The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 6: Swear Recap

If you would like to read a recap of last week’s episode, click here. Last week’s episode reunited us with Maggie and Sasha and brought us back to the Hilltop. Like it or not, it will be their new home, at least until Maggie gives birth. There they have to deal with Gregory who isn’t the most trustworthy leader. At least they didn’t overwhelm us with Negan again this time. This one focuses on Tara and Heath and what happened while they were gone scavenging near the end of the season 6 finale. I admit that I kind of forgot about them.

The episode starts with two girl walking and talking on a beach. A younger girl named Rachel (Mimi Kirkland) and an older one named Cydney (Sydney Park). Rachel spots a walker on the shore (or what they call bobbers) and stabs it through the eye with a stick. She brags that she took it out in one hit instead of two. She sees another and runs to it but it is really Tara who has washed up on shore.

She wants to kill her too but Cydney tells her that she doesn’t have to. Rachel tells her that she has to but Cydney tells her that it’s okay if they don’t find out. Cydney asks her if she’ll tell but Rachel says that she’s not a snitch but she’s not going to help either.

Now we flashback to Heath and Tara in a motorhome. They went farther than they were supposed to but they still haven’t found anything. It’s been two weeks and they’re running out of gas. Tara believes that there’s still stuff they need and that they can’t go back empty handed.

Heath brings up what happened at the satellite station (again this technically happened a long time ago). They argue about whether or not it was worth it. Heath now realizes the true selfishness of the world. Tara thinks that’s not him but he thinks it is and so is she and everybody who wants to stay alive. He decides that they’re going back.

Cyndie looks at a map and then takes some weapons to patrol the beach. She brings water to Tara and leaves her a spear. She wakes up and drinks and while watching Cyndie. She also eats the fish she was given. She decides to follow Cyndie into the forest and then stumbles onto a settlement full of girls and women.

They are somehow alerted of her presence and grab their many weapons and start shooting at her. She tries to run away and in doing that, takes down one of them. After that happens, Rachel has her at gunpoint. Cyndie comes in and tries to stop her. She tries to plead her case to them and also offers to go.

Flashback time. Tara and Heath climb on shipping containers and look over a seemingly abandoned encampment on a bridge. It looked like they had plans for something they didn’t get to finish. They find a huge sand pile near the end. Tara tries to pull out something resulting in the pile collapsing and a herd of walkers to emerge. Tara runs out of ammo and gets overrun. Heath appears to leave her.

The women are discussing what to do with Tara. Their leader Natanya (Deborah May) introduces herself and right hand women Kathy (Nicole Barré) and Beatrice (Briana Venskus). They ask where she’s from. She tells them their story, how she’s always on the move. She got separated from her friend (Heath) and fell of a bridge and the current took her to them. She followed Cyndie and walked around to see if their settlement was safe.

Natanya tells her that they can’t let her go because she knows about them. She offers her to stay while they figure things out. Tara is let out and invited for a dinner. Cyndie is trying to show Rachel the way by not killing her. She killed someone herself. Tara is eating like crazy. Natanya tries to convince her to stay because she’s a skilled fighter and a good person.

Tara asks about the men. Natanya claims they lost them in a skirmish with another group. They decided to protect themselves at all costs so they left their home and found their place. They try to stay hidden and thus alive. Tara is called out for lying about where she’s from and then she tells them the truth and about what happened at the satellite station. She claims they killed them because they wanted to stay alive.

She suggests that they start to work with other groups because sooner or later they’ll need help. Natanya offers to send a guide out with her to find Heath and then follow her back to her settlement. Beatrice volunteers and Cyndie want to go too but she is not allowed to go. Tara reassures her by telling her she’ll have other chances.

Tara leaves with Kathy and Beatrice. Rachel spits at her on the way out and Tara flips her off. While walking, they spot a walker stuck in a tree. Tara offers to take it out but really uses it as a distraction to get away. She hides in a ditch and then tries to take out Beatrice but loses. She tells Tara about the Saviors. Tara thinks they took care of them but she is far from done. Beatrice warns that since they know about them now, her friends are probably dead.

The Saviors were the ones who killed all the men. They tried to fight back and lost. That was the reason why they left their home in the first place. Cyndie stops her. She makes Tara swear not to tell anyone about them.  She tells her that they didn’t really have to do what they did at the satellite station. Nobody is evil , they just decide to forget they are. Tara claims some people are evil and she’s seen it. Cyndie tells her she has to swear and she does.

Cyndie gives her food and water and takes her to the bridge. They climb back on top of the shipping containers. Tara wants her to go but Cyndie won’t until she gets across. She offers to cover her while she runs across the bridge. She asks her why aren’t you like them and Cyndie responds with the same question. They walk across and then a tarp blows away, revealing a lot more walkers. Tara and Cyndie run across over car roofs and after that. Tara starts to run through the walkers while Cyndie covers her with her rifle.

Flashback time. She actually tried to get back to Heath through the mob of walkers but in the process gets knocked into the water. She continues across the bridge and sees a group of walkers with one that looks like Heath. It was really just a woman. She runs away. She looks across and sees Beatrice and Kathy take Cyndie away.

On the other side of the bridge, she finds broken glasses, tire tracks, and message on a card. She hopes that Heath got away. Tara is walking through fields. She stops at an overturned boat and finds supplies for bag. She hides out in a glasses store. She goes through her bag and finds a fish and a bracelet Cyndie made for her. She also plays around with a doctor bobblehead.

She leaves and walks down the road with new sunglasses. She gets back to Alexandria. Eugene lets her in and gives her the news. Rosita tells her about Denise and asks her if she found anything. Tara keeps her promise and doesn’t say anything.

Overall, this was the best kind of standalone episode so far this season. Tara wasn’t my favorite character but her journey here was compelling to watch. Her personality really stood out here which made Tara fun to watch. Of course we have another community but they were obviously just setting them up here for something later on. The episode didn’t really fit within the flow of the season (kind of like the Morgan standalone episode after Glenn’s fake death) but we’re back on track now. It was interesting to see how they wrote off Heath as Corey Hawkins is about to star in the 24 reboot but it was great that they left it open-ended just in case.

Score: 8/10

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Keith Noakes

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.