In general, regardless of how I felt about this episode, I think I’m done with mid-season finales. The end of season six was more of an insult than a tease, and while the premiere of season seven was strong and awesome in the worst way, these past few episodes have really killed that momentum. As all roads lead to war, we’re going to take another break, just to give an already bored audience a chance to finally check out. Or are the morsels juicy enough to keep us trudging forward?

So far, Maggie and Sasha (with Enid) are the darlings of Hilltop for their quick thinking during the ghetto blaster Gremlin assault last time, perhaps even on their way to dethroning Gregory. Michonne and Isabelle, her perhaps escapee Savior hostage, take a trip to Sanctuary and Michonne gets a rude awakening about the scale of what they’re up against, but it does not change her will to fight. We check in on Carol, who gets visits from both Morgan and Richard. Morgan is making more of a social call, to see that she’s already well taken care of by Ezekiel. Richard meets with them to urge them to urge Ezekiel to strike against the Saviors, not knowing just how outnumbered they are. Carol wants none of it, indeed she seemed quite happy with her log fire and book. Of course, news of what’s happened to Rick and friends has not reached her…

Daryl’s mystery benefactor slipped him a key and he finally makes his escape, as Negan is at Alexandria and guard duty is considerably more lax. But not before running into Jesus and beating Fat Joey to death, perhaps the one Savior we might have had sympathy for, but Daryl makes a good point: every Savior takes. It’s not about getting by or surviving, it’s about taking it all. Thus, the bludgeon.

Negan is a passionate cook and makes a lovely spaghetti dinner for Carl and Olivia and Rick, but Rick’s off scavenging with Aaron. In a powerful metaphor for the show’s ratings as of late, the two paddle a sinking boat over to the hoarder’s houseboat. They find a considerable stash of weapons (with no ammo) and a cryptic note for whosoever finds the treasure. It’s this note that Rick pores over at the end of the episode when he and Michonne agree that they need to fight back.

What made Rick decide that enough was enough, after perhaps two visits from the Saviors? Not including the premiere, we have kicked around bullshit, going from settlement to settlement to check in on characters and tell stories we only kind of cared about, supposedly showing the reach and savagery of Negan and his goon squad but never really reaching the intensity and fear achieved back out on that lonely road. In actuality, things haven’t gotten too bad for Rick and company, brainings not withstanding, in the timeline of the season. But when Spencer makes a power play in front of the citizens of Alexandria to Negan, to have Rick removed and he installed as the leadership of the settlement, and Negan rightly guts him for being a snake in the grass, THAT was the tipping point. One of the most unliked characters in the last few seasons gets killed and that’s what makes things too much to bear. Very stupidly and against Father Gabriel’s sound fucking advice to fight as a team, Rosita takes a pot shot at Negan. She manages to miss at an embarrassingly close range and instead hits Lucille, who is apparently bulletproof. She completely blows the foundry secret wide open and probably sets back the war efforts in a massive way, gets Olivia shot in the face, gets Eugene kidnapped and herself almost killed for the equivalent of a Tinder mistake. A mistake she was about to make again, if only Spencer saw the real opportunity. A lust for power over beauty was his undoing, and I was happy to see him go.

I would rather believe that Rick decided the Saviors needed wholesale slaughter when he saw Aaron being beaten. Admittedly I was tense during the final fourth of the episode because I knew what was coming for Spencer but Negan did a great job of playing coy and cool until it was time to get messy, and I knew he had Olivia’s card the moment she messed up the weapon inventory, and I was really worried for both Rosita and Eugene. But after Aaron explains his logic for helping Rick scavenge where others disagreed with bowing down, that as long as the hearts of those they love are beating anything is bearable, seeing him take a thrashing was the most difficult thing to watch. It was senseless, excessive, and did well to remind us that the Saviors are a bunch of gargantuan fuckers.

After the dust clears, our remaining heroes journey to Hilltop to reunite with Maggie, Sasha, Jesus and Daryl. It’s a feel-good moment to see everyone hug it out, and for Rick to tell Maggie she was right to want war. These characters are only good for ruining anything in their path. They are murderous nutjobs, but they at least have loyalty to one another and the show works best when they’re shooting people and watching each other’s backs. The mid-season finale takes a huge step toward getting back to that, only to stand still for a few weeks. It’s frustrating. But until then, we have a montage scene of our heroes smiling at one another, each knowing that they will use their unimaginable trauma to fuel what will hopefully be a spectacular display of carnage.

Another heartwarming tidbit was seeing Maggie in a ball cap and fingerless gloves, perhaps an homage to fallen loved ones...

But did you see the spooky boot, belonging to someone watching Aaron and Rick make off with the goods from the boat? DUN DUN DUN...