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The Walking Dead 8.13 Review – ‘Do Not Send Us Astray’
Loading...Tonight on The Walking Dead, the Saviors attack the Hilltop, and our heroes must face the cost of their actions and the motivations that lead them there.
The plot: When the Saviors, lead by Simon, arrive at Hilltop and the two groups come to blows, both of them getting more than they were expecting and shedding more blood than they hoped. While Hilltop proves more prepared than the Saviors anticipated, the good guys pay an even steeper price when the Saviors’ trick of coating their weapons in walker blood pays off. In the middle of the night, a number of the wounded die and turn and attack the living. In the process, nascent psychopath Henry ends up letting the hostages out when he tries to demand his brother’s killer step forward as well. Throughout all of this, Rick struggles to accept or acknowledge Siddiq in any way, Morgan is haunted by the bloody ghost of Gavin, and Daryl and Tara cannot agree about Dwight’s true alliance or intentions.
The title tonight comes from a prayer for the dead mentioned by Siddiq: “Do not send us astray after them.” This theme threads throughout the episode quite well, highlighting both those who have been sent astray, those who have not, those who refuse to see it, and those who are starting to.
Maggie is one who’s been walking the line between these things better than most, or perhaps just more convincingly. Both devastated and deeply changed by Glenn’s death as well as her pregnancy, Maggie has happened into a leadership position without ever directly intending to take it on. But, as many people say to her in this episode, and as she’s proven many times recently, she’s a good leader. Certainly better than Gregory, not that he set a very high bar. She treats people well, she can organize a group, inspire people, connect with them, use resources wisely and strategize attacks. She has repeatedly been tested and repeatedly chosen correctly, as far as morality goes. But tonight we learn that Maggie’s been hiding a burning need for revenge on Negan, one that has been at the root of her decisions with regard to the Saviors. She’s been hoping and trying to draw Negan out so that she can kill him herself; at the same time, she’s been dreading the cost of that because she knows there will be one. Maggie has both been lead stray by her loss, but aware that she has been. It’s a self-awareness that not many people have on this show, and in the complicated times they live in, a perspective that many of them could stand to consider.
Even while we’re watching the war play out, there has been a lot of talk about what comes next and what they are fighting for. Understandably, a lot of people are coming to want a life that is more than just violence begetting violence, but the leaders of these battles, the ones they have chosen to believe and in and follow, are driven by their losses. It’s a double-edged blade, because that drive and fervor is one of the things that makes them so charismatic in the first place. Maggie has finally realized that, and, perhaps, is coming to see that the attitudes and ways of thinking that got them here will not be the ones that help them survive in the long term.
Tara, too, looks to be coming around to that: now that she’s seen Dwight save their lives, her life, when he could easily have gotten them all killed and secured his own fate with the Saviors in the process, she’s changed her mind about him. She’s been in his shoes, after all, on the wrong side of things with the Governor. While she’s still fighting to bring down the Saviors, it’ no longer personal, and that difference is downright visible in her in this episode. Sadly, Daryl isn’t ready to let go of his anger and loss, still vehemently clinging to it. I suspect that when Tara doesn’t turn–we saw that she was wounded by Dwight in the episode, but I expect his weapons weren’t tainted–Daryl might finally start to come around.
Rick is also still a strong holdout. He can barely stand to even look at Siddiq, knowing Carl died helping him, and he is certainly not ready to hear Siddiq’s attempts to help him heal from his loss. Judging by the flash forwards we’ve had, I don’t expect Rick to get there until we’re finally at his “my mercy prevailed my wrath” moment. He’s not ready to hear it from anyone, in fact–he won’t let Michonne tend to his wound, avoids deeper conversations with her. He only really talks to Maggie to explain that he had to at least try to kill Negan, because she understands and still feels that drive herself. But even that discussion is brief and almost superficial.
Speaking of Siddiq, I’m liking him more. He acquitted himself well tonight!
And then there’s Morgan and Henry. Morgan being haunted by vivid hallucinations is not surprising or new (at least, I’m fairly certain we’ve seen this happen to him before). When Morgan goes off his moral compass, whichever way it happens to be pointing, he does not go gently. He is not a big fan of change. That said, when he does get off-kilter, he damn well knows it and even if he hides it from others, he cannot hide it from himself. The precise meaning of Gavin’s accusation “You know what it is!” isn’t entirely clear, but my guess is that it’s that Morgan knows full well why he’s being haunted. Morgan’s time for being lead astray by the dead (this time) is coming to an end–his Terminator mode is ending. He isn’t fully ready to make amends and change, however, as evidenced by his ghosts, and that he’s still rather hands-off with Henry. Speaking of whom, yikes, someone has to put a bell on that kid. For a known risk, he’s getting away with sneaking off far too much. Which isn’t itself shocking, these people do have a whole lot going on right now!
Finally, Carol. Carol still isn’t sure where she stands on this one, I think. She admits to Tobin that she isn’t sure what she wants, essentially. That she was pretending before, with him, and didn’t want that time with him to be real, but also that she was starting to feel it might be real after all. But then Negan and the Saviors had to show up and ruin everything! We saw how difficult it was for Carol to get back into mental fighting shape, after all. She’s resigned to the precariousness of the world, though not at peace with it. What she says to Tobin gives me hope for her to have hope, but I’m not sure what could make her feel the world is that secure at this point at the same time.
Also, rest in peace, Tobin! You were a good guy and I will miss you.
