Maggie wakes up, and she sees some blue flowers sitting on the bedside table next to her. Dr. Carson welcomes her back. He lets her know about the pregnancy issues – the placenta separated from the uterus, but she’s okay now, and she didn’t lose the baby. They listen to the heartbeat together. He tells Maggie that she has to calm down and rest otherwise she could lose the baby. Not only that, but he wants her to stay at Hilltop for the duration of her pregnancy so that he can monitor her pregnancy.
Sasha is seated outside the ‘hospital’ door, and Maggie steps out to greet her. Maggie wants to know where Glenn and Abraham are buried so Sasha takes her over to where they are buried. Maggie kneels at Glenn’s grave. Sasha gives Maggie Glenn’s pocket watch (that was once Hershel’s). She tells Maggie that the pocket watch was in Glenn’s pocket. Sasha goes on to tell her that all Abraham had in his pocket was a cigar. A bittersweet moment. Maggie places the pocket watch on Glenn’s grave. Sasha says that it feels like everything is wrong. Maggie says not everything, meaning her pregnancy is still good. Sasha says she’ll stay with Maggie till the baby’s born. Jesus walks over to place flowers on the graves. He was the one who put the flowers by Maggie’s bedside. He says that blue flowers inspire strength and calmness.
Gregory walks briskly up and says thank god you’re here (to Maggie) – he’s in a snit, and they argue about whether Maggie and Sasha can stay at the Hilltop. They argue about the graves, and whether or not the graves can stay. Gregory is bummed about being stabbed, and he’s bummed that they colluded (the Alexandrians and the Hilltop), and that because of that, they’re all in danger from the Saviors. Sasha and Maggie have to go, he says. Gregory wants them gone in the morning. Gregory threatens to kick Jesus out too if he doesn’t toe the line. Gregory doesn’t care about Maggie’s pregnancy, and says that ‘that’s her mistake’. But he’s a good guy, he says, and says they can stay the night – kind of like when Negan described himself as a ‘stand up’ guy for not raping Dwight’s wife (Negan’s twisted definition of ‘not rape’).
credits
Rick and Carl are playing darts and Carl is a really bad shot. Like he’s not even hitting the board, but wall is nice and pock-marked. Rick’s going on a supply run and Carl wants no part of that. Rick gives Michonne a walkie-talkie and says they’re headed north. She gives him a passionate good-bye kiss. Aaron and Rick take off.
Carl asks why Michonne didn’t go with Rick. She has some stuff to figure out, like whether or not they can make this arrangement work. They argue about helping the Saviors. Carl says his dad is wrong. Michonne says even if Rick is wrong she doesn’t know. As she walks out the door she tells Carl to be nice to Olivia.
Carl runs outside to see what Enid is up to. She’s climbing one of the walls and planning on walking to the Hilltop. She says she’ll be fine – she wants to see Maggie. He tells her he’s not saving her anymore. She says she’s sorry he had to see Glenn and Abraham’s deaths, and he says he’s not.
Jesus tells Sasha that he’s glad Sasha is here at the Hilltop. He’s going to try to change Gregory’s mind to let them stay. Jesus says he’s not a leader, so he can’t lead. He seems a little evasive about why that is so. Sasha asks if she scavenges for the Hilltop, will that be enough (for Gregory to let them stay)? Jesus isn’t sure.
Jesus hands Sasha the necklace that Rosita gave to Abraham. She cries a little as she looks at it. Jesus says he liked Abraham – he liked that Abraham could make you smile and wince at the same time.
Maggie comes in and wants to know why they burn their dead. He says in the beginning it was so they could keep going. He leaves.
Maggie asks ‘now what?’ Sasha says we’re staying. Maggie’s not so sure.
Same morning – Enid is on a bike, and a really gnarly walker shambles toward her. Then a car careens toward the walker, hits it, and crashes into a post. The walker gets back up, as walkers do, and the driver crashes into the walker again until it’s pinned against the wall. The driver of the car is Carl. She asks him what he’s doing here, and he says ‘he likes to drive’. Ha.
It’s night time at Hilltop and there are small bonfires scattered about, and the gates are wide open. Music is blaring. Sasha goes outside to investigate, getting up onto the roof to see what’s going on, and she sees the horde of walkers shambling in through the open gates.
Maggie also makes it up onto the roof – some exertion required, but she can’t leave Sasha out there alone. She calls Jesus and points out the danger. Sasha climbs down to start killing walkers. Jesus roundhouse kicks walkers. Sasha finds the booby trapped car, an old Gremlin blaring loud music, and tries to break in. But that car is locked up tight, with metal grated windows. No one is breaking into that car! Jesus comes up to her and they both fight walkers. They have to close the Hilltop gates. A large farm tractor driven by Maggie starts rolling over walkers as well as the booby trapped Gremlin. Sasha and Jesus continue to kill walkers by firelight. Jesus has some good kickboxing skills!
Carl and Enid walk down the road. He says he never looked away when Glenn and Abraham were being killed. He needed to witness it and remember it, so that when he has to kill the Saviors, he can. Enid says you do the things for the people you love or loved. And Carl says it’s not for those people, it’s for themselves.
Jesus tells Gregory that Maggie can Sasha stay. Gregory says no. Maggie and Sasha walk in. He tells them to go. Sasha says she’ll go, but Maggie stays. Gregory still says no. Sasha asks him what we have to do to make this work. Gregory implies that he’d sleep with Sasha to let them stay. Ewww.
Meanwhile the gates burst open and in walks Simon and a bunch of Saviors. Gregory hides Maggie and Sasha in the closet – not because he cares about them, but because he doesn’t want to get in trouble with the Saviors.
Carl and Enid continue walking down the road. Carl finds a backpack with roller skates in the pack. And what do you know? They’re a perfect fit! For both of them! They hold hands, smiling as they skate. Corny and unbelievable as the set up is, it’s a nice scene, and it’s nice to see two people genuinely smiling. The scene has a ‘first date’ feel to it, so it was good for that too.
Meanwhile back at the Hilltop, Gregory opens the door to probably 50 or more Savior thugs. All have guns. Gregory says ‘hello’.
The Saviors all look around, and poke around at possessions. Simon says they need to talk and they want to talk in the study. Simon begins to discuss the Alexandrians without saying their names. He hustles Gregory into the study.
Simon and Gregory are looking at a painting in Gregory’s office. Gregory tells Simon about last night, the message was received loud and clear. Simon asks what message was that. Gregory says that you’re the boss.
Simon says last night was us working hard to give you a message. Simon was going to clean up the walker menace, but you did it yourself. Good on you! Gregory ways we must have learned our survival skills from you. Simon thinks people a the Hilltop are soft, and goes on to say the Saviors lost a few people to the Alexandrians, but now the Alexandrians work for them. Simon tells Gregory the Alexandrians are ‘real go-getters’. I wonder if Simon realizes the extent of their ‘go-gettery’. Gregory asks Simon to please tell Negan that they’re all on board. Simon tells Gregory that he’s Negan for them because that’s how Negan wants it. He wants to know if there’s anything else Gregory needs to tell him. Gregory tells him that actually there is. Will he rat out Maggie and Sasha?
Yes, he will. He takes them to the closet where Sasha and Maggie are hiding and opens the door. Maggie and Sasha aren’t there, in their place is a fine stash of alcohol. Scotch. Simon says that Negan will love this, but he’s going to say that it’s from Simon not Gregory. He takes the scotch. Simon says this is huge and he won’t forget it. They’re now going to go through the place and take half of what they have – but only half. And for sure he’s taking the painting (probably to burn in the woods with the mattresses). Simon tells Gregory to kneel to him, and Gregory does so with ominous music playing. Simon pats Gregory on the head.
Gregory is not very happy about being humiliated in front of his group. The damage has been done though – by all parties. Gregory knelt too fast and too deep, and Simon went too far in his role of Negan. Lines have been crossed.
It was a good scene, but it felt a little off. Surely the Saviors have been to the Hilltop before and have seen what they have there – chairs, beds, paintings, etc. Didn’t they already take half of their stuff when they first came calling and made them submit? Why take half their stuff now? I could believe it was to ‘show them who’s boss’, but they already did that with the Gremlin and the walkers, and presumably when Negan first visited the Hilltop. Since the Saviors don’t suspect Maggie and Sasha are there, it’s not to intimidate them into giving Maggie and Sasha up, so the scene didn’t quite make sense.
Anyway, Carl and Enid arrive in time to see that the Saviors are still at the Hilltop. Enid tells Carl that he didn’t come after her to save her or to go out for a drive. He came out to kill Negan, and he’s there to kill Negan for himself (not the others). They share a kiss and she asks him not to go kill Negan.
Gregory and Jesus argue about whether Sasha and Maggie can stay. Jesus is out of patience for Gregory and tells Gregory that they’re all staying, Sasha, Maggie, and Jesus – and they’ll be one big happy dysfunctional family. Gregory says the Saviors can be quite reasonable. Maggie hauls off and slugs Gregory. She sees that Gregory has Glenn’s pocket watch and she pulls it off of his clothes. He says it’s a fine watch. She’s in no mood either, and says they’re staying, and that he’s going to call her by her name – not Marsha, not dear, not honey, but Maggie. Maggie Rhee. Oh, Maggie. The tide is beginning to turn.
Morning at the Hilltop. Jesus is telling Maggie and Sasha that he’s glad they’re here, sorry about Gregory, and that he should have stood up for them sooner. After Maggie leaves, Sasha tells Jesus that if he wants to make it up to them can you find out where Negan lives. She doesn’t want him to tell Maggie about this. Neither of them are comfortable with not telling Maggie, but her pregnancy is already delicate, so not telling her is the best option. Jesus can follow the trucks, so yeah, he can find Negan.
Maggie goes outside, to see green balloons at Glenn’s grave. And she sees Enid. They hug.
Back inside, Enid has questions for Maggie about killing the walkers with the tractor. Maggie admits to having had some practice running over cars – she ran over a boy’s Camaro years ago with a tractor while on the Greene farm. They sit to eat. Sasha comes in and they greet each other. They discuss the balloons on the graves. Maggie explains the pocket watch to Enid, that it belonged to her dad, he gave it to Glenn, and now she’s giving it to Enid. They don’t need to remember people with things, they have each other. The three of them hold hands and say a prayer as the Saviors pack up their trucks with Hilltop goods. Off go the trucks and the gates are barricaded. Sasha has Abraham’s cigar. Jesus is in the truck going to Savior land and so is Carl. They smile at each other.