As the episode opens we join to Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) who are living on the road as they scavenge for weapons and supplies. A montage of their searches shows them finding at least two guns, a few cans of food and having lots of sex. Must be nice not having to worry about Carl (Chandler Riggs) or baby Judith interrupting, huh? Before hitting the road again they luck out by finding two survivors playing golf, with their fully stocked truck a good distance behind them. It’s a score for Rick and Michonne. [jwplatform 36p3FjDC-RiPpdJ98]
Michonne suggests they get home after two days on the road, but Rick isn’t ready for that. He wants another day and a half and convinces Michonne they should keep going, so she agrees. Despite the smiles on their faces there is an immediate sense that this is a bad idea, and if so we’re definitely going to find out.
Back in Alexandria, Tara (Alanna Masterson) and Rosita (Christian Serratos) butt heads again over the lack of guns. Tara asks Rosita to keep her anger in check for when they go to war, but Rosita refuses and instead decides to go out looking for guns against everyone’s wishes. She eventually stumbles upon an old, broken down house where a gun is lying in the doorway. After killing a massive (and super nasty looking) walker to get to the gun, she finds it’s a toy gun. You tried.
Defeated after a day of looking for guns, blood-covered Rosita returns to Alexandria and immediately confronts Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) in the church. She blames him for losing her chance at killing Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), for Eugene (Josh McDermitt) being gone, and for Olivia and Spencer being dead, all because of the speech he gave her when he knew what she was up to. Gabriel tells her that it may be his fault but he’s just going to have to live with that, because Rosita is still there and he knows that they need her right now. He also reminds her that if she were dead she wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything she really wants to, even if she takes someone else’s life with her. This leaves Rosita in tears and speechless, so she leaves the church defeated even more defeated than when she arrived.
We quickly return to Rick and Michonne who take a break in the woods and go searching for a deer they spotted. What they find instead is a school, which they quickly trek down to to inspect. Outside the school they find a soldier with a massive gun strapped to his back, which is more or less the jackpot for them. Upon further inspection from the school’s roof they find a bunch of soldier walkers with guns strapped to their backs behind the building and decide to take them on… but first the roof they are standing on caves in. Michonne laughs it off and thinks that it’s a sign, which Rick agrees with when he realizes they are surrounded by massive cases of “ready to eat” food. Could they really get that lucky in one shot?
Tara’s Biggest Internal Struggle: Oceanside
After rummaging through their jackpot of food, Rick and Michonne have themselves a candlelit dinner while discussing their plan to take out the military walkers after a good night’s sleep. Michonne brings up a really good point while they’re talking about it: what happens after Negan’s gone? She suggests that Rick be the one to help the communities forge working relationships to move forward and keep surviving, but he’s not interested. At least not alone. He wants to do it with Michonne as a partnership instead of just a Ricktatorship. Of course she accepts.
However, Rick shows hesitation about getting the job done tomorrow as Michonne mentioned. He tells her they have time and suggests they take their time trying to get all of the guns, even if it takes a few more days. Then he distracts her with more food (chili mac and cheese, no less) so that the conversation ends there. But later on, while Michonne is sleeping, we see a restless Rick sitting up and clearly thinking over everything he and his people are about to go through. For Michonne it seems easy, too easy, but Rick knows there’s an intense and likely deadly challenge ahead of them.
Speaking of having a heavy conscience, we return to Alexandria to find Tara is babysitting a toddler-sized Judith. Tara is fidgeting with her bracelet from Oceanside, which she finally confesses out loud to Judith since she can barely talk and is likely very good at keeping secrets. In reality, Tara is fighting with herself over telling Rick because she knows that no matter what it will end in a fight, even though she thinks Oceanside should fight them. So, what will she do? She sure doesn’t tell Judith her decision.
Richonne Fight The Good Fight Together
When it’s time for Rick and Michonne to finally go after some walkers, they take it slow. To be honest, they could really use Daryl and his crossbow right about now because he would be able to take the walkers out without making a lot of noise, but unfortunately it’s just Rick, Michonne, some guns and a sword. Once a plan is set, Michonne distracts a handful of walkers to kill with her sword while Rick takes out one to get to a car he wants to use to block the open fence. He runs into an unexpected hiccup: a military walker has gone head-first through the windshield and happens to be hovering right over the steering wheel. Rick tries to pull him off the car by his foot, but apparently the walker has been there a while because his foot comes right off. Next he grabs the walker by his belt in hopes of getting the whole body moved, but instead the walker rips right in half. Gross.
But, the hiccups don’t end there. Once Rick and Michonne are pushing the car towards the fence they find out it doesn’t have any brakes. Right after they find that out, a walker with a gun strapped around it’s waist gets caught in something that causes it’s gun to fire non-stop nearly hitting Michonne more than once. She jumps into the car’s trunk and pulls it closed as the car rolls directly into a group of walkers, and Rick ducks down in the drivers seat while they are swarmed. Great plan, guys!
Their next move is to pop out of the sunroof and hop a gate that is conveniently right next to the car. The school yard is set up like a carnival, so the gate is protecting one of the deteriorating rides. They start swinging at the walkers but they can’t kill them fast enough, and soon enough the gate holding them back falls over. Rick and Michonne make a run for it, eventually deciding to split up in hopes they can break the walkers into smaller groups. The walker killing spree continues and they actually do a great job at taking them down, even if it is a bit messy. Just as they are about to finish up Rick spots something to his left: the deer he and Michonne were chasing earlier. This instantly becomes more important to him, so he climbs up the ferris wheel and aims his gun to shoot it — only to pause when he spots a new hoard of walkers headed right for the deer. He doesn’t shoot it, which gives the deer a chance to run, but also puts Rick in serious danger when the metal bar he’s standing on gives. Suddenly he’s on the ground with nothing but a handgun to protect him, and walkers are quickly gaining on him.
Michonne gets there just in time to watch as the walkers kneel down and start tearing into Rick. She drops her sword in shock, everything goes silent, and we watch the horror wash over her face as walkers covered in blood start making their way towards her. But then something incredible happens: Rick busts out of hiding spot, grabs Michonne’s sword and throws it at her just in time for her to snap out of the devastated phase she was in. Rick’s okay, and they immediately start fighting off the walkers together as a team. Once the walkers are down Michonne runs and jumps into Rick’s arms, and at their feet we see the deer is what the walkers were actually eating.
Now that the walkers are dead, actually dead, Rick and Michonne do a gun sweep of all the bodies. They make out really, really well with weapons, and the next time we see them they are in a van packed with food, water and guns headed home. However, Rick noticed Michonne have a bit of a breakdown in the field while she was picking weapons off of dead bodies, so he pulls over in the woods to talk. Michonne is dead silent, so Rick admits that he can’t sleep because he can’t stop thinking about everything they’ve been through and are about to go through. He mentions how Glenn saved him at the beginning (season 1 throwback), but that in the end he couldn’t save him in return. He then tells Michonne the truth about their upcoming fight: that they are going to lose people — possibly even each other — but that it will be worth it.
Michonne can’t take it. Through tears she tells him, “I can’t lose you.” Rick tells her that they can lose each other, that they have to, because it will be the full definition of living for those who survive. It’s a hard pill to swallow but he’s right and she knows it.
Rosita Has Zero Chill
After a trip home and a quick cleaning up of the 63 guns they found, they bring them to the landfill survivors. However, Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh), the leader, isn’t impressed by 63 guns. She wants more. Jadis agrees to keep their deal and even let Rick’s group have 20 guns, but she still wants more before they will be ready to fight with them. Meanwhile, Tara, who is there for the gun transfer, is struggling to keep her secret. When they return to Alexandria she bumps into Rick on her way to see him, and finally admits she has something to tell him. Is she really going to give up Oceanside?
Rosita goes missing again after hearing Jadis admit they don’t have enough guns. Her destination? The Hilltop, where she confronts Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) and asks for her help killing Negan. Sasha is in without hesitation but with one condition: she gets to take the shot. It turns out that Rosita stole a massive sniper rifle from the gun jackpot, which Sasha is almost too excited to see. Before leaving to do the job, both Sasha and Rosita remind each other that it’s a “one way ticket” for both of them. And with that, they are officially partners in a mission to kill Negan.
Tell us, HollywoodLifers — Do YOU think that Rosita and Sasha can pull off killing Negan? Comment below, let us know what you’re thinking!