The Walking Dead Season 6 Ep. 11: Knots Untie

I went into this week's episode thinking something I never thought was possible for this show: "I wonder what Jesus will do on The Walking Dead tonight?" What Jesus actually does tonight is take us to his leader...not God unfortunately (wouldn't that be something?), but we do find out why Jesus was out and about near Alexandria and we get a glimpse of the environment he's been living in. Here's what went down in "Knots Untie."

I Can't Do This On My Own

The hour opens with Abraham and Sasha flirting up a storm during the daily guard shift they share. Sasha must realize the situation is getting weird because she tells Abraham she is letting Eugene(!) take over her shift and she'll be taking a different one from now on. Abraham looks bummed and I'm bummed for Smokin' Hot Rosita. Speaking of which, Abraham goes home to get it on with his current squeeze and I'm thinking all might be well with the world. Smokin' Hot Rosita even gives him a necklace she's made out of a piece of break light. She loooooves him...but his mind is still on Sasha. 

Jesus, meanwhile, is waiting for Rick and Michonne to put their cloths on. Carl creeps up behind him with his gun and seriously - if an intruder was not enough of a surprise for the kid, seeing his dad and Michonne half clothed stumbling out of the bedroom had to have put one hell of a strain on his remaining eyeball. Somehow Abraham, Glenn, Maggie and Daryl sensed the commotion in the house and they arrive as well with their guns poised and ready. Once everyone is clothed and settled down, Jesus explains where he came from...to my disappointment, the story does not involve immaculate conception. 

Jesus lives in a community called Hilltop. They raise livestock and grow crops and Jesus offers to take a car full of Alexandrians home with him to prove his story. Jesus believes Rick and company are all good people and he wants Hilltop to start trading with Alexandria like they do with other communities. Maggie stops him...you're already trading with other groups? "You're world's about to get a whole lot bigger." Roll the opening credits. 

Running Low On Faith And Gasoline

As the Grimes gang is prepping for another road trip, Carl is prepping for another stint at home watching Judith. It sucks to be Carl. Here's hoping Rick isn't expecting him to do the laundry while he's gone...can't imagine what those sheets are like right now. Anywho, Rick approaches him to apologize about him finding out about the Michonne romance the way he did. Carl says "it's cool," and the RV is off and chewing up some asphalt with Rick, Michonne, Glenn, Maggie, Daryl and Abraham in tow. 

The group comes across a car accident which they initially assume is a trap set by Jesus (priceless). The beautifully bearded man denies it though, and after realizing the dead people in the car are from Hilltop, he's rather panicky. There are tracks leading from the car crash into a nearby building and the boys go check it out while Maggie and Michonne guard Jesus. Our heroes end up saving a handful of trapped Hilltop residents including Harlan, the resident doctor. He seems to have wayyyyy more experience than Denise and he offers prenatal vitamins to Maggie. #Winning

The RV reaches Hilltop but gets miserably stuck in the mud upon arrival. Rut roh. I guess we're going to worry about it later though because the group treks through the mud and heads straight into the community. And lo and behold - Jesus was telling the truth. He explains that most of the inhabitants came from a FEMA camp and they brought trailers with them. These tiny dwellings surround Barrington House, which is a huge living history museum that houses Deanna Gregory, who is the community leader. Okay...come on Hilltopians. You have a guy named Jesus in your community but you're letting some dude named Gregory be in charge? Humph. Anyway, Deanna Gregory wants the Grimes group to go get washed up before they get to talking about anything important. "It's hard to keep this place clean." Interesting. 

Rick nominates Maggie as the goodwill ambassador and she gladly has a one on one meeting with Deanna Gregory. He keeps calling her 'Natalie' but she keeps a smile on while she tries to learn more about Hilltop. Apparently this place has been thriving since the apocalypse hit. Deanna Gregory grills Maggie on what kind of crops exist in Alexandria and what their arsenal looks like at the moment. This dude seems like a total douche canoe. "You guys don't have shit. And we don't just give things away for free." 

Save Me From This Road I'm On

"Viewers are really going to hate my ass.""

Sooooo what's the angle here? Why did Jesus bring Rick and company to Hilltop if Deanna Gregory is an asshole who doesn't want to build any neighborly relations? Well, it seems Negan is a thorn in Hilltop's side and a trio of people from the community soon return from a failed trade attempt with Negan. A lumberjack looking fellow tells Deanna Gregory that Negan killed almost everyone else that went with them, and Negan is holding their buddy Craig hostage in exchange for a favor. Said favor is lumberjack fellow killing Deanna Gregory. Unfortunately, he only gets one stab in. Rick kills lumberjack fellow, Daryl breaks another guy's arm, Abraham is nearly strangled, and Jesus intervenes and makes everything better (naturally).

Back inside Barrington House, Rick asks Jesus to spill the beans on Negan. We learn Negan is the leader of the Saviors (again...you pick Negan as your leader when Jesus is nearby?) and he frequently threatens violence when he does not get his way. The Saviors get half of everything from Hilltop. In return, the people of Hilltop get to live. Daryl calls bullshit and tells Jesus that he nuked a bunch of Negan's guys just weeks ago. He follows that up with: "We'll do it. If we go get your man back, kill Negan, will you hook us up? We want food, medicine, and one of them cows." HA! Maggie meets with a recovering Deanna Gregory and makes him an official trade offer. He's still a total jackass but he agrees to an arrangement...an arrangement that includes half of what Hilltop has. You go girl. Maybe Maggie should always do the negotiating?

So off they go to kill Negan in the miraculously unstuck RV. One of the recent Negan compound returnees joins them and Jesus jumps in as well. Woohoo! Rick and Michonne are embarking on this mission arm in arm, and Abraham starts this journey with a new lease on life. He also starts this journey without the necklace from Smokin' Hot Rosita. Dude. She's SO much better than Sasha. Get your shit together. 

The episode ends with the results of Maggie's ultrasound (Hilltop has some serious medical equipment handy). The baby is totally healthy...so it totally makes sense for Maggie to take the trip to Negan's compound with the rest of the gang. Wait, what? Why is she going? Why is this okay?!?!

We are about a month out from the season finale and I'm wondering when we will actually meet Negan. Given that Hilltop's introduction was incredibly similar to Alexandria's introduction, I'm hoping we don't spend a ton of time without action now like we did in the early days of trying to figure out the whole "community thing." Will we have some sort of showdown before the season ends? Is this just a setup for Season 7? Is Morgan going to jump in on all of this violence? And where the hell is Carol? This shit is right up her ally!