The Key Plot Summary:
Hilltop’s leadership faces a difficult dilemma after the arrival of unexpected visitors; Rick comes face to face with an adversary.
Warning spoilers ahead.
It’s a shame a lot of people have been tuning out from The Walking Dead lately because the past couple of episodes have been pretty great. Last night’s episode, ‘The Key,’ just might be one of the best I’ve watched in a while.
The episode starts off with The Saviors carving up walkers lime Jack ‘o Lanterns, and rubbing their weapons in the blood and guts as they prepare to head out to Hilltop. Negan soaks his bat Lucille in a bucket of walker blood and guts while heading up to Hilltop.
Simon is having second thoughts of this plan, and says to Dwight that he needs to ride with him, in this trip to Hilltop. During the ride to Hilltop, Simon is saying to Dwight that Rick, Maggie, and Ezekiel keep coming after every attack they do to them, that they won’t back down from them anymore, and it concerns him.
Meanwhile, back at Hilltop, Rick decides to volunteer for scout duty, in the wake of Carl’s death. Maggie, Rosita, Michonne, and Enid see’s four empty crates and letter outside of Hilltop, asking for a meeting and to trade food and music for knowledge. Maggie and Enid think it’s a trap, but Michonne convinces them to head out there for the meeting. As Rick is on scout duty, he sees the saviors heading up to Hilltop, and he’s suppose to beep his horn, to let the others know that trouble is heading their way, but he decides to take action into his own hands and crash into Negan’s car.
This stops the saviors from heading up to Hilltop, Simon blocks one way of the little city they were driving through, so no one can go through their way, and tells another savior to do so on the other end of the street, and for the other saviors to stay there, until they make it back from investigating the crash.
Now this part of the show was hands down my favorite segment last night, and probably from this season. Rick chases Negan in an abandoned building, shooting at him, and luring walkers in this building. Negan heads upstairs and Rick is trying to shoot at him, but has no more ammo. Negan laughs at this, but then Rick throws an axe at him, Negan dodges it, and falls on a broken edge of the hallway upstairs, as Lucille falls to the bottom. Rick runs up there quickly to strike at him with his axe, but Negan falls down to the bottom of the building.
Rick rushes down there and now they’re at the bottom of this dark, walker filled building. Negan offers a deal to Rick, that he thinks is top notch, and Rick then tells him about the scavengers, saying is that how you make deals, by killing everyone? Negan now aware of Simon’s previous annihilation, is upset that his right hand man has betrayed him like that, knows that Rick won’t stop at anything now to kill him.
Rick finds Lucille before Negan, and finds a doorway boarded off, with writing saying “Eaters” he decides to set Lucille in lighter fluid, he said he found Lucille, Negan freaks out, shouting “Don’t you touch her”. As Rick lights Lucille in fire to start breaking down that boarded doorway, Negan tackles Rick through the eater room. They fight each other, and tackle down walkers that get in the way, but Negan manages to escape, and Rick follows where he escaped, but can’t find where he went off to.
Back with Michonne, Maggie, Enid, and Rosita; they meet these new characters, (Georgie, Hilda, and Midge), and Maggie doesn’t trust them, so they decide to take them back to Hilltop, and take their food from their van, so they can feed the Hilltop. As Michonne is saying that they should take the deal, Enid and Maggie don’t trust these people, but Michonne eventually convinces Maggie and Enid to change their mind, and do the trade. Georgie then changes the deal/trade.
For music only, she’ll give them the food in their van, and her knowledge. She reveals that her knowledge is a textbook she’s compiled filled with medieval survival, farming and irrigation tactics. She hopes that this helps pave the future for human survival in the Zombie apocalypse. Maggie is grateful for this “key of knowledge.”
Simon and Dwight find Negan’s car, but with the blood from it, they don’t know if it’s Negan’s, or if it’s from the bucket he was soaking Lucille in. They decide to head back to the saviors, and Simon gives them a powerful speech. He then tells them that the new plan is to wipe put all of the survivors at Hilltop, instead of Negan’s original plan. The episode ends off where we see Negan in a car, passed out. He wakes up, only to find out that Jadis found him, and has him at gunpoint. Doesn’t look too good for Negan at the end of this episode.
This was one of my favorite episodes I’ve seen in a while, and probably my favorite episode of this season. Next week’s episode looks like it would be one not to miss!
-Josh B. Taylor
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
