Warning: There may be spoilers for this episode in the recap and review.
On this week's episode of The Walking Dead, the focus starts on Enid wandering on her own, eating turtles and just trying to survive. She keeps making the initials "JSS" wherever she goes. Eventually, she stumbles on Alexandria. She eventually enters the camp.
Carol takes charge of the pantry and talks to the other women of the town about cooking. Later, she sees a woman outside smoking get killed by someone. Things start going crazy. Bodies are lit on fire and Maggie is on the move. Carol makes Carl stay back at the house to guard it. Enid joins him.
The crazies invading are killing anyone they see and they're marking their heads with a "W," like people have seen in the past. It's an All Out War (I'm getting so ahead of myself). They try to drive a semi through the walls of Alexandria and that's where the car horn is coming from. It's pure chaos. Morgan goes to the truck and stops the horn. The regular folk of Alexandria are highly unprepared for all of this.
Morgan has a standoff with a man, Carol runs in and saves him. Carol says they need to get to the armory before they do and Morgan is very against killing. Carol pretends to be one of the invaders and takes Morgan hostage. Morgan spots Gabriel being attacked and runs off to save him. Carol makes it to the armory and kills some folks. Morgan confronts a group of them and hits him with his bo and convinces them to leave.
The invasion is over and the group goes around town, cleaning up. Morgan comes across a straggler, in a home. Morgan beats him down pretty quickly.
Of course, when the strongest and most experienced people, in the walker-infested world, are out on a very important mission, a whole bunch of crazies attack Alexandria and kill as many people as they can. As much as I try to separate love of the comic book series from the television show, it's hard not to keep asking myself "is this all Negan's doing?" This episode is setting up the antagonist for the season or at least for the first part of the season and it does so exceptionally well. These folks are frightening and do not value the life of others, no matter how helpless.
What really made this such a fantastic episode was just the utter amount of chaos and confusion as the episode moved forward. The viewer knows nothing more than the characters and the show and by the end of the episode, there still isn't a lot to go on. It leaves the viewer wanting more. Where do these people come from? Who are they taking orders from? Why are they doing this? This is what pulls viewers in for more.
Carol is taking no prisoners this week. She's one of the very few people in Alexandria, aside from Maggie, Carl, and Morgan, who can hold her own and defend the town and she does so in spectacular fashion. As crazy as her ruthlessness may seem here, it's needed because these folks have no problem killing anyone in Alexandria.
On the flip side of things, Morgan doesn't want to kill these people, which leads him to let a few go. He's completely capable of doing so though. As we saw in the last season, Morgan has gone through some serious changes in his life and he values everyone's life, no matter their crimes. Is letting people go a mistake? We can't be too sure yet, but his thinking is leading him on a completely separate path compared to Carol.
This was an insane episode this week. It really showed that the people of Alexandria are not capable of defending their town on their own. Even the toughest folks from the town can't hold their own, and all of this is happening while Rick and company are off herding walkers. This was non-stop full of action and it was complete chaos. This is leading to something huge and this episode, along with the last, is an exciting start to the new season.
Questions of the Week:
- What does the "W" stand for?
- Was this attack planned because Rick and company were off wrangling zombies?
- How come the only time Carl actually stays in the house is when his parents aren't around?