The Walking Dead, Season 8/Episode 10: The Lost and the Plunderers Plot Summary:
Groups unite their forces and converge on the Hilltop; Aaron and Enid search for allies; Simon takes matters into his own hands.
How do you top last week’s mid-season premiere? Maybe make an episode kind of like a Tarantino film? Alright, you’ve got my interest, and I’m now tuned into this week’s episode. Last week is a hard act to follow up from, but I admire it’s artsy move.
‘The Lost and the Plunderers’ was broken up into six different parts, from six different character point of views, and each segment was just as entertaining as the next.
The first character’s story we see is Michonne (Danai Gurira). It begins with Rick at first leaving Carl’s gun at his burial site, but takes it with him, just in case. As walkers are flooding in Alexandria, Rick and Michonne escape, and as they’re on the road, Rick decides to head over to Jadis. During the drive, Michonne sees that Carl wrote a letter for Negan, before he passed away. Rick hasn’t read it just yet, but later on in the episode we’ll find out what that letter for Negan says. As Rick and Michonne head over to Jadis’ junkyard, they’re in yet again another trap (blue paint on the ground, walkers surrounding the junkyard), but was it set by Jadis, or someone else?
After the title credits and commercial break, we’re at our next character POV, and it’s from Negan himself. He’s chatting with Simon about how “Rick’s little one-eyed pride and joy” played him back at Alexandria, while buying time for his people to escape. Simon’s upset about Jadis making a deal with Rick, and wants to kill a bunch of them for their betrayal. However, Negan wants him to follow orders, and only take their guns and kill one of their people for the betrayal. As Negan and Simon are talking about that plan, Maggie’s message from Hilltop arrives, a big crate with “We have 38 more. Stand Down” written on it. Negan informs Simon to stick to the plan, as this has upset Simon, causing him to burst out in a bit of rage, saying he wanted to kill people from the hilltop.
Now onward to the next character, Enid, and easily my least favorite segment from tonight’s episode. She and Aaron head to Oceanside, as captives (due to killing Natania), as Cyndie decides their fate. When Enid says to Cyndie how if Rick and the others find them dead, they’ll eventually wipe out the Oceanside community, if Enid and Aaron were killed. They’re told to never to return, and Aaron still believes he could convince them to fight with them against Negan, so he decides to stay behind, as he sends Enid back home.
Next up on the character POV, is Negan’s right hand man, Simon. He’s at the junkyard, to confront Jadis, but things escalate, and instead of obeying Negan’s orders, he has his men kill all of the junkyard crew except for Jadis, after they’ve given their guns to them. If only Jadis didn’t punch him in the face, and knocking him down, and a can of blue paint, (which would explain why the blue paint was on the ground earlier in the episode), after he killed her two advisors. As Simon arrives back to the Sanctuary with the guns, he keeps the full degree of his actions from Negan. As Negan sends a convoy out to investigate the Hilltop, since they still haven’t heard from Gavin (because he’s dead), one of his men mentions Rick is calling for him over the walkie.
Jadis is the next character we focus on, and we see Rick and Michonne, fighting their way up to a pile of trash to safety, and find Jadis. She tells them how she use to come here, before the outbreak, to find canvases to paint on. Rick decides to leave her there and uses a car door to make a pathway to safety, out of the junkyard. He blames her for her actions that led to her scavengers demise. Jadis asks to come with Rick, but Rick says he’s done playing her games. As Rick and Michonne escape, Jadis is quickly following them, but Rick fires his gun up in the air, to signal the walkers to her location. She does manage to escape, by luring the scavenger walkers toward a waste disposal. Now alone, she’s reflecting upon the world she now lives in, with her scavenger friends being grinded up, and their blood and guts being splattered on her paintings, as she eats applesauce from a can.
Last but not least, we are watching Rick’s point of view. He tells Michonne that he didn’t kill Jadis, nor does he want her dead. He just wanted her gone. She then mentions to Rick something that Carl said about changing their future, so Rick pulls over and decides to read the letter that he left for Negan. This letter for Negan is a request for him to lay down his arms, and to make peace with Rick. Rick then calls for Negan on the walkie, and tells Negan that Carl is dead. This is probably my favorite part from the show tonight because it shows Negan is sad and devastated about Carl passing, saying to Rick that Carl was the future of this world, but if Rick had listened to Negan in the first place, none of this would have happened. Rick is enraged and still claims to want to kill Negan, but the final words from Negan on tonight’s episode were to Rick, saying “Give up. Give up because you already lost”
Overall I thought it was a great follow up, maybe not the best follow up to the episode before, but man was it enjoyable. It was an interesting way to put that episode together, and with some cuts/close ups in the beginning with Rick and Michonne, it felt like a Tarantino inspired episode (Reservoir Dogs meets Dawn of the Dead). I’m looking forward to next Sundays episode!
Rating: 8 out of 10
-Josh B. Taylor
