The Walking Dead Season Eight Premiere

First Aired October 22nd, 2017

Rick (played by Andrew Lincoln), Maggie (played by Lauren Graham) and Ezekiel (played by Khary Payton) give a speech to citizens of Alexandria, Hilltop and the Kingdom firing them up for the war with Negan (played by Jeffery Dean Morgan). Meanwhile Daryl (played by Norman Reedus) sends secret messages to Savior and double agent Dwight (played by Austin Amelio).

After killing Saviors posted as scouts Rick leads a group for an attack hoping to take out Negan and end the war quickly. They gather more forces from the Kingdom and Hilltop and despite her pregnancy Maggie insists on fighting alongside Rick and her people from Hilltop. Carol (played by Melissa McBride), Tara (played by Alanna Masterson), Daryl and Morgan (played by Lennie James) slowly lead a large walker horde along a deserted highway.

Rick leads his group to the Saviors compound and surround the front entrance where they’re greeted by Negan, several Saviors and Eugene (played by Josh McDermitt). Rick attempts to get Negan to surrender in exchange for not killing them but makes it clear that he will kill Negan. Negan introduces Gregory (played by Xander Berkeley), the leader of Hilltop who has turned traitor and insists anyone from Hilltop who fights will be exiled.  But Jesus (played by Tom Payne) makes it clear the Hilltop follows Maggie and not Gregory, and the stand-off continues. Rick begins to countdown from ten for Negan to surrender but halfway through he starts shooting.

This is not only the season premiere but the 100^th episode of The Walking Dead so there was a lot of expectations for this episode. The main story here was the build-up to the beginning of the war but there wasn’t much else. It’s interesting to note the premiere was the length of a standard episode whereas other premieres have been nearly twice as long. Given what a monumental episode this is I fully expected it to be an extended length. There wasn’t enough time to focus on a lot of characters, some were just given cameo appearances. It would have bene great to get a sense of where they’re heads are at and it would have been even better to have those kind of scenes with the Saviors. We can always explore that later but given all the scenes of Rick’s group planning and organizing I wanted to see a little of that with the Saviors (especially Dwight who we know is a double agent). However the rise of Maggie as an authority figure has been great to see, especially when her predecessor is someone unsavory like Gregory. That storyline has been festering for a while but with his public betrayal it’s going to come to a head.

Once Rick opens fire everyone follows suit and they blow up an RV to further weaken the compound. Carol, Tara and Morgan leave to join the fight and Daryl stays behind to continue leading the horde using a series of explosives. Rick injures Negan and traps him in a corner and consumed by rage shoots at him until Father Gabriel (played by Seth Gilliam) brings him to his senses. They prepare to evacuate as the horde approaches but Gabriel decides to go back to save Gregory. Unfortunately for him the gunfire and walkers cause Gregory to be gripped with panic and he runs for the car and abandons Gabriel.

Afterwards the group waits nearby hoping Gabriel will show up but Rick laments that he went back to save Rick, but they decide the group has to get moving. Throughout the episode Rick has a fantasy of a happy domestic life with his young daughter, Carl (played by Chandler Riggs) and Michonne (played by Danai Gurira), what he hopes life can be like after the fight with Negan.

The fantasy scenes worked very well especially when juxtaposed with Rick’s current mission to kill Negan to obtain that life. As the episode went on the attack became less about killing Negan and more about sending a message to the Saviors. It’s poetic in that Negan has done the same to Rick several times over, although it seems like a waste of resources for theatrics. Gabriel finally decided to be a hero but he picked the worst possible person for it. If it had been someone like Maggie or Carl I don’t think Rick would have been so quick to leave. There was a brief moment it seemed Gregory could turn things around but he showed his true colors, it’s just a matter of time before he gets what’s coming to him. While the episode could have benefited from a longer run time it set up stories like Gregory and Eugene’s betrayals causing problems down the line.

Carol, Morgan and Ezekiel lead another raid on a separate Savior compound. They manage to break through the outer defenses but are caught off guard when a Savior throws a grenade at them. Gabriel finds himself surrounded by walkers as they invade the compromised Savior compound and locks himself in a room but finds himself face to face with Negan. One raid on the Saviors went off relatively without a hitch two would have been pushing their luck. And now Gabriel is being held as a prisoner of war (although if we had to pick a character to be put in that situation, better him than say Carol or Daryl). But as the season unfolds it’ll be exciting to see how Negan strikes back and watch the fireworks as the war continues to escalate.

Quotes/Thoughts

“Thank you father.” “Thank God.” “Sure Whatever.”

We’ve reached a hundred episodes, let’s see if we can get a hundred more.

“So they surrender and you and your little piss patrol doesn’t kill them. That sounds like a good deal!”

Seems odd that the Saviors would have guys standing guard alone without any backup.

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