The Walking Dead: The Same Boat; or Carol Gets Her Groove Back (sort of)

We know Carol has been good at playing a meek and mild PTA mom type in the past, when she first arrived in Alexandria, and she’s back at it this week.

First we get to see a recap of how Maggie and Carol got ambushed by some of the Saviors, and then the tense ride to the “safe house” where we hear chatter over the radio that sounds very organized and prepared, and not anything like Rick and team just took out all of Negan’s people in one fell swoop. The phrase “We followed protocol” was particularly disturbing, at least to me.

I understood right away that Carol was playing her part to get the Saviors to let their collective guard down, but I wasn’t sure at first why she decided to mention Maggie’s baby. I think I actually yelled at the TV when that happened. But I guess everything was about making her and Maggie seem non-threatening so these people would be less likely to watch them carefully enough.

I have to admit that it was clear Paula (played by Alicia Witt, whom I recognized from Friday Night Lights) was pretty bada$$ but I was still confident Carol and Maggie were going to at some point get out of this and none of the Saviors would live to tell the tale. Because I think the show is going to keep making them seem indestructible for a while longer before delivering some kind of terrible blow from the still unseen big baddie, Negan. (By the way, there are spoilers from the comic related to this in this week’s Waiting for the Train podcast, which will be published early Friday morning.)

Alicia Witt (left), in her days on Friday Night Lights, one of the other very best shows to ever be on television. If you didn’t watch it, you have failed at life.

So we have some tense moments where we think maybe Maggie and Carol can’t handle themselves but I think that the scene where they kick the one and only guy’s a$$ while still bound up with duct tape should have maybe been a giveaway that they are more than they seem.

But I guess for some reason it didn’t occur to any of these people how kind of amazing that was.

Once they switched it on though, they made short work of everybody. Maggie went into full bore mama bear mode, brutally smashing the skull of that annoying old broad, Molly (apparently? did they ever say her name? the Interwebz told me it was Molly) when Carol couldn’t bring herself to do it or something. But don’t worry, Carol’s kill switch got turned back on when the other youngun slashed at Maggie’s precious baby-carrying belly. I actually clapped when this happened.

Carol’s face said: “Oh, this b#$%.”

You threatened the wrong unborn baby, sweetheart.

After this, Carol and Maggie go stalking through the halls on the warpath, and they are all done.

Carol tries for a half second to not kill Paula, who is apparently Carol minus 10 years, and in the end, she gets her face eaten off and Carol doesn’t have to do anything at all.

I will mention that there is a part where Paula alludes to the fact that Carol has no idea “what I’ve had to do” and, well, I’m not sure she’s just talking about killing people. Things aren’t so great for people in Negan’s crew, especially women. So I do have a little sympathy for her, but obviously not enough to allow her to win. Sorry, Paula, we hardly new ye.

Oh and all this “we are all Negan” stuff was a little heavy handed. No, no you’re not.

I get it that it’s kind of a ploy to just generally freak the others out, but it doesn’t feel like something anybody in The Saviors from the comics would say. Negan is very much his own thing.

Of course Rick shows up just in time to not rescue anybody, having missed Carol and Maggie’s ploy to lure The Saviors other members onto “the kill floor” to set them on fire. That was brutal as hell.

I also wasn’t sure if the lone surviving Savior saying “I’m Negan” was followed by Rick shooting him because he believed he was Negan, or because he was sick of their collective s#$%, basically.

Yeah, this is an old Carol-Daryl hug because I couldn’t find a shot of the one from this week. But I found it pretty endearing; first, they are two of my favorite characters, and second, he asked “Are you OK?” and she said, “No,” because she’s not.

Second, Maggie’s “I can’t anymore” to Glenn = so sad.

She can’t anymore, but just 5 seconds ago she was roasting people alive. This whole situation is taking quite a toll on your peeps, Rick. You have some hard times ahead. These people need a crew of psychologists.

What did you think? Did you enjoy seeing Paula’s face eaten and Molly’s head bashed in or did you find Maggie and Carol’s brutality disturbing? What do you think will happen next week? Comments below!