It starts out with a montage (music provided by the Jam) of Dwight and his life picking up deliveries, and how those deliveries contribute to the yummy looking sandwich he’s making. He picks up mustard and pickles from one ‘town, tomatoes from another, fresh bread, eggs. People who balk at giving deliveries to the Saviors get beaten up. The Saviors settlement is in a factory-like building. At the factory, as Dwight and co gather eggs (for his sandwich), Negan walks by with Lucille. Everyone kneels as Negan walks by.
Dwight ends up with a pretty tasty looking sandwich – fresh bread, mustard, pickles, tomatoes, a fried egg. He’s perched on the concrete steps of the factory and watches people and walkers right outside the chain link fence. The walkers are chained, impaled, and otherwise trapped – but make pretty good guard dogs.
After the tasty looking sandwich Dwight eats, he brings a naked Daryl a sandwich with a dog food filling. Not so yummy. Daryl is left in a locked, pitch black room.
More pop music for Daryl while he’s in his cell. Something about being on easy street – which the internet tells me is called ‘Easy Street’ by The Collapsible Hearts Club. I wonder how they feel about their song being used for psychological torture. Dwight brings Daryl another sandwich, watches him take a bite, and then leaves. The music stops, and Daryl seems to be dropping off to sleep and then the music starts again. Yep, torture for Daryl. His fingers are trembling. Dwight brings Daryl clothes to put on (with the letter ‘A’ written on the shirt), and comes back in with a cross bow. The clothes look almost like a prison jumpsuit – kind of like what the walker-wranglers were wearing in the guard dog area.
They go into a doctor’s office, and the woman recognizes Daryl. It’s Sherry, from last season. It sounds like Sherry is trying to get pregnant, but it’s a no go yet. Dwight tells her not to talk to Daryl. The doctor tells Daryl his back wound will get better if he lets it, meaning if Daryl gets with Negan’s program.
Dwight takes Daryl back to his cell, but Negan wants to talk to Dwight. Daryl’s being guarded by men with guns. Daryl sits and sees a living room of sorts – comfy chair, cabinets, etc. Compared to his dank dark cell it looks like the promised land.
Daryl is brought outside. He’s with Dwight. Dwight has Daryl’s cross bow. They’re looking through the chain link fence at the impaled walkers. Dwight tells Daryl he could be like the walkers or he can be like Dwight.
Daryl is thrown back into his cell. Daryl says he won’t kneel. Dwight says ‘I said that too’. And he thinks Daryl will capitulate at some point. More bad music – the easy street song again. Daryl looks through the crack between the door and the floor to see what he can see outside of his cell. Nothing.
Negan is saying that Daryl is going apeshit, and that some people are harder to break than others. He tells Dwight that because Dwight is doing such an awesome job he can have sex with any woman he wants so long as she says yes. He can even have sex with ‘you know who’ for old times sake. Then he asks if Dwight is okay sexually, referencing when Eugene chomped on him a few episodes ago. Negan says this in his mocking tone of voice, but Dwight assures him that he’s ‘cool.’ Negan questions whether or not he’s ‘cool’ if he’s not interested in sex even though he can have it for free.
Dwight covers his displeasure by saying he hasn’t earned the right yet – Daryl is not yet broken. Dwight’s clever, and he knows the sex for free stuff is a test by Negan, and he has decided that not taking Negan up on his offer is the answer that Negan is looking for.
Negan says he’s earned it. A call comes in and there’s an issue outside. Dwight volunteers to go take care of it. Negan says he doesn’t have to – it’s grunt work. Dwight says he’d like to do it. Negan says ‘good boy’. Dwight picks up the cross bow and walks off. He gets on the motorcycle and off he goes. While Daryl sits in the black cell.
Dwight rides up past a truck on the road and looks to see what’s out there.
Daryl is in his cell with the loud music. A heavy guy comes to Daryl and gives him a sandwich. He takes a bite as the heavy guy watches. The door is slammed behind him and the music starts up again. The lock does not seem to have been locked – and Daryl sees this.This is a test for Daryl. Daryl looks under the door and then pushes the door open a crack. He escapes from the cell and walks down the corridor. Daryl’s number is #4 – it’s on his shirt. Don’t know if it’s important, but there it is. Daryl continues to walk down the corridor. He narrowly misses a few people walking down the hall.
Meanwhile, Dwight sees a boatload of walkers writhing on the ground on the road. I’m not sure yet why they can’t get up and move. They’re all broken in some way. One by one, he bashes in their heads with his foot. Another walker falls from the overpass and almost lands on Dwight. Dwight almost gets munched but he shoots the walker just in time. It’s hard to know if this was a set up in some way, or a run of the mill multi-car accident that he happened upon.
Meanwhile, Daryl is caught by Sherry. She tells Daryl to go back to the room. He won’t get away, there’s not way out. Sherry says it’s going to be worse for him if he doesn’t go back. Of course Daryl doesn’t listen and continues on his way. He looks outside a window and sees a courtyard of sorts. He makes a break for one of the motorcycles lined up in a small fleet of motorcycles, but he’s quickly surrounded by men. And like Sherry said, he has no where to run. Then Negan saunters up with Lucille, whistling as he does. He asks Daryl, ‘are we pissing our pants yet?’ My guess is that Daryl being Daryl, he’s not. And won’t.
Pretty boring episode so far, and I’m a Daryl fan.
Negan smiles at Daryl. He asks Daryl who he is. To give Daryl a hint, he points Lucille at people and asks ‘who are you’ without even looking at them. Each one in turn says ‘Negan’. He asks Daryl again who he is, and Daryl says nothing. Negan says he’s failed, and his life is not going to get cooler as a result. He gives Daryl his options for life in the Sanctuary.
Each option involves working for Negan, although in different ways. 1) he can do it as a dead man, like the walker guard dogs, 2) he can do it for points, but he still works for him, or 3) he capitulates and lives like a king. Daryl says nothing. Negan swings Lucille at Daryl but stops just short of whacking him. Daryl doesn’t flinch. Negan laughs and comments (with a pinch of respect) that Daryl doesn’t scare easily. He walks off and whistles as he saunters off. That’s the signal for his men to beat Daryl, which they do.
Meanwhile Dwight is wheeling the bike along down the road toward some walkers. He sees Gordon (a Savior – and being the ‘issue’ that was outside) grappling with a walker. Dwight drops the bike and rushes toward him.
Back to Daryl – he’s in his cell, and there’s someone outside the door. It’s Sherry again, she’s telling Daryl that she was sorry, this was after she lost Tina. She’s still sorry.
Dwight saves Gordon, but he’s holding Gordon at gunpoint – Dwight is going to take him back to the Sanctuary. Gordon asks what happened, we used to be friendly, but Dwight says to shut up. Gordon wants to run away. Dwight says there’s no where to go, everything’s his (Negan’s), or will be. Dwight tells Gordon to keep walking. Gordon says it’s okay, it’s okay if you do it (shoot Gordon). ‘Hell, I want you to do it.’ Dwight wants him to keep walking – back to the camp.
Gordon wants to know why they’re living like this, there’s only one Negan and many of them. He says when he and Maria survived those first few months, they knew how to fight the monsters. Gordon kneels down and won’t get up. He’s done. Dwight yells him to get up. He tells Gordon he’ll dig up Maria’s grave and feed her remains to the dogs. He’ll kill everyone Gordon knows . He’ll blindfold them and kill them. This is the key to Gordon. He says okay, you win. ‘But you know there’s nothing left.’ He gets up and starts to walk back to the camp. Dwight raises his gun and shoots Gordon in the back.
Dwight is back in one of the corridors. He runs into Sherry, who is smoking a cigarette. He asks for one, and she hands him one, and he promptly lights it up. They stand in silence for a moment. He asks if he’s (meaning Negan) good to her and she says yes. She asks if he’s happy and he says yeah. She says that’s good. He says we did the right thing. It’s a hell of lot better than being dead. She says yeah. Dwight leaves. It was a heavily coded encounter, neither of them are remotely happy, and they are living with the consequences of their actions.
Back to easy street and Daryl in his cell. The door is unlocked and he doesn’t move. Dwight hands him a sandwich and when he doesn’t take it, Dwight drops it on the ground. Dwight says you got your friend killed, and I got Tina killed. Dwight tells Daryl that Negan has taken a shine to him, but that doesn’t mean things are good for Daryl. He tapes a photo on the wall for Daryl. It’s probably Glenn with his head bashed in. Daryl throws it on the floor, but then picks it up and looks at it – it’s definitely one of Negan’s kills, but it’s too dark to be able to tell if it’s Glenn. A tear leaks from Daryl’s eye. Another song starts up, it’s Roy Orbison – ‘Crying’. Daryl kind of smiles in a grim way, and then cries – the song is too much for him. Dwight sits outside the cell and listens to Daryl weep, and then walks off.
Time passes. Dwight opens the door, and Daryl is on the floor. The next scene is Daryl and Dwight in Negan’s living areas. Negan offers Daryl water and then mocks Daryl’s inability to drink because he’s been so badly beaten. He tells Dwight to get Daryl a straw. Negan explains to Daryl that Dwight hustles and he likes that. Negan explains about Dwight’s super-hot wife and super-hot sister. Negan was going to marry Tina, Sherry’s sister because Negan is a stand up guy. Then Sherry, Tina and Dwight ran off, taking the meds Tina needed with them. Negan was bummed because those meds are especially difficult to scavenge. Negan sent out his men to go get them. He says that Dwight came back, manned up, and so made Negan take notice. Negan says that Lucille is a stickler for the rules though. He says that even though Tina died, Sherry didn’t want Dwight killed, so she offered to marry Negan. Negan was okay with this, but because of the rules, he gave Dwight the iron. Then he married Sherry. After all of that, Dwight got on board and he’s now a top guy. Negan says Daryl can be like Dwight. All Daryl has to do is answer one simple question – ‘who are you?’ Daryl is silent. Negan asks him again – ‘who are you’? Daryl looks up at Negan just a little – and is still silent. Finally, in answer to the question, Daryl says ‘Daryl’. Dwight is going to force Daryl to say ‘Negan’, but Negan says ‘it’s cool. Daryl made his choice.’ It’s not Negan’s problem if Daryl made a dumb ass choice.
Daryl is thrown back into the cell and Dwight is frustrated by him. Daryl says he gets why Dwight did it. He was thinking about someone else (Sherry). And that’s why Daryl can’t.
Dwight is outside, deep in thought. He looks at the walkers behind the chain link fence and drinks a beer. He throws the bottle as he watches the walkers. Gordon is among the walkers now, and grabs onto the chain link fence. Dwight turns his back to the audience and we see that he’s wearing Daryl’s motorcycle jacket with the wings.
I think that Dwight is wearing Daryl’s clothes, has his crossbow and bike because in his way he sees himself as more like Daryl, even though he’s not as brave as Daryl. Dwight has made the choice to live life on his knees rather than die standing up. Daryl is the other way around, and it’s in this way that Dwight, even though he’s wearing Daryl’s clothes will never be like Daryl.