In The Walking Dead recap, Rick and the other survivors plan an ambush to wipe out The Saviors in an attempt to broker good will with the Hilltop but not surprisingly things go awry…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer @DamonMartin
Rick and the other survivors currently residing in Alexandria have seen far too much out the world to trust that negotiation is going to work when dealing with a sociopathic warlord who is out to rule the world.
After meeting with a new community known as the Hilltop and learning of a group of savages called The Saviors along with their leader Negan, who take what they want by force or retaliate with even more force, Rick decides that the best way to feed his people is to take out this rival group before they can do anymore harm.
Once upon a time, Rick was a more trusting man but after encounters with The Governor and the cannibals at Terminus, he follows a much different philosophy these days — shoot first, ask questions later.
So it’s no surprise that he’s on board with the plan that will wipe out The Saviors in exchange for a constant supply of food from the Hilltop. They’ve got the muscle and battle tested savvy, but food supplies are running short and nothing wipes out an entire community quicker than everyone going hungry.
But Rick learned that no matter how well planned an assault may be or how flawless it goes in execution, there’s always somebody out there who is one step ahead.
That person in this case is Negan.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of The Walking Dead titled ‘No Tomorrow Yet’….
18
It was clear after the battle with the Wolves several weeks back that Carol is not a knife-wielding, stealthy survivalist who doesn’t feel anything when she takes another life. Sure, she unleashes some of the scariest bed time tales that you could ever utter to a child and she’s a force of nature when somebody is attacking her clan, but deep down Carol is starting to question just how easily she’s able to pull the trigger these days.
She’s still doing her best to keep up some kind of normalcy by making beet and acorn cookies and passing them around town — she even leaves one on Sam’s grave as a tribute to her favorite chef’s helper — and at one point Carol even gets her first action in a post apocalyptic future when she hooks up with Tobin.
But there’s an internal struggle going on with Carol because her body count keeps rising and it’s gotten to the point where she’s keeping a journal listed of all the people she’s killed. The toll right now is at 18.
Externally, Carol is still at odds with Morgan, who can’t understand why she didn’t rat him out to Rick about keeping the Wolf prisoner while trying to rehabilitate him before he ultimately kidnapped Denise and nearly cost the town its only doctor.
From the look of things, Carol isn’t telling on Morgan because she wants to protect him or even likes him very much, but with so much blood on her hands, it appears she’s finally starting to understand why all life is so precious.
Town Meeting
Upon returning to town after an introduction to the Hilltop colony, Rick has everybody meet in the church to vote on a proposal to help stop their food shortage but it’s going to come at a bloody price.
He explains that this group known as The Saviors, led by a man called Negan, have been “taxing” the Hilltop colony for half of their supplies in exchange for leaving them alone and not pillaging the community. Now Rick’s rationale is this — they can deal with the Saviors now while they have the element of surprise and also reach an agreement with the Hilltop colony that will keep all of the Alexandrians fed for the foreseeable future. Or they can sit back, wait for the Saviors to eventually discover their home and at that point they’d be so low on food that there would be very little chance to fight back.
The choice seems easy enough to everybody — even Aaron is fired up to handle this problem rather than wait for it to show up on their front doorstep like the Wolves did not too long ago. The only discerning voice in the crowd is Morgan, who wonders if negotiation might not be the better tactic rather than an all out slaughter. Unfortunately, he’s the only person thinking that way and so Rick has all the votes he needs to coordinate an all out assault on the Saviors’ compound later that night.
Thanks to some intel from Andy, the Hilltopper who delivered supplies to the Saviors previously, Rick, Daryl and the rest of the gang believe they have all the information they need to take out Negan and his Saviors with minimal risk to them during the assault.
Before heading out to the attack later that night, a few housekeeping items have to be sorted out.
Abraham packs up his stuff and leaves Rosita very abruptly and he’s kind of a prick about it because when she demands to know why he simply says when they first met he thought she was the only woman left in the world — and now he knows better.
Tara tells Denise that she loves her and that she wanted to share that moment before going out on this assault with Rick as well as a two week scavenging hunt with Heath. Denise promises to tell her the same when she returns. That just sounds ominous — like maybe Tara isn’t coming back.
And finally, Glenn and Heath commiserate about how they are about to go on this mission where the zombies aren’t even part of the equation — this is going to end with a lot of dead people and there’s no way getting around that. It’s then we realize that neither Glenn nor Heath have ever actually killed a living person during this zombie apocalypse but that’s about to change if they go as part of the team tasked with taking out the Saviors.
Bring Me His Head
The assault on the Saviors’ compound won’t be as easy as just crashing through the door and taking out all the people inside. Rick wants to attack in stealth mode to minimize risk to his people so they come up with a plan to give Negan exactly what he wants — Gregory’s head on a silver platter.
Remember a week ago when some of the citizens of the Hilltop returned from a meeting with Negan and the Saviors, two of their people were killed and another kidnapped with a message being sent back to town that was supposed to end with Gregory being killed and his head delivered back as proof that he’s dead.
So Rick decides to stalk the woods outside of Alexandria to find the best possible Gregory look-a-like among the zombies who are currently trolling around the woods. They decapitate find a few candidates and Jesus helps to pick out the best one that looks like their leader. The nose is a little off so Rick proceeds to punch the dead-head repeatedly and then tells Andy to explain to the Saviors that Gregory resisted so they had to knock him around a little bit.
Andy says something a little disturbing to Rick that barely makes him pause — “The Saviors, they’re scary, but those pricks got nothing on you.”
Before the final plans are put into motion, Rick has to deal with Carol, who is not happy that Maggie came along on this mission. Obviously she’s pregnant, but after brokering the deal with Gregory and the Hilltop, Maggie believes she needs to be there to see this through. Carol disagrees and asks Rick to stay with her to guard the perimeter to make sure she’s safe. He agrees, but you have to wonder if Carol’s reasoning to stay behind isn’t as much about protecting Maggie as it is avoiding adding even more numbers into her journal of people she’s had to kill.
All Out Assault
Andy from the Hilltop approaches the Saviors compound when he’s greeted by two armed guards. He presents them with “Gregory’s” head and after a few ill time jokes, they go to get his friend from the Hilltop, who they took hostage until the job was done. When the guard goes inside, Daryl and the other spring into action, slitting throats and doing all kinds of bad assery.
Once they rescue the hostage, Rick, Daryl and the others begin the walk through the compound. It’s one of the best action sequences of the entire series but also one that’s rather unnerving as Rick is able to slip into the rooms of the sleeping Saviors and just kill them in their sleep. One knife to the head, one throat slit, and the numbers are beginning to dwindle. Even Glenn, who appears rather uneasy with this particular task, kills two Saviors while sparing Heath from having to do it himself.
But when Abraham and Sasha get surprised by one of the Saviors going for a midnight tinkle, an alarm is pulled and before long it’s a full on fire fight in the middle of the compound.
By that point, however, Rick and the others had wiped out so many of the Saviors that the odds were clearly on their side and it didn’t take long for the entire compound to get wiped out. Even Father Gabriel finally raised a weapon and killed a man because that’s what needed to be done.
After the assault is finished the compound has been raided, Rick believes this is a job well done. Daryl is curious which one of these assholes is Negan but before he can let that thought slip through his head, a door raises and a motorcycle goes tearing off with one man riding, attempting to make a quick getaway. Unfortunately for that lone survivor, he gets gunned down and captured.
Rick begins to question him but he then hears a walkie talkie squawking at him, demanding that he lower his weapon. When he offers to talk, the voice on the other end says that they are willing to negotiate but it’s going to be a very one-sided conversation. You see they’ve captured Carol and Maggie and something tells this anonymous voice that Rick and the others are going to want them back unscathed.
It seems Rick has already underestimated the Saviors and unfortunately I can tell you for certain that it won’t be the last time.
SOUNDTRACK
Two songs that played on the show this week
“Weeds Or Wildflowers” by Poor Old Shine
“Arsonist’s Lullaby” by Hozier
The Walking Dead returns next Sunday night at 9pm ET on AMC but take a look at a sneak preview below
