The Walking Dead: Sing Me a Song

First Aired December 4th, 2016.

Jesus (played by Tom Payne) leaves a trail from the Saviors truck he and Carl (played by Chandler Riggs) stowed away on. But when Jesus bails out, Carl stays behind with a rifle and opens fire once the truck stops and tries to kill Negan (played by Jeffery Dean Morgan), but Carl is quickly captured.

Negan demonstrates his authority to Carl by showing him how everyone kneels and is subservient to him. He then introduces Carl to his “wives” and questions Sherry (played by Christine Evangelista) whether rumors that someone slept with one of his wives are true. She confirms this, but begs he show mercy. He confronts the woman and after subtly threatening her and her loved ones, she professes her “love” for Negan and agrees to never cheat again. Daryl (played by Norman Reedus) is shocked to see Carl, but they are kept from being able to talk to each other. Meanwhile, Rick (played by Andrew Lincoln) and Aaron (played by Ross Marquand) search for supplies to give the Saviors. Spencer (played by Austin Nichols) and Father Gabriel (played by Seth Gilliam) do the same and Spencer admits that he hates Rick. He believes Rick is responsible for the death of his family and for bringing the Saviors to Alexandria. Spencer admits he hopes Rick doesn’t make it back alive, and, after chiding Spencer, Father Gabriel walks back alone.

Carl had Negan in his sights but didn’t want to kill anyone else but Negan, and didn’t shoot because those Saviors were innocent bystanders, right? This episode delves further into the twisted mind of Negan; what’s really scary is in his mind his actions are that of a “loving” husband. Any thug can kill, but Negan prefers to psychologically torture people; they’re more useful alive and scared than dead, which is the only reason Carl wasn’t shot on the spot. Normally seeing very little of Daryl in one episode would suck, but seeing how tortured Daryl was and how powerless he was to help Carl were powerful scenes.  It wasn’t long ago that Gabriel was the person plotting behind Rick’s back, now all of a sudden Gabriel is much easier to tolerate. Although if Gabriel treats this conversation like confession and keeps Spencer’s dissension to himself, he’ll be inviting trouble against Rick and lose any credit he’s earned.

Negan tells Carl that he can’t let the death of his two men go unpunished and, to start, makes him take off his bandages to see his missing eye as humiliation. But when Carl starts to cry, Negan unexpectedly shows compassion and apologizes, saying it’s easy to forget Carl is only a kid. He then forces Carl to sing for him while he menacingly swings his bat Lucille around the room. Negan then uses an iron to burn the face of the man who slept with his wife while everyone watches. Rosita (played by Christian Serratos) forces Eugene (played by Josh McDermitt) to make her a bullet, determined to kill Negan and get revenge. Michonne (played by Danai Gurira) captures a female Savior and demands to be taken to Negan. Carl threatens Negan that they will eventually kill him. Surprisingly, Negan decides to return Carl to Alexandria and decides to wait for Rick to return. While locked in his cell, someone slips Daryl the key with a note telling him to leave.

That gaping hole in Carl’s face was pretty gross, it’s the kind of thing that freaks you out but you still kind of want to stick your finger in it. This unexpected compassion from Negan was clearly meant to show some depth to a character who until now has done nothing but maim, murder, and intimidate. Although forcing Carl to sing and burning half a man’s face off in the next scene did overshadow that newfound compassion. This episode was nearly twice as long as normal and featured many standalone scenes with characters like Michonne or Rosita that really don’t add to the story. But with the next episode being the midseason finale, these scenes were all meant to set up what these characters will be doing then. While that’s understandable, these characters should have been worked into the episode better. Daryl seemed to be contemplating whether he should escape or not, the easy answer is yes, get the hell out of there!

While waiting for Rick, Negan spends his time insulting and intimidating Alexandria residents and playing with Carl’s baby sister Judith. Spencer, Rosita, and Eugene return to Alexandria and upon seeing the Saviors in town, Rosita, with her new bullet, realizes Negan is there as well. It was simultaneously heartwarming and alarming watching Negan play with baby Judith, because you wonder if it is possible he’s sadistic enough to introduce her to Lucille. Rosita better be a good shot if she goes after Negan, because he’ll punish everyone but her if she misses.

Quotes/Thoughts

“You do the same damn stink eye as your dad, except it’s only half as good, cause, well, you know, you’re missing an eye.”

Negan is pretty good with babies for a sociopath.

“If you knew us, if you knew anything, you would kill us. But you can’t.”

I thought having characters spread around would be good, because we could explore new characters and places, but half the cast has been missing for most of the season so far.

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.

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