Finally,

A good episode of “The Walking Dead”. So good, in fact, that I’m using a special

to indicate such.

Last week, in the comments to the recap of “Rick & Michonne’s Romantic Getaway”, JustStopDude made the prescient observation that “If you just removed the zombie element from the show…this show would have been dropped so fucking fast its not funny.” And most weeks this season, JSD was absolutely-fucking-correct in that observation.  Really, the only zombie kills were at the start & end of the episode, so it was another plot-heavy episode of building towards the war.

The difference this week is that the plot actually moves forward, with interesting turns throughout the episode.

Long story short, Richard, Ezekiel’s lieutenant, set up a plot to have himself be sacrificed/murdered at the food drop with the Saviors. He felt this would be the only way to get the King to go over the edge and join with Rick & the other colonies in fighting the Saviors once and for all. Prior to the show’s main incident, we see Richard looking wistfully at a girl’s backpack & digging a grave. We even get a hint that that’s what’s coming, because Richard apologizes to Morgan for his previous behaviour, sort of like writing your own eulogy.

Confessions like that usually guarantee a character is going to die. It’s like finding out about a chef’s family on “Top Chef”. Richard even sets himself up as the target when the exchange goes wrong (because Richard sabotaged the delivery), taunting the Savior that’s wanted to kill him since the start of the season. But then

Benjamin gets shot, because dick’s gonna dick move.

They race to Carol’s to try & save him, but to no avail. In what should have been a more memorable moment, the intro after the commercial opens on a poignant shot of the survivors all standing around a sad kitchen table, a blanket pulled over Benjamin’s body, a large blood spot where he was shot by the Savior, and a small hole where they had to get his brain before he turned.

This puts Morgan near to the edge. When Richard tells him how he lost his own family & confesses his plot to him later, it sets in motion the rest of the episode. When The Kingdom goes to meet the Saviors the next day, to replace the missing melon that NO ONE IN THE FUCKING TRUCK SAW WAS MISSING, Morgan kills Richard, both to show the Saviors that The Kingdom knows there are consequences for actions, and to show Ezekiel that sometimes, despite wishes, things need to be done.

When it’s done, Morgan stays behind to bury Richard in the grave Richard had previously dug for himself,

and then Morgan goes to Carol’s to tell her the real story of what happened with Negan & Alexandria. This shocks her out of her complacency.

The episode ends with Carol returning to The Kingdom, ending her isolation

telling Ezekiel she’s ready for the fight, and Morgan, at Carol’s old place, sharpening his staff into a spear. The Kingdom is now ready to join the alliance.

The difference between this & previous episodes is that there weren’t any false operations or asides to stretch out a thin episode. This episode had good pacing, everything made about as much sense as it can, and it didn’t involve introducing new characters in order to further broaden the world. It was a tight episode, centred around one conflict that had a hidden agenda, that got exposed but yet served to drive the plot of the show forward.

It also showed that sometimes, you have to abandon a position because it just doesn’t make sense anymore. Morgan wants to stay peaceful, yet the world reminds him that sometimes you have to kill. Carol wanted to be left alone, that cutting herself off from the world meant that nothing bad would happen to the ones she loved. Well, Abraham & Glenn are dead, and she wasn’t around to try & stop it. Now both Carol & Morgan are back in the game, which Rick will probably find out in the season finale.

There are three episodes left in the season. Next week’s episode is at Hilltop, involves the plot between Sasha & Rosita to kill Negan, has a band of Saviors showing up because they think Daryl is there, and implies Gregory will be selling someone out to retain his position.

**sigh**