The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 5: Go Getters

Okay, I can breathe again: Maggie IS alive. Although most of us expected that already, the confirmation is still relieving nonetheless. We open with our leading lady observing two graves with pure heartache, as she is approached by her new closest friend, Sasha. The deaths of Abraham and Glenn have certainly brought these two much closer, and when two people are feeling the same amount of pain, who better to understand what it is you’re going through than that one person. This reminds me a lot of the comic book character, Brianna, from The Hilltop, who approaches Maggie while she is silently observing by Glenn’s grave. Aside from that, we are finally reunited with our favorite member to originally come from this community: Jesus.

All good things come at a cost in this world, and where there’s Jesus, there is Gregory. Remember him? The slimy, good-for-nothing pervert who runs the show over at The Hilltop, hiding in his gigantic house and kissing ass just to make sure it isn’t him who’s slain next. After discovering Maggie and Sasha (as he kept repeating this episode, “Who is Sasha?”), Gregory is more than displeased. It isn’t so much the fact that there are two additional members of the community, but more that Maggie and Rick couldn’t follow up on the promise they had made to Gregory about taking care of Negan and The Saviors in the previous season. In the piece of shit’s defense, Maggie was the one to push and initiate this deal, so it makes sense that Gregory is able to dangle that little tidbit over her head for the time being.

It makes perfect sense that Maggie and Rick completely underestimated the power of Negan and his Saviors, but to not think that she isn’t feeling any remorse because of the events that followed is simply asinine. This behavior Gregory displays confirms how awful of a human being he can be, and how he really enjoys putting emphasis on the fact that no one is as perfect as him. “What could be worse than Gregory this episode?” I silently thought to myself, only to discover the answer a short time after, which was "The Saviors". In the middle of the night, the gate to The Hilltop is opened, as a car blaring music cruises on through and comes to a dead stop. Luckily for the community, Jesus, Sasha and Maggie jump right into it, slaying walkers left and right. The real hero is Maggie, who crushes the car with a large tractor, putting that noisy nightmare to rest.

While it isn’t made clear that this is the handy work of Negan’s men, you start to get an idea. Who else in the surrounding area has an issue with The Hilltop? If nothing comes to mind, then it must be The Saviors, who storm directly into the community the following day, with Simon leading the pack. The tall man who lowered our good friends to their knees finally has a name to go to his face, and it sure is a face that only a mother could love. After an extremely intimidating one-on-one conversation with Simon, Gregory reveals to him that he has one more thing he is hiding from them. As he leads them to the closet where he hid Maggie and Sasha, all that remains behind the door is a box loaded with scotch in place of the girls, which Simon accepts willingly. Although the drunk had to give up all of Grandpa’s old cough medicine, it could’ve cost two people their lives, which Maggie makes evident as she slugs Gregory hard in the face.

Aside from The Hilltop being the main focal point this episode, we are given another look at the Carl and Enid friendship, which soon developed into something more. Enid wants to be with Maggie at The Hilltop, and Carl doesn’t want anything to happen to Enid. In addition to that, Carl is taking what happened to Glenn and Abe extremely personal and believes that some people should be justified for their actions. As she says what we’re all thinking, Enid mentions to Carl that he is doing this more for himself, opposed to his fallen comrades. Knowing the independent thinker and human being that Carl is, nothing will stop him from following what he believes is a righteous path to redemption. Our episode closes with Sasha asking Jesus to locate where it is that The Saviors reside, and in doing so, he hops onto one of the trucks last second. As he makes his way on, he is greeted by a familiar voice, only to discover the voice belongs to Carl, sitting next to a bundle of supplies. Will the show stay true to the comic with what happens next in Carl’s storyline? I guess we will just have to wait and see, but if everything checks out accordingly, I sense a decent mid-season finale in a few episodes.