TWD Season 8 Episode 7: Time After Time

Tonight's episode of The Walking Dead is mostly centered around Eugene as he and others continue

to make decisions that piss me off. We catch up with a few additional familiar faces as well, but the mullet man's moves drive this hour as he tries to save The Sanctuary from the herd of Walkers closing in. Is he successful? Does he realize he is now part of the losing team? Does he stay loyal to Negan or cut his losses and retreat back to the Grimes gang? Here's what went down in "Time After Time."

If You're Lost

Stage "WTF Do I Do Now?" Eugene tells Dwight he knows that Dwight is the mole working with Rick. He promises not to say anything to Negan as long as Dwight ceases and desists all forms of backstabbery. Dwight grabs him by the shirt and shoves him into a chair. He tells Eugene that The Sanctuary is going to fall and all Eugene has to do to be on the winning side is...nothing. Just let it play out. Eugene is interested in staying safe and keeping the people inside the walls safe. If Dwight can promise he won't do anything to harm the folks inside The Sanctuary, Eugene can promise to keep his secret. There's really no affirmation from either gent before Eugene leaves the room. 

Was the lighting in this scene a sign?

As Eugene makes his way down the hall, he hears Dr. Carson call to him from the infirmary. Gabriel has an infection from all of the Walker guts he donned on his way into the compound and he is getting worse. Dr. Carson says it's only a matter of time before Gabriel's organs start shutting down, and he asks Eugene to stay with the priest while he tries to find some herbs in the market that might help with the fever. Gabriel asks Eugene again if he will help get Dr. Carson back to Hilltop and Eugene tells him that he's looking out for himself and no one else. Gabriel says "I just want you to do the right thing," and when Eugene asks how to know what the right thing is, the priest replies: "It requires faith and trust in yourself. Believing that God is inside of you, guiding you." Eugene is a man of science and says that whole thing is absurd, but Gabriel maintains that Eugene will know what the right thing is when the time comes. 

Eugene heads back to his room and Tanya, one of Negan's wives, knocks on the door. Apparently Eugene had promised her he'd fix her boombox and it's taking too long (I guess she doesn't give a shit about what's happening outside), and she doesn't want to give him the wine that was supposed to be part of the trade. When he tells her wine helps him sleep, she reminds him that their situation could have been totally different if he had helped the wives kill Negan when they asked for the death pill. "But you took care of you, and now you gotta live with that."  

I Will Catch You

Eugene meets with Negan and Negan mentions that the mullet man is running out of time and people are going to start dying. "Not me of course. I'm living no matter what. I am too good at this shit." Negan says he has faith in Eugene though because he knows the guy is smart...hence the "Dr. Smartypants" nickname. Negan reaches out for a handshake and Eugene mistakes the gesture. He leans in to kiss Negan's hand instead and I get my only real laugh of the evening. Negan says a handshake is a sign of mutual respect and he's clearly trying to ensure Eugene is still 100% Negan. I'm pretty sure this was one of those "you had me at 'hello'" scenarios. 

With his newfound motivation, Eugene collects Sasha's iPod from the coffin (how does that thing still have juice?) and he dismantles Tanya's boombox to make a drone. His plan is to use the drone music to lead the Walkers away pied piper style. It's a great idea until Dwight sneaks up behind Eugene on the roof and points a gun at him. He tells Dwight he is attempting to save the people inside, and though he is usually only concerned with himself, Eugene decides to take his chances at gunpoint and send the drone sailing over the Walkers. Dwight can't bring himself to shoot Eugene (why?) and instead shoots the drone down. 

Confusion Is Nothing New

The Walkers are at a point where they are probably a day from breaking completely into The Sanctuary and Morgan is outside with a sniper rifle ready to thwart any Savior plans to drive the Walkers away. He sees Daryl, Tara, Michonne and Smokin' Hot Rosita roll up in a garbage truck and he goes down to talk to them. In order to speed up victory, Daryl and Tara want to drive the garbage truck through part of the building they believe does not have any workers, even though Rosita and Michonne expect Rick and the other community leaders to show up at any moment and ask for surrender. Morgan is on board with this plan because he just wants everything to be done. Michonne and Rosita want to wait since, you know, THAT'S THE PLAN, but Daryl and Tara insist that things have changed now that Ezekiel's army is gone. Rosita says they will need to proceed without her...that seeing Sasha recklessly storm the building only to end up walking out of a coffin as a zombie has changed her thoughts on taking huge and hasty risks. She grabs one of the extra cars and heads home, but Michonne stays even though Michonne has to know this isn't what Rick would want.  

As Daryl, Tara and Michonne get ready to execute this ludicrous plan, he separately asks Michonne if she's up for the task. After giving it some thought, she believes they need to trust that what is currently working will continue to work. "What we're about to do...it's not worth risking us." Daryl says it's worth the risk to him and Michonne tells him she can't go through with it. She hops out of the truck (and I assume catches up with Smokin' Hot Rosita) and Daryl proceeds on his own with Tara and Morgan covering him. He jumps out of the truck at the last second and makes his way to safety. The workers inside the building, however, are not safe. There were still plenty of people just on the other side of the wall and many of them become Walker food in front of Eugene's eyes. The Saviors are having a hell of a time keeping the Walkers on the first floor and something will need to be done quickly. 

Dr. Smartypants is furious. He goes to Gabriel's room and essentially says the whole "do the right thing" message was bullshit because people died anyway. Eugene tells him he's going back to looking out for number one and approaches Negan, saying he has a solution to the problem at hand. He's just about to out Dwight as well, but then Dwight arrives with a Walker update and the conversation ends.  

I Fall Behind

Turns out Rick isn't completely naked in the garbageland canister. He's got his undies on and when Jadis finally opens the doors, he tells her his offer still stands. Jadis has other interests at the moment though. Who wouldn't? First she takes pictures of him with a fancy camera (where is the nearest one hour photo?), then she has one of her garbage men sketch the scantily clad hottie. Why? So they can sculpt him "after."  Rick asks "after what?" but Jadis has already said more than a couple of words so it's time to move on. 

Later Rick is brought to the center of what I assume is the major garbage heap and Jadis arrives with another specialty Walker in tow. Apparently "after" translates to "death by helmet-head Walker" which is really, really stupid. Rick hits the ONE guy holding him down and knocks over the ONE other guy with Jadis. He decapitates the helmet-head Walker and only THEN does Jadis take her gun out to shoot Rick. He pins her to the ground next to the still chomping Walker head and THEN the rest of her people arrive and aim their guns at him. Jadis tells her people to stand down and then says she will join Rick in his endeavor to kill Negan for a portion of the Saviors' supplies.  

The episode ends with Rick and the garbage people arriving on the outskirts of The Sanctuary. When Rick can't get anyone to respond on the walkie talkie, he climbs the water tower and realizes the yard is empty of Walkers. I assume he also realizes that Daryl completely mucked everything up and the garbage people might quickly turn on him again. Better get ready to pose for that sculpture, my friend.

I have to say that I'm sitting here just kind of baffled after this hour. If the plan was for (I assume), Rick, Maggie, Ezekiel and Jadis to show up to The Sanctuary united and give the Saviors a last chance to surrender, then whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy did we need to crash a truck into the walls to get them to surrender? Why did Rosita speak up on this before Michonne? Why would Tara be okay with this? She was good with letting Dwight live long enough to become a mole but she can't let the workers live long enough to....live? WTF is up with Daryl? If someone else had gone totally rogue from a plan everyone had agreed on, he'd be the first one to lose his shit. I just can't wrap my head around this turn of events. Rick goes off to the garbage people, who he can't trust, to help drive the final nail in Negan's coffin, but the people Rick can trust have ruined everything. Ugh.  

Next week is already the mid-season finale and though we've seen quite a bit of slaughter so far in these first 7 episodes, I do believe we are gearing up for a major or majorish death by the end of episode 8. Will Gabriel succumb to his Walker guts fever? Will Negan throw Dwight into the incinerator? With Maggie and others on the way (I assume Ezekiel is sitting this one out), are we bound to suffer a loss of one of the remaining long term characters? Is this where we catch up with the two graves and the red-eyed Rick we saw during the season premiere? We have only a short time to wait until we find out, but in the meantime... Daryl, you've got some 'splainin' to do.