By: Tyler Miller
SPOILERS FOR SEASON 6, EPISODE 11 FOLLOW!
This week was another slow week for The Walking Dead, but it certainly didn’t feel like any other slow episode the show would normally have. We were introduced to brand new people, a new location, and even more groundwork was set for the rest of the season. We’re in the calm right now, but the storm is definitely going to be coming soon.
The episode started off with Sasha and Abraham coming back from their patrol, and Sasha giving him news of her patrol swap with Eugene. Of course this hurt him since he’s been growing some kind of feelings for her lately, but this also throws a wrench in his relationship with Rosita (which I totally think he shouldn’t throw away) who made him a nice necklace. This leads to him feeling conflicted the entire episode, asking other members of the group how they feel about setting down in the world they live in, getting a yes from Glenn and a no from Daryl.
We get a bit of an idea of the food situation in Alexandria as Glenn and Maggie discuss how the crops aren’t growing, but this is short lived as everyone realize Jesus isn’t in his sort of prison anymore; he’s in Rick’s house. Oh, and everyone also discovers that Rick and Michonne are a thing now in an incredibly awkward moment for everyone involved. The next morning he tells everyone about his community, the Hilltop, their situation, and offers to show them himself. Although it sounds a bit too good to be true, our group really has no choice but to trust him and go seeing as how they’re low on food themselves. So most of our core characters (Rick, Michonne, Daryl, Glenn, Maggie, Abraham) pile into an RV and go on a nice road trip to the Hilltop with Jesus. Jesus was good and didn’t take the wheel this time though.
Of course it wouldn’t be an episode of The Walking Dead if there weren’t any walkers involved. Our group comes across a car crash on the way, and Jesus recognizes the car as belonging to people from his community. Rick and co. don’t trust him at first, but after some pleading and seeing how upset he is, they decide to check a nearby building for Jesus’ friends, who for some reason can’t fight and hide in corners in the building. They get rescued though, and it’s good too as one of them is a doctor! And he can help Maggie and Glenn with the baby which is even better!
After some more driving the RV gets stuck in some mud, but it doesn’t matter since they’ve made it to their destination. They’re met with some resistance by the watchman Cal, but Jesus being the talker that he is gets them to allow Rick’s crew in with their weapons. And then we get our first look at the Hilltop and it looks great! They’ve got crops and livestock, two things our group desperately needs, and most importantly they have a civilization there. This is the perfect community for Alexandria to start a trade system with.
We then meet Gregory, the leader of this community, and right away we can tell that this guy is a douchebag. Rick then gives Maggie the job of talking to him first as he knows that things won’t go well at all if he talks to Gregory first. Maggie was also a second in command to Deanna while she was alive and getting some leadership lessons from her, so it makes sense that she be the one to try and have a diplomatic discussion with Gregory and make a deal with him. Being the sexist douchebag he is though, he patronizes Maggie and tries to use the fact that he’s a man to overpower her in their discussion. Although she catches onto this and puts an end to it, he ends their discussion. Jesus says that he’ll try to talk some sense into him, but then three residents of the Hilltop return from a run and they don’t have good news.
They’ve returned from a trip to Negan’s community, but one of them (a man named Craig) is missing due to them not having enough supplies to give to him. The only way to get him back is for them to kill Gregory, which Craig’s brother Ethan attempts to do. This leads to a fight between Rick’s group and the three Hilltop residents, Ethan dead after he tries to kill Rick, and the funniest moment of the episode.
Jesus keeps the fight from escalating anymore than it already has, telling Rick that things aren’t as simple as they seem here at the Hilltop. They’re at the mercy of Negan and his group called the Saviors. They give him half of all of their supplies, and he “protects” them, which basically means that he won’t kill them all and take it by force. To make his point known, he killed a 16-year old boy the first time he showed up. Daryl sees Negan as being a boogeyman with no real power, so he volunteers the group (bad move Daryl) to kill Negan, the Saviors, and get Craig back for the Hilltop. In return, they want to trade supplies with the Hilltop. Jesus takes the idea to Gregory, who then requests to talk to our diplomat Maggie and work it out.
It’s round two of “Let’s Make A Deal: The Walking Dead Edition,” and this time Maggie has all the power. Gregory is on bed rest after his attack and is in no position to turn down the deal that’s being offered to him (but he can still be a royal ass). The Hilltop doesn’t have any weapons or ammo, and they don’t have any fighters. Rick’s group is their best bet here. Maggie takes the Negan approach and requests half of all the supplies the the Hilltop has in return for them taking out Negan. The deal is made and just like that, our band of survivors has become guns for hire.
As the group is packing the supplies into the RV, Rick talks to one of the residents that returned earlier and tells him that he needs to come with them and tell them what he knows about Negan’s compound. He agrees, but I have a bad feeling about that guy. While they’re driving back, everyone passes around Maggie’s ultrasound in a very sweet moment. It serves as a reminder of the hope that lies in her stomach and the hope that it gives everyone else. They better enjoy these little happy moments now because the storm is coming, and it’s going to be a rough one.
Other thoughts:
- It’s nice that Carl was cool with Rick and Michonne being a thing and accepted it easily. It’s also sad that he was probably right that him showing up at the Hilltop with his eyepatch would give Rick’s group a bad look. Damn you Ron!
- I’m liking the Denise/Daryl discussions a lot. They’re just the right amount of awkward to be funny, and funny is something that the show needs a bit more of.
- No Carol or Morgan again this week. That’s a bummer, but we’ll definitely be seeing them next week, and I’m sure they’re both going to have different opinions on Rick’s plan to attack Negan.
- Daryl volunteering the group to fight Negan and calling him a boogeyman has just shot him up the death list BIG TIME. We should probably start preparing ourselves to say goodbye to Mr. Dixon in a few weeks.
- Jesus is such a great guy! He’s easily becoming a favorite of mine, and I can’t wait for him to become a more integral member of the group.
- Our group seems a bit overconfident in their abilities, with how easily they jumped on Daryl’s plan. Boy do they not know what they’re walking into.
We’re three for three with the back half of season 6. Normally these episodes would be the ones that drag and aren’t that great, but the show has been doing a good job of keeping the pace up. Next week looks like it’ll be an intense episode that keeps up this streak of good episodes. Let’s get ready to go into battle.
TheComfySpot 