Welcome back to the review of AMC’s hit television series, The Walking Dead. This week, I’ll be reviewing episode three of season eight of the show. In my perspective, this was, as last week,  not that bad of an episode. It seems that the directors love adding more and more action to the show as additional episodes air. Episode three begins with King Ezekiel announcing that the Saviors are coming for them, but he still maintains a smile on his face and states that the Kingdom has the numbers and are prepared for anything that comes to them. The Kingdom’s troops march down the forest searching for more Saviors until they hear the infamous whistling of the Savior’s indicating that they’re here! The Kingdom’s troops are doomed before the fight can even start, but we, the fans, thought wrong, where Jerry and his group of Kingdom warriors pop out of the shadows and begin powering down the Savior’s with machine guns and Shiva devouring Savior faces!

   Rick, still in shock with the return of Moralles, remains frozen until Moralles asks him once again to surrender his weapon; this time Rick finally cooperated. Moralles tells Rick that the Saviors aren’t the same people as him, because Rick is the one who’s the monster. He also claims Rick is a person who rushes while being brain dead. Moralles then calls for reinforcements to deliver Rick and Negan. The battle for Sanctuary continues outside until an announcement is made to rally all troops inside for a distress signal. Without hesitation, the Saviors begin falling back and Rick’s army follows them inside. Aaron sets his loved one, Eric,  down at a tree so he can help treat his wound and get him to the Hilltop doctor. Aaron apologizes for allowing Eric to be involved in the fight, and for his injuries. Eric wishes for Aaron to continue the fight, but Aaron refuses to leave his loved one, especially since he’s bleeding badly. Aaron is finally convinced to continue to fight until they win. Tara and company watch from behind a truck as the captured, chained up Saviors walk to the Hilltop with Morgan as the lead guard. The Saviors begin whistling in uniso,  annoying Morgan as he whips the chain holding the Savior that killed Benjamin to command discipline. Jesus believes people are still people, even if they committed terrible deeds. Moralles asks Rick if his family is still alive. Rick responded that Lori, Shane, Glenn, Andrea are all dead, which is not entirely true. Rick asks Moralles if he is Negan like all of the other Saviors. Moralles claims he lost his family, and went insane, but the Saviors took him in because they “cared” about him. So yes, Moralles is Negan. Moralles states if the roles were reversed, Rick would pull the trigger on Moralles because officer friendly is dead, and so is Moralles, the nice guy. From behind, Daryl with his trustworthy crossbow shoots Moralles in his face leaving the Savior for dead! Rick asks Daryl if he knew who that was, to which Daryl said yes, but he doesn’t care because he killed him. Unfortunately for Rick and Daryl, the Saviors arrived!

The Saviors attempt to converse with Morgan only to figure out something is different with him. The large group of Saviors and Hilltop people have been ambushed by a large army of walkers! A few Saviors die from being bitten in the head by the undead while a majority use this ambush as an escape plan. Morgan wasn’t going to allow them to escape easily, so he starts chasing after them. Morgan catches up to them as he kills one, and aims for the Savior who kills Benjamin, but Jesus hits the gun away from Morgan. A frustrated Morgan yells at Jesus that people don’t change, that once you turn, you don’t return, but according to Jesus, Maggie has a plan for these prisoners of war. Morgan reacts by fighting with Jesus and it seems like it’s advantage Morgan!

King Ezekiel says his infamous quote, “The first victory will deliver their second and their second will deliver their third.” Rick and Daryl are still fighting off the Saviors that the now dead Moralles tried to call in as backup. Morgan and Jesus are still fighting, and Jesus tries to calm Morgan down, like as if he was the Incredible Hulk. Jesus puts Morgan in his place because they are allies in this battle. Back to Rick’s battle, he shoots at a fire extinguisher which lets out a large stream of smoke and serves as a distraction for the Saviors. Rick uses this distraction to his advantage to kill all the Saviors in battle, and met up with his group afterwards. Once again still fighting, Morgan and Jesus seem to have an even match, Jesus takes Morgan’s staff, but then gives it back to him, only for Morgan to lunge it a few inches away from his throat. Finally, Morgan snaps back to reality—Morgan is losing his mind!

The despicable Gregory knocks on the gate to his own Hilltop, but no one agrees to open it. Maggie allows the gate to be open, but only a small crack. Maggie goes off and gives Gregory a lecture for his wrong doings. Gregory claims he is trying to save lives, but Maggie responds with a bold statement, that he’s only looking out for himself. Kal the Hilltop guard even left him behind. Gregory thought they wouldn’t win the fight, but now realizes he might have been wrong about Maggie’s leadership, and now has renewed faith. Maggie walks away from the gate, but Gregory begs for mercy and humanity, and she finally lets him in. Jesus returns from capturing the prisoners of war. Gregory demands for them all to be executed, but Maggie demands him to leave the scene because he isn’t helping! Jesus doesn’t want to kill them since they’re also people, but Maggie agrees to keep them as prisoners. Rick is pulling a Negan, because he’s taking pictures of the carnage he caused as a sign of rememberance. Aaron returns to the tree where he left Eric only to find that he isn’t there.  Only a trail of blood is left behind. Aaron shouts his name once and sees a walker in the distance. Aaron begins breaking down crying over the loss of his beloved Eric. Aaron’s brother in battle comforts him, and prevents him from putting himself down because it’ll break him even more, so they leave the scene.

Back in a grouping area, Rick takes the baby girl, Gracie, and allows Aaron to take her back to the Hilltop. As Rick and Daryl were in mid conversation, a Savior Todd comes out shooting at the car near them to get their attention. Rick wishes to make a deal with the Savior with special guns, in exchange for sparing his life and the car for him to escape. Todd complies and tells Rick the guns are at Gavin’s outpost west of where they’re currently standing. Todd asks if he can leave, but Daryl just shoots him in the head! (Daryl is becoming the new Shane). Ezekiel is pleased with the outcome of the battle, and the fact everyone is accounted for. Ezekiel spoke too soon as he sees something suspicious nearby and orders everyone to get down. Saviors begin powering down on everyone with guns! The screen went black as a couple of Saviors jumped onto Ezekiel to protect thy king!

Overall, this is a truly action packed episode with a lot of gruesome deaths, character development, a possible bad guy turn for Daryl, and a lot of emotion for every character in the show. Back to 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 deserves the highest ranking on the list—Daryl Dixon, the best episode thus far! Join me next week as we discuss and review episode 4 of the Walking Dead and hopefully find out  the fate of Gabriel, and who survived the Kingdom ambush.  Will Gregory join the good side, and will possibly see a Negan and Rick have an altercation? This is Pedro Vasquez signing off, Ta-Ta!