The Walking Dead: Do Not Send Us Astray

First Aired March 25th, 2018

Morgan (played by Lennie James) is plagued by a vision of dead Savior Gavin (played by Jayson Warner Smith) whom he saw killed and struggles to shake it off as Hilltop prepares for a fight with the Saviors. Siddiq (played by Avi Nash) struggles to be taken seriously in the infirmary due to lack of experience while Henry (played by Macsen Lintz) begs to fight but is shut down by Carol (played by Melissa McBride).

That night Simon (played by Steven Ogg) leads the Saviors to Hilltop, Maggie (played by Lauren Cohan) attempts to use the captured Saviors as leverage to stave off an attack but Simon considers them expendable. Dwight (played by Austin Amelio) tries to talk Simon down saying Negan (played by Jeffery Dean Morgan) wouldn’t approve if he’s alive. Simon ignores him and the Saviors breach Hilltop and a gunfight ensues, Dwight injures Tara (played by Alanna Masterson) with an arrow to keep Simon from delivering a fatal blow. The Hilltop feigns that they retreated before using lights to disorient and gun down several Saviors, Simon, Dwight and a few others manage to escape. The next day Daryl (played by Norman Reedus) is furious because he thinks Dwight is willingly back with the Saviors; Tara of all people points out she was once on the wrong side too but not by choice and defends Dwight for saving her life. Although praised for her leadership skills Maggie feels guilty because she hoped that sending the reanimated Savior to the Sanctuary would lure Negan to attack so she could get revenge for Glenn (played by Steven Yeun).

Carol’s conversation with Henry was like when a kid begs his mom to go out with his friends but gets told no, I half expected Carol to tell him he could maybe join the next battle. The fight is fun to watch as usual but since we know about the biological warfare plan it’s more intense because now a gunshot or stab wound is much deadlier. The next day when everyone thinks it’s over we’re counting the minutes until it all goes south and wondering who might die, and that makes for great drama. Maggie has been presented as a great leader but this episode showed there are some cracks forming in her resolve. We’ve seen how personal vendettas lead to trouble but Maggie has self-awareness about that and I think she can turn that around. Tara realized she and Dwight are a lot alike and now she’s his biggest defender but unlike Tara, Dwight willingly killed people and even seemed to enjoy it. You’re left wondering if he can ever truly redeem himself and if Tara would ever accept him into the group. Meanwhile Simon has stepped into the role of main villain and he is clearly loving it.

Carol reconciles with Tobin (played by Jason Douglas) who was stabbed during the attack, the wounded are all moved into the main house to recover. That night several people are visibly sick, Tobin dies in his sleep and begins killing people, the sick inside the house begin to reanimate as well. Henry goes to where the prisoners are held and interrogates Gregory (played by Xander Berkeley) for information on who killed his brother. Alden (played by Callan McAuliffe) tries to talk Henry down but he demands an answer or he will kill randomly. An infected Savior turns and in the chaos Jared (played by Joshua Mikel), the man who killed Henry’s brother leads the others to escape. Back at the house there’s total chaos as everyone struggles to kill the walkers, Carol finds Tobin and after an emotional moment puts him down.  Everyone is confused at how so many could have turned but Rick (played by Andrew Lincoln) recalls seeing Negan’s bat Lucille covered in walker blood and they realize the Saviors poisoned their weapons.

Henry tried to have his big moment of revenge but he screwed up amazingly bad; why would you open the gate when you could shoot them through the fence? Carol once had a fling with Tobin, you might not remember because it was a very brief storyline from at least one season ago. But Tobin was the only named character we saw killed during the walker attack so they had to remind us of that relationship to make it have any effect. Also it will be interesting to see how Carol will handle losing her sort-of boyfriend and possibly surrogate son Henry. There were a few scenes of people casually mentioning cuts and bruises to build the suspense because we know they’re so much more. Rick mentioned having one but that’s the wrong character to make us believe is doomed; he has too much story left to play out in this season alone.

Daryl blames Dwight and thinks they should have killed him but Tara blames her need for revenge clouding her judgement as the reason he was with the Saviors. Maggie finds Alden and several Saviors outside killing walkers and trying to secure the gates; Alden says that while some Saviors ran he and others realized how little they meant to Negan and Simon and willingly defected. Carol frantically searches for Henry but nobody can find him and Maggie watches grimly as they dig many more fresh graves.

There’s an unspoken fear that because Tara was hurt she could be infected but Dwight was clearly trying to save her and once she stays healthy that should prove it. Hilltop may have filled more graves but people like Alden can offer a glimmer of hope. If a few people are willing to defect maybe more could, there has to be a lot of people who aren’t happy living under the Savior dictatorship. Henry probably went off to hunt more Saviors on his own but given how he botched his first attempt I don’t have high hopes for him.

Quotes/Thoughts

“He wanted to be here with us, but no matter what he did or how hard he tried I wanted him dead.”

Morgan’s visions weren’t really touched upon during the episode but he’s clearly losing his mind.

“I’m standing here ready to help, so stop asking me what I’ve done and start telling me what to do.”

Hopefully the idea of biological warfare continues later the series it would create a new level of drama whenever there are gun or knife fights.

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