Glenn and Abraham’s skulls and brains are still wet puddles in the gravel of some podunk road, but fuck it, this week we’re goin’ to The Kingdom. Yeehaw!
On their way, Carol, Morgan and their two rescuing knights are waylaid by walkers for a bit until the literal cavalry arrives. Men and women on horseback, armored but with mostly polearms and swords. It’s pretty awesome, but one has to wonder how that’s going to stack up against the brutality of the Saviors when the time comes. Either way, Carol wakes up and is given the nickel tour of The Kingdom.
I’ve actually been looking forward to the Ezekiel/Shiva reveal for some time so I suppose after last week’s multiple nut (or equally sensitive organ) kicks we needed a bit of fresh air. The Kingdom is considerably more prosperous than Hilltop, but perhaps without the amenities of Alexandria (Pre-Ricktatorship). It makes sense in a way; if Ezekiel is king then his people are servants or serfs. It’s a nice scene: there are people tending to gardens, grooming the horses, and children are being taught their lessons in an outdoor gazebo. It’s nice to know that elsewhere, life is returning to normal, or perhaps a better version of what they had before.
Ezekiel himself is charismatic and presents himself very royally, with a huge assist by Shiva and his personal guard, Jerry. His manner of speech is ridiculous and while everyone else seems to buy it, it’s hard for Carol to believe a guy like this exists. She puts on the airhead housewife act to get through their meeting. She doesn’t buy it but as long as she’s laid up, she has to pretend. While Morgan is off with Ezekiel and a handful of knights tending to some pig “farming” and other things the residents of the Kingdom need not worry about, Carol plies her act all over, gathering supplies for her eventual escape.
As it turns out, the pigs they farm are for the Saviors, and it’s their little secret that the pigs are fed with walker meat. Still, there is tension between the two groups and we see that Negan has his fingers in everyone’s pie. It’s the price they pay for living the way they do, but while some Saviors are not completely sociopathic jackoffs, they still enjoy their power way too much. No amount of royal posturing from Ezekiel changes that.
It’s a fact that he’s painfully aware of, and as he catches Carol making her exit by night, he sits down with her and is honest about who he really is. You can’t bullshit a bullshitter, and Ezekiel knows Carol has seen some shit and done some shit too. But he says he fights all the bad by going overboard with the good, and I can deeply relate to that. It’s true to a point. He keeps the Saviors and their agreements and all the walkers outside their walls, so that he can cultivate all the good things in life within.
Still, Carol’s insistence on being a loner without any ties to a community wins out and Morgan escorts her to a wonderfully creepy house with a graveyard. They part ways as friends but it’s tough to believe she won’t swoop in and wreck someone’s shit later on in the season.
Ezekiel isn’t ready to say goodbye either, and nothing impresses the ladies like a pet tiger.
It’s not clear how much cruelty the Saviors may have visited upon the Kingdom, or how Negan and Ezekiel met, but their arrangement is too good. The Kingdom has a friggin’ choir and movie night and all the other things that Alexandria had, and Morgan has taken a nice kid under his wing, and I know they’re setting all this up just so the Saviors can knock it all down once Rick involves them in his war with Negan. Jerry is too likeable, Morgan’s young apprentice is too pure, the kids eat all their vegetables. I hate to be a cynic but I also don’t like when I’m shown all this idyllic crap purely for the sake of having Negan roll up, talk some shit, then execute a puppy and an elderly couple.
Also, RIP other horse.
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