The Walking Dead: Time for After

First Aired December 3rd, 2017

Jadis (played by Pollyanna McIntosh) has Rick (played by Andrew Lincoln) briefly taken out of his cell for pictures, ominously stating it’s for ‘after’. Eugene (played by Josh McDermitt) confronts Dwight (played by Austin Amelio) about being the traitor but Dwight believes the Saviors will be finished soon and tells Eugene to let things play out but Eugene still stands with the Saviors.

Dr. Carson (played by R Keith Harris) tells Eugene that Gabriel (played by Seth Gilliam) is succumbing to multiple infections and might soon die. Gabriel tries to convince Eugene to help Carson escape and return to Hilltop to help with Maggie’s (played by Lauren Cohan) pregnancy but Eugene resists. Meanwhile Morgan (played by Lennie James) spies on the Sanctuary where the walker horde is close to breaking inside.

Daryl (played by Norman Reedus), Rosita (played by Christian Serratos), Tara (played by Alanna Masterson) and Michonne (played by Danai Gurira) make a plan to help break the walkers in and Morgan jones them. Rosita believes they’re being hasty and wants to wait for Rick to try and make the Saviors surrender, the others don’t agree so she leaves. Negan (played by Jeffery Dean Morgan) meets with Eugene and encourages/threatens him to solve the walker problem fast. As Eugene works on a plan Daryl comes up with his own; driving a truck through the Sanctuary to let the walkers in.

Gabriel has a non-walker related infection, that’s something we haven’t seen in a while. Whether Eugene will turn back to the good guys has been explored before, but the extensive focus on that in this episode suggested we would get an answer. Right now he’s playing the middleman; not agreeing or dismissing Gabriel’s request and trying to stop Dwight’s meddling but not exposing him as a mole. But Daryl’s plan to take out the Sanctuary might be the catalyst that forces Eugene to choose a side, if for no other reason than self-preservation. Things have been mostly going good for Rick and everyone else which means the die is set to turn. It was discussed that not sticking to the plan and following Daryl and Tara’s need for revenge could backfire, and it’s clearly going to. The group succumbing to infighting is the most dramatic way for Negan to start regaining the upper hand.

Michonne also begins to have second thoughts and leaves but Daryl remains determined. Eugene attaches an iPod to a toy airplane to lure the walkers away but he’s stopped by Dwight. He tries to appeal to Eugene’s former friends but Eugene denounces them as formal traveling companions. Despite Dwight’s threats to shoot him Eugene launches the plane and Dwight shoots it down just as Daryl, Tara and Morgan put their plan into action.

The truck smashes through the building and the walkers flood the Sanctuary but are contained to the lower levels. a shaken Eugene runs to Gabriel and says he won’t help him and will do whatever it takes to remain alive. A shaken Eugene tells Negan if he can get to his machines he can make enough bullets to kill all the walkers. However he keeps Dwight’s betrayal a secret; Negan gleefully promises to make Rick and the others pay as the Saviors clear the walkers.

Although he faced a lot of opposition Daryl went through with his plan and it worked pretty well, until it didn’t. Eugene stood up for himself for the first time against Dwight but unfortunately it was so he could fully turn to the dark side. There’s no more waffling Eugene is now completely committed to the Saviors, in fact it’s almost like Daryl’s plan forced Eugene to that decision. His reasoning is that he wants to stay alive no matter how which suggests he might turn back to Rick (if it benefits him) but it’s doubtful they would take Eugene back. You could make an argument that by not telling Negan about Dwight being the mole there is a chance for Eugene to redeem himself. But in reality Eugene is probably saving that information to use later and the way he denounced Rick and the others there’s clearly no love loss there.

Rick takes control of a walker on a stick and uses it to attack the Scavengers and takes Jadis hostage forcing the rest to stand down; Rick declares that once he leaves his people will come back to kill them. Jadis finally decides to join with Rick and he says they will travel to the Sanctuary to negotiate a surrender for the Saviors and kill Negan. However when they arrive at the Sanctuary, Rick scouts ahead and is shocked to see the walkers all gone. Rick is going to be super pissed at Daryl when he finds out how their plans fell apart. Worse for Rick is once Jadis and her people see that Negan and the Saviors have recovered they’ll likely turn on Rick again because these people are loyal only when it serves their best interest. Things are looking worse and worse for Rick and they aren’t likely to get better anytime soon.

Quotes/Thoughts

“You could have changed this place into something else, something better. But you took care of you and now you’ve got to live with that.”

Michonne and Rosita left because they worried Daryl’s plan would backfire, but since they didn’t try to stop him I think they still have some responsibility for how things went.

“I am leaving, after that maybe you should just run.”

Turned out the pictures were related to Jadis wanting to sculpt Rick (preferably naked) and even made it a condition of joining with him, the lady takes art very seriously.

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