Fuck it, let’s just have every character try to weasel their way into Sanctuary and take out Negan. We’ll have subplots to last for two more seasons. Jesus and Carl are already there, but Michonne wants in on the action, as does Rosita. The odds of any of their plans working out are somewhere between abysmal and embarrassing, but let’s watch them run around for a bit, moaning about fighting back.
Carl has made it further inside Sanctuary than anyone else, and Negan’s soft spot for him keeps him alive for the time being. It’s another Daryl moment, where a character survives some really idiotic choices, in this case, because Negan admires their spunk and/or plot armor. One might think seeing Negan take it easy on not one but TWO members of Alexandria with little consequence would sow the seeds of doubt in his men, but he is still the fearsome leader who takes no shit.
Most of the episode is spent seeing Carl and Negan hang out. Negan bullies and threatens Carl a bit but it’s mostly a weird form of bonding. Sure, he’s a murderous animal whose lust for power has destroyed dozens of lives, if not more, but I’m sure the guy gets lonely. He has gathered women and subjugated men, but he doesn’t have anyone that looks up to him. While Carl doesn’t exactly hate hanging out with Negan, neither is he impressed by his lifestyle.
We also get to see a little more into the way life is in Sanctuary. Negan has his own little harem, but he insists he’s married to all of them. Even the end of the world cannot break the sanctity of marriage it seems. It’s touched on that most if not all of these women are his against their will, and that they may have husbands or boyfriends that they arrived with, but we don’t really delve into the nitty gritty of whether or not Negan is raping these women (he is) because he’s just so damn charming. Here the villain gets in the way of the villainy. We are nowhere near as uncomfortable as we should be with this whole arrangement, even when Negan punishes one of his wives by disfiguring her boyfriend with a hot iron. We get a glimpse of the creed of the Saviors but it feels more like a justification of brutality than the manifest destiny of bringing order back to the world.
Once again, nothing really happens in this episode until Carl threatens Negan, which prompts him to take Carl back to Alexandria, where he helps himself to the domestic lifestyle while they wait for Rick to come back. I know it’s supposed to be ominous and threatening, watching him bully Olivia and cuddle with Judith, but by now we know all of Negan’s bravado left and right. His shit talking is boring but constant violence and brutality would be exhausting so I don’t see a middle road there. We’ll see how things go on the midseason finale.
Meanwhile, Rick and Aaron may have stumbled upon a cache of goods hidden in the middle of a lake. Spencer also came into some goodies but seems a little too eager to give them up to the Saviors. Michonne tries to find her own way to Negan, giving the lone assassin horse another good thump, as I’ve said. Rosita slaps Eugene around enough for him to make her one bullet (swat that horse one more time) and their exchange is pretty cringe worthy. I get where they’re both coming from but the writing just isn’t there. The one bullet idea is so stupid that no good argument about it can be extruded.
At least we dealt with more than one or two characters in more than one location. Hopefully we can get decently set up for all-out war next week, because we’ve only got so many episodes to unite the groups, begin production and take the fight to Negan. Or maybe we can check back in with Hilltop...
Written by A Play On Nerds contributor, Jerry Herrera - Lover of horror, sci fi, and fantasy in that order. Semi-permanent Disneyland resident. I'm at least one of the droids you're looking for. Twitter: @FrankenJerry - Instagram: @GeraldoPedro