If you would like to read a recap of last week’s episode, click here. After last week, we are now caught up with all the characters. We know who got to meet Lucille (but still won’t accept it) and now we know what Carol and Morgan have been up to. But what about Daryl? We saw him get taken away by Negan in the season premiere but where did he go? This episode tells us while also giving us some background on Negan himself and his compound.
The episode starts off with an episode of Who’s The Boss playing on an old TV. There’s a fun montage (which means that it won’t be fun later on) with Dwight playing a game with a girl and also making himself a sandwich. It wouldn’t quite be Negan’s compound, however, without someone getting beaten up in the background. While he gathers ingredients for his sandwich, we get glimpses of different parts of the compound including a walker wall featuring walkers on spikes and people wearing sweater outfits marked with letters of some sort. Dwight watches the walkers while eating his sandwich but seems to focus on one particular one.
He then makes dog food sandwich which he hands to Daryl who appears to be hurt and is naked in a locked, dark cell. We stay with Darryl who is lying on the ground visibly shaken while contradictory happy music (which will be a theme for this episode) playing in the background. He then gets up when Dwight comes with another dog food sandwich. He again gets woken up by the same music and is greeted by Dwight who this time throws the sandwich on the ground. The next time he sees Dwight, he gets one of the same sweater outfits.
He is then led out by Dwight and is brought to a doctor’s office. A woman named Sherry (Christine Evangelista) (who was back in Dwight’s first episode), who is the doctor’s assistant, notices him but Dwight doesn’t want her to talk to him. She urges Daryl to do what they say. The doctor checks him out and tells him that Negan will take care of him.
On the way back, Negan runs into them and pulls Dwight away. While sitting down, Daryl spots someone’s room up ahead. Dwight pulls him away and threatens him with the walkers saying that he could be like them or like Dwight. Darryl tells him that he is never going to kneel but Dwight tells him that he’s going to.
Daryl is back in his cell where the happy music is playing again. He is trying to find a way out. He tries to kick down the door. Negan talks to Dwight and assesses Daryl’s progress. Negan notices him going apeshit. Dwight says it’s working but it’s going slow. Negan says that some are harder than others but he’s close. Negan offers him a woman as a reward but Dwight passes because he wants to earn it by finishing the job.
Dwight offers to do grunt work even though Negan tells him that he doesn’t have to. He has to get retrieve someone who used to be his friend who ran away. He then rides away on Daryl’s motorcycle. He stops on a road before a bridge when he notices an obstruction up ahead. Someone else delivers food to Daryl but that music is still playing. After he leaves, he looks under the door and then notices that it is unlocked. He opens it and escapes.
Dwight walks motorcycle past some walkers lying along the road. One of them jumps off the bridge and knocks him to the ground and into the other walkers. Daryl runs into Sherry and she urges him to go back. She tells him that whatever he’s done to him, there’s more. He won’t get away. When he’s back, it will be worse. He keeps going anyway until he notices some motorcycles outside. As soon as he gets near them, he gets surrounded by Saviors.
Negan shows up and asks are we pissing our pants yet. He asks the Saviors who they are and everyone says Negan. He does it to prove to Daryl that he’s everywhere. This was his shot at proving that this was sinking in but he failed. This sucks for him since his life was going to be so much cooler. He now has three choices, he could be on the spike and work for him as a dead man, he can work for points but he’ll wish he was dead, or work for him and be part of his gang.
Negan pretends to strike him with Lucille but he doesn’t flinch. Negan loves that. It pisses off lucille since she finds it disrespectful, but he’s lucky because she’s not thirsty. As Negan walks away the other Saviors beat Daryl up. The camera cuts between Dwight walking his bike through the walkers and Daryl getting beat up.
Dwight then sees his friend being attacked by a walker up ahead and saves him. Sherry goes to Daryl’s cell. She tells him about things she wishes she never found out, wishes she didn’t try. She’s also sorry for what she and Dwight did to him in the woods.
Dwight has his friend at gunpoint and is directing him back to the compound. Through this exchange, we learn that Dwight had a wife and that Negan did things to him. The friend tells him that he can’t go back but Dwight tells him that he doesn’t have a choice. He is then told that there is a choice since there were so many of them vs. Negan. He’s okay with dying because he doesn’t want to go back. Dwight yells at him to get up while he is reminded of who he used to be and how he used to feel, he threatens that he’ll kill his friends, feed his dead wife to crows, etc, and he then gets up. He then starts walking and Dwight reflects on what his friend said. He shoots him.
Dwight gets back to the compound and meets Sherry. He asks if he’s good to her and she says yeah. She asks him if he’s happy and he says yeah. He tells her that he did the right thing (in shooting his friend) and says that it was hell of a lot better than being dead.
Darryl is back in his cell with the happy music.Dwight tries to give him food but he won’t take it. He is confronted about Glenn and Dwight tells him that it was his fault. Dwight tells him he shouldn’t forget that he’s lucky because he should be dead. He then hands him a picture of Glenn’s pulverized body. He reflects on it while different music is playing. Now “Crying” is playing so Daryl cries all while Dwight listens.
Dwight later comes back to find Daryl laying next to puke. He brings him into the earlier room where Negan is. He tells him Dwight’s story. Dwight worked for points. Negan wanting to marry his hot wife who happens to be Sherry. They ran away with supplies. They came back and Dwight asked Negan for forgiveness and begged him not to kill Sherry. She said that she’d marry if he didn’t kill Dwight. He got ironed and despite all of that, he was still on board and they’re cool. Darryl can be the same guy and all of it can be his.
As long as he answers who he is. Daryl hesitates and answers Darryl. Negan tells him he made a dumbass choice and Daryl is back in his cell. Darryl tells Dwight that he understands why he did what he did since he had to care for Sherry but that’s why Daryl can’t. Dwight goes back to the fence and sees his friend as a walker. Dwight realizes that there really is no way out.
Overall, this was another good episode which highlighted Daryl and his mostly silent grieving. Norman Reedus was very powerful here but I would have liked to have seen more of him but it looks like his torment will last a while. Negan’s compound wasn’t overly exciting and the people didn’t really stand out but it was a little disappointing to see Negan take a backseat here after the premiere. It was nice to see Dwight have a more human side but I don’t really care much about him to begin with.
Score: 7.5/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.