The Walking Dead Season 8, Episode 9: Honor

Welcome to the Beginning Of The End Of The Walking Dead. 

Sorry this review is a week or two late, but... I just didn't much feel like writing it. There was a time when The Walking Dead was my favorite show on TV, and I couldn't wait to write about it each week. That time has passed.

The reason? Showrunner Scott Gimple. Over the past two or three seasons he's taken a series I once loved and blown a massive hole right through it. I'm at the point now where I no longer feel like watching the show, and am honestly considered dropping it. 

When Gimple took over The Walking Dead in Season 4, he brought a much-needed energy and focus to the series. Unfortunately with each subsequent season, it's become increasingly worse under his leadership. Every single creative decision he's made on the show has been the wrong one. It would be fascinating if it weren't so frustrating. 

Under Gimple's watch, character motivation has become nonexistent, changing from week to week to fit the needs of the script. Even worse, he seems unable to tell a simple linear story, as he fills each episode with infuriating, convoluted timelines that are impossible to unravel.

As if all that wasn't enough, he's senselessly killed off Carl Grimes, the second longest-running character on the entire goddamned show. Back in December I discussed in great detail just how stupid an idea it was to kill off a major character like Carl, so I won't bore you with all that again here. If you're interested, you can check out my reasons here.

I'm calling it right now— Honor, aka The One Where Carl Dies, is the episode that future critics will point to as the one that doomed the series to cancellation. It's the one that will cause even the most die hard fan to throw in the towel and lose interest in the show. The one in which showrunner Scott Gimple finally screwed up one too many times, and torpedoed his own show.

You may be wondering why I'm so upset by the death of a fictional character. After all, it's not like The Walking Dead has never killed off a major character before. Why should this one set me off so? Because killing Carl is a HUGE mistake, one that's going to have permanent repercussions. I don't think Gimple realizes it yet, but he's really shot himself in the foot this time. 

See, Carl's still alive and well in the comic, some three or four years after the events of the All Out War storyline that's currently playing out on the show. By needlessly killing him off, Gimple just flushed the next several years' worth of plots right down the crapper.

Carl played a BIG role in at least two or three major upcoming comic book storylines. At the end of the All Out War arc, Rick finally defeated Negan and imprisoned him in a makeshift jail in Alexandria. Carl then struck up a secret friendship with Negan, who took an odd shine to the lad and began offering him advice on life and becoming a man. Eventually Carl came to think of Negan as a surrogate father (!).

Carl then decided to move to the Hilltop, where he became a blacksmith. He was a good one too, supplying the various communities with various tools and bullets.

Later, the Alexandrians encountered the Whisperers, a group of deadly weirdos who wore the skins of zombies in order to move unseen among them. Carl even had a romantic relationship with the daughter of the Whisperer leader!

With TV Carl now dead, I have no idea how the series can possibly proceed with ANY of those storylines. The only other teen on the series is Enid, and I hope the hell they don't try to graft his story arcs onto her! As I've said over and over, Gimple really sh*t the bed this time, and obviously has no idea what the hell he's doing.

In addition to all that, Carl's death is a demoralizing blow in an already depressing and nihilistic series. In a way, Carl was the heart and soul of the show. He represented the next generation— the one that's grown up in this brave new miserable world. The one that would hopefully reclaim it from the dead someday.

With his senseless death, there's now no hope left. Everything Carl went through in the past eight seasons was all for nothing. Surviving a bullet to the gut, shooting Shane after he reanimated, killing his mom after she had Judith, losing an eye in a walker attack, and even sneaking into the Sanctuary to confront Negan by himself— all pointless.

As a final F-U to the fans, Gimple sent Carl out on the stupidest note possible. He didn't sacrifice himself to save a bus full of orphans. He wasn't attacked while heroically defending his community or his family. Instead he was accidentally bitten while walking through the woods. Something he'd done a million times before on the show. Talk about a letdown!

I'm not the only one who thinks Carl's death was a bad move. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, aka Negan himself, took to Instagram and expressed his disappointment with the decision. The Carl/Negan scenes were one of the reasons he joined the show in the first place, and now... all that's gone. Frittered away by Gimple in a desperate attempt at a ratings bump.

Since even the actors seem to think this was a bad idea, I wonder what would have happened if they'd all banded together, stormed into Gimple's office and told him, "No." What if they'd all said they weren't gonna go along with his idiotic idea, and weren't reporting to set until he changed it? What could he do? He can't fire ALL of them. Seems like if they had enough people on their side, he'd have had to back down and change the script. I guess we'll never know.

Other fans are just as pissed about the decision. This season the show's been shedding viewers at an alarming rate. In fact this week's ratings were the lowest they've been since Season 1! Honor scored a 2.9 rating, which somehow translates into 6.8 million viewers. Sounds like a lot, but that's a far cry from the glory days of Season 5, when it was regularly pulling in 15 to 17 million viewers.

There is a sliver of good news in all this though. I've been calling for Gimple's head for two or three years now, and it seems the gods old and new have finally answered my pleas. A couple weeks ago AMC announced that Scott Gimple had been "promoted" to the newly created role of "Chief Content Officer," whatever the hell that is. 

I don't know how it works in Hollywood, but in the corporate world, bumbling executives are often "promoted" instead of terminated. They're often placed in made-up positions with little or no power, to spare them the shame of being fired. I have a feeling this is what's happening with Gimple.

So starting with Season 9, Gimple's out. Angela Kang, who's been a co-executive producer on the show since 2013, will take over as the new showrunner. Hopefully she can steer the show back on course, but... honestly it's probably too late too late to save it. He's already punched a hole in the side of the ship, and it's only a matter of time before it sinks.

Honestly I don't much care at this point. I should have been deeply affected by Carl's "shocking" death. But because I fundamentally disagree with every single aspect of the idea, all I could think of during the episode was how monumentally stupid it was.

This was my expression all through the episode.

As I said, welcome to the Beginning Of The End Of The Walking Dead.

UPDATE: Shortly after this episode aired, it was reported that Lauren Cohen, aka Maggie, is the only cast member who's not signed up for Season 9. Apparently she's not happy with the money AMC's offering, and is stalling for a better deal.

This means Maggie's likely going to be killed off at the end of Season 8, which will deviate from the source material even MORE. And it means we'll never get to see her give birth to that goddamned kid that she's been carrying since Season 5 (seriously!).

SPOILERS, I GUESS.

The Plot:
Carol and Morgan rescue Ezekiel, and Carl dies from his bite. That's pretty much the extent of the story this week. Goodnight, everybody!

OK, OK, I guess I can fill in a few of the details.

Because this is The Walking Dead and Scott Gimple is the showrunner, linear narratives are strictly prohibited. The episode begins with a truly interminable series of flashforwards, flashsideways and who knows what all, before the actual present day storyline kicks in.

Cut to the scene of a red-eyed Rick that we've been seeing all goddamned season. You know, the one where he's starring up at a couple pieces of stained glass hanging from a tree. Once again he says, "My mercy prevailed over my wrath." I'm assuming this scene actually takes place during the season finale, in Episode 16.

Cut to yet another gauzily-filmed flashforward of Old Man Rick and Judith walking through an idyllic vision of Alexandria. Judith greets Jerry, who's helping Siddiq lay the foundation for a building.

Cut to another flashforward of Rick and Michonne digging a grave. Michonne is overcome with grief and almost collapses.

Cut to a flashback of Carl and Siddiq from The King, The Widow And Rick, in which they fight off a small group of walkers. Carl holds one at bay while he fumbles for his gun. Suddenly he grimaces and looks down to see a second walker biting him on the stomach. He shoots them both and looks stunned.

Cut to still another flashback, as for some reason, Carl hides Siddiq in the massive sewer system underneath Alexandria. He then goes home, takes off his shirt and examines his wound. He tapes it up, puts on his stupid sheriff hat and walks back outside.

We then see a montage of Carl slowly saying goodbye to everybody, as he takes advantage of the time he has left. He writes notes to everyone, including Rick, Michonne and Enid. He even writes one to his pal Negan! He plants a tree, and then plays with Judith, as they finger paint and take photos together.

Cut to another flashback, as we finally get to see how the Saviors escaped from the walker-surrounded Sanctuary last episode. Morgan watches from a sniper's nest, and sees the Saviors stick their guns out the windows and shoot the entire herd. That was easy!

Morgan escapes and watches the Savior convoy heading for the Kingdom. Cut to the Kingdom, where Carol instructs everyone to hide in the woods. Young Henry, who's training to be a guard, wants to come with Carol, but she tells him to go with the others.

After ALL that, we FINALLY join the present day storyline, which picks up directly from the end of the previous episode. Rick and Michonne have just entered the vast sewers, as the Saviors bombard Alexandria with... something. Mortar rounds? Bombs dropped from planes? Who knows? Rick stares at Carl in disbelief, unable to comprehend the fact that his son has been bitten and is going to die. Michonne and Daryl look on in horror. Rick asks how it happened, and Carl says he simply got bit trying to save Siddiq. He assures Rick the Saviors had nothing to do with it.

Over at the Kingdom, Gavin the Savior has captured King Ezekiel. Gavin tells Ezekiel that Negan's going to kill him. Ezekiel says he saved his people, and doesn't care what happens to him. Gavin expresses genuine affection for Ezekiel, saying he always liked him and hates to see him die. Ezekiel tells Gavin it's not too late for him to change.

Morgan, who's somehow made it to the Kingdom on foot shortly after the Saviors did, stands outside the gates and observes. He sees Henry sneaking around in the shadows, but doesn't do anything about it. Suddenly he runs into Carol, and the two decide to liberate the Kingdom.

In the sewers, Michonne helps the rapidly-weakening Carl to a cot. Siddiq brings him some pills to help with his fever. Rick asks if he's a doctor, and he says he was a resident in the before time. Rick asks Carl if that's why he risked his life for Siddiq. He says he simply brought him back because he needed help.

Michonne sees Dwight, who's in the sewer with the Alexandrians for some reason, and demands he make the shelling stop. He says there's nothing they can do but sit tight until the Saviors get bored and go home. Then they can flee to the Hilltop.

Carl asks Michonne to help stop the war with the Saviors. He tells her it doesn't have to be like this, as he knows things can be better. The shelling stops, and the group prepares to move out. Rick says Carl's too weak to be moved, and opts to stay with him. Michonne says she's staying as well. Daryl volunteers to take Judith to the Hilltop. Carl says a tearful goodbye to his sister, telling the uncomprehending toddler to listen to Rick and help show him the way. He then gives her his stupid hat. Daryl stoically nods to him before leaving.

Carol and Morgan begin systematically wiping out the Saviors inside the Kingdom. Ezekiel keeps telling Gavin he can still change. Suddenly Gavin hears gunshots ring out, and rushes Ezekiel into the theater. Carol and Morgan burst in and take out the Saviors with brutal precision. One wounded Savior overpowers Morgan, until he reaches into the man's gut and literally pulls out his intestines (!). Gavin's wounded and takes off running. Morgan calmly goes after him. 

Cut to the beatific future scenes, as Eugene, now back on the side of the angels, offers an apple to Judith.

Smash cut to Rick & Michonne, still digging that grave.

In the sewer, Carl tells Michonne that she's his best friend. He asks to go back to their home. Rick and Michonne help him out of the sewers, and they walk through the ruins of Alexandria. Unfortunately he can't make it any further and collapses (I'm pretty sure their house was destroyed anyway). They take him into what's left of Father Gabriel's church.

There's more heartfelt dialogue, as Carl thanks his father for everything. He confesses to killing a kid back at the prison, and says he regrets it. Rick says it didn't count, as Carl was just a child back then (which, according to the show's timeline, was supposed to be just three years ago, even though Carl looks to be at least eighteen now). Carl says it's easy to kill, and begs Rick to stop the slaughter and figure out a way to make peace with the Saviors.

At the Kingdom, Morgan corners the terrified Gavin, who says killing him won't make Negan go away. Carol and Ezekiel catch up, and tell Morgan he doesn't have to end Gavin. Morgan's determined to do it though, but just as he raises his bo staff, another one jabs through Gavin's throat from behind. He falls forward to reveal Henry killed him.

Carl then starts describing how the world could be, and we see that the flashforwards are actually his version of the future, rather than scenes of the time jump from the comic. This is a bunch of bullsh*t trickery on the part of showrunner Scott Gimple, for which he deserves a punch in the nuts. Rick promises to make Carl's vision a reality, but we all know he's lying.

Carl then reaches for his gun, tells Rick & Michonne he loves them, and says he has to do it himself. They stand outside the church, and jump as they hear the gunshot. They then begin digging Carl's grave.

In Carl's dreamworld, we see Judith run up to a man tending a garden. It's Negan, who warmly greets her.

And we flashforward one last time, to a bloodied Rick sitting under the goddamned stained glass again.

Thoughts:
• In the comic, after the All Out War storyline finished there was a time jump of three years or so. After the jump, Rick sported a beard, wore a prosthetic hook hand (since the comic version lost his to the Governor) and walked with the aid of a cane after the injuries he suffered in a final battle with Negan.

At the beginning of this season, we saw what LOOKED for all the world like a flashforward to life after the time jump. Rick has a beard, Michonne looks happy, Judith is now five or six years old, and a smiling Carl walks through the kitchen.

Wait, what?

Carl dies at the end of this episode. So how can he be alive and well after the time jump? How can our boy Gimple possibly weasel himself out of this seemingly fatal plot hole?

Welp, he does it by backpedaling and saying that we weren't seeing the time jump after all, but rather fantasies concocted by Carl's dying mind. All the idyllic scenes of everyone working together and getting along are nothing more than his hopes and dreams for the future, and not the way things will actually work out. Sigh...

This was nothing more than Gimple flipping off the comic book readers in the audience. By showing Carl in these scenes he made us think were seeing him alive and well after the time jump, all in an effort to keep his death a complete and utter surprise.

My expression after realizing I'd been trolled again by Gimple.

I'm still convinced that the gauzily-shot scenes in the season premiere really were flashforwards, and Carl was never meant to die. But then at some point afterward, Gimple came up with the extremely misguided idea to kill off Carl, and hurriedly came up with the "fantasy" notion to explain away the plot hole he generated. He's just weaselly enough to pull a stunt like that.

• So let me see if I have this straight... in Carl's Utopian vision of the future, his father's apparently suffered some sort of permanent, debilitating injury, and has to walk with the aid of a cane. A cane. In a perfect fantasy world. Got it.

• In one of the interminable flashbacks in the cold open, we see a montage of Carl making the most of the time left to him, as he says goodbye to his friends and plays with Judith. This is all accompanied by Bright Eyes' song At The Bottom Of Everything on the soundtrack.

At one point, the lyrics say, "While my mother waters plants, my father loads his gun. He says death will give us back to god, just like the setting sun." As the last line is sung, Carl takes off his hat and lets the rays of the last sunset he'll ever see wash over his face.
Subtlety, they name is The Walking Dead!

• The opening credits finally finish flashing across the screen at the 15:26 mark. Jesus Christ! That seems excessive. At one point I was wondering if they'd ever stop, and we'd see the director's credit right as the episode ended.

• Apparently the Paris Catacombs are located underneath the small gated community of Alexandria.

I'm by no means a city planner, but I'm pretty sure most small town sewer drains are nowhere near this huge.

• Back in the season premiere Mercy, Rick led a bold attack against the Sanctuary, which resulted in the entire compound being completely surrounded by a massive herd of walkers.

Negan and the Saviors were then trapped inside for the six episodes, as their food and water began running low. Then in the mid-season finale How It's Gotta Be, Negan and his troops somehow mysteriously escaped from the Sanctuary and attacked Alexandria.

We were never given any explanation as to just how the hell they accomplished this miraculous feat. Until now.

In this episode we see a flashback explaining how the Saviors escaped from their surrounded compound. Several of them simply leaned out the upper windows and started firing at the herd. Wow, what a cunning and ingenious plan! And it only took them six episodes to think of it!

Even better, they somehow managed to shoot the walkers so as to form two large walls of undead flesh on either side of the Sanctuary's entrance, so the Saviors could stroll out in relative safety. Amazing!

• Carol and Carl both use "TV silencers" in this episode. You know, the kind that turn the loud bang of a normal gunshot into a barely audible "phiit."

As you might expect, this is not how silencers work in the real world. A normal gunshot clocks in at around 140—160 decibels. That's well into the dangerous end of the scale, that can actually damage your hearing if you're not wearing protection.

Using a silencer will take the sound all the way down to... 120—130 decibels! That's still the equivalent of a jackhammer or a thunderclap. Hardly worth the effort of screwing one onto the end of your gun barrel.

I can't really fault The Walking Dead too much for doing this, as virtually EVERY movie and TV show ever made is guilty of this erroneous trope.

• Gosh, I wonder what Morgan's philosophy is this week? Let's spin the Wheel Of Emotion, shall we? Hmm. Looks like it landed on "Psychotic Killer Mode."

I didn't keep track, but he must have dispassionately killed at least thirty of forty people this week as he and Carol liberated the Kingdom from the Savior occupation force. A far cry from a season or two ago when he refused to kill anyone, even when they were invading Alexandria.

Morgan was actually a compelling and tragic character when he first appeared back in the very first episode, Days Gone Bye. Unfortunately he's been so inconsistently written over the years that it's like there's two versions of him— The Peacenik and The Psycho— and you never know from week to week which one you'll get.

• Jesus Christ, that scene of Morgan reaching into a living man's gut and pulling out his intestines is one of the grossest things I've seen in all eight seasons of this show! And that's saying something!

Heck, even Gavin is horrified by what he does!

• Late in the third act, Rick & Michonne half drag, half carry Carl through the flaming ruins of Alexandria. I wonder where they filmed these scenes? Surely not in the actual subdivision they use for filming!

See, the Alexandria scenes aren't shot on the AMC backlot— they're filmed in an actual, inhabited housing development in Senoa, Georgia (where the bulk of the show's been filmed since Season 3). You can see it here on Google Maps.

Unless AMC somehow convinced the residents of this subdivision to let them set their houses on fire, they couldn't possibly have filmed this scene there. I'm assuming the blazing street is either a detailed miniature or some very convincing CGI.

• So against all logic and reason, Carl dies at the end, choosing to shoot himself in the head before he fully turns. Once again, Gimple doesn't understand simple storytelling and pacing and drags it out over two episodes, which aired two or three months apart. Because of this, any emotional impact Carl's death might have had is completely dissipated.

Once again, my expression during what should have been a heart-wrenching moment.

Gimple claims he included this ill-advised deviation from the comic because Rick needed a major death to jolt him into changing his ways, so Carl needed to go. I fundamentally disagree with that notion, but whatever. 

If Gimple really believed it though and wanted to sacrifice a character, then why not kill off Baby Judith? She's been dead in the comic for years now! She has no storylines to screw up, and her death wouldn't have torpedoed the show the way Carl's will.

• At the very end of the episode we see another glimpse of Carl's fantasy vision of how life could be, even though he's dead at this point and shouldn't be able to imagine anything.

We see Judith run toward a man who's tending a garden. As he spins around, we see the man is actually a shiny, happy Negan, busily working in Alexandria alongside Rick and the others.

Yeah, sorry, Carl. That's not gonna happen.

The Walking Dead Season 8, Episode 8: How It's Gotta Be

Welp, The Walking Dead mid season finale happened.

I've been trying my best this year not to curse on my blog, as there are far more elegant and intelligent ways to express oneself. That said, WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK IS WRONG WITH WALKING DEAD SHOWRUNNER SCOTT FUCKING GIMPLE?

WARNING! SPOILERS INVOLVING A MAJOR CHARACTER'S DEATH FROM THIS POINT ON! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!

For the past few seasons I've made no secret of the fact that I am NOT a fan of Scott Gimple and the many head-scratching creative decisions he's made on The Walking Dead.

I was generally pleased with Gimple when he first took over as showrunner at the beginning of Season 4. He brought a new energy and focus to the series (which had frankly begun growing stale), as he began following the comic book much more closely than previous showrunners. 

Unfortunately, with each subsequent season his artistic choices have become increasingly bizarre and incomprehensible. Under his watch, character motivation has become contradictory or non-existent. He insists on filling every episode with non-linear timelines, to the point where it's impossible to tell what's happening when. Worst of all are his constant "fake-out" deaths, in which a character seemingly dies, only to reappear happy and healthy a few episodes later.

So what's my beef with Gimple this week? It's a big one. Are you ready? He just killed off Carl Grimes, the second longest-running character on the entire goddamned show (after Rick).

I'm so pissed off at Gimple right now I could chew rocks. I hate him with the white hot passion of a thousand exploding suns, and I'm seriously considering dropping the show.

You may be wondering why I'm so upset by this fictional death. After all, it's not like The Walking Dead hasn't killed off major characters before. The show's probably second only to Game Of Thrones in terms of the number of cast members it's offed. In fact just last season the show brutally killed fan-favorite Glenn Rhee, arguably one of the most popular characters on the show. So why didn't I blow my stack then?

Because the Glenn situation was different. He died a gruesome death in the comic, and as such was destined to perish on the show as well. His TV death, while unfortunate, was expected. Not killing him would have thrown a huge monkey wrench into the plot engine.

Carl's a completely different story though. He's still alive and well in the comic to this day, some three years or so after the All Out War storyline. By senselessly killing him off, Gimple just flushed the next three years of comic book continuity right down the shitter. THAT'S why I'm so angry.

See, Carl played a HUGE role in at least two major upcoming comic book storylines. SPOILERS AHEAD! After the All Out War arc, Rick captured Negan and locked him up inside a makeshift Alexandria prison. Carl then struck up a secret friendship with Negan, who took a shine to the lad and began offering him advice. Eventually Carl came to think of Negan as a surrogate father (!).

After that the Alexandrians encountered the Whisperers, a group of deadly weirdos who wore the skins of zombies in order to move unseen among them. Carl had a romantic relationship with the daughter of the Whisperer leader, much to the chagrin of his father.

The comic also seems to be grooming Carl to take over as leader after Rick's inevitably killed off.

With TV Carl now dead, I have no idea how the series can possibly proceed with ANY of these storylines. I really don't see any way it can. A few seasons back, TV Andrea was killed off long before her comic book counterpart was. Michonne then inherited all of Comic Book Andrea's storylines. But Carl has no such analogue on the series though. Who could possibly take over for him? Enid?

To put his senseless death in perspective, imagine if back in Season 1 of Game Of Thrones, the producers had killed off Daenerys Targaryen. Then imagine the problems they'd have going forward with the series without her there to nurture and train her dragons. THAT'S how much Carl's death torpedoes The Walking Dead.

Gimple may well have just shot himself in the foot here, and all for the sake of a ridiculous mid-season climax "shock ending." I simply cannot understand what Gimple was thinking here. Why the hell would he pull such a bone-headed and potentially catastrophic move? 

Most fans believe Carl was killed off because actor Chandler Riggs wanted to leave the show to attend college. That is simply not true. 

In a recent interview, Riggs said that leaving the show was NOT his idea. He admits he was planning on eventually going to college, either once the series had wrapped or by attending classes during the show's down time. Plus he just bought a house in the Atlanta area (where the show's filmed), proving he wasn't planning on going anywhere. The decision to kill off Carl was 100% Gimple's. Riggs didn't even find out he was getting the boot until he was rehearsing Episode 6 (The King, The Widow And Rick)!

According to Riggs, "It was devastating for me and my family because the show has been such a huge part of my life for so long. For a few days, we didn't know what to do." Rigg's father even took to Twitter, where he expressed his outrage in a since-deleted tweet. Said the elder Riggs, “I never trusted Gimple or AMC but Chandler did. I know how much it hurt him. But we do absolutely know how lucky we have been to be a part of it all and appreciate all the love from fans all these years!”

So if Chandler Riggs didn't want to leave, why in the name of Lucille's blood-splattered handle did Gimple kill him off? According to Gimple himself, it was for "story reasons." SPOILERS AHEAD! At the end of the All Out War arc, Rick and Negan have an epic hand-to-hand battle. Rick ends up slitting Negan's throat, but doesn't kill him. There's then a two to three year Time Jump, and we see Negan sitting in a makeshift Alexandria prison. 

Gimple couldn't understand why Rick wanted nothing more than to kill Negan before the TimeJump, but didn't want to after. In order to explain this "hole" as he called it, Gimple decided to make Carl into a humanitarian figure who saw the good in people and believed everyone could learn to live in peace. Having Carl die would then make Rick realize his Gandhi-like son was right, and cause him to spare Negan.

So basically Gimple just killed off a major character, ruined the entire series and pissed off legions of fans, all to fix a very minor plot hole from the comic. Brilliant. 

To make things even worse, there was no "hole" in the comic to begin with! Gimple's version of the storyline is NOT how it actually played out! 

In the REAL comic version of the All Out War storyline, Rick and Negan have an epic hand-to-hand battle. Rick eventually gets the upper hand (heh) and slashes Negan's throat. Negan retaliates by twisting Rick's leg until it snaps (ouch!), and then passes out. Rick refuses to finish him off though, saying he's better than Negan. He then declares the War over. Rick tells Dr. Carson to patch up Negan, and later we see him chained up in the makeshift Alexandria prison. Negan asks Rick what happens next. Rick tells Negan that he'll be forced to watch as Alexandria and the other communities thrive without him. 

See? There was no "hole" that needed filling. Gimple just torpedoed his own series for no good reason! What an incredibly stupid and short-sighted decision. 

If he absolutely had to eliminate a character for shock value, why not kill off Baby Judith? It's not like the show hasn't killed kids before. Plus she died in the comic way back in 2008, so she's been living on borrowed time for years. Killing Judith would satisfy Gimple's bloodlust, it would teach Rick a lesson and best of all, Carl could go on to fulfill his destiny. And it wouldn't tear the show a new asshole.

Unless Gimple's got something epic planned for Episode 9, Carl's death is also a huge letdown. He didn't sacrifice himself to save a bus full of orphans. He wasn't attacked while heroically defending his community or his family. Instead he was accidentally bitten—offscreen, mind you— while walking along with Siddiq two episodes back! Talk about anticlimactic!

Maybe Gimple's decided to stop following the comic book plots so closely, and killing off Carl was his way of announcing that to the audience. I honestly hope this isn't the case. We've seen what happens when he veers away from the comic, and it ain't pretty. That's how we got things like the Grady Bunch story arc and the Garbage Pail Kids, both of which are arguably the WORST additions to the series in its eight year history. Better he should stick to the comic.

You have no idea how angry I am about Carl's death, and how livid I am at Gimple right now. It's to the point where I'm seriously considering not watching the show anymore. I'm not the only one either, as the series' ratings have been steadily plummeting all season. There's even an online petition demanding that AMC fire Gimple from the series before he ruins it altogether! I can't say I disagree. It's clear he doesn't know what he's doing, and doesn't understand the basics of storytelling or script writing. The sooner he's gone, the better.

Just our luck— Scott Gimple appears to be the only male in Hollywood who's never sexually harassed anyone, so he can't be forced to resign in disgrace.

As if the Carl debacle wasn't enough, this entire episode was a mess in terms of editing, pacing and storytelling. How the hell did the Saviors get out of the Sanctuary? How did Rick and Carol escape when the Saviors rammed their SUV, but Jerry didn't? Where the hell did Morgan come from? More on all that below.

WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Plot:
Gimple reeeeeally flashbacks, flashforwards and flashsideways, which makes it hard to write plot summaries. I'll try to simplify things as much as I can.

Rick, Jadis and the Garbage Pail Kids approach the Sanctuary. To Rick's surprise, the courtyard, which was previously filled by a huge herd of walkers, is now completely empty. He calls his snipers on his radio, but no one answers. Suddenly the Sanctuary opens fire. Rick dives for cover, while Jadis and her people hightail it offscreen and out of the episode entirely. Suddenly Carol and Jerry roll up in an SUV, rescue Rick and drive off.

Cut to a FLASHBACK, of Rick and Carl walking along a road. This scene takes place shortly after Carl first encountered Siddiq, way back in Mercy. Carl tells Rick he shouldn't have chased off Siddiq, as eventually everyone's going to have to stop fighting and learn to live in peace. Rick scoffs, but Carl says that's how it's gotta be.

In the present, Rick thinks about Carl's words as he rides along in the SUV. We see Negan whistling his little Savior tune as he also drives somewhere.

Meanwhile, Aaron and Enid need something to do on the show, so to that end they've decided to visit the Oceansiders. Aaron hopes to convince them to join Rick's fight against Negan. I'm sure they'll be happy to help after Rick stole their entire cache of weapons last season. Enid spots a distillery in the distance (?) and tells Aaron to pull in, since they shouldn't arrive at Oceanside empty-handed.

Cut to a bit later, as Aaron drives a distillery truck full of booze and Enid follows behind the car. They stop for the  night near the Oceanside border. During the night they're surrounded by a group of women who say they shouldn't have come. One of them knocks Aaron in the head (I think?), causing Enid to wildly fire her gun. Unfortunately she shoots Natania, the leader of the Oceansiders. It's not clear if she killed her or not.

In Alexandria, Michonne and Daryl prepare for war. Carl sits in his room, ominously writing a letter to his dad. Later we see him lowering supplies into the impossibly spacious sewer system underneath the community. Suddenly, Negan's voice is heard over a bullhorn, as bellows for the gates to be opened, or he'll kill everyone inside. This is at least the third time he's done this since he first appeared last season.

Cut to the rest of the vast Savior army, as they all make their move. Rick, Carol and Jerry drive along as their SUV is rammed by a car full of Saviors. Well, I guess it's the Saviors, as nothing's ever really clear in this episode. In the Kingdom, another group of Saviors invades. King Ezekiel snaps out of his funk just in time to run out of his theater and hide.

Meanwhile, Jesus and Maggie are leading a caravan of vehicles back to the Hilltop. Maggie says it won't be long before the Saviors are forced to surrender, and this ugliness will all be over. Just then they come to a tree blocking the road, and she realizes just how wrong her previous statement was. Suddenly their caravan's surrounded by Saviors, led by Simon. Another Savior brings out a beaten and battered Jerry (?), forcing him to kneel as he holds a gun to his head. Just how the Saviors captured Jerry but apparently not Rick or Carol is left to our imaginations.

Also puzzling is just how the hell the Saviors are suddenly back in force, after being on the ropes for the past four or five episodes. Last we saw of them, their Sanctuary had been invaded by a massive herd of hungry walkers, who were treating the place like a post apocalyptic buffet. Suddenly one episode later the Saviors are back to their old Season 6 tricks.

Anyway, Simon approaches Maggie's car and tells her that even as they speak, the Saviors are taking over Alexandria and the Kingdom. He says they won't be destroying the Hilltop though, because it's a farming community (it is?) and they need it. 

He tells Maggie she can cooperate with him and keep on producing for the Sanctuary, or he can kill her right now in front of all her people. Just to show he means business, he pulls out a coffin and threatens to toss her into it after he kills her. And just to show her he means even more business, he kills a Hilltop redshirt named Neal. Maggie wisely agrees to cooperate. She asks if she can have the coffin to bury Neal in. For some reason, Simon says (heh) yes.

At the Kingdom, Gavin addresses the citizens and say that from now on everything they have belongs to Negan (which has been the case all along, right?). Gavin gives them five minutes to turn over Ezekiel, or he'll start killing them one by one.

Cut to Ezekiel setting fire to the Kingdom's fuel supply, which causes a huge explosion. In the confusion, the Saviors scatter to try and put out the blaze or something. Ezekiel pulls up in a school bus to rescue his people. He gets out as the bus drives through the gates to safety. He sees Carol approaching the gate (how the hell she got there, we'll never know) and locks her out. He tells her to save his people and runs back toward the Saviors.

Back in Alexandria, Carl helps everyone sneak into the sewers, or out the back gate or something. Honestly it's not quite clear where they're going. Michonne says they should stay and fight, but Carl says to let Negan have Alexandria, and they'll start over somewhere else.

Meanwhile, Negan's still waiting impatiently at the gate, yelling for Rick to come out so he can torture and kill him. Carl appears on top of the fence and says Rick's not home. He offers himself to Negan as payment for what Rick did to the Sanctuary. He says he doesn't want to die, but he will if it'll end the war and bring about peace.

Carl's words actually impress Negan. Just when it looks like the two of them might reach an understanding, Daryl, Michonne and the rest of the Alexandrian convoy bursts through the wall. Negan roars with anger, thinking Carl was just trying to distract him so the Alexandrians could escape. Carl tries to tell him that's not true, as he really does want an end to all the fighting. Negan yells, "Bombs away!" and the Saviors start lobbing extremely powerful mortars into Alexandria, blowing up dozens of houses. Carl half slides, half falls down the ladder and seemingly hurts his ankle. He limps away from the fence, tossing smoke bombs along the way to cover his escape.

Back in the Sanctuary, Eugene enters the infirmary and wakes up the ailing Father Gabriel. He's apparently had a change of heart, because he tells Gabriel and Doctor Carson this is their big chance to escape the Sanctuary and make it to the Hilltop. He tells them he may have incapacitated a guard (by giving him laxatives) and "accidentally" drops the keys to a getaway car next to them before hurrying back to his room.

Outside Alexandria, Daryl, Tara and Rosita pull off into the woods. A pursuing Savior caravan approaches, led by Dwight and Laura. Dwight stops in the middle of the road, which puzzles Laura. Just then she realizes what's going on, as Daryl and the others open fire on the Saviors. Dwight ducks for cover, shooting many of his own people himself. Laura shoots Dwight in the arm and gets away. The rest of the Saviors are all killed.

Daryl, Tara and Rosita approach Dwight, who's their Savior mole. He tells them that Eugene's the one who orchestrated their impressive and magical escape from the walker-infested Sanctuary. They take Dwight and all the Savior weapons and leave.

Inside the Kingdom, Ezekiel surrenders to the Saviors. Morgan, who's apparently a teleporter, suddenly appears outside the gate and hears what's happening.

Maggie and her caravan return to the Hilltop. Amazingly they're apparently on the honor system here, as neither Simon or any of the other Saviors accompany them. An enraged Maggie marches to the makeshift prison, drags out Asshole Savior (who we last saw in The King, The Widow And Rick) and brutally executes him. She then has his body stuffed into the coffin, writes "WE HAVE 38 MORE. STAND DOWN" on the side and tells Jesus to leave it where Simon can find it. Um... that seems like a really bad idea, but what do I know about running a community in a zombie apocalypse?

In Alexandria, Negan and his men finally break down the gates, and have a good old time blowing up the various buildings inside. He tells his men to find Carl and bring him back alive.

Rick enters Alexandria, having come from... somewhere. He enters his house (one of the few still standing) and finds Negan inside. The two have an epic battle, as Negan nearly brains Rick several times with Lucille. He tells Rick he plans to turn Carl into one of his top lieutenants. Rick reaches for his gun, but Negan pushes him out the window. Rick falls to the ground below, as Negan escapes.

Michonne stumbles through the ruins of Alexandria. A Savior tries to grab her, but she kills him, and then keeps on killing him as she slices him into tiny pieces. Rick finds her and they embrace. She and Rick enter the sewers, where the remnants of Alexandria are hiding, including Dwight and Siddiq. Rick's relieved when he spots Carl and Judith.

His relief turns to horror though, when Carl lifts his shirt to reveal he's been bitten on the stomach and is going to die. Apparently he was bitten a few weeks back when he made friends with Siddiq, and there's nothing anyone can do to save him.

God damn you to Hell, Scott Gimple.

Thoughts:
• Honestly I'm so pissed at Scott Gimple right now that I don't even want to write about the show anymore. I'll try and scrape up a few thoughts that I wrote down during the episode.

• We Have A Title!

As Rick & Carl are walking along in a flashback, they have the following conversation:

Carl: "Why are we fighting them? So it isn't like how they want it, with everyone working for them, everyone living for them? We're fighting so it's all of us working together for something more than just killing other people."

Rick: "Well, you think we're gonna be out there, picking strawberries with Negan?"

Carl: "If that's what it takes. It's more than just hope. What, are we just gonna kill all of them? Finding some way forward, that's harder. That's something more. Dad, that's how it's got to be."

• I think I'm starting to understand why Rick so desperately wants the Garbage Pail Kids and the Oceanside residents to join his cause. It's so they can serve as redshirts and cannon fodder in the upcoming war with Negan rather than his own people.

• I'm growing very weary of the "Concerned Cast Faces" montages in nearly every episode this season.

• I'm very confused by nearly everything that happens in this episode. Last week Negan himself declared that the Sanctuary was on the ropes. They were running out of food & water, and a massive walker herd shuffled inside and started chowing down on the residents.

• Kudos to actress Deborah May, aka Natania of the Oceanside clan (who first appeared in the Season 7 episode Swear). She got paid to show up for literally two seconds in this episode!

• As Carl slowly dies from his secret walker bite, he writes a farewell letter to his dad. I was going to make a snarky remark about the weird-ass way he writes "Dad" on the envelope, which very much resembles the penmanship of a five year old.

But then it occurred to me— of course Carl would have atrocious penmanship! He was seven or eight years old when the zombie apocalypse started up. He probably hasn't had the time nor the need to write much since, so his writing skills are likely frozen at kid level! It makes perfect sense.

Do I think the producers intentionally included this subtle little character trait in the episode? No. No, I do not. They're not talented enough to think of something like that. But it does accidentally fit in nicely with the world of the series.

• Credit where it's due— it was a nice bit of misdirection to have Carl fall off the ladder after talking to Negan. That way the audience thinks that's the cause of his subsequent limp, and we don't suspect he's been weakened by a walker bite.

• Not that it matters now, but how hard would it have been for one of the characters to scavenge a drug store and find an eye patch for poor Carl, so he didn't have to constantly wear that dirty bandage around his head? Were they afraid he'd look too much like the Governor?

• We don't see any zombies in this episode until the forty nine minute mark. That's gotta be some kind of record!

• Apparently there's a vast network of magical seven foot tall sewer pipes underneath Alexandria, which are perfect for hiding in during invasions by insane warlords.

• As I said earlier, this episode is a narrative nightmare, as absolutely nothing in it makes any sense. Watching it made me feel like I'd somehow missed a couple of important episodes. Here's just an example of the puzzling plotlines:

— When we last saw the Sanctuary, it had been overrun by a huge herd of walkers, who were munching on everyone inside. Suddenly in this episode, the Saviors have somehow escaped their doomed Sanctuary organized a large thre-pronged attack on all the "good" communities. 

So how the hell did they escape? The only explanation we get is that Eugene came up with a solution to save them. One that is apparently none of the audience's business, as we never find out exactly what it was he did. There was a vague line or two about using music to draw the walkers away, but it was pretty weak sauce. I'm betting his plan was kept a mystery because not even the writers know how the hell he did it.

An even better question— where did all these additional Savior troops come from? There are suddenly hundreds of them again. They couldn't have come from any of Negan's outposts, because Rick and his people have been systematically wiping them out all season. So how could Negan have another vast army at his command in this episode?

This isn't just a minor little glitch, it's a MAJOR plot hole. We really needed an episode to show us how Negan's army escapes and rebuilds itself.
— At one point Rick, Carol and Jerry are driving along in their SUV. Suddenly their rammed by an unseen car, which presumably belongs to the Saviors. 

A bit later we see Simon's group has captured Jerry and is threatening to execute him. Sometime after that, Carol shows up at the gates of the Kingdom, just in time for Ezekiel to lock her out. And at the end of the episode, Rick somehow wanders back into the ruins of Alexandria.

So how did Rick and Carol escape from the Saviors, but Jerry was captured? Once again, I don't think the writers could figure it out either, so they just decided to gloss over the matter and completely ignore how it happened.

We've never been sure just where these communities are in relation to one another, as the show's always played fast and loose with its geography. Sometimes characters can go from one community to another on foot, other times it takes hours to drive between them. Never has that been more true than in this mystifying episode. 

— Simon intercepts Maggie's caravan, shoots one of her people to make a point, then tells her to go back to the Hilltop and start producing food for the Sanctuary. A bit later we see her caravan arrive at the Hilltop— alone! The Saviors don't send an escort along to make sure they go back, nor do they post a couple guards to prevent anyone from trying to escape. Apparently Simon's a very trusting soul, and assumes Maggie will do exactly as she's told.

• The scene where Simons confronts Maggie was either an example of some of the WORST editing and blocking in the history of TV, or was a lame attempt at misdirection. I'm honestly not sure which. 

Simon leans into the window of Maggie's SUV and threatens her. Note how he's on the passenger side of the vehicle, looking in at her.

We then cut to a shot of a Savior holding Jerry hostage, clearly in front of Maggie's SUV.

Simon then raises up, points his gun to his right, which means he's aiming it squarely at Jerry. He then pulls the trigger.

We then see that Simon actually shot Neal, a Hilltop redshirt who was sitting in the back seat of the SUV behind Maggie (!).

See what I mean? How the hell did Simon aim at the front of the car and hit someone behind him? It's obvious that the producers wanted us to think for a second that Simon had shot Jerry, which would have been another big shock. Because of the way the scene was blocked, they couldn't figure out a clever way to fake that though, so they just had Simon kill Neal by aiming at Jerry and hoped we wouldn't notice that it didn't make any sense.

• Many viewers were understandably puzzled by the final shot of the episode, where it was revealed Carl'd been bitten on the stomach by a walker. There was no such attack anywhere in this episode, so when did it happen?

Well, it didn't happen here. He was actually bitten two episodes ago, in The King, The Widow And Rick. We just didn't realize it then. Back in that episode I said the following:

Carl decides to bring Siddiq back to Alexandria. Along the way they run into some walkers, and Carl suggests they "free their souls." He quickly gets in over his head and is almost bitten several times before taking them out. Well, that was all... weird and pointless!

Looks like that scene wasn't so pointless after all!

At one point, Carl's attacked by two walkers at the same time. He shoves one away, while trying to deal with the other. A second later, the one he shoved moves its head down toward Carl's side. We don't see it clearly, but I'm betting this is the exact moment he's bitten.

Carl shoots the two walkers in the head. He wearily raises up, and his right hand moves down to his side, almost as if he's checking for.. injuries.

He then rises up, as Siddiq asks if he's OK. A very stunned-looking Carl stands motionless for a few seconds, then mutters, "I'm OK."

In hindsight it's obvious he knew right at that moment he was a dead man. It didn't register to the audience at the time of course, because no one in their right mind would ever think the show would kill off such an important character who still had so much more to do.

• By stupidly killing off Carl, Gimple didn't just ruin the next three years' worth of comic storylines, he also nullified a big part of his own work as well! The Season 8 premiere Mercy, like all of Gimple's scripts, is filled with multiple timelines, flashbacks and even flashforwards.

At one point we see an older, gray haired Rick wearing an obviously fake beard waking up in bed. This scene is obviously supposed to be set after the infamous Time Jump from the comic.

In this flashforward, Rick and his family are apparently living an idyllic life, after all the Negan unpleasantness is over. Rick's "wife" Michonne is there, along with a Baby Judith, who's no longer a baby. Oddly enough Carl even walks by in this scene (Sorry about the picture quality here. Carl walks by the camera very quickly, and this was the best shot of him I could capture. It definitely IS him though).

So thanks to Gimple, this scene obviously can no longer have anything to do with the Time Jump, unless that's supposed to be the ghost of Carl. Apparently this was all just a dream or fantasy Rick was having at some point. 

Admittedly the scene is very dreamlike, as it's shot in gauzy soft focus, complete with overexposed heavenly lighting. Does this mean that Gimple was planning on killing Carl from the beginning of the season? I doubt it. The scene fits the Time Jump so well, I can't imagine it was ever supposed to be anything but. I don't believe for a minute that Gimple would shoot a dream sequence that looked just like the Time Jump just to troll the audience. He's not capable of that kind of subtlety.

So what does Carl's death mean for the Time Jump? Are they even going to bother with it on the show now? Is there any point in doing it without Carl?

• So that's The Walking Dead mid season finale. Tune in next year to see if I even bother watching the show after this.