While Rick’s team is still out with Jesus, Carol bakes acorn and beet cookies, passing them out to everyone in Alexandria. She is getting mildly flirty with Tobin when someone yells “they’re back.”
Rick has returned with food, and convenes a meeting in the church in one hour. To Carol, he reveals that they’re going to have to fight. Rick drives on to deposit the food in the pantry, and Morgan approaches Carol. He wants to know why she didn’t tell Rick about the incident with the Wolf. “Not telling anyone is like you did it, too.” Carol disagrees, and leaves a single cookie on Sam’s grave.
At the church, Rick details the plan Maggie worked out with the Hilltop. He reasons that the Saviors would have found them eventually and would try to own them. By then, Alexandria would be low on food, and might not win. This is their way to get food, to earn their “keep,” but he wants to hear from anyone who objects. Only Morgan speaks up, just to ask if Rick is sure they can win. Rick is sure. Morgan wants to just tell the Saviors that, rather than kill them. I am actually saddened by Morgan’s naïveté. Rick doesn’t want to give up the element of surprise, then asks if anyone else wants to talk to the Saviors first. Aaron is the only one to speak up, and it is just to say he doesn’t want what happened here happen again. It’s settled. They kill them all.
That night, everyone is making preparations. Maggie believes that, since she made the deal, she has to be part of the team. She promises Glenn she will just keep watch. Abraham chooses this time to leave Rosita. She is stunned and wants to know why. “When I first met you, I thought you were the last woman on Earth. You’re not,” he explains coldly. Tara tells Denise she loves her, but she doesn’t have to say it back. Denise will say it when Tara return (We later find out that Tara was covering; she told Denise she loves her instead of that she has taken place in a massacre like this one before. But it wasn’t a lie; she does love her.) Carol makes some shorthand notes in a journal that only she can understand. The number 18 is circled. She can’t sleep, so she goes outside for a cigarette, which she shares with Tobin, who also can’t sleep. He is worried about Carol going on the mission, and admits that she does things that terrify him. He says she can do those things because she is a mom. “I was,” she corrects him. “You ARE,” he insists, claiming she is a mom to most of the people in Alexandria – but not him. “You are something else to me.” Carol kisses him. I assume they spend the night together.
Rick, Michonne, Glenn, and Andy work on a plan for breaking into the Savior compound. They will go in at night, and the guards will let them in. The Saviors want Gregory’s head – they will give it to them.
During the day, Rick and his team do reconnaissance. Rosita is annoyed that Carol didn’t rat out Morgan, but she promises she’s not going to tell. Glenn and Heath kill some walkers and behead them. They will disguise the walker head as Gregory’s. When given the options, Rick chooses one, but Andy worries because the nose is different. Rick picks up the head, punches it in the nose, and explains that “Gregory” fought back. Andy stares. “The Saviors are scary but those pricks have nothing on you,” he says like a star-struck teen. Carol is mad that Rick let Maggie come, and insists she stay with her. The group will move in a few hours before dawn. The guards will be at the end of their shift and tired; the rest of the compound will be asleep. If they don’t like what they see, they will go home and make a new plan. But they won’t have to.
Andy drives up the front of the compound. Red security lights turn on and a voice over a loudspeaker demands he announce himself. He does, and “it’s done.” Two guards come out, and Andy reveals “Gregory’s” head. The loudmouth guard is impressed he did it; the quiet guard seems to doubt that this is Gregory. He examines the head, and Andy, nervously, tells him how he fought Gregory; that’s why his nose is different. The quiet guard eventually believes him, by using the head as a puppet to mock Andy. He goes inside to retrieve Andy’s friend, and when he is gone, Daryl sneaks up and slits the loudmouth guard’s throat. The rest of the team come out of the shadows to quickly and quietly clean up the mess. Quiet guard returns with the captive. Nothing seems amiss, until Michonne runs him through with her sword. Andy takes the captive back to the cars while everyone else moves into the compound. The goal is to find the armory; check all the doors. The next few scenes are wonderfully intense.
In the first room Rick checks, he finds a guy sleeping. He silently presses a knife into his head. The guy never wakes up. Glenn and Heath find two more guys asleep in another room. Both had shared that they had never had to kill a human before, and both were nervous about it. Glenn steps up and kills his guy, then steps in and kills Heath’s guy, too. Heath gives him silent “thank you” eyes. It is then that they notice a dozen Polaroids on the wall, featuring humans with hideously bashed-in mutilated faces. It’s a gruesome collection of violence.
Sasha and Abraham think they hit the jackpot when they find a locked door. Sasha sets about jimmying it open when a guy comes into the hallway, seemingly by accident. He swipes at Abraham with his knife, and the men fight. The Savior manages to pull a fire alarm and all hell breaks loose. The teams inside open fire on anyone who moves. There is gunfire and death everywhere. Heath and Glenn find the armory, but a few Saviors are on their tail. They open fire on the shut door and don’t stop until they are out of bullets. I was kind of hoping they had shot one of their friends. It was all Saviors. When they open the door, there is a pile of bodies outside.
Outside, Carol hears the alarms and starts to rush to the compound. Maggie follows, which pisses off Carol. “You’re supposed to be someone else, you are staying here!” she yells. Meanwhile, Tara insists that Andy take his injured friend back to the Hilltop to ensure that their end of the bargain will still ensure Alexandria gets food. Jesus decides to stay behind and fight with Rick’s crew. Gabriel finds a dying man crawling from the compound, reaching for his gun. He stops the injured man and recites scripture over his insistence that “you’re all dead” and “blood’s coming.” Gabriel shoots the guy dead.
Morning breaks and things seem to have quieted down. Our team is surveying the cars that the Saviors have. Heath and Tara head out on a scavenging mission. Everyone else feels like the mission was a success. Michonne feels a little uneasy – she wants to know which one was Negan. A lone survivor tries to peel away from the compound on a motorcycle. Rosita shoots him off and Daryl attacks him. Before he can kill the guy, a nearby walkie-talkie speaks to Rick. A female voice informs him that they aren’t coming out, but she knows they will want to talk. “We’ve got a Carol and a Maggie; figure that’s something you wanna talk about.”
You can watch a preview and a clip for the next episode, titled “The Same Boat,” using the players below.
