine (??) agree to lead Tara back to the bridge she fell off of. Well, turns out it was all a big trap. The two beezies were just taking her out back to kill her! Beatrice explains the brutality the group faced under with the Saviors. All the men and boys over 10 were lined up and executed. The women were supposed to serve them, and managed to escape instead. She goes on to explain to Tara that she and her peeps just took out an outpost, the Saviors is a massive organization that cannot be beat. And if the people of Alexandria has run into them, it’s already too late. And yet AGAIN Cindy saves Tara’s ass. Cindy still has hope in humanity! She makes Tara swear to tell no one about Oceanside, then uses her major sniper skills to help Tara escape.

Tara makes it home, because she’s a bad ass. It looks like Heath may have made it out of the scuffle on the bridge too. We see in flashbacks that despite their differences, Heath DID try to save her. I’m really happy about that, cause I liked Heath. Sadly, Tara is greeted by Eugene telling her everyone she loves is dead. Rosita plies her for info on weapons and ammo, anything they can steal or scavenge to take out Neegan. Because Tara also still has some of that good ole’ humanity in her, she keeps her promise to Cindy and doesn’t say a word about Oceanside.

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Top 4 Moments of the Night:

1. TARA is BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!! Not only is she awesome, this girl brings with her some much needed comedic relief. She’s got jokes, sarcasm, and the BEST delivery. I hope that she keeps some of that humor throughout the rest of season despite the REALLY bad situation she just came home to.

2. Cindy! This girl was lovely. Her mother and brother were killed by The Saviors, but she is still clinging to hope and not despair. Forgive my paraphrasing, but near the end of the episode she tells Tara, “no one is evil, they just choose to forget who they are.”

3. The sand drenched zombies. In a neat little trap, a whole mess of walkers come tumbling out of a dump truck filled with sand on the bridge. They look almost mummified and have this satisfying way of crumbling when stabbed in the head.

4. Finding a new community! Oceanside may not be the friendliest city in the apocalypse, but I’m still happy to have met them. I love that this season our survivors are getting a taste of what is out there, and the promise of more to be explored.

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Dead Digest: The Walking Dead (SSN 7, Ep 5)

Episode 5 - "Go Getters"

Good news! Maggie, the baby and Sasha are all doing okay! Maggie’s been unconscious for a few days given the trauma her the yet-to-be born kiddo have gone through. The doctor at The Hilltop reckons she stay living there until the birth. And lookee, Jesus is still around! This time it feels like we see a more angsty side of him. We also find out he’s kind of a commitmentphobe; hence why he spends so much time out on the road. He’s happy to have the gals there though. The only person who seems to have an issue is their “leader” at Hilltop (HT, for short), Gregory. He recovered from being stabbed by The Saviors last season. He’s a cowardly drunk and a total jerk. He can’t seem to get anyone’s name straight, and wants our heroines to get back to Alexandria before Negan knows they’re there. Remember, Greg & Jesus are the ones who got Rick & the gang tangled up in this whole mess. They were dispatched to the outpost to kill Negan in return for food and stuff, if you recall. Our crew become guns for hire and ended up killing a ton of people who were NOT in fact Negan.

Back in Alexandria, Rick and Aaron head out to look for some cool stuff Negan may like. Carl is being a grumpy teen to his pops. It seems the lad doesn’t like his father’s choice to serve The Saviors. Michonne doesn’t like it either, but she is keeping a level head and weighing options it seems. Enid wants to leave for HT to see her surrogate mom, Maggie. Carl escorts her. Along the way they roller skate (it’s adorable, actually), and kiss! Awwww. A little young adult romance never hurts in these zombie situations.

Before Gregory can throw the ladies out of HT, The Saviors break in at night and leave a trap to bring walkers in. Of course, Maggie, Sasha and Jesus handle it. No help from stupid, mean old Greg. And still, the ass won’t let them stay. The next day, The Saviors come back to collect their goods and make sure Greg knows who’s still really in charge. Negan’s sidekick Simon gets to do the honors! Predictably, Gregory tries to fork over Sasha and Maggie, but Jesus being the smart cookie he is saw that one coming and instead Simon gets to leave with all the drunken leader’s booze. Ha! The trio lets Gregory know they will expose him unless the women can stay. Sasha asks but one secret “repayment” from Jesus; for him to follow The Saviors home and find out where Negan really lives and hides out. But, it looks like Carl had the same idea, as Jesus and he are both stowed away together.

Top 4 Moments of the Episode:

1. Sasha. I’ve always been a big fan of that girl, and damn is she amazing. Not only is she a STAND OUT badass as always, but can we all please take a sec to remember she’s suffered worse than most in this apocalypse?? Her awesome brother Tyreese is dead, her old boyfriend Bob died but not before cannibals ate his FUCKING leg! And right when she and Abraham fell truly for each other…well, we all know what happened there. And she had to WATCH it. No wonder this lady’s last shot tonight was her chompin’ on a cigar and sharpening a knife.

2. Maggie backing over walkers and the Savior’s bait car in a giant tractor. Well done Mrs. Rhee.

3. Jesus alluding to Maggie that maybe SHE should be the next leader at HT. We’ve always known she has what it takes to get stuff done and inspire the people…

4. Enid, Sasha, and Maggie sitting down to dinner and holding hands to say grace. All three of these girls has been through a lot. And it’s nice to know they still have each other.

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Dead Digest: The Walking Dead (SSN 7, Ep 4)

Episode 4 - "Service"

Sorry for the posting delay, I am ill with one of those bone-rattling coughs. It’s gross. But, better late than never, right? So this was the hyped 90-minute episode tonight. I’m not mad about it or anything; it wasn’t disappointing, but it didn’t really feel like much happened. Not enough to warrant an additional 30 minutes anyway. Maybe this just felt like a good amount of episode. Perhaps every week should be 90 minutes. This week’s show takes us through our first Negan/Saviors visit to Alexandria. It was, predictably, uncomfortable. Tense, even. The Big Bad Wolf showed up at the gate of our little piggy’s once happy community a few days early. They commenced to bullying and pillaging, as expected. This included confiscating all the guns. And when two were missing from Olivia’s inventory, Negan threatened to kill her if they didn’t produce the goods.

Rick found Spencer’s little treasure trove in the floor boards of his home. Spencer did in fact have the two guns, food, and booze. Selfish little bastard has been stealing! Of course he didn’t take too kindly to Rick ransacking his house while he was out scavenging with Rosita. Rosita meanwhile is hellbent on vengeance and has commissioned Eugene to start manufacturing ammo for her OWN secret gun she took off a dead Savior. Michonne was off practicing her sniper skills, which are sadly lacking. And here we have another woman who wants her wants her revenge. Rick turns in her rifle, and tries to reason with her. The people of Alexandria seem to be having some issues understanding who Negan is (the devil), and what he wants, (he wants all the things) and that he won’t be easily toppled. Sad Darryl was there as an indentured servant collecting the stolen wares, eyes downcast and not allowed to talk or stay with the fam. Negan threatens that Alexandria better have something “interesting” for him next week, or someone will die.

Spencer tries to stand up to Rick, which was an embarrassing fail. I really don’t like Spencer, but maybe he has a point that Rick should have made a deal with Negan last season. Instead, he decided that he & his people make good mercenaries and should just charge blindly into as assassination attempt against a foe they knew little about. Rick makes it clear he’s not some weak pushover now, but is just trying to keep his family and community alive. Good luck with that.

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Top 4 Moments:

1. Rick opening up to Michonne about his old buddy Shane who he knows is baby Judith’s biological father. But he doesn’t care, Judith is HIS daughter. It was really sweet, and sad. Also, Shane episodes feel like they were a million years ago.
2. Father Gabriel being a team player! That guy has finally come full circle, and I’m super happy about it. He even digs a quickie grave that they tell Negan contains Maggie and her baby.
3. Seeing the painful interaction between Darryl and Rick. I have to keep hope alive that Darryl has some tricky plan up the sleeve of his dirty beige sweatshirt.
4. Negan taking out a walker with an absurdly large candle stick to the face.

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