Welcome back to the review of the second episode of season eight’s The Walking Dead!  Overall, I have mixed feelings about the episode, but it did catch my attention with all of its action. The action packed episode began with a heavy amount of close up shots of Rick, Daryl, Tara, Aaron, and the rest of Rick’s army captured over a motivational background track. King Ezekiel and Carol seem to be struggling to survive as they seem to be ambushed. The camera cut to a leader of another Savior pack—Mara. She’s curious why her team isn’t responding to her commands, but a man named Todd responds and Mara demands Todd to lockdown the stairwell. All of a sudden,  a bunch of cars start carpooling and out of nowhere,  it’s Rick’s army with guns and they begin shooting up a part of the Savior’s Compound!

Post commercial break, another part of Rick’s army, mostly Kingdom warriors, begin scouting for Saviors to kill. Morgan begins talking to his fellow warriors and tells them “I don’t die!” Think before you speak, Morgan. Camera goes back to a struggling King Ezekiel and Carol as they finally get up with other Kingdom survivors to fight off an army of the undead and ultimately win. A big part of Rick’s army is still fighting off the outside army of Saviors Compound, while Rick and Daryl are able to pick off two guards inside the Compound and they are able to get inside. Morgan begins distracting Black Friday hordes of walkers that are on another side of a fence. In doing so, this worries two of many Saviors. As they start to investigate, they meet the other end of a bullet. Rick and Daryl continue picking off Saviors from the inside. Morgan tells his crew to hold off fire, as he opens a door and is met by an army of Saviors who came prepared and killed Freddie and Andy (background survivors).

Rick and Daryl decide to split up to kill as many Saviors as possible to win another part of the war. Tara and Jesus find a man named Dean who, apparently,  is a worker who left his wife and kid behind. Dean surrenders in fear as he wets himself in fright. Tara suggests they kill him because they don’t know if he’s telling the truth, but Jesus says they should spare him. As they argue, it seems that Tara is right as Dean attacks Jesus and destroys Maggie’s prenatal pills! Dean and Tara negotiate a deal for his escape in exchange for Jesus’ life. Jesus is able to break free of Dean’s chokehold and knocks out the lying Savior. Jesus still wishes to spare his life, but this time, ties him up, and Tara still wishes he were extinguished. Tara and company walk out with others and walk over some fallen allies. Morgan was shot down, but wakes up, and is alive—still breathing,  and notices his fallen allies, Freddie and Andy.  

Battles ensue from the outside as Tobin (secondary character) gets shot in the arm. Walkers begin to turn as one bites the neck of the leading Savior of this group, Mara, (no one will miss her due to her abusive ways—hasta la vista BABY!) Ezekiel and his crew still walk the forest, as he talks about why he is still king and able to maintain a smile on his royal face. Daryl walks into a prisoner’s cage like the one he was in last season and sees loose handcuffs, canned goods, and a half eaten sandwich, which brings him back to the time he was tortured. Rick walks into another room where he is met by an ambushing Savior! This fight is basically no contest, as Rick is able to fight off the Savior and brutally end his life by throwing him into a shelf bracket that pierces his body! Morgan, being the savage that he is, picks off Saviors one by one with a suppressed weapon as though he is James Bond. Jesus prevents his army from shooting unless Saviors shoot first. In doing so, an army of Saviors come out of hiding from a garage and surrender. Morgan continues to fight off Saviors, until he is outside and meets up with Tara and Jesus plus the army of Saviors. Morgan begins to have flashbacks from the group meeting with Rick back in season seven about killing all, and leaving none. Morgan argues with Jesus saying they’re supposed to kill them all. Morgan’s anger rages as he meets the Savior who killed his student, young Benjamin. Jesus being the calm, peaceful person he is, talks Morgan out of brutally beating the Savior to death.

Rick takes the keys of the unnamed Savior whose body is still pierced to the wall. He comes across a baby girl’s room, and the room actually belongs to baby girl named Grace. Rick looks in a mirror and sees the monster he has become. Ezekiel finds a path of blood leading his army to his trustworthy tiger, Shiva, brutally mauling a Savior to death. More and more Alexandrians die in battle, such as Francine (another background character). Aaron confronts his loved one, Eric, as they want to leave so that they don’t get hurt. Needless to say, they spoke too soon as Eric gets shot in the stomach through the barricade. Aaron carries Eric out of the battle, so they can treat his wound.

Ezekiel and his men mourn the death of the Savior, and announces they’re going to stay and finish the fight. Rick snatches a picture of the Savior, his wife, and baby girl, when a surprise return by Moralles from season one makes a shocking appearance back into TWD family. As a member of the Saviors, he points a gun to Rick’s head and asks calmly for him to surrender his weapon. The same close shots from the beginning of the episode play again, as it relates to what is happening present time. The episode concludes with Moralles turning off the safety of his gun, which is pointed at Rick’s head!

Overall, this episode certainly caught me off guard with the shocking deaths and unexpected return of Moralles as I forgot he was still alive. With the rating scale leaning towards Daryl Dixon—the best episode thus far—Glenn Rhee (Very good episode), Rick Grimes (An average episode), Gregory, the Hilltop leader (Poor episode), and Spencer and Aidan Monroe (A terrible episode), this episode has the rating of a Glenn Rhee episode (Very good episode). Join me next week as we discover the fate of Rick, maybe the fate of Father Gabriel, who may die next, and how they can survive the ‘All Out War!’ This is Pedro Vasquez signing off, Ta-ta!

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