We pick off where we left off last week: with Rick and his crew surrounded by dozens of dour, black-clad unknowns. Now, though, we finally get a good look at this mysterious new group. They may be dirty, but they're armed—and not to be underestimated. Having already singled Rick out, their leader finally saunters to the forefront. She’s tall and thin, picking her words as carefully as her steps. Finally, she smiles. It’s a smug grin, and rightly so; she has Rick and his people exactly where she wants them.
“We own your lives,” she says with the friendly matter-of-fact tone of a neighborhood pharmacist. “Wanna buy them back?”
The Walking Dead has always been interested in relationships that are forged in extreme circumstances. Hardship can make bonds brittle, but it can also strengthen frayed ones—or forge new ones altogether. In the past, meetings like this would have almost certainly ended in bloodshed; this time around, it feels like the start of an unlikely partnership. As Rick explains later to Gabriel, enemies can sometimes become friends.
For now, though, there’s business to be taken care of at the Kingdom. The Saviors, led by exasperated-dad-at-a-laser-tag-party Gavin and his lapdog Jared, have come to pick up their tribute. Now, this has no bearing whatsoever, either on this episode or the show in general, but Jared reminds me a lot of my cousin’s boyfriend who listens to death metal and collects knives from mall kiosks. Also much like my cousin’s boyfriend, Jared’s antagonistic antics—picking fights, stealing weapons and generally being a Grade-A Dick—are starting to push some members of the Kingdom closer to Rick’s side than Ezekiel’s. A small scuffle ensues, causing both Gavin and King Ezekiel to threaten to Turn This Car Around™. Regardless, something has become very clear to both parties: Their arrangement is not sustainable.
While all the King’s men are shaken by the encounter, it’s enough to send Richard straight to Daryl. Having lost the use of his gun in the scuffle, he asks Daryl to show him how to use a bow-and-arrow; as concerning as Richard’s sudden change in attitude may be, we still get to enjoy a brief but sweet reunion between Daryl and a relatively clean shirt (and his crossbow).
But Daryl’s not our concern. Richard is bent on a slipshod plan to kill a gang of Saviors and frame Carol for it, hoping that her inevitable death will help him force King Ezekiel’s hand. Daryl, obviously, is not down with this, and threatens to kill Richard if Carol so much as comes down with a bad case of the sniffles. Richard counters with his own declaration of loyalty: he’d rather die for his kingdom. Seeing as how The Walking Dead loves foreshadowing more than my ninth grade English teacher, we may well see that opportunity come to pass.
Meanwhile, Rick, Rosita, Aaron, Michonne, and Tara —or R-MART, or RiRoTaMiAa, or whatever clumsy portmanteau you prefer for Alexandria’s Finest—have found themselves in the midst of a Mad Max/Slab City/Junkyard in The Iron Giant situation. The mysterious junkyard residents are led by Jadis, a woman whose bangs tell us she recently received her MFA for photographing tampons staged on various pieces of fine china. Rick manages to hammer out a shaky truce with Jadis and her people, but only after facing that spike-covered weaponized walker we keep seeing teased in promos inside a trash labyrinth. (So much for that smile, Rick.) Rick survives, if a bit dinged up, which once again raises the question of whether tetanus and bloodborne diseases are just no longer a thing in Zombie Apocalypse. Maybe those raw vegans are onto something.
Elsewhere in the Kingdom, viewers finally get the long-awaited reunion between Carol and Daryl. While there is much (much, much, much) debate over the exact nature of their relationship, it’s nevertheless a deeply touching moment, complete with a tearful embrace__, __between two people who have lost everything but each other and the fact that their names rhyme.
If you’re like me—and of course you are—you’ve been waiting for the moment Carol would learn what happened to her friends. Surely she’d come back, guns blazing, ready to tell Negan exactly where he could shove Lucille (spoilers: nowhere nice), right? But that’s hardly what happens. Daryl, clearly unable to break Carol’s heart again, tells her that everyone is fine and safe at Alexandria. A secret that big can’t be kept for long, and when it does eventually come out, it’s bound to send Carol straight for Negan—with or without Ezekiel’s aid. Or tiger.
While enemies can become friends, though, there are some questions that refuse to turn into answers. Who are Jadis and her people? Where did Hypeman Jerry learn to make cobbler? When will Carol find out about Glenn and Abraham? (And damn, Rick, how are you supposed to find a tetanus booster after that spiked walker?) In the past, those uncertainties might have been resolved through tragedy; now, though, for the first time in a long time, I’m not dreading learning the answers.
