This is it! After many hours of "when the hell are these guys going to fight back against the Saviors," tonight we get our answer. This extended episode brings victories, reunions, betrayals, and yes...it brings loss as well, but the episode as a whole does not disappoint. Who makes it through tonight's finale unscathed and how does the All Out War kick off? Here's what went down in "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life."
Hang On To The World As It Spins Around
The episode begins with a closeup on Sasha. She's in the dark, listening to "Someday We'll All Be Free" by Donny Hathaway. Nice to see mp3 players are still trendy even as the world is pretty much ending. Anyway, Sasha looks aloof...a little out of touch with reality...a little like she might be dying. What's her deal? We will go back and forth with her throughout the episode, but for now, cue the opening music.
When we revisit Sasha in the dark enclosed space, she is flashing back to a conversation she shared with Abraham (yay Abraham!) just before they embarked on the journey to get Maggie to the doctor in Hilltop. Sasha had been napping on the couch and Abraham wakes her up to tell her he's leaving to help Maggie. Sasha asks him not to go though - she just had a dream that he died and can't let him leave. Abraham smiles and says they will walk out the door together. "We kick shit and eat snakes. That's us." Oh how I missed him. Sasha still wants to sit this one out because the dream felt so real. Abraham gives her the sweetest kiss and says that Maggie is carrying the future. Sasha wholeheartedly agrees and Abraham reminds her what she once said about laying her ass on the line for other people. "Oh my - that is livin.'"
Hold On Tight And You Will Last
Back in Alexandria, Rick has Dwight at gunpoint and asks why Dwight would want to help them. Dwight says he wants Negan dead but you can't just kill Negan. "They're all Negan." Tara interupts, telling Dwight that he murdered the town doctor (well, I'm not sure that Denise was a doctor but we'll roll with it) and she helped a lot of people. When Dwight says he wasn't aiming for her, Daryl goes apeshit and slams Dwight against the wall with a knife about one inch away from Dwight's eye. Dwight looks at Daryl and apologizes for everything he's done. "What I did, I was doing for someone else. She got away so now I'm here. So are you because of her." This whole time Tara is yelling at Daryl to kill him, but Daryl thinks on it and steps back.
Smokin' Hot Rosita finally pipes up and says that Negan has Sasha but can't be sure if she's alive. Jesus suggests a trade but Dwight has a different idea. He tells the group that Negan will be there with 3 trucks the next day. He offers to break some trees down in the road to buy Alexandria some time. "If you can take them out, that's where we start. You kill them, I'll radio back to The Sanctuary and say everything's okay. You drive the trucks back, I can lead you right inside and with the right plan, we can wipe out the rest." Dwight then says they will be able to recruit the workers of The Sanctuary to their side and build up numbers to go to the rest of Negan's outposts to end this.
Rick ultimately gets on board with this plan and lets Dwight leave. Daryl vows to kill Dwight real slow if he's lying, but will kill him regardless when everything is over. Rick points out, "if he's lying, this is already over."
Get Yourself In Gear
Jesus returns to Hilltop with Judith in tow because Rick wants her out of danger. So. Many. Things. I want to say. She's hanging out with Enid and is probably enjoying life outside of solitude. Gregory has taken off to find Simon, so Maggie has assumed leadership in the community. She wants to take their army to Alexandria because if Negan finds out Rick and company are planning something, they're definitely going to need the help. It's a tough decision and it needs to be made quickly.
Meanwhile, Carol and Ezekiel are leading The Kingdom's army and they find Morgan looking a little crazed and wearing Benjamin's armor. Looks a little small for Morgan but I don't think he's in the mood for fashion criticism. Morgan is ready to go out on his home and Ezekiel encourages him to "cease this folly." Love it. "Join us on this journey to create an alliance. Fight with us and we shall defeat them so no one will suffer under their capricious malevolence ever again." Couldn't have said it better myself...and never would have come up with anything close to it. Morgan nods and falls in line with the marching regiment and tiger. Don't forget the tiger.
In Alexandria Das Sound Machine the garbage people arrive in garbage trucks and I have to pause and just shake my head for a moment. They set up shop in Alexandria at various strategic points and help the Grimes gang prepare for the next Negan visit. Smokin' Hot Rosita, Aaron, and Daryl have arranged some explosives throughout the area, and Michonne is training a garbage lady in the art of the sniper rifle. The creepy bitch says "we win" with a smile and I really don't like these guys.
Sing Your Greatest Song
The Saviors are in fact delayed by a bunch of fallen trees and Negan is immediately suspicious. He's getting pissed and Eugene asks if he can address Rick first to try to calm everything down. Imagine Rick's surprise when Eugene is the only person to step out of the truck. He informs Rick that there is no chance for them to win in a fight against the Saviors and urges them to comply. Rick responds by asking to talk to Negan and Eugene says, "I'm Negan." Son. Of. A. Bitch.
Rick looks like someone just punched him in the gut. He pauses and then gives Smokin' Hot Rosita the sign to press the button for the explosives, knowing the dynomite filled truck next to Eugene would probably kill him. Rosita presses then button on her remote. And then again. And...nothing. Rick reaches for his gun but the garbage people already have theirs on everyone in Alexandria. Well Rick, that has to be a double-cross record. Rick asks Jadis what happened to their deal and Jadis says Negan offered them a better one.
Negan makes his entrance then and calls Rick's group a bunch of animals for wanting to blow up one of their own. Dwight and Simon uncover a coffin and stand it up next to Negan, who explains the coffin is currently housing Sasha. Oh shit. If that doesn't sum everything up, I don't know what does. Negan tells Rick he wants all of the guns they've scraped up, all of the lemonade they have left, Daryl, the pool table, and one person of Rick's choosing to fall victim to Lucille. He wants all of that immediately or Sasha dies. Rick's not giving in just yet. "Let me see her."
Sasha has been inside the coffin this whole time with headphones in and could not hear a thing going on outside. We see her stare at the title of "Someday We'll All Be Free." We see her take the pill Eugene gave her. And we see the Walker version of her attack Negan when he opens the coffin, knocking him off the truck. Shit. The whole thing is heartbreaking.
One-eyed Carl is the first to open fire on the garbage people and Saviors and the rest of the group soon follows. Michonne gets into one hell of a fight with the creepy "we win" bitch from earlier. Smokin' Hot Rosita takes a bullet in the gut and Tara pulls her out of the line of fire. Sasha doesn't kill Negan but she does manage to gnaw the face off the Savior who jumps in to save Negan. Jadis shoots Rick in the hip and then ushers him toward Simon and the rest of the Saviors standing in a clearing by the walls. Without the garbage people Alexandria has pretty much fallen and Rick joins Carl on his knees in the grass. Negan is touting Lucille and tells Rick he is going to kill Carl even though he likes Carl. In the midst of his "you screwed up and have to pay the price" speech, we hear a woman scream and see a figure fall from the balcony Michonne was on. Now I know damn well that was the creepy garbage bitch and not Michonne, but Rick and Carl immediately think they've lost her and their faces just about do me in. Is no one going to stop this shit? Dwight? Eugene? Seriously?!?!
Brighter Days Will Soon Be Here
Just as my frustration is hitting a new high, freaking SHIVA jumps in and starts to devour one of Negan's henchmen. Ezekiel, Carol, Morgan and company soon follow and now we have ourselves a battle. Rick makes a break to grab a gun and just as one of the garbage people is ready to shoot him, Maggie opens fire! Hilltop is there! Including Enid! Wait. God damn it. Is Judith just sitting at the mansion playing spin the bottle by herself with Gregory's tequila? Sigh. Anyway, this next battle scene goes on for another four glorious minutes and what's left of Jadis' group escapes in their garbage truck and Simon, Negan, Dwight, and a few others manage to escape in a truck as well. Negan is flipping them off as the truck pulls away. Dwight leaves a wooden figure near the gate with "Didn't know" written on it, and I assume this means he did not know about the deal with the garbage people, but he still sucks. Thanks for nothin' asshole.
And Negan? He's trying to figure out how Sasha died and Eugene assures him she must have just run out of oxygen. It was a 2 hour ride in a coffin after all. He still seems a little suspicious, but Negan gets home, focuses, and addresses his people in The Sanctuary (there are many left). He walks out onto a balcony, leans back in his normal Negan back-bend form and says, "so...we are GOIN' to war!"
Rick and Carl find Michonne on the top level of the building they thought she had fallen from and she's beaten pretty badly, but she's alive. They share an emotional moment together before getting her to the infirmary where Smokin' Hot Rostia is recovering as well. As the three communities work together to clean up Alexandria and bury the dead, we hear Rick and Maggie talking about Sasha's sacrifice. We see Jesus and Maggie find Walker Sasha and tearfully but lovingly put her down. Rick says Sasha gave them a chance to win and Maggie's decision to come was a critical one. Maggie's response is too beautiful not to include in it's entirety:
"The decision was made a long time ago before any of us knew each other. We were all strangers and would've just passed each other on the street before the world ended. Now we mean everything to each other. You were in trouble. You were trapped. Glenn didn't know you but he helped you. He put himself in danger for you and that started it all. From Atlanta, to my daddy's farm, to the prison, to here...to this moment now. Not as strangers. As family. Because Glenn chose to be there for you that day a long time ago. That was the decision that changed everything. It started with both of you and it just grew. All of us. To sacrifice for each other. To suffer. To stand. To grieve. To give. To love. To live. To fight for each other. Glenn made the decision, Rick. I was just following his lead."
The episode ends at that moment and I'm a mess. I love that Maggie just tied this act of coming together to Glenn saving Rick in the first episodes of The Walking Dead. Unbelievable and amazing. I know in their time seven years have not passed, but for the rest of us, I feel that we needed that reminder after all we went through this season. Losing Glenn. Losing Abraham. And poor Sasha. What a decision that was...and interesting that she was listening to Donny Hathaway when she swallowed the pill. He took his own life at the age of 33. Ultimately I'm sure Sasha was hoping she'd bite Negan right away and help end the conflict before many more casualties ensued, and I do wish she had at least taken out Simon, but Rick is totally right in saying she gave them a chance. She didn't go out guns blazing like she thought she would have, but I view Sasha's death as the calculated sacrifice I had expected from her a few episodes ago. She wanted it to mean something and it definitely did.
We have a very long wait until Season 8 kicks off and the action resumes, but I'm glad we don't have the cliffhanger we had last year at this time. How quickly will the Saviors retaliate? When is Dwight going to really turn on Negan? Will Chief Engineer Eugene turn on him as well? Will Maggie finally start showing? Will Oceanside jump in when they realize the first battle has already been won? Will we ever find out what the hell happened to Heath? Will Carol and return to The Kingdom? Stay in Alexandria? Go back to her little house? Have relations with Daryl? And when is Gregory going to realize how late he is to the party? I picture him standing on the side of the road Dumb & Dumber style after driving many hours in the wrong direction. Don't tell me you didn't just get a mental image of that too.... see you in October! 