Michonne and Rick are sleeping in bed, well maybe only pretending to sleep, they have their backs to each other, and Michonne looks angry. She gets up, gets her katana and goes into the living room. She pulls out an automatic rifle that she has hidden in the fireplace, and puts it in a duffle bag. She goes out the front door as Rick watches her go. Her back is to Rick, so she doesn’t realize that Rick saw her leave.
In an open field, we see Michonne walk toward a rusted and burned out SUV-type vehicle. She climbs on top of it along with her weapons, and scans the countryside. It seems she’s on watch – maybe for Negan?
Back home, Rick has Judith in his arms. She’s maybe 2 1/2, so there hasn’t been much of a time jump, but she sure looks big.
Rosita and Spencer are getting ready to drive outside the gate to see if they can scavenge anything to give to Negan when he arrives. Rosita asks Eugene to open the gate. He doesn’t, and she asks him again. He tells her that he’s fixing a music device and that when he’s done, he’ll have something he can give to Negan. Oh, Eugene, that’s sweet, but I don’t think it’s going to be enough. On cue, the Saviors drive up, and we see that it’s several vehicles, not just one. Spencer and Rosita get out of their car. Negan strolls up to the gate while swinging Lucille in hand. The way he swings the bat is almost like how Charlie Chaplin swings his cane. Negan’s whistling a happy tune as he saunters up to the gate, and says, ‘little pig, little pig let me in.’ Rosita, Spencer and Eugene look at each other, while Spencer opens the grate, but not the gate. Through the gate, Spencer asks Negan who he is, and Negan is like, you’ve got to be kidding me. Then Rick walks up and Negan says don’t make me have to ask (for Rick to let him in). Rick comments that Negan said he’d be here in a week, and that he’s early. Negan smiles and says, ‘I missed you’. Then a walker shambles over toward them, growling fiercely, and Negan tells Rick to come outside the gate and watch this. Negan bashes the walker in the head with Lucille, laughs like he made a difficult shot, and exclaims, ‘easy peasy, lemon squeezy’.
Negan saunters into Alexandria (he saunters a lot), and hands Lucille to Rick. He wants Rick to hold the bat. Of course, Negan isn’t worried about Rick doing anything with Lucille – he has Daryl as a hostage, and he’s backed up with a number of men, including Dwight.
Credits
Negan says that Alexandria is magnificent – an embarrassment of riches! There’s sure to be a lot of stuff here that Negan wants. Rick walks over to talk to Daryl, but Negan’s mood quickly changes and he tells Rick not to talk to Daryl, as Daryl’s ‘the help’. Also, if Rick (or anyone) talks to Daryl, then Rick will be forced to chop something off of Daryl.
Rick and Negan discuss what Negan is going to take, and Negan tells Rick he doesn’t get to decide what they take. Negan’s people go to search the houses and take what they want. Negan wants Rick to show him around.
Dwight questions Rosita about where she and Spencer were going to go with the car. Dwight takes items out of the car that he wants, including the weapons that are inside. Dwight tells Rosita to go get Daryl’s bike, he wants it. She says the bike is not here. Dwight says he knows she knows where it is, so go find it. She’s staring him down, so Dwight takes her cap off of her head. He tells her she can go now. She gets in the car, presumably to go retrieve the bike, but before they go, Dwight pours out all of the water that was in her canteen so that she can’t be gone long. She and Spencer get in the car and go.
Michonne sits on top of the burned out car and aims her rifle at a walker that is shambling her way. Incredibly, she misses. The walker keeps on coming, she shoots again, and misses again. What a horrible shot she is! So, she’s clearly practicing at being a sniper, and yes, she needs the practice. Badly. She puts the rifle down and slices the walkers head in half with her katana. Nice. She walks away, and heads into the woods. She finds a dead deer. She looks at it and shakes her head. It looks like she shot it by mistake, and she looks upset about it.
(signal went out, so lost some of the episode)
Negan and his crew are taking household goods out of the houses. One of Negan’s persons of hench hands Negan the video camera with the footage that Deanna took of all of Rick’s group when they first arrived in Alexandria. Negan comments on Rick’s humongous beard and laughs and says that he would not have messed with that guy. But Rick isn’t that guy, anymore, is he? Negan asks about Maggie, but he doesn’t know her name and refers to her as ‘the sick girl’. Whatever happened to her? It seemed like a stressful night for her, says Negan. He notices Rick’s disdain for him and calls him on it. Negan taunts Rick that he’s going to force Maggie into some kind of a relationship with him, because widows who recently lost their husbands are all empty inside – but not for long. Ewww. And I guess that’s how he knows that Maggie and Glenn were married, he saw it all on the video. Rick’s hand tightens around Lucille.
Gabriel walks up behind Negan and asks him if he wants to pay his respects to Maggie. Negan turns around and says ‘ho-ly crap!’ Gabriel is smiling at him. Negan looks Gabriel up and down and says ‘you are creepy as shit. Sneaking up on me, wearing that collar, with that freaky ass smile.’ Gabriel continue to smile, but he apologizes for freaking out Negan and introduces himself as Father Gabriel. Negan guesses that Maggie didn’t make it, and Gabriel and Rick let him think that’s the case. In fact, they take Negan to the graveyard to show him the graves, including Maggie’s. Negan says it’s a damn tragedy about Maggie. As they stand by the graves Negan says #1 (meaning Abraham) was on Negan, and lessons had to be learned. But #2 (meaning Glenn) didn’t need to happen, but Daryl there, forced his hand. And that’s probably what did Maggie in, isn’t it? Negan says he was going to ask Maggie to come back with him. Like she would even have a choice in the matter! So, I’m sure there will be ramifications later on because of the ruse, but at least it buys Maggie some time right now to see a doctor and deal with Glenn’s death. Suddenly they hear a gunshot. Negan goes off to investigate. It’s Carl in his house in a stand-off with a small group of Negan’s men. Carl explains to Rick that the men are taking all of their medicine when they said they’d take only half. Carl threatens Negan with the gun. Negan is not amused. Carl still has the gun, but Negan says not to threaten him. Negan then explains in a snarky way that they said they’d take half, and half is what Negan says it is. Negan also says that if Carl threatens him, Negan will have to make an example out of someone. Carl puts the gun down.
Negan says he wants all of the Alexandrian’s guns.
A garage door opens and Rick and Negan go inside. Olivia runs the armory and Rick tells her to take Negan to the guns, which she does. Negan tells Rick that he’s not taking their food. He doesn’t want Rick’s group starving because if they do, then Negan dosn’t get stuff, and he very much wants stuff. Rick doesn’t know what Negan wants him to say, and Negan says, ‘how about thank you, or is that too much to ask?’ Negan blames Rick for forcing Negan’s hand. He doesn’t say it, but it is implied that he means this is payback for Rick killing Negan’s people at the outpost. Negan wants to know if Rick is cooperating, and Rick says ‘what does it look like?’ Negan wants to know if Rick is holding out on him with the guns. Are there any guns hidden anywhere? Rick says no, not to the best of his knowledge. Those are really great weasel words, Rick, but I don’t think they’re going to fly with Negan.
Rosita and Spencer are out by the tracks where Denise was killed. She has a knife on her, and Spencer goes looking for Daryl’s bike. He finds it, still covered by leaves. Spencer walks the bike out. As Spencer prepares to load the bike into the van he says that this is their life now. It’s over, and this is where Rick got us. He puts the bike in the van. Spencer blames Rick for Abraham and Glenn’s deaths. He tells Rosita they have to live with it. She ignores him and goes off into the woods.
Negan fires a gun and is happy that it has bullets and works. One of Negan’s men comes out with the grenade launcher. Negan is impressed, and jokingly says so it was you guys who took out (the motorcycle gang)? Negan is going to have some fun with that launcher! At that moment, one of Negan’s henchwomen manhandles Olivia over to Negan and Negan tells her to cut it out. The woman says some of the guns are missing. Olivia says the inventory is correct, but they are two handguns short. Olivia doesn’t know where they are. Negan is disappointed that all the guns aren’t there because it means that someone isn’t on board.
Negan threatens to kill Olivia right this minute. Olivia cries, but Negan tells her that she screwed up and that messing up the gun inventory is life and death.
Rick looks at Lucille – I guess Negan is making Rick be the custodian while Negan and crew are there. Or perhaps it’s a tacit threat that if someone (like Olivia) screws up, Negan will make Rick kill her. Negan won’t do it.
The Alexandrians are in the church for a town meeting called by Rick. Rick tells the group that if people are hiding the guns then Negan might kill them all. Rick says that they have to give over the guns, and he wants to know who has them. If they aren’t found, Negan is going to kill Olivia. A guy stands up and asks why they care about only two guns. They need them to defend themselves.
Rick says they have to give over the guns so they can live in peace.
Eric, Aaron’s boyfriend, asks if they find the guns how do we live? Woah, he lives! We haven’t seen Eric in eons! Rick says they aren’t in charge anymore, Negan is. Who has the guns? Eugene says not everyone is here – meaning Rosita and Spencer.
Back to Rosita in the woods. She’s behind two walkers and they haven’t noticed her yet. Spencer takes care of that when he yells at her in order to find her. Now that the walkers have been tipped off by the sound, they turn to face Rosita. Thanks, Spencer. She hides behind a tree and when they approach, she stabs the walkers in the head. Nice technique! She’s alone and battling them all. Finally she gets what she wants, one of the walkers was carrying a gun.
Rosita tells Spencer that this is where Negan’s group killed Denise. Rosita is killing the walkers who were once Negan’s men. Dwight took all of their guns, so she has to get more. But the gun she got was empty. She’s bummed. She asks Spencer what he’s going to do, tell on her?
Meanwhile, Rick is at Spencer’s house looking for the missing guns. Gabriel walks in and says it’s going to work out. They’re going to find the guns. They will beat this – Gabriel has faith in us, he has faith in Rick.
Aaron walks in, no dice. They searched Rosita’s house, and the guns aren’t there. Rick thinks Spencer has done this before. Gabriel is going to look in Deanna’s office. Rick looks down at his feet and sees the heating vent. He opens it and finds a stash of things, including alcohol, and a gun. Double yay, Spencer.
One of Negans’s guys is hassling Enid. She would like to keep her green balloons. The creepy guy refers to her as a ‘pretty little girl’ and makes her say please, which she does. He leaves her with the balloons, but lets them flutter to the ground so that she’ll have to pick them up. Rick hands Negan the guns. Olivia is still crying. Negan wants to know who was holding out. Rick says it doesn’t matter, but Negan says it does.
Back at the gate, Spencer and Rosita are coming back. There is a welcoming party for them. Negan says Alexandria is a hell of a place. Rick looks away, sees Michonne, and says give me a second. Negan says no. Rick asks please. Negan smiles and lets him go. Rick runs to Michonne who is angry and hiding in a burned out building with her katana. Rick tells her that Negan had him hold it (Lucille). Rick says he needs the rifle and he knows it’s in the bag. Rick says they have to give up the guns. Rick says if she keeps it, then one of them will die. Michonne looks at Rick. He asks her for the gun. Back to Negan. Michonne comes back with the deer. Rick covers for her and says she was hunting. He gives Negan the gun. Negan says he’s glad that Rick is on the same page. Rick asks if Daryl can stay, but Negan says it’s not happening. Then Negan says maybe Daryl can plead his case, and maybe Daryl can sway me. Negan asks, ‘Daryl’?
Nothing from Daryl. Negan says Rick needs to earn for Negan. If Rick doesn’t have something interesting for Negan next time, someone is going to die. Negan takes the deer too (which Michonne drops to the ground) and says he ‘loves a gal that buys me dinner and doesn’t expect me to put out.’
Dwight says ‘rrrrrrRosita!’ rolling the Rs, and says that they took the beds and the guns. He asks her what else they found out there, and she says in a snarky, off hand way, ‘just your dead friends’. Dwight fires up Daryl’s bike and tells Daryl, you can have it back, just say the word, meaning ‘Negan’.
Negan says ‘nobody died’ to Rick. And he says I think we’ve refined our understanding. Negan wants to know if Rick wants him to go, and Rick says yes. Negan says ‘say those two magical words’, and Rick says ‘thank you’.
Negan bashes another walker over the head with an Alexandrian candlestick that he’s taking, and Rick contemplates bashing Negan over the head with Lucille. But he doesn’t. Negan tells his men to move out. And the he says, ‘how careless of me’. He takes Lucille back from Rick.
To add insult to injury Negan tells Rick that he just slipped his dick down Ricks’ throat and Rick thanked him for it.
Negan and crew leave.
Rick and Daryl look at each other as Daryl leaves in the back of the van.
Rick walks away from the closed grate and gate. Spencer closes the back doors of the van, now that Daryl’s bike is gone. He goes to get in the van when Rick calls out to him. He tells Spencer that they took the guns that Spencer had stashed in his house. The Saviors wanted all of them. There were two missing from the inventory and they were going to kill Olivia. Spencer asks ‘you went into my house?’ Rick reiterates that they were going to kill Olivia. Rick says he can understand about the guns, Rick did the same. But the food and the liquor? Spencer is small and weak, says Rick. Rick tells Spencer that he got lucky with the walls and with Rick’s group showing up. Rick begins to walk off, his back to Spencer, but Spencer says ‘we should have made a deal with them while we could have.’ Rick keeps walking, and Spencer decides now would be a good time to mouth off to Rick, because Rick is already having such a fabulous day. Spencer says that oh yeah, they’re all so lucky. Rick led them to the promised land, didn’t he? He continues with ‘I guess Glenn and Abraham were lucky too?’ Rick stops walking and says, ‘If you say anything like that again to me, I’ll break your jaw and knock your teeth out. You understand?’ Spencer is silent for a moment. Rick tells him to ‘say yes’. And Spencer replies ‘yes’, but he’s defiant. Rick continues walking away from Spencer.
Spencer is about to get into a van when he is confronted by Rosita. She says ‘you had guns?’ He admits it. She asks him why he didn’t tell her? Especially after he saw what she just had to go through in order to get only one gun from the group of walkers. He explains that he had that gun for awhile because he didn’t trust Rick. He was worried about Rick being in charge. He tells Rosita that she’s right, ‘this doesn’t have to be our life.’ He then gets in the van and drives off.
Rosita watches Spencer drive off. She looks around and reaches under the wheel rim of the car and takes the gun she had stashed there. So her gun was actually the second missing gun. The rifle that Michonne had wasn’t listed in the inventory.
Back at the house, Rick rolls out sleeping bags because Negan’s crew took most of the beds, including theirs. Michonne watches as he does so. He explains that they took the rifles. She says the rifle was from the Savior’s outpost and so was not on the list. She could have hid more of them. Rick asks her if she did and she tells him ‘no’. She walks out of the room and then she comes back. She says that everything they got, they got by fighting.
Rick says Negan’s group has the numbers, they don’t. She says we have Hilltop, and Rick says there still aren’t enough of them to fight Negan. He says they’ll play by Negan’s rules and they’ll have some kind of a life. Then Rick brings up Shane – his partner. He says Shane got Carl and Lori to safety right after it happened. He says Shane and Lori had an affair when they thought Rick was dead. He knows Judith isn’t his, but that’s okay. He had to accept the affair, and he has, so that he could keep Judith alive. He says he’ll die before she does, and he hopes that that is a long time from now. He wants to raise her and teach her how to survive. Rick says he wants to keep all of them alive too, so he has to accept this new life under Negan. He tells Michonne she has to accept it too. ‘All of us do or it won’t work.’
Michonne goes to help Rick with the bedroll on the floor. She says she’ll try.
Back out in the field, Michonne goes back to the car with her katana. She sees the walker she killed, and gets back up on the hood of the SUV. She scans the countryside and looks behind her. She sees something. She gets her stuff and goes off to investigate. A big pile of something has been burned by the side of the road. It’s hard to tell what it is, but I think it’s the mattresses that Negan’s group took from Alexandria. The Saviors didn’t even want the beds, it was only a jerk move.
We see a bullet casing on the ground. An unseen hand picks it up. Rosita knocks on Eugene’s door and asks him to make her a bullet.
Good episode, although I’m not sure why it needed to be an hour and a half long.