In the recent episode of The Walking Dead was one of the most brutal I can recall, and perhaps the most disturbing. That’s not because of some terrible act of an evil villain, but because of what our own heroes had to do when Rick led them into Negan’s stronghold to slaughter these nameless, faceless enemies in their sleep.
The assault didn’t take up the entirety of Sunday’s episode, “No Tomorrow Yet,” but it was by far the most action-packed, edge-of-your-seat segment. At first, I didn’t even think we’d get to the attack, figuring the show would drag it out until next week. I was wrong.
Much of the episode before, and even during the assault, focused on Carol. She scavenges for acorns and makes beet-and-acorn cookies. She flirts with and eventually kisses Tobin. She even defends Morgan, of all people against Rosita, whose anger is really about Abraham being a total cretin rather than anything Morgan actually did.
It is interesting to see Carol struggle with all of these things. Before the death of Sam, before the Wolf with the gross teeth saved Denise, Carol would have been the first to argue against Morgan when he suggested talking to the Saviors rather than just killing them. Now…something has shifted. A hard edge has fallen away. Frankly, it’s some of the best character development we’ve seen all season and I’m pretty intrigued and excited by it.
Indeed, it’s only Carol who opposes Maggie’s decision to come with the attackers. Glenn is apparently too chicken to voice any dissent against his pregnant wife’s decision to join a dangerous assault mission. Rick is too callous, or too lazy fair, to really care. Carol points out what a ridiculous thing it is, to Rick and to Maggie. Good for her. It is ridiculous.
Unfortunately, both Maggie and Carol pay the price for this mistake.
The assault on Negan’s base is brutal. The first two guards are easily tricked and dispatched. After that, the team goes room to room. Where they find sleeping Saviors, they kill them quietly with knives in their sleep.
Imagine doing that for a moment. Killing someone you don’t even know with a knife as they slept. Glenn is practically sobbing after his first kill. It’s traumatizing.
When the Saviors sound the alarm and a gun fight ensues, it isn’t much better. Glenn and Heath reach the armory but the Saviors are hot in pursuit. The two unload on them through the door, and when they open it they find all four dead. Jesus shows up in the nick of time to stop the survivor from shooting our heroes.
It’s actually a pretty great action sequence. Once the knives go away and bullets stop flying, it’s easy to think of death as something much less gruesome, the Saviors as villains worthy of the bullets, and our survivors as the “good guys.” And that may be the case. Maybe Rick and company are the good guys, and Negan and his Saviors are the bad guys.
All I know is that in The Walking Dead, the good guys can apparently sneak into an enemy camp and kill the bad guys while they dream peacefully. Even Negan didn’t do that to the Hilltop community. One of the Hilltop men even offers that observation about Rick, saying that Negan scares him but Rick is something else entirely. That sounds about right.
In the end, when everyone thinks it’s over, and the attackers wonder aloud which of the dead was Negan, another Savior comes tearing out of the base on Daryl’s motorcycle. He’s shot and Daryl starts questioning him when another voice a woman’s voice comes through the man’s walkie-talkie telling them to drop their weapons.
Telling them that Maggie and Carol are their prisoners.
Way to go guys. Way to watch your back. Way to go on a mission with almost zero reconnaissance, little to no information on enemy whereabouts or numbers, let alone an ID on the leader. Sure, they beat a half-asleep fort full of Saviors, but the mission was sloppy from start to finish and now somebody on our side is going to get hurt.
To be fair, it’s a miracle nobody was hurt in the initial assault. Oh well. You know what they say about karma. And revenge.
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