Season 11, Episode 7
- Maggie’s group prepares for a counterattack on the Reapers.
Maggie, Negan, Gabriel, and Elijah debate their next move after escaping the Reapers. Negan says that they should just abandon ship and head home, but the others refuse to give up and let Alexandria starve. Negan then says he will run home himself, but Maggie demands he stay and help. Negan gives Maggie an ultimatum - if he stays and helps, then in exchange she will give up her schemes to take her revenge on him. Maggie reluctantly accepts, before noticing some nearby walkers and hatching a plan to attack Meridian.
Daryl stakes out the food supply at Meridian which is being managed by a Reaper named Marcus Powell, who he convinces to share a smoke with him as they notice another pair of Reapers returning from another unsuccessful patrol. Pope confronts the pair and quickly loses his temper, frustrated that no one has been able to find Maggie or the dozens of fighters he was told are nearby. Leah steps in to try to get Pope to stop screaming at their people, but Pope doesn't care and demands she and Daryl go out looking again.
During their patrol, Daryl begins to prod at Leah to gather intel, and asks why they continue the hunt after the successful conquering of Meridian. Leah says that they're trying to make sure Maggie doesn't come back to retake it, and that the Reapers simply took Meridian for their own benefit. Daryl is unimpressed, and Leah snaps at him that they have to provide for their family and claims that Pope's behavior isn't normal. Daryl doubts this is true, especially when Leah shows signs of Stockholm syndrome by insisting Pope is the only one who's believed in her. The pair happen upon a man in the woods who is confused when asked about the Reaper patrols, and Leah orders him to take them back to his camp where he claims his family is. Leah radios Pope, who orders her to kill him and his family even though they aren't affiliated with Maggie.
At the Commonwealth, Eugene, Stephanie, Ezekiel, and Princess are clearing out walkers in dilapidated apartment complexes that the Commonwealth intends to one day refurbish into more homes for its' residents. However, Ezekiel is suffering from coughing fits brought on by the dust, and Princess convinces Lance to get him some medical treatment. The group notices a loud, obnoxious young man and his girlfriend being escorted to a nearby location by Mercer.
Yumiko meets with a Commonwealth official, promising to work off the aid to her community as a lawyer but insists she must meet with Governor Pamela Milton. She gets stonewalled, however, due to Pamela's busy schedule. She meets with Tomi and insists that he return to medicine, but Tomi says he doesn't want to go back as he's found happiness as a baker. However, Tomi is suddenly arrested by Commonwealth troopers on the spot. Yumiko later confronts Lance, who insists Tomi is fine and will simply be reassigned. Though Lance points out Yumiko is asking for a lot, he says he may need an attorney's help one day.
In the woods, Negan begins teaching Maggie and Elijah how to act as Whisperers, preparing masks for them. Maggie admits in private to Elijah that Negan is a valuable asset... when something is in it for him, and doesn't know if she can keep her promise. Gabriel scouts out Meridian, and notices the Reaper preacher Mancea visiting some graves outside the walls. Mancea pays a curious look in Gabriel's direction before returning to his task, and begins speaking aloud to God and asks if he is in any danger. When Gabriel ultimately refuses to attack him, curious at his speaking to God, Mancea believes he is safe and carries on.
As Gabriel heads back to the camp, Maggie and Negan sit down and talk after she struggles to learn Whisperer tactics. Negan says he understands what it's like to be on the bad end of a massacre, and Maggie counters that the group didn't kill any families when they raided the satellite outpost. Negan fires back that Gracie is proof that they still killed people with families and friends, but little of that matters now since the world is in such a poor state, that they can't afford not to band together against lunatics like the Reapers. Maggie asks if Negan would've done things differently, and Negan says yes... he would've killed everyone in the group when he had the chance the night he killed Abraham and Glenn.
Maggie is shocked, but Negan insists that killing the group would've been the right move to make as a military commander, since all it did was plant the seeds for the eventual uprising that destroyed his empire. Negan tells Maggie he must be honest with her if the raid on Meridian is to work.
At the Commonwealth, Ezekiel returns from medical treatment refreshed, but Eugene and Stephanie notice the young man and his date in danger from walkers. When they kill the walkers, the young man angrily rants at them for ruining his date, ignorant of the danger he was in. Eugene eventually loses his temper with the man's lack of gratitude and punches him as Lance and Mercer arrive, and the man accuses Eugene of assaulting him. Eugene can only weakly protest as it turns out the young man is Sebastian, son of Pamela, and he is thrown in jail. Lance visits him and offers to let him out if he gives him Alexandria's location, and Eugene reluctantly agrees.
Yumiko is about to meet with Pamela when the latter's receptionist Max, who asked about the group she came in with, reports Sebastian's accusation of assault.
Daryl and Leah follow the man to a cabin where they find his wife dying of an injury. Defying Pope's order, Leah orders the man and his son to flee and promises to mercy kill the woman once she's left behind. Leah is unable to bring herself to kill her, so Daryl does it for her. Leah says she will tell Pope he killed them all to earn his favor, and Daryl begins to tell her something. However, they get radioed by Meridian, ordered to immediately return.
Maggie, Elijah, Negan, and Gabriel begin amassing a horde to lead to Meridian for an invasion. During their march, Elijah notices one of the dead is his sister, Josephine. Maggie gently takes his hand to get him to continue onwards.
- Adaptational Villainy: Negan proves once and for all that he does not regret killing Glenn or any of the countless people whose lives he took as ruler of the Saviors. In the comics, he had a moment of clarity when he realized that for all he missed and loved Lucille, and all the pain he felt from grieving her, he inflicted that on Maggie tenfold by taking her husband from her, and explicitly begged to be killed as punishment for his actions. His TV counterpart makes it clear that, while he has pulled a Heel–Face Turn, he is convinced killing Glenn was the right strategic move for him to make and does not apologize for it.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Leah confirms that the Reapers simply took Meridian because they needed somewhere to stay.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's left to audience interpretation whether or not Mancea, the Reaper preacher, actually saw Gabriel or not, but his asking God if he's in danger certainly suggests the former. "No Other Way" will confirm that he did.
- Bait-and-Switch: Maggie asks Negan if he’d have done things differently had he the chance to do things again, sounding the tiniest bit hopeful and willing to hear him out. And Negan agrees… because he says that he would’ve killed all of Rick’s group.
- Brutal Honesty: Maggie then asks why Negan would tell her he would’ve killed all of the group, and Negan insists that he is doing so because the only way he can get her to trust him is if he’s wholly honest with her.
- Bullying a Dragon: Sebastian is so convinced of his superiority that he feels comfortable pushing around Mercer, the general of the Commonwealth’s armed forces, who is about twice his size and has arms that could break him in half. Mercer’s steely glare down at him says it all, not that Sebastian is smart enough to take the hint.
- Call-Back:
- Daryl told Leah that the group had dozens of fighters ready to go back in “Rendition”.
- Continuity Nod:
- Negan insists he’s a man of his word, knowing Maggie will recall how he said so right before he killed Glenn in Season 7’s “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be”.
- Negan reveals he kept his Whisperer mask he used back in Season 10.
- Maggie and Negan discuss the raid on the satellite outpost in Season 6’s “Not Tomorrow Yet”.
- Negan brings up how Gracie was a baby in the satellite outpost whose father was killed by Rick in Season 8’s “The Damned”.
- Crapsaccharine World: The Commonwealth is starting to show an ugly underbelly, evidenced by an apparent strict class system that Tomi is afraid of upsetting, and the treatment of the group besides Yumiko, who is being treated well due to being an attorney who is being assigned to work for Pamela’s cabinet.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Leah steps in to defend the Reaper scouts from Pope’s angry ranting. She later is unable to kill the family in the house despite Pope’s orders.
- Evil Is Petty: Leah says the Reapers are hunting the Wardens simply because they want to make sure they never take revenge for losing Meridian.
- Family Extermination: Pope has no trouble killing a random family Daryl and Leah find in the woods, and neither does Leah at first.
- Foreshadowing: Pamela Milton’s secretary, the same woman who Eugene spoke to at the ice cream truck, has a vested interest in the well being of Yumiko’s group.
- Hero Does Public Service: Ezekiel, Eugene, Stephanie, and Princess are forced to kill walkers in buildings that will later be used by the Commonwealth.
- Hypocrite:
- Pope rants and screams at the Reapers for not finding Maggie’s group, but he hasn’t been seen leaving Meridian once.
- Pope had previously complained about how after returning from Afghanistan, the Reapers could never acclimate back to society enough to make ends meet and keep their homes. It makes it all the richer that he’s now hunting the Wardens who lost their home to his conquest.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Sebastian is completely up his own ass and is too stupid to realize Eugene and Stephanie saved him. However, he does have a point that his guards, who left him a bit too exposed to walkers, should’ve protected him. Comic readers know, however, that his comic counterpart deliberately ordered his guards to give him too much space, and there’s nothing to suggest that wasn’t the case here as well.
- Mercy Kill: Daryl kills the injured woman when Leah is unable to.
- Minor Injury Overreaction: Sebastian’s girlfriend only gets blood on her from a walker that nearly ate her, but both she and Sebastian throw a fit as if she was actually injured.
- My Greatest Failure: Negan indicates that the raid on the satellite outpost was this for him as leader of the Saviors. He says he was forced to explain to countless people why an entire outpost of people with friends and families were lost on his watch - and that he should’ve wiped out Rick’s group when he had the chance.
- Nonanswer: The Commonwealth is starting to specialize in these.
- Yumiko asks Lance where her brother was taken, and when he says he’ll be fine, she calls him out for not answering her.
- Eugene asks what guarantee of safety Alexandria would have if he gave Lance its location. Lance responds that the well-off state of the Commonwealth should answer, but again, he is called out by Eugene for not directly answering the question.
- Pet the Dog: Daryl convinces a Reaper to have a smoke with him.
- Sadistic Choice: Negan makes Maggie promise to stop trying to kill him if he agrees to stay behind and help deal with the Reapers.
- Skewed Priorities: The Commonwealth forces are more interested in appeasing the bratty Sebastian over the fact that he nearly got killed.
- Spotting the Thread: Pope and Leah have begun to notice an inconsistency in Daryl’s story, observing they should’ve been able to find a trace of the dozens-strong group that Maggie supposedly has at her command by now.
- Summon Bigger Fish: Maggie, Negan and Elijah begin preparing a horde to attack Meridian with.
- Too Dumb to Live: Sebastian and his girlfriend thought it was a good idea to have a makeout session in dead-infested zones.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Sebastian is completely ignorant of the fact that he and his girlfriend were nearly killed by walkers and rant at Eugene and Stephanie even before the former punches him.
- Villain Has a Point: No mistakes, Pope is an insane murderous gang lord for all effects and purposes, but anyone who has been in management can attest that on paper, he has a point that a leader cannot always be a friend to the people under their command and must discipline them when necessary.
- Wham Shot: Mercer is seen leading a bratty young man and his girlfriend - comic fans will recognize him as Sebastian Milton, the killer of Rick Grimes.
