This week has been a long time coming, ever since rumors of the Saviors story-line began to bubble up. We start with my favorite character on the show, Carol, doing what she does best. She’s baking cookies and killing walkers (to the tune of Parsonsfield’s “Weeds or Wildflowers” if you found the song catchy) and her biggest worry in the world is getting blood on her blouse. It’s clear that she’s a light of Alexandria, handing out cookies and putting smiles on faces, and maybe even having a flirty moment with Tobin. As usual, these idyllic scenes are interrupted as the RV returns with the rest of our heroes who are clearly a bit somber even as they say they’ve brought food. Rick tells Sasha to gather everyone at the church for reasons unknown, but can be a little more honest when Carol asks what’s going on.

“We have to fight,” Rick says. He doesn’t sound as resolute as he did back at Hilltop. He leaves Carol to ponder this and we see storm clouds gathering overhead. Symbolism. Writers use it a lot on this show. Still, this is why Carol is my favorite. She’s an absolute savage when she needs to be, and it doesn’t matter if she’s destroying entire encampments like an overpowered Fallout hero (Terminus) or mercy killing child psychopaths (Lizzie), she gets the job done. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t carry the weight of her actions with her, and as she looks down at her acorn and beet cookies, she knows her days as a zombie apocalypse homemaker are over and her days of being a ruthless killer are about to begin again. Later Morgan finds her and attempts to talk about the fiasco during the invasion of Alexandria but she’ll have none of it. They part ways and the episode begins, revealing as the theme song begins that Carol was standing at Sam’s grave, who she killed by merely planting the seed of fear in his mind. Brutal.

Rick gives the people of Alexandria the lowdown; they have to kill the Saviors in order to secure the prosperity of both them and Hilltop. The only person that objects to this is of course Morgan, who much like a vegan or a crossfit enthusiast, has to share his superior perspective on life. This doesn’t fly very well because he wants to give them a choice, and we remember what happened the last time Morgan gave someone a choice. Later on Carol can’t sleep, and we see that she keeps a kill journal by her bed. Clearly her actions have taken their toll on her and as she goes for a walk she meets with Tobin. Their romantic moment gives her comfort. She does the things she does because she’s a mother, and not just a sweet, doting mother. She’s able to fiercely defend those she loves, which takes true strength. To think, in the comic she was incredibly weak willed and dead by the second story arc. Rick and Maggie have their moment, as well as Tara and Denise.

Abraham finally drops the hammer on his relationship with Rosita, in probably one of the most unpoetic and insulting ways I’ve ever seen on TV. What a jerk. Still, not even Eugene’s awkward attempt at humor can console her. Rick reveals his plan to the team, and though the floor plans given to them by Andy are shaky, he has a plan that involves a severed head. The next day our war band heads out, making a pit stop to do some head hunting for a walker that resembles Gregory. Carol decides to stay back with Maggie and Rick does his own brand of reconstructive surgery on one of the walker heads to get it to look more like Gregory. Andy remarks that while the Saviors are scary, they’ve got nothing on Rick. I tend to agree, because up to this point we’ve seen brutality and cruelty from people who are reveling in the lack of consequence and order in the world, but Rick has done far worse things to preserve order.

Andy approaches the Savior’s compound alone to start the ruse, and after some impressive stealth work, the tactical sweep of the compound begins. It’s not easy killing people in their sleep, but I think that if the show had taken different steps in story and pacing, and we got to see just how low down dirty these guys are, there’d be no need to show our heroes in moral conflict. Glenn and Heath have a tough go of it, but after seeing Polaroids of people who have met Lucille (I assume, and major spoilers if you decided to Google Lucille) on the wall of one of their victims, maybe it’ll be easier for them to kill some Saviors in the future. As Abraham and Sasha sweep a hallway, one of the Saviors gets the drop on them and even though he is thoroughly shanked he pulls an alarm, and our heroes are forced to go weapons hot.

What follows is one of the most exciting scenes this season, or any. Even the bloodiest walker slaughter montage isn’t as gripping as the next few scenes of firefights, stabbings, door kickings, bludgeonings and overall mayhem and carnage. Maggie and Carol have words about who goes in to help, while Jesus, Tara and Gabriel dive right in. Glenn and Heath get chased into the armory, and unload through the door with their newfound weapons. A little shocked at their body count, they’re rescued by Jesus. Interestingly, Gabriel gives the last rites to a dying but still defiant Savior. So far this episode is a grand meditation on mortality and salvation.

As quickly as it begins, it’s over and with our heroes relatively unscathed. Maybe Heath is a little shaken but overall the day is won. Michonne isn’t quite satisfied however, wondering who among those so easily mowed down was Negan. She gets a roundabout answer when a lone survivor tries to make his escape on a motorcycle. They take him down but before they can interrogate him, a voice on his radio crackles. Apparently an entirely new group of Saviors has eyes on them, and have also taken Maggie and Carol hostage. A good rule on this show is that if it looks too easy, it probably is.

This leaves the group in a very tight spot for next week. Not only are they within sniping range at the compound but having Maggie and Carol captive compromises Glenn in a very bad way. There’s a lot of speculation about the next few events in the series and they’ve done a good job of confusing us with different hints here and there. It has to end badly for someone somehow because you can’t just waltz into someone’s compound and kill them all, some in their sleep, without suffering some retribution from their buddies. Fans of the comic already know the how, now it just remains to be seen who it will be. There are a handful of candidates, marked by their romantic ties, others by their newly compromised humanity/philosophy. It seems a little grim, just waiting for the inevitable slaughter of one of our heroes but that’s just the way it goes when you’re a Walking Dead fan. Has it gotten a little cheap, creating drama from killing characters we’ve become attached to? But then again, is that not the whole premise of the show?

Other questions still remain: If the compound was just SOME of the Saviors, how many of them are there? And if the group is being watched, they clearly can’t recover the weapons they found, so how will they fight back with depleted ammo? And what was Morgan welding at the end there? I think THAT is the most interesting thing to ponder going forward. Either way, we’re going to have to wait yet another week for Negan to make his violent debut, and I’m not sure that’s something we should be looking forward to.