The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 3: The Cell

You can't get that "Easy Street" song out of your head either, can you? Rightfully so, it's designed to drive us, and poor Daryl, to the brink of insanity (I can remember thinking to myself, "Make it stop! Make it stop!"). Fortunately, I love feeling like I'm part of the experience, which makes the music all that more effective. Things are clearly not going well for our struggling Daryl over at Negan's compound, and that is quickly made clear by his surrounding living conditions: a cell in which he is served fresh bread topped with dog food. However, Daryl wasn't the only focal point this episode…

What's with all the focus on Dwight's character? From the opening shot to the closing scene, there is a lot of emphasis on him and his daily activities over at the compound. The set of shots cycling through the process of Dwight making his breakfast shows us that The Saviors are growing vegetables and obtaining eggs from chickens on a daily basis, leading us to the conclusion that they are some of the ones furthest from any sort of struggle (at least when it comes to food). As he bites from his beautiful looking post-apocalyptic breakfast sandwich, it is made known that the building is protected by a wire fence, which holds multiple walkers on the other side of it (some tied with chains, others impaled with pieces of metal pipe, almost as if they walked directly into them and just got stuck). With a security system like that, I doubt any unknowing outsider will try to even step foot on the property.

Since around the middle of Season 6, we have had multiple run-ins with Dwight, as well as a couple of his close friends. We have finally now pieced this little puzzle together: Dwight was on the run with his wife, Sherry, and her sister Holly, whom was in desperate need of medication (hence why it was all stolen and these three were on the run). We recall Holly becoming walker food, and then shortly after, Daryl losing his bike and crossbow to the now remaining Dwight and Sherry. To me, that’s the point where things became personal between Daryl and Dwight. With this newly formed hatred, “The Walking Dead” is, yet again, bringing back the drama between these monsters we like to refer to as “people”.

My apologies for trailing off with that tidbit, let’s turn the focus here to the man of the hour: Negan. As if the impact he made during the premiere wasn’t enough, Negan is back to ruin more days and take that smile off of your face. A couple of weeks back, we were more than happy to see it wasn’t Daryl who ended up biting the bat, but his intervention ended up costing him the life of a close friend, as well as being abducted by Negan, whom, for now, has spared Daryl. Although he should consider himself lucky, I’m sure Daryl is feeling the exact opposite at this point; especially when Dwight tossed the snapshot of Glenn’s smashed head into Daryl’s cell with him, as darkness overcame his last visible emotion, which then led to the inevitable sobbing. Don’t cry Daryl, it’s not your fault!

This episode did a great job of putting us in the shoes of Daryl, as well as showing us portions of Dwight’s life and the Compound, itself. Daryl’s conversation with Sherry verified that he would be better off playing by the rules (opposed to attempting anything that may not pan out in his favor), but it didn’t stop him from running to a gaggle of motorcycles in trying to “get the hell out of dodge”. While Negan wasn’t big on that move, it was more that Daryl wouldn’t comply with referring to himself in the third person as “” (just as all of his henchmen do when asked for their name). Through Daryl’s unwillingness to co-operate, Negan arose to the conclusion that Daryl had made his own decision, a stupid one, but definitely his own. From the sneak peek of next week’s 90-minute episode, it looks like Negan will be making his way back to Alexandria for his owed supplies. Perhaps this will give us more information on when we will see Daryl again. Until then, “We’re on Easy Street…”