The Walking Dead: Something They Need

First Aired March 26th, 2017.

Tara (played by Alanna Masterson) tells the group about the women she met in the Oceanside community. Although feeling guilty for breaking her promise to keep their existence a secret, Tara leads Rick (played by Andrew Lincoln) and the others there.

At the Hilltop, Maggie (played by Lauren Cohan) directs people on how to plant crops while watched by a jealous Gregory (played by Xander Berkeley). While Maggie is collecting plants outside the wall, Gregory approaches to talk, but, while she’s distracted, he nearly stabs her. He can’t bring himself to do it and is nearly killed by a walker until Maggie saves him, inadvertently making him look bad in front of others who walked by the scene. Sasha (played by Sonequa Martin-Green) is captured by the Saviors and nearly raped by one, but Negan (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) kills him. He leaves Sasha a knife to stab the dead Savior before he reanimates and attempts to sway her to join them. Eugene (played by Josh McDermitt) brings Sasha comfort items and tries to convince her to join, but she rebuffs him. Tara takes the Oceanside leader Natania (played by Deborah May) and her granddaughter Cyndie (played by Sydney Park) hostage. Tara attempts to get Natania to talk with Rick before his group storm Oceanside for their weapons. However, Tara was unable to give the signal and Rick and the others attack and take the armory.

Gregory stopped himself, but this won’t be the last time he tries to take out Maggie. Whatever guilt he felt dissipated after she not only proved a more competent leader but exposed his weaknesses (such as lying about killing walkers). And because he wants to maintain his position, he will try to kill her since his people are treating her as their leader now. For the first time, Negan has also shown a big weakness in his leadership when he tried to recruit Sasha. He either overestimates the effectiveness of ruling with fear or underestimates the bonds that genuine relationships have. As for Eugene, he has no chance at reintegrating with Alexandria now that he’s shown his loyalty is only to himself. Tara made the right call telling Rick and the others about Oceanside, but their approach of raiding the community was a little extreme. Natania and the other women have a shoot-first-ask-questions-later mentality, so they definitely had to be prepared to fight. While the large-scale assault on the community might get them the guns, they likely have ruined any chances of a working relationship with Oceanside.

Natania and Cyndie take down Tara, who reveals her gun was unloaded while the rest of Oceanside is taken hostage. Natania uses Tara as a hostage, but several of her people are interested in fighting including Cyndie. Enraged, Natania almost shoots Tara, but Cyndie knocks her out; a large group of walkers come out of the forest and the two groups fight as one. Natania resolves that Rick and the others will take their guns but adamantly refuses to allow her people to fight. While loading the guns, Tara promises to bring them back after the fight and Cyndie reveals she and others want to join but they can’t unless the whole community agrees to fight. Negan releases Sasha when it appears she is willing to join them, but he keeps her on a short leash until he fully trusts her. He reveals he knows Rick and the others at Alexandria are planning something (hinting Eugene told him) and that he has to do something about it. From her room, Sasha begs Eugene to bring her something she can use to kill herself and keep Negan from using her against the others, but he doesn’t promise anything.

For the first time, it was a stroke of luck for a large herd of walkers to attack the group. Some of the women were eager to join the fight but Natania made it clear it wasn’t an option and nearly created a fight between both groups. Instead, they had to work together to kill the walkers which created a sense of comradery and made a future working relationship possible. But, when Rick ordered they take all of their guns, that was an overstep, especially since some of the Oceanside women wanted to fight. It isn’t a question of keeping their word, they’ve left these women and children defenseless against another attack. With Negan aware that Rick is plotting against him, the war is set to begin sooner rather than later. Sasha gave a somewhat convincing performance but Negan was smart enough not to just induct her into the Saviors ranks. Eugene denying Sasha a means of suicide is the first decent thing he’s done possibly ever. For Sasha to end her own life, it wouldn’t be a very climactic end for her character in a narrative sense.

Eugene later gives Sasha a poison pill to painlessly kill herself, but she isn’t shown taking it. After returning to Alexandria, the others find Rosita (played by Christian Serratos), who informs them someone is here to speak with them. It’s revealed to be Dwight (played by Austin Amelio), who wants to help them fight the Saviors, but Rick pulls his revolver on him. If Sasha is going to die in the finale, it would be more satisfying to see her go out fighting instead of taking a pill. Dwight defecting from the Saviors proves that Negan’s style of leadership will be a key part of his downfall. But, given how many of their people he’s killed, nobody would blame Rick for blowing his head off.

Quotes/Thoughts

“I’m here to protect the pregnant lady, I don’t need the pregnant lady to protect me.”

Maggie probably has nothing to worry about with Gregory, he could barely handle a walker. He wouldn’t stand a chance trying to attack her.

“You got some beach ball size lady-nuts on you, coming in all kamikaze like that.”

Negan is against rape, but has no issues with killing and maiming people; he’s a complex man.

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