If you would like to read a recap of last week’s episode, click here. So now we’ve really caught up with everybody while learning a little more about Negan in the process. While the two episodes since the premiere have been mostly filler and exposition, it will be nice to finally catch up with our main group of survivors after what happened back in the premiere and see how they are affected as well as see how it affects those who were left behind in Alexandria a long time ago (it feels like). This will be an extended episode which is weird for a non premiere or finale so let’s see if it can continue with that the premiere started.
This episode starts off with Rick and Michonne in bed. She wakes up and grabs a rifle hidden inside their fireplace before heading out. Rick happens to watch her as she goes out the door. She then walks through a field and stops at an old, rusted out car. Rick is tending to Judith. Eugene is repairing a broken stereo. Rosita and Spencer stop and ask him to open the gate since they wanted to head out and get stuff for when the Saviors come. They ask if Eugene wants to go with them but he refuses which doesn’t surprise Rosita.
Negan arrives and they open the gate. He is greeted by Spencer who doesn’t know who Negan is. Rick comes to the gate and lets him in. Negan said he’d be there in a week but he’s early becomes he misses Rick. Negan tries to reinforce the fact that he’s providing a service by batting out an approaching walker. Negan brought a whole gang of Saviors which included Dwight and Daryl. Negan is impressed by what he’s seeing. Rick sees Daryl but Negan doesn’t allow Rick to interact with him. He then gets into Rosita’s face before sending out the Saviors to search for stuff that Negan wants to take. Negan forces Rick to show him around.
Dwight starts to harass Rosita. He wants her to get Daryl’s motorcycle for him. He takes her water and pours it out. Spencer gets into the car with her and they go. Michonne is waiting on the roof of the car with a rifle and spots a walker in the distance. She tries to take it out but she keeps missing. Once the walker got close, she used her katana. She then finds a dead deer and also kind of feels bad.
Negan is happy with the cooperation he’s receiving so far. One of the Saviors finds an old recording of Rick being interviewed by Deanna. At that point, he still had a beard and Negan jokes that he would not have messed with that guy but that wasn’t him anymore. He asks about Maggie which made Rick angry. Gabriel shows up and Negan calls him creepy. He tells them that if he didn’t kill Glenn, he was going to take Maggie but there was just something about widows. Rick tells him that Maggie died and they take him to fake grave that Gabriel dug.
They hear a shot and they figure out that it was Carl who has a Savior at gunpoint. Rick frantically tries to talk him down. Negan can’t have Carl threatening anyone. They have a conversation. Negan threatens to prove how serious he is and Carl puts it down. Negan is reminded that they have a lot of guns and wants them. He gets Rick to take them to the armory. Negan tells him that he doesn’t want their food but they can’t get stuff for him if they die of hunger. He wants a thank you from Rick for that.
Negan wants to make sure all guns there in case there’s no funny business going on. Rosita and Spencer stop and find Daryl’s bike still under a bush where they left it. Spencer thinks it’s all over and questions Rick’s motives that brought them there. Rosita sees something and runs into the woods. Negan checks one of the guns. When he sees a rocket launcher, he figure out that they were the ones who took out those motorcycle guys (from a long time ago).
After they notice that a few guns are missing, Negan says that can’t have someone who’s not on board so he threatens to shoot Alexandria’s inventory keeper Olivia (Ann Mahoney). Rick has Lucille (for some reason) and addresses the people in the church. It doesn’t matter if they kept a few guns because what they have will never be enough so they should just give them over otherwise Olivia dies. Rick tells them there’s no way out of this. He’s not in charge anymore, Negan is. Eugene points out that there are people missing in the crowd.
Rosita walks into a herd of walkers who happen to be the Saviors who killed Denise (from a long time ago). After she dispatches them, she pulls gun off one of them but it’s empty. She tries to get Spencer to realize that they are going to take all their guns so she tried to get one. This was not going to be her life.
Rick watches Negan and Olivia from the window while he rummages through a house. He’s gone through it extensively but he still hasn’t found anything. Gabriel comes in and tells him that he knows knows it’s going to work out and he has faith that they are going to beat this out somehow. They have looked through Rosita’s house and found nothing but they vow to keep looking. Rick feels a creak in the floor which leads him to look under a vent where he finds food, alcohol, and the two missing guns. Once he gets out, Enid gets harassed by one of the Saviors.
Rick gives Negan the guns but when he asks who had them, Rick said it didn’t matter but it mattered to Negan. He wants everyone in line or they’ll all go back to square one. They are about to leave but Rick notices Michonne back with something. He asks Negan to give him a second but Negan won’t give him one. Negan is amused when Rick says please and lets him go. Ricks learns that Michonne took the rifle to practice but he now wants to give it to Negan. He tells her that he just doesn’t want to lose anyone.
Michonne and Rick go back. Rick gives Negan the rifle which makes him happy. He thinks Rick is special. Rick asks for Daryl back and Negan gives him an opportunity to plead his case but he doesn’t say anything. Negan tells them they better earn for him for when they come again soon. Michonne drops the deer in front of them and Negan says he loves woman who gets him dinner and doesn’t ask him to put out.
Dwight gets Daryl’s motorcycle and Daryl seems unfazed by it. Dwight tells him that he can have it back if he just says the word. Negan tells Rick that he will leave once Rick tells him the two magic words. Rick says thank you and they leave. Negan sees another walker in the distance and takes him out but while he has his back turned, Rick, who still has Lucille, is tempted to strike him but doesn’t. Negan harasses Rick a little more before he leaves. As he does, Daryl looks back at Rick and Alexandria.
Rick closes the gate and then confronts Spencer about having the missing guns. Spencer is mad at Rick for going into his house. Rick tells him he’s weak and that he’s lucky that he’s there. Spencer strikes back by mentioning Glenn and Abraham and asking if they were lucky. Rick threatens to break his jaw and knock his teeth out if he ever talked to him like that again. Rosita also confronts him about the guns. Spencer told her that it was because he didn’t trust Rick. Rosita then pulls gun that was hidden under a wheel well.
Rick makes the bed in his now mattress-less bedroom. Michonne walks in and tells him that they could have gotten more guns before when they attacked Negan’s compound. Michonne tells Rick that she didn’t hide more guns. He tells her they didn’t fight because they don’t have numbers. He tells her that they can still have a life.
Rick opens up to Michonne about Shane and Lori. He tells her that he knows Judith isn’t his and that he’s accepted it. He still wants to be there for her. This is how they live now. He doesn’t want to lose anyone but she tells him that it’s not his fault when people die. Rick tells her that they all have to accept it or it won’t work. She helps him make the bed and tells him that she’s gonna try. Michonne goes back to car and then sees something up in the distance which were burning mattresses that the Saviors took earlier. Rosita picks up a bullet from earlier and asks Eugene to make more.
Overall, bigger isn’t necessarily better as the longer running time did not add anything to the episode. The reveal at the end was great but everything just felt dragged out. Negan’s dominant, we get it but we didn’t need a whole episode, not even an extended one, about it. We already got that in the premiere. I thought he was amazing in the premiere but he gets worse the more I see him. It was nice to see Rick getting challenged more so at least I’ll be interested in seeing where that goes.
Score: 7/10
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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.