The Walking Dead: Hearts Still Beating

First Aired December 11th, 2016.

Daryl (played by Norman Reedus) escapes his cell in The Sanctuary while Negan (played by Jeffery Dean Morgan) continues to make himself at home in Alexandria. Tensions run high as Carl (played by Chandler Riggs) and others are forced to tolerate Negan’s presence.

Rick (played by Andrew Lincoln) and Aaron (played by Ross Marquand) fight their way across a lake filled with walkers to reach a houseboat with supplies for The Saviors, unknowingly being watched by someone. Gregory (played by Xander Berkeley) finds his authority at Hilltop challenged when people begin to look up to Maggie (played by Lauren Cohan) and Sasha (played by Sonequa Martin-Green) for their heroic actions. Carol (played by Melissa McBride) and Morgan (played by Lennie James) are asked by one of The Kingdom’s residents to convince King Ezekiel (played by Khary Payton) to strike back against The Saviors. However, they both refuse to get involved and disrupt the shaky truce The Kingdom has with The Saviors. Rosita (played by Christian Serratos) confesses to Father Gabriel (played by Seth Gilliam) her plan to kill Negan. She believes she should have died when he first appeared, but Gabriel convinces her otherwise. Spencer (played by Austin Nichols) attempts to gain favor with The Saviors by giving up lots of supplies and tries to rekindle his fling with Rosita.

I can’t figure out if Negan stirs up trouble to assert his authority or if he’s hoping people will react so he can use it as an excuse to maim and/or kill someone. Either way, his constant one-liners continue to entertain (a favorite was Negan saying Lucille is hungry and setting a place for “her” at the table). But the way Negan continues to push people, it won’t be long before they start fighting back. The sooner the better because seeing characters like Rick and Carol being so demure and submissive is not as entertaining as when they’re badass fighters. The extended runtime was obviously for all the side stories in Hilltop and with characters like Rosita or Spencer. It took a few seasons, but Rosita is finally starting to come into her own as a character instead of being another familiar face in the crowd. Gregory and Spencer are both competing hard to be the show’s biggest jerk, but Spencer wins that title. Sure, Gregory is an idiot and unbelievably rude (denying a pregnant woman food? Wow.) but Spencer is actively trying to take out Rick, so he wins by a landslide.

Daryl meets up with Jesus (played by Tom Payne) and after Daryl kills a guard, they steal his keys and escape The Sanctuary. Michonne (played by Danai Gurira) continues to force the captive Savior to drive her to Negan, but sees they’re outnumbered; at the woman’s urging, Michonne kills her and returns to Alexandria. Rick and Aaron return to Alexandria, but when The Saviors find a threatening note in the supplies, they assume it was written by Rick and beat up Aaron as Rick watches. Spencer meets with Negan and says Rick is the reason his family is dead and urges Negan to put him in charge instead. In response, Negan tells Spencer he has no guts and proceeds to gut him in front of everyone. Enraged, Rosita shoots Negan, but the bullet hits Lucille; when Rosita refuses to admit who made the bullet, he has Olivia (played by Ann Mahoney) killed. Before anyone else is shot, Eugene (played by Josh McDermitt) admits he made the bullet and Negan takes Eugene with him. Michonne finds Rick mourning and says they still need to fight back. And after Negan’s show of brutality, Rick agrees with her.

Michonne kidnapping that Savior turned out to be a complete waste, clearly it was just a means to give her something to do in the episode. It’s also baffling how she asked Michonne to kill her out of the blue, was she tired of living? Spencer was excited to talk with Negan as if he was going on a job interview and fittingly it ended with him disemboweled. He was a spoiled brat, and he deserved it, but shockingly Rosita decided to use her bullet to avenge Spencer of all people. Even crazier is that she missed when she was maybe ten feet away from Negan. We all knew that bullet wouldn’t connect, but that she missed from such close range is unbelievable. Olivia was a sweet lady, but really all we lost was a familiar face in the crowd among the many residents of Alexandria. But all of this was enough to finally convince Rick to fight The Saviors or die trying. There was always going to be a point when Rick and the others were pushed too far. Although, aside from Rosita, I doubt anyone was broken up over Spencer; it was Olivia and Aaron’s beatdown that did it.

Rick and the others go to Hilltop, and are reunited with Daryl and Maggie, and everyone shares a happy reunion. Rick reiterates his plan to fight back against Negan and they make fight plans. That night, the man who watched Rick and Aaron gather supplies is shown looking into Alexandria through binoculars. Everyone better enjoy the reunion, because things are about to get bad and some of them may not make it out alive. The mystery person has found Alexandria; it’s unlikely he/she is friendly, since people who skulk around in the shadows rarely are. But we have to wait a few months to find out.

Quotes/Thoughts

“It’s giving up everything, right up until your own life. But either your heart’s beating, or it isn’t. Your loved ones’ hearts are beating, or they aren’t. We take what they give us so that we can live.”

Nobody seemed to hate Negan’s spaghetti, but, then again, who is going to tell a murderous sociopath they didn’t like their cooking?

“I’m not going to kill him today, I’m going to find the way that we win.”

I wonder how often Rick and the others get a sense of déjà vu when they encounter people like Negan?

If you enjoyed Manny’s review, you can find the rest of his work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow him on Twitter @KN_Manny.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Friday Fiction: Snowfall In The Living Room
• “It Came From The Archives” Doctor Who Special Reviews: The Church on Ruby Road
• Review: Lucky Girl, How I Became A Horror Writer by M. Rickert
• Friday Fiction: Frozen Army
• Foundations: The 5 Best Artifact Cards