[rating=3.00] “Go Getter”
Okay, so Maggie, who was pronounced dead last week after Negan’s first visit to Alexandria, is now at the Hilltop Colony with Sasha. It’s the first time we’ve seen her since she watched her husband (and father to her unborn child) get beaten to death. Her heartfelt reaction was crammed into the tail-end of the season seven premiere, was the brief moment of humanity in an episode that was otherwise grim for grimness’ sake.
Anyway, now that she’s recovering at the Hilltop Colony from a nasty bout of convenient plot disease (or, in this case, a partially separated placenta), Maggie beings to assert herself as a leader. Granted, in the universe that this show takes place in, that amounts to shouting orders at people who are just standing around lallygagging while zombies start to infiltrate their compound, and being better than their current leader, Gregory, who is terrible at his job. So, doing any worse seems literally impossible at this point.
Speaking of Gregory, after a chest-puffing outburst to Maggie, which ended with him trying to kick her out (and was ultimately thwarted by her saying ‘no,’ of all things), we see him stutter and wince as The Saviors show up to ransack their community once again. While Negan isn’t present — a welcome break from his constant schtick — his second-in-command, Simon, manages to do an even better job of intimidation sheathed in a mock-friendliness than his boss does.
Also, Enid managed to break out of the closet and make it all the way to the Hilltop Colony, and in grand Walking Dead tradition, managed to do so inside of a few hours, because everything’s just a half-day’s walk away, apparently. She and Carl officially start their blossoming romance, in case you were one of the zero people watching this show who thought “you know what, this really needs more teen melodrama.”
On the upside, it was good to see Maggie not only back in action, but putting her farming skills to use by backing over a heard of zombies and a car with a tractor. Also, not only was Jesus finally brought back around, we saw him do a few useful things, besides help cause a truck full of supplies to drive into a fucking lake.
Also, there’s a hint of the plot actually starting to go somewhere, with Jesus and Sasha planning a covert mission to find out exactly where Negan lives, but they do so behind Maggie’s back, assuming because it’ll create more unnecessary drama that they’ll use to justify another 90-minute episode that takes place in one single location.
Then at the very end, as Jesus hitches a ride on the truck bound for Negan’s headquarters, we see that Carl had the exact same idea. At this point, I’m legitimately hoping that next week is an entire episode done in the style of the Hope/Crosby Road To… movies. Great big musical numbers and all.
