I dunno: The AV Club liked this episode but man, it was ALL TALKING except for the Rick-n-Daryl show, which wasn't full of talking but also seemed jarring and a little out of place given the tone of the rest of the episode. I suppose it's good to spend more time with the bad guys - delve a little deeper into what makes them tick but IT WAS ALL TALKING. Sorry this is so late - The Punisher and then Thanksgiving got in the way, and then I just was putting it off - but now we begin:
Bit of a flashback to Father Gabriel in his more cowardly days, praying and asking to be given purpose in the remaining life he has.
Then, a bit more recent flashback when Gregory was staying (being kept?) at the Sanctuary: Simon brings him breakfast and then takes him to a meeting with Negan and Negan's upper level councillors (Simon, Dwight, Eugene, Regina, some other asshole). Gregory talks and talks, clearly terrified out of his mind but bluffing as best he can. Negan, who is a little less obnoxious, lays out his overarching strategy: if you kill the right people, you can manage to save hundreds more (hence being called "the Saviors"). Gregory makes promises, saying that he can deliver the Hilltop to Negan and exile anyone who thinks to ally themselves with Maggie/Rick/etc. Negan's all, I think you are playing both sides, Gregory. Gregory: [weasels like he's never weaseled before.] Simon interjects that if Gregory can't deliver, they can always go in and kill everyone. Negan abruptly stands up and slams Lucille into the table, scaring everyone: "People are a resource! Money on the table! People are the foundation of what we are doing here!" He glares at Simon, snarling, "Are you confused about who's in charge? Are we backsliding?" Simon: "Um, no." Negan sets out the new plan: "We kill the right people (Maggie, Rick, Ezekiel) in the wrongest way possible and we make 'em all watch!" That'll bring the communities back in line. Then, the meeting gets broken up as the coordinated attacks begin. Then those events happen and eventually Negan and Gabriel get trapped in that trailer and we're back up to now.
Negan and Gabriel sit quietly as the walkers claw at the trailer walls. Negan: "Your friend Rick is an asshole." Gabriel: "You're an asshole." Negan, chuckling: "Yes, I am. But Rick's gonna get people killed. [paraphrasing] I may kill people but I don't get them killed." Gregory thinks that may be semantics, despite what Negan says. And then there's a lot of talking. Gregory says that he's looking for a purpose and maybe being stuck in this trailer with Negan is it: "I think maybe I'm here to take your confession."
Here's the just of it. Gabriel confesses that he is a coward and locked his parishioners out of the church when the apocalypse happened. Negan only confesses to cheating on his first wife when she was alive; he feels no compunction about what happened after the shit hit the fan. As the zombies get a little more excitable outside, Negan points out that the longer he is stuck in here, the more the Saviors are going to come apart at the seams without him to keep them in line.
Meanwhile, Simon, Dwight, Eugene, Regina and that other asshole have assumed that Negan is dead and what the hell are they going to do next. They argue amongst themselves but do come up with some salient points: they need to protect the worker population because the workers outnumber the Savior fighters by a lot and if the workers revolt, they could win through sheer numbers. Regina wants to mount an attack. Dwight wants to protect what they have left and stay alive. Simon wants to find out who on the inside leaked the information that allowed Rick to get this attack coordinated. Everyone looks at Eugene here; Eugene looks at Dwight.
In the comic relief interlude, Rick and Daryl work to retrieve the munitions from the truck they overturned. Daryl packs up a bunch of explosives: he thinks they should blow a hole in the far side of the Sanctuary and allow the walkers to flood in, wiping everyone out. Rick thinks that is a bad idea - that would kill workers as well as Savior soldiers - and they need to stick to the original plan (of which there are apparently a few more stages left to enact). Daryl's all, nope, Ezekiel's crew is gone (the dying Savior truck driver told them this before he croaked) and we're gonna blow shit up. Rick's all, nope, we're not. Daryl grabs the explosives and storms off towards his motorcycle. Rick tackles him and there are fisticuffs. For the record, Daryl punches first. They're pretty well-matched, slugging and snarling and wrestling each other to the ground. At one point, Rick grabs the pack of explosives and tosses it back towards the wrecked truck - which is leaking gas and possibly on fire at this point) just as Daryl catches him in a choke hold. Daryl brings Rick down and just before he loses consciousness, Rick sees the flames catch at the truck. He and Daryl stop fighting to scramble away, getting just out of range as the truck explodes. They sit there, hilarious expressions on their faces, and then they get up to continue with the plan: since the explosives exploded, Daryl's got no reason to go against it now. As they get ready to continue on, Rick on foot because his jeep is shot up and Daryl on his motorcycle - Rick mutters, "Chokehold's illegal, asshole." Daryl: "Mm-hmm. Yes, it is." Heh. Rick says that he'll meet Daryl after the last play. Daryl asks if that's really necessary and Rick says yeah, it is. They head off.
Negan and Gabriel make a run for it, dressing themselves with zombie guts for disguise and armed only with Lucille and Gabriel's partially-loaded pistol. They make it about halfway before the walkers notice them. They're going to make it, of course, because Negan won't be taken down by some random walker horde.
Inside the Sanctuary, the remaining ruling committee is getting frazzled. To make matters worse, the workers are advancing on the Saviors, getting restless and worried and rebellious. Things start to escalate and Regina loses her cool and shoots a couple of workers. Just as everything is about to fall completely apart, Negan and Gabriel, covered in gore, stagger into the hall. Everyone - worker and Savior alike - drops to their knees. Gabriel kneels too. Negan does his schtick and promises that after he's gotten cleaned up, he and the committee will be figuring out how this all could have happened. And then they'll get back to doing what they've always done: saving people. As he saunters off, tossing a directive to his men to put Gabriel in a cell but treat him gently, a woman calls out, "Thank you, Negan. Thank god for you!" Negan grins at a flabbergasted Gabriel: "And that is why I am here."
Later, Eugene brings Gabriel a pillow and some food. Gabriel is sick (why is he sick?), sweating and shaking. Eugene says he'll get the Sanctuary's doctor and Gabriel looks up, saying that the Sanctuary's doctor is Maggie's doctor, kidnapped from the Hilltop. Looks like Gabriel has found his purpose: he's going to bring the doctor back to Maggie.
And in the one WTF moment of the episode: as Rick tromps down the road, heading for wherever he is heading, he hears something. He stops and looks up, just as a helicopter flies low overhead. That's the first aircraft we've since the apocalypse started. Wonder who's flying it?
Previously on The Walking Dead / next time on The Walking Dead
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