Tonight's episode of The Walking Dead takes us on various searches...the search for young Henry, the search for the captive Saviors that escaped Hilltop, and a junkyard search that I did not see coming. Rick's opposite day approach to Carl's death bed plea continues to be an issue, and Morgan's newfound "I see dead people" is making him even more dangerous than he was toward the beginning of the season. How do these men deal with their vengeance driven actions in this hour? Here's what went down in "Still Gotta Mean Something."
Lost And Insecure
The episode opens with a flashback of Simon's junkyard slaughter as we see exactly how Jadis survived the event. She moved a bloody dead body, positioned herself just right in the puddle of blood to appear as though she too was dead, and the Saviors bought it.
Catching up with Jadis now, we see her in her very clean little apartment in the heaps (I had no idea that was a thing) with Negan's bat and one of the magic walkie talkies. Turns out she looks good in flannel. Jadis has a bit of a breakdown and keeps looking at her watch as she packs a suitcase. When some time has passed, she ventures out into the garbage to retrieve Negan, who she has tied down to a board with wheels. Negan asks "What the shit?!" many times throughout the episode, but we never really know whether Jadis is going to speak in complete sentences or cave woman syllables.
Jadis assembles a wheelbarrow of salt and firewood and checks her watch again. Negan maintains that he did not order Simon to wipe out her community, but he says he will "own it" because he took a chance on someone who chose not to follow the program. Negan gives Jadis a sincere apology and she leaves him alone for moment to get a contained Walker she's had on standby. My palm hits my forehead pretty hard because every time Jadis wants to punish someone by throwing a Walker at them, the situation backfires on her in a big way. This time is no different. By the time she returns to Negan, he's wheeled himself to her suitcase and grabbed a pile of her photographs as well as a flare and a GUN. Good grief. Jadis threatens to burn Lucille in the not yet lit wheelbarrow fire and Negan threatens to burn her photos with the flare. Jadis asks him to leave the photos alone because they are all she has left, and Negan explains that he named the bat after his late wife because she got him through everything in life even though he didn't give her shit. Negan says the bat is all he has left of her. At that moment, Jadis' alarm goes off on her watch and she panics. She tries to get the flare away from Negan but it rolls into a conveniently placed small puddle and extinguishes. Jadis frantically tries to light another flare to signal the HELICOPTER that is hovering nearby, but by the time she gets the flare lit...it's too late and the helicopter has left the area.
The next time we see the odd couple, Negan is free from his board and holding Lucille and Jadis sits defeated...holding her photos. Negan asks if Jadis wants to share what the whole helicopter thing was about but she doesn't. He offers to take Jadis with him so she can start over but she refuses. Jadis goes back into her little apartment and unpacks her suitcase, and Negan leaves and finds a vehicle. Um, no explanation at all about the helicopter and he's good with that? People are resources but he doesn't press her about the damn HELICOPTER which would be a pretty phenomenal resource as well? Instead, Negan hits the road and eventually picks up (I think) a wounded Savior escapee wandering around. Negan tells his new passenger that he's got all kinds of surprises in store for his return. I don't doubt it.
You Found Me
Back in Hilltop, Ezekiel and Jerry and putting together a group to go in search of Henry. Carol chooses to stay, saying Maggie would need her if there's another attack on Hilltop, but Ezekiel knows Carol won't join them because she believes Henry is already dead. Only later when Morgan decides to head out on his own mission to find the little guy does Carol decide to go too.
Carol and Morgan walk through the woods tracking both the escaped Saviors as well as Henry in case he was kidnapped. Morgan suddenly runs off, yelling "Henry!" and he encounters a vision of Henry with Gavin's neck wound. Fake Henry says, "you know what it is - you were supposed to" like we heard dead Gavin say to Morgan many times last week, and when Carol catches up to him, she realizes that her worries were on point. Morgan is effing crazy. He says he believes Henry is dead and Carol tells him she wasn't really there to look for Henry...she's there to keep an eye on Morgan. "You can't save the dead, Carol." Morgan tells Carol he sees the dead all the time, but then he moves on through the woods before Carol can respond.
The duo reaches the road and encounters a Walker that has Henry's stick through its body. Carol wants to follow the path the Walker came from (just as well - there's a huge herd in the other direction) but Morgan says they both know what they'll find if they do that. Morgan leaves on his own to go look for the Saviors and Carol heads down the path to look for Henry...even if all she finds is his body or a Walker version of him. What she finds instead is a very much alive Henry, hiding in a tree near the water, calling for help. Their reunion is very touching, with each person apologizing to the other, and it sure is nice to get some good news tonight. Henry's reunion with Ezekiel at Hilltop is even more of a tear-jerker.... when Jerry looked over the gate and yelled "your majesty!" to alert Ezekiel, I almost lost it. Carol sits with Ezekiel later on in the evening and tells him about Sophia, and how she became the person she is now after Sophia had died. They hold hands by the fire and I'm thinking the Daryl/Carol thing will never happen for me.
Surrounded, Surrounded
We've spent some time now without a ton of bloodshed and repetitive shit talking, so let's pick up with Daryl and Tara having another conversation about how Dwight sucks, but he doesn't, but he does. It's been over a day since the attack now and Tara has not gotten sick from her arrow injury. She maintains Dwight shot her with a clean arrow and Daryl believes Tara just got lucky. He still thinks Dwight should have warned them about the Walker guts on the weapons strategy (would that have made a difference in Hilltop's battle plan?) and Tara tells him she's not going to participate in any attempts to kill Dwight. Daryl then turns his attention to Hilltop's ammunition shortage. They don't have a bullet maker like the Saviors do. Smokin' Hot Rosita takes Daryl to the suspected bullet making outpost...which I assume is the building where she and Eugene first discussed making bullets...and she suggests they make a plan to take out the machines as well as the bullet maker himself.
Michonne is in the big Hilltop house reading her letter from Carl. Rick enters the room and she asks if he wants to read it. Not only does Rick not want to read her letter...he hasn't read his yet. So wait. Rick seriously read Negan's letter and not his own? Oy. Michonne wants Rick to read the letter instead of going out to find the escaped Savior prisoners, and we see Rick hold the letter for a moment, but we do not see him read it. The next Rick scene has him walking with his gun and approaching the Saviors who stayed. Alden (the hot one) explains that the men who left made a split second decision that was the wrong decision. He tells Rick where the men might have gone and asks Rick not to kill more than he has to. Alden even encourages Rick to bring the men back to Hilltop. Riiiiiight.
Rick walks through the woods solo (no one else wanted to do this?) and he eventually bumps into Morgan, who isn't sure at first if Rick is real or not. Rick chats with him and says they will finish the Saviors together...and if I had a nickel for every time Rick was going to "finish this," I'd be rich. The two men follow a trail that avoids the large Walker herd, but they are knocked out and kidnapped by the escaped Saviors. Sigh. When they both wake up, they are tied to posts in whatever building the Saviors have made a temporary hideout. Douchebag wants to kill the men in their group that are severely wounded and perhaps dying anyway, and he realllllly wants to kill Rick and Morgan. Rick tells the Saviors he will take all of them back to Hilltop to get medical attention and food. He offers them a fresh start and a chance to become part of the community. Oh wow. Really? Alden's dreamy eyes and curly hair got through to Rick? "I'm giving you my word. There's not a lot that's worth much these days, but a man's word has gotta mean something, right?" Uh oh. I feel like Rick has said this to a Savior before...just before Daryl killed the guy. Anyway, Rick is looking to make a deal right now because a herd of Walkers is on the way. Douchebag tells the group there's no herd and there's no real deal on the table. The herd shows up with impeccable timing and some of the Saviors untie Rick and Morgan to help fight. When the majority of the Walkers are taken care of, Morgan and Rick look at one another...then kill the remaining Saviors. I feel bad for some of them, but I don't feel bad for Douchebag. The way Morgan holds him through a gate and watches the Walkers devour him is just fine by me.
Ask Anything
The episode ends with a bloody Rick and Morgan returning to Hilltop. Alden takes one look at them and knows Rick made no attempts to show mercy. Morgan sees Henry and touches the boy's face to make sure he's real and then tells Henry he killed the guy that killed Henry's brother. Henry puts a hand on Morgan's shoulder and apologizes, but Morgan tells him to never be sorry. Rick, meanwhile, goes to Michonne and tells her he loves her (awww). She tells him she loves him too and he finally sits down to read Carl's letter. Kind of a moot point now, buddy.
With the season finale just around the corner, we must also be thisclose to an end to this damn war. I'm excited to see what Negan has in store for Simon upon his return and I'm also chomping at the bit to find out what the deal is with the helicopter. Whose is it?!?! Is this a Georgie thing? It would make sense given her comment about visiting many communities. Not sure that van of hers would have brought her to as many kinda/sorta thriving groups in the amount of time she's had to make copies of her book from memory and distribute during the apocolypse. Perhaps Georgie gave Jadis "the key" as well...and Jadis took the medieval plans so seriously she adopted time travel speak. Regardless, I hope there's a big reveal before the season is done. I've grown weary of Rick's merciless approach to things, Morgan's "if it moves, I might kill it" demeanor, and Negan's colorful and sometimes incredibly creative use of the word "shit."
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