On The Walking Dead, Money Talks… and Kills

Two weeks in the past, The Walking Dead provided an episode that was its model of a political thriller. Last week, there was a a number of homicide thriller, starting with a fatally wounded child arriving at Hilltop’s door. But The Walking Dead nonetheless isn’t completed messing round with genres, as a result of tonight’s episode was a heist, pulled off by a resentful Daryl and Rosita on behalf of the zombie apocalypse’s most terrible inhabitant.

“The Rotten Core” isn’t going to problem Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead as main zombie-heist leisure—it’s extraordinarily low-key, and solely takes up half of the episode anyway—but it surely did properly escalate the battle between Our Heroes and the more and more apparent menace lurking contained in the Commonwealth. But first let’s get to the opposite half of the episode, which picks up precisely the place final week’s installment ended: with Commonwealth commander/murderer Carlson (Jason Butler Harner) murdering the folks of Riverbend in an try to search out the stolen cache of weapons Deputy Governor Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) had squirreled away for some unknown however absolutely nefarious function.

It’s all fairly simple. Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Lydia (Cassady McClincy), Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari), and Aaron (Ross Marquand) reunite with Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), in addition to Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), to Maggie’s dismay. To her additional dismay, Maggie additionally learns that not solely has Negan been residing at Riverbend the final a number of months, however he’s gotten married to Annie (Medina Singhore), who can also be having his child. Maggie is completely bewildered by the concept anybody would settle for the person who killed her husband Glenn all these years in the past, however Annie succinctly tells her they’ve all completed horrible issues previously, and she or he loves the person he’s now—a person the Riverbenders belief to defend them from the Commonwealth’s assault.

I believe this umpteenth scene of Maggie reckoning with Negan went down simpler than the final dozen as a result of we’ve had a stable break from them. But “The Rotten Core” lastly provides a brand new growth to their everlasting battle by bringing Maggie’s son Hershel (Kien Michael Spiller), who stowed away on Maggie’s truck, into the combo. Negan rescues the child earlier than the Commontroopers can spot him, and Hershel, after just a few well mannered questions, realizes Negan is the one who killed his father, and attracts a gun on him. To his credit score, Negan doesn’t mislead Hershel, however tells him if a gun is fired now, the troopers will hear and damage all of the harmless folks hiding with them. Hershel, actually his father’s son, places the gun down.

All that’s left is for the group to kill all of the Commontroopers roaming the constructing, then (very simply) entice Carlson on the roof. As Carlson begs for his life like a chump, Aaron shoots him, inflicting him to fall to the pavement beneath—the place he lives simply lengthy sufficient to be devoured by the recent zombies of the Riverbenders he’d pushed off final week. Later, as soon as issues have calmed down, Negan kindly tells little Hershel to search out him as soon as he’s grown up some, telling him they’ll settle issues then—clearly implying Negan’s keen to atone for his best sin, even when it means his loss of life.

We’ve seen Negan change from the swaggering asshole who led the Saviors to an ostracized, third-class citizen of Alexandria to somebody who genuinely wished to assist others, however this can be a new Negan solely. He’s hotter, extra complete, extra content material, sorter. He clearly loves Annie, and he actually cares concerning the Riverbenders. He’s now not making an attempt to be individual, he is individual. Whether that can find yourself mattering to Maggie within the slightest—if previous is prologue, completely not—stays to be seen, however I’m nonetheless completely happy to see the Negan-Maggie story transfer past the place it’s been for the previous couple of years (at the least for now).

Meanwhile, it’s heist time! Sebastian (Teo Rapp-Olsen), aka Kingsley St. Buffingsworth of the Cape Cod Buffingsworths, aka the most important douchebag within the zombie apocalypse, continues being the most important douchebag within the zombie apocalypse by conscripting Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Rosita (Christian Serratos) into breaking into the panic room of his outdated good friend’s wealthy dad’s mansion. The purpose: There’s a great deal of money inside, which Kingsley wants after Governor-Mommy Pam reduce off his allowance. When Daryl and Rosita refuse this extremely silly task, Kingsley passive-aggressively threatens their youngsters, Judith, R.J., and Socorro, which ends up in a gentle throttling of Kingsley but in addition the begrudging acceptance of the 2 new Commontroopers.

There’re some zombie shenanigans on the best way, however Daryl and Rosita make it to the panic room the place they uncover somebody trapped inside. Her title is April, the lone survivor of a earlier try by Kingsley to acquire the money, who obtained locked contained in the room when the generator went out. They free her and seize the money, inadvertently setting off the alarm which attracts a fantastic many zombies, and are rescued by the sudden, barely defined arrival of General Mercer (Michael James Shaw) and Carol (Melissa McBride). The Walking Dead then engages in one among my pet peeves, which is when everybody acts super-nervous to come across a bunch of zombies, however then they nonetheless kill them with ease as a result of they’re all badasses. (Well, besides April, who doesn’t make it out of the zombie-filled home alive.)

When Mercer asks Kingsley’s goons how many individuals had been despatched to the home earlier than as we speak, they flippantly reply “About 30?” at which level Mercer gratifyingly kills them. He then tells Daryl and Rosita to offer Kingsley the cash, or else the brat will use his standing and privilege to make their life on the Commonwealth hell. Thirty folks died simply so a wealthy asshole might preserve his wealthy asshole way of life, but it surely will get worse. Later, Carol involves Hornsby to tattle on Kingsley, however Hornsby already knew. Hell, he’s complicit—he helped Kingsley by sending him residents who “put themselves in bad situations,” who wanted to atone for one thing, or needed to be punished for not “playing by the rules.” Although Carol doesn’t say it, the expression on her face as she leaves signifies the truth that Hornsby and Kingsley are those making these guidelines will not be misplaced on her.

There’s not a lot else to say about “The Rotten Core.” I used to be overjoyed with the (obvious) Maggie and Negan growth, it’s all the time tortuously enjoyable to see Kingsley be the worst, and now that almost all of Our Heroes are painfully conscious of the darkish facet of the Commonwealth, issues ought to begin to warmth up—particularly for the reason that episode ends with the reveal of who actually stole all these weapons two weeks in the past, and killed the three Commontroopers who guarded it: Leah (Lynn Collins)! I don’t know the way she plans on utilizing what are presumably dozens of assault rifles concurrently, however I do know they’ll be aimed on the lady who murdered her squadmates down in chilly blood these many months in the past. Hopefully, Maggie decides to lastly reduce Negan some slack, as a result of she’s going to wish all the assistance she will get.

Assorted Musings:

• Lydia thinks the Commonwealth is rather like the Whisperers as a result of they each wished to take over and soak up communities. Correct me if I’m mistaken, however that was very a lot not the mission assertion of the Whisperers. They had been dedicated to strolling amongst zombies and murdering anybody who checked out them humorous.
• Maggie: “If something happens to him…” Negan: “…it’ll have to happen to me first.” An ideal line, and a fantastic line learn by JDM.
• I discussed this final time, however the Riverbenders are nonetheless very humorous to me. How ludicrous is it to think about a bunch of completely regular individuals who had been by some means residing regular lives, however whereas an unhinged lunatic was technically in command of the whole… oh. Never thoughts.

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