The Walking Dead Review – Episode 812: The Key

TV Description: Hilltop's leadership faces a difficult dilemma after the arrival of unexpected visitors; Rick comes face to face with an adversary.

[Warning: Spoilers Ahead and Some Swears]

PREVIOUSLY ON THE WALKING DEAD

The survivors of Alexandria make their way through a walker-filled swamp to Alexandria. During this excursion Tara tries to kill Dwight, which leads to Dwight reuniting with the Saviors, but keeping Tara hidden and safe. Meanwhile Gabriel has become partially blind from the infection, yet through some luck he and Doctor Carson manage to find a ride to Hilltop. Just as they’re about to make their escape though they are captured and Carson is killed. At the Hilltop, Maggie is conflicted on what to do with her prisoners and Morgan struggles with telling Henry the truth of who killed his brother, Ben.

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Before we fully begin this review, I have to say that after viewing this episode of the show it fully hit me what was becoming of The Walking Dead. Multiple times this week I almost broke down in tears thinking at how ridiculous, how stupid, and how uncaring Scott Gimple and his team of writers were to the show this season. Whenever I’ve rewatched these episodes I’ve felt dirty for watching them, something I’ve never had before in any season of the show. That idiotic showrunner murdered this show, murdered one of the top television shows in America. At times I’ve even wondered if would be better to just cancel the show because I’m starting to hate watching this show, but I can’t let it go. It’s like having to kill a beloved friend or pet, I just can’t let The Walking Dead go. I’m going to go more into these thoughts in the season finale review of the show, but yeah, this season is trying its best to ruin the whole show. It’s disgusting.

Putting all that hate away for another day, this episode, just like much of this season, has some great moments in it, but also has moments that just castrate the episode and some of our memorable cast of characters. Just when I thought the show was getting back into a proper groove I get bullshit thrown at me. In the end it’s hard to decide whether we fans can pass this episode off or not. So let’s look at it and come to a better decision.

Calm Before Resuming

Our episode starts off right where the last one ended, with the Saviors coating their weapons in walker guts. Mostly melee weapons and arrows, but even so it was chilling to watch. This idea to use the walker guts to infect the enemy is, while disgusting and extremely questionable in terms of morality, a brilliant and effective tactic. Not only does it have extremely damaging to enemy moral, but it means even just a small scratch can bring about death or illness, eventually leading to reanimation if not dealt with quickly. Negan wants to lay down the law for a final time, to show this resistance what happens when you screw with him. Granted it’s really twisted to think that’s going to make them give up peacefully, but I can’t help it, I find it a perfect move from the Saviors.

Meanwhile at the Hilltop Daryl confronts Rick over his actions in the first half of this season, which allowed for the Saviors to get free. The thing is though that Daryl’s actions were already so out of character and so destructive towards the goals of the resistance and the plan that I wouldn’t accept that apology. Nor would a lot of fans if they were in Rick’s position. I understand the intention, but what was done before can’t be so easily forgotten. Immediately after this confrontation they both decide to head out with the scouts to keep an eye out for Negan. And low and behold, here come the Saviors.

Rick vs Negan

When I first watched these parts of the episode I overall loved it. There was intensity, walkers, a flaming Lucille (we’ll get to that in a bit), and some very angry (genuine anger, not just annoyance) from Negan at Rick. Looking back at it after analysis those parts are still great, but there are other parts in this battle that just hurt to watch. This bad stuff was so bad it makes me want to wrap myself in a blanket and cry over the idiocy this show has suddenly contracted.

The beginning of this fight starts with Rick chasing Negan in a car, when he should have followed the plans to distract the Saviors to bide more time for Hilltop, until Negan’s car crashes. Negan hardly gets a scratch on him from it, instantly raising a red flag. After that we get another red flag with Rick unloading a full AK rifle clip at Negan and either just hitting the car or missing every shot. Take a moment of silence to digest that please because we have seen Rick shoot the Governor from a pretty good ways away with this Colt Python, gun down people at Terminus, and fight off the Saviors when they attacked Alexandria in season 7. And yet he misses every shot at a fleeing man from a distance closer than any of those fights. And just before you thought it couldn’t get any worse, he tosses the gun away when it still has a clip full of bullets in it. That one scene… It’s like a chunk of the show just died. I just can’t understand something so stupid can be put down on paper, with the writer saying, “Man, people are going to love this scene!”

With that… horror of a start over, Rick follows Negan into a building and after some fantastic fails from Negan (which I won’t go into because enough red flags have been raised over this fight), he falls from the ledge of a two story balcony into the basement. And gets up much more easily than should be possible. You can see where I am going at with this part. But thankfully we get some great action with Rick finding a dropped Lucille and lighting it on fire to get Negan to come after him. A flaming, barb wire wrapped bat, just very image of that made me cry out in joy during my viewings of this episode. With that we get Negan charging at Rick, walkers showing up, and just plain awesome fighting. Neither human characters gets hit by Lucille and it can be a bit cluttered on screen with the compressed set and the walkers, but even so I loved this part of the fight! Action packed and blood pumping! Once all this action ends though we find out Negan has vanished somehow. We don’t know where, but now that he’s gone Rick heads back to Hilltop, where some interesting developments are occurring.

The New Arrivals

When Rick came back at the end of the last episode I thought he was going to be the only one who brought us shit this episode. I was wrong. For you see Maggie, who we at first glance loved how badass she was becoming, has gone overboard and is on the edge of turning into a cold-hearted monster like the Governor, expect with more story flaws. For instance, isn’t Maggie pregnant? Did season 6 end with Rick and the gang rushing to Hilltop because of a pregnancy issue? And yet in this episode we see her go out with just three people protecting her? We need to see more of her pregnant or else say she got an abortion or miscarriage because while pregnant women can be badass, she’s been pregnant for at least four months. She needs to be careful with herself and the child inside her.

So her story arc in this episode revolves around her encountering a small group of people, led by a woman named Georgie. On first glance you instantly think she’s got dark motives. I mean, anyone who dresses in a clean suit in a zombie apocalypse is definitely out of place. This unease of her is also increased when she asks for food and phonographic records in exchange for information. What kind of person asks for records in a zombie apocalypse? I can understand why Maggie would treat them with suspicious and consider killing them off.

But Maggie, what would Glenn think of this? What would your former husband, the man who risked his life to find and protect, think of that decision or your decisions with the Savior prisoners? He definitely would not approve and would try hard to remind you of your humanity. Thinking of that and how venomous Maggie has become this season hurts her character. We know she wants to avenge Glenn, but she’s become so distrustful of others and has lost the idea to build a better world with others. Again, it’s understandable why she would have them questioned more (I myself would send them away at least or keep them at Hilltop until the battle is over (for both our safeties)), but this was just unnerving.

Thankfully Michonne has kept Carl’s words to heart and tells Maggie to see what they have to offer the Hilltop. However we had Enid saying they should kill them and take their stuff. Now wait a minute Enid, didn’t a few episodes ago you tell Oceanside to spare you because if they didn’t your people would go after and kill them? Hypocritical aren’t we? I mean she’s already not been a fun character in the show, but this is another bad jab of the knife that is bad character development. I know again that it’s supposed to show two sides, but maybe another character should have taken the other side instead of her.

In the end, though it’s not that surprising, Maggie takes the deal and gives them food and some records for the information. What is surprising though is what Georgie does when she gets handed the supplies: She gives more food back and still gives them the knowledge. And what knowledge it is, for it’s a bunch of documents on how to create turbines, windmills, aqua ducts, and more! My mouth was agape at how much information Georgie was giving to the Hilltop, it’s basically everything to build a lasting community. Before she leaves Georgie does say that this isn’t a gift and that she will return one day to see how well the knowledge given has been used.

This addition of Georgie is great, giving us a new character that reminds me Jesus: Open, smiling, and got some positive survival qualities to them. But unlike Jesus I’m not so trusting of her. She might actually be a bad person, but another possibility is that if she’s from a community that’s capable of giving away all this tech to strangers (though Georgie could tell they weren’t that bad of people), this could mean that her community could have a lot more to it than most others. Maybe they have enough of that technology and people able to manage it to give it away or maybe they have so many people that they have a literal army to protect the place. The idea of a group with more soldiers than the Saviors is just frightening to think about.

Simon and Dwight

Throughout all this conflict we have Simon and Dwight discussing Negan. They discuss Negan’s plan, what to do, the faults they see in the plan, and of course Negan himself. Simon was more open in his distrust of the plan, viewing the resistance as untamable. Dwight, still a spy for Rick, doesn’t mention his betrayal, but reveals as much as he can how about his hate towards his boss. Throughout their first conversation we hear how Simon respects Dwight for the hard decisions he has made, despite how Negan treated him in the past, something that shows a hint of humanity and caring in Simon.

When Negan is lured away from his people Simon takes charge, doing so very effectively, almost like he was the previous leader of the Saviors before Negan arrived. Seeing him take over kept my eyes on the screen, wondering what Simon was going to do next. Well, he goes off to search for Negan with Dwight while the soldiers wait and remain calm. This is when we get a big decision out Dwight, as Simon continues to explain what he would do if he was in charge, killing these enemies to return for killing his own people. It reminds me a lot of Rick during his time after the prison and now, showing just how dark and off the path our protagonists are going. Dwight though, having seen the error of the Saviors, makes a weird decision that I’m still scratching my head over: He follows Simon, lighting Negan’s destroyed car on fire to show he’s no longer one of his men.

That scene is a strange one to me because it makes me wonder whose side Dwight is on. Is he still with Rick, but trying to hide his intentions from Simon? Is he back with the Saviors? Or does he see a new middle road, one with the kindness of the communities, but with the clear sense of purpose and strength of the Saviors? I’m so curious as to where Dwight is going in this story. Whatever happens with him, it’ll be with Simon and the Saviors. When both return they keep the Saviors united in their goal, once more with Simon taking charge in an appealing way. There’s going to be trouble still, but at least without Negan.

Or so I thought. In the final scene of the episode, we see Negan in a car with a wound on his head. And next to him is Jadus, driving with a cold, furious expression on his face. She knocks him out with a pistol whip after he makes a quip towards her, making my heart almost go into overdrive on what Jadus has planned for Negan. It’s going to be crazy, that’s for sure.

Overall Analysis

So how’s this episode of The Walking Dead? Well it’s not awful, but it’s definitely got its problems. These new characters give us something different, something that makes them stand out and instantly attracts our attention. They are still questionable in motivation, but that also makes them more interesting and makes me more excited to see them in the future. The close combat fight with Negan was also very fun to watch and got my pumped, but beyond these two big moments there was a lot of bad in this episode. Negan was too invulnerable, Rick was once more a dumbass, Maggie was too cruel, and it was just a mess with these problems and more. It might be time for us fans to just grit our teeth and just wrap up the season. I give this episode of The Walking Dead a 6 out of 10.