The Best and Worst ‘Walking Dead’ Characters This Week (March 26)

March 28 05:31 2017

The penultimate episode of season seven splits up between three different storylines as we march toward a confrontation with Negan and the Saviors. Differences aside, the Oceansiders and the Alexandrians team up to kill the barnacled walkers who have made land.

Oh, and turns out it was Dwight’s silhouette at the end of the last episode, and he’s offering to help. At least we suspect this from the trailer. How will Rick be able to give up arms, bring the communities together and develop a plan before Negan arrives in Alexandria? (Why? “We all got shit to get over.”) Her former cohort Eugene also tries to persuade her that joining the enemy is a matter of evolutionary necessity. I’m not saying I was looking at my phone the entire time, but I was wondering where my phone was. While Sasha was being held prisoner in the Sanctuary, she was visited by one David, one of the Saviors, who attempted to sexually assault her.

Absolutely not. This rule is utterly meaningless to the integrity of the Saviors. It’s when Sasha says there are some four-story buildings outside the Saviors’ compound where they can get a good shot that I saw a glimmer of hope-because then they wouldn’t have to enter the compound, and thus they’d maybe actually live after they took the shot.

Likewise, Eugene also gives a great speech to Sasha about just how completely terrified he was that night in the season premiere, and how seeing Abraham – a survivor infinitely tougher than he ever was – die like that was just too much for him to bear. Ezekiel tries to convince him to do so before the Kingdom’s leader and his fighters make their way to Alexandria with an armed Carol. If they are really affirmative, then it’s still worth doing. What is Sasha’s plan here? Only Tanya was willing to stand up to them, though she was also willing to get herself killed for no real reason. The episode started out with Sasha almost being sexually assaulted by one of Negan’s members, David, but Negan himself puts a stop to it when he stuck a knife in his neck and then gave Sasha a choice: join my group or die. This makes sense, more or less; there are other ways it could’ve gone, but having Tara decide to betray a promise is probably a stronger choice for her as a character than having that truth come out on its own.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I didn’t like it, it was just lacking.

I’m not sure what happens from here.

There’s just one problem with fans believing Sasha may receive the same death as Holly.

Perhaps the one part of the episode that was definitively interesting had to do with Sasha and Negan. In theory, this is a reprise of the original sin that led the Alexandrians to such desperate measures in the first place: The moment, back in Season 6, when Rick and the gang murdered dozens of Saviors at an outpost so he could raid their armory. Why would Sasha need a bag over her head to go from the Savior’s headquarters to Alexandria, both locations that are known to her?

That said, yes, Sasha should be returned as a zombie somehow. And in the final minutes of this week’s episode – “Something They Need” – Rosita reveals that Negan’s reluctant lieutenant saved her from the shootout at the Sanctuary at some point after the closing credits.

It’s a finale that fans have been waiting a year for, and now, they’ll have to wait at least one more week. So the question is, will he swallow his pride and work with her to make the community better, or will he continue to be a craven jackhole and find a way to get rid of her? That would match up mostly with what happens in the comics (comic spoilers follow), as comics Dwight found his way to Rick and told him he wanted to hurt Negan from the inside during the impending war after Negan makes more inappropriate remarks to Dwight’s wife Sherry.

So yeah, I just wish that Sasha’s arc had been handled differently here.

Most inconsequential character: Aaron’s boyfriend, Eric, showed up for 30 seconds in this episode, substantially more than he has all season.

Illustration by Matt Walljasper

The Best and Worst ‘Walking Dead’ Characters This Week (March 26)
 
 
  Categories: