Keep Going

With only one episode left before the midseason hiatus, The Walking Dead continued building up to the midseason finale with the newest installment “Sing Me a Song,” and let’s just say that things aren’t looking too great for Negan.

The episode, which is split between a number of groups, opens with Michonne.  She is back at the place that refueled her hatred for Negan and her determination to put an end to his rule: the burnt mattresses.  After killing dozens of walkers and effectively using their bodies to create a roadblock, she manages to take a Savior hostage, so to speak, and demands to be taken to Negan.  Rosita has as similar determination, and she makes Eugene take her to the building that has all the potential to become a bullet factory.  She wants that bullet, and she wants to kill Negan.  That’s two who are actively pursuing Negan’s death.

Meanwhile, two other groups have entirely different ideas as to how to deal with their current situation.  Spencer, while not happy with it, believes it best to do as Negan says.  He goes with Father Gabriel to look for supplies (Gabriel’s “it makes you a tremendous shit” response to Spencer’s badmouthing of Rick instantly made me like him), and once Gabriel gets out of the car and walks away, he continues on his own.  He manages to scavenge medicine, water purifiers, and more.  Rick and Aaron are on a similar mission, and after following a series of signs, they find a houseboat surrounded by a lake of walkers.  They need the supplies, though.

While those four groups are doing their own thing, much of the episode focuses on Carl.  When we last saw him, he was in the back of one of the trucks heading back to the Sanctuary with Jesus at his side, and when we see him again this episode, he’s letting Jesus jump out of the truck and staying behind.  He’s going straight to the source of the problem, and it leads to him getting a special grand tour of The Sanctuary by the man himself, Negan.  Carl gets to see for himself just how The Sanctuary operates, and as an audience, we get to see just how deplorable of a man Negan truly is.

He is taken to Negan’s harem first.  We’ve heard Negan speaking about having wives before, but we actually got to see them, and after learning that one of his wives slept with another man, we get to see the brutal punishment of being ironed (yes, it is quite literally having a hot iron put directly to your face).  Next Carl gets to see Negan’s room, and it’s where his punishment takes place.  For the first time since he was shot, Carl removes his bandage on screen, and he is forced to endure Negan’s taunting.  Then he is forced to sing.  Negan doesn’t kill him, though, instead he returns him back to Alexandria where he makes Carl return the favor and take him on a tour of his house.  The next thing we know, he’s sitting on the porch sipping lemonade with Judith in his lap.

I think that Carl said it best: “If you knew anything, you would kill us.”  While Negan very much is in control and has forced everyone to be under his rule by making threats and enforcing punishments, he is very much unaware of the resistance rising against him.  This entire season we have seen this resistance, most of it coming from the women, and despite knowing what the consequences of their actions could be, they are willing to risk it if It means having a chance to kill Negan.  Will this all come to fruition in the midseason finale?

Bullets:

• “Sing Me a Song” was the episode of comic lovers dreams. Scene after scene was pulled directly from the books that the show is based on, and fans couldn’t have been happier.
• I really am just having such a hard time liking Spencer.
• The scene in Negan’s harem made my skin crawl. It was disgusting and it showed how twisted of a person Negan and his way of thinking is.  He may not be hitting these women, which he calls his wives, and he may be keeping them well fed and giving them the best of what the Sanctuary has to offer, but what in return they are expected to bend to Negan’s every will.  They are his.  They aren’t their own persons.  They belong to Negan.
• Carl Poppa made an appearance, guys!
• In all honesty, Carl is such a badass. He literally has no fear.  He’s just a teenager and he has more guts than any of the adults.  He went into Sanctuary and killed two of Negan’s men, and then he even had the audacity to tell Negan to jump out of a window!
• Okay, but like, who slipped that note under the door for Daryl? Dwight?  Sherry?  And will Daryl be able to escape The Sanctuary?!
• Are a few characters acting too prematurely by trying to retaliate against Negan? Will it end badly?