‘The Walking Dead’ Recap: Hilltop Gets A Surprise Visit, Maggie & Sasha Brace For A Backstab

You will be happy to know that other than being the last surviving member of her family, having a murdered husband and a separated placenta caused by trauma, Maggie is just fine. Her now fatherless baby is fine. Dr. Carson wants her to “take it easy” and stay at Hilltop until she gives birth. At least the dastardly Negan, who now believes she is dead, won’t find her at Alexandria. Her first move is to visit Glenn and Abraham’s graves with Sasha. Sasha gives her the watch Hershel gave Glenn – it was still in his pocket. All that Abe had was a cigar. In my head, I see Sasha smoking it once they smoke Negan. They women decide to stay, for the baby’s sake.

Jesus shows up to with more flowers (having earlier left flowers in Maggie’s room and on Glenn and Abraham’s graves). Whining Mayor Gregory also shows up, wanting to throw Maggie and Sasha out – angry that more of Negan’s men are out there than they knew, that the women buried their dead instead of burned them, and that the women feel that they have safe passage in the community when it takes away any “plausible deniability” they would have if Negan found the Alexandrians there. Maggie reminds him that no one forced him to take the deal they struck. Despite Maggie’s health risks, the mayor wants them gone. He calls Maggie’s pregnancy “her mistake.”

Back at Alexandria, Carl refuses to go help find supplies, angry that their new lives includes finding food and supplies for Negan. Michonne and Rick’s lingering kiss and embrace before he leaves is the kind that makes you worry that one of them is saying goodbye, for good. Carl wants to know why Michonne is not going, and she tells him that she has things to figure out. As she leaves he notices Enid hopping the wall, again. She wants to get to the Hilltop to see Maggie. They argue a bit when he tells her that he won’t save her again, he tells her, but she is determined to go. At The Hilltop, Sasha offers to scavenge for them if Jesus can talk Gregory into letting them stay. He doesn’t want her to have to do that. “What do you want, Jesus?” she asks. He only wants to help. He gives her Abe’s things, telling her that he liked Abe. He was the only person who could make you smile and wince at the same time. Maggie enters the trailer and as they talk she wants to know why the Hilltop burns its dead. They do it because the idea is to just keep going. They remember the dead but need no physical reminders. Sasha thinks Gregory is an idiot and they should just stay.

Maggie thinks he is a coward and that’s more dangerous – they can think about things overnight. Enid has found a bike and is on her way. She is stopped by a pool of blood, and is confronted by a walker with with fresh blood on its face. As she freezes, a car comes out of nowhere, hits the walker and backs up into it, smashing the car. It’s Carl! He smiles about just being out for a drive. Later that night, at the Hilltop, the women are awakened by the sound of music. Small fires have been set, the gate is open and walkers are coming in – attracted by the fires and sound. It.is.on. Sasha springs into action. Wrecked car or not, shouldn’t Carl and Enid have been there by now?

Maggie starts giving orders. She tells Jesus to help Sasha. DONE! She tells two others to get the gates closed. GONE! The car windows have been sealed shut and enclosed by grates, covered by a
hand giving the middle finger. Mayor Chickenshit hides inside. Sasha and Jesus kill off the horde. Maggie is overcome with monster-truck-madness and mows down walkers while driving a farming tractor – before crushing the car. By morning we see Jesus – who refuses to turn the two women away after everything they did, arguing with Gregory. Gregory is unmoved. When Sasha and Maggie
arrive, he tells them that “Miss Caitlin” is bringing some of her famous rhubarb preserves to take with them, as a thanks for their help the night before. Jesus reminds him that the woman’s name is Ms. Maitlin. He doesn’t care, he wants them gone before the Saviors come back. Sasha offers to go and to call things even, if Maggie gets to stay. He tells Sasha they can explore the topic one-on-one before Maggie tells him to go to hell. He feigns anger that she is implying impure motives. He is going to have “Ms. Caitlin” keep her preserves. Is the moral of the story that a viral apocalypse will leave behind too many lowlifes to make survival worthwhile? Just as they talk, the Saviors arrive, led by Simon – Negan’s right hand man. Gregory hides them in the closet, to protect himself, not the women, He doesn’t want to be connected to them. As if the writers knew we needed a break (even one based on suspension of disbelief), Carl finds two pair of roller skates in a roadside bag and he and Enid zip down the road holding hands and laughing. I don’t care about the odds, that was a much needed scene. Thank you, unseen fictional person who packed roller skates as part of your bug-out bag. Who needs food and water?

At the Hilltop, Gregory feigns complete ignorance about the deaths of the people Rick’s crew took out. In his study, Gregory tells Simon that the Savior’s message was received loud and clear. They know who’s boss (flashing back to Daryl being tortured by the Jam and Who’s The Boss? reruns). Simon warns that The Hilltoppers have forgotten what it is like outside those fancy walls, what corpses look and smell like. They were going to kill the corpses but the Hilltoppers killed the corpses themselves. He thought they were soft, just like the old crew (Negan’s dead) the Hilltoppers use to deal with, so soft it may be why the old group is dead. To get through the scene, pucker your lips and make kissing sounds. It won’t nauseate you nearly as much as listening to Gregory kiss Simon’s creepy backside. When given the chance to give up any information, Gregory shocks all and offers Simon a case of hidden alcohol, stored in the closet, instead of giving up of Sasha and Maggie. The men proceed to take half of everything the hilltoppers have, including the painting in Gregory’s study that loves so much. Simon forces Gregory to kneel before leaving.

Jesus is not happy. Carl and Enid wait in the woods while Negan’s men are inside. She admits that she knows he came to save her, not to take a ride. She talks him out of trying to kill Negan’s men at that moment, which he would only be doing for himself and only cause more pain. She kisses him and pleads with him to stay with her. He says he is going home but she knows he’s lying. It turns out that Greg is as big of a coward as we think. He didn’t hide the women because he had a change of heart, it was because Jesus hid them in a different closet. Greg thinks they’re in trouble because “she” and “Rich” didn’t handle things like they said they would – he still wants them gone. Jesus says they’re staying or everything will go public and Greg will lose his position anyway. Greg thinks he’s proven his leadership by the way he handled the Saviors. Jesus saw something different. Maggie slugs Greg when he says the Saviors can be reasonable, and removes Hershel’s/Glenn’s watch from his pocket. She tells him he will no longer call her “Marsha” or “dear,” but Maggie Rhee. Glenn would have been so proud. When they are alone, Jesus tells the two women that Greg was in charge when he arrived. THEN, he couldn’t imagine anyone in his place. Now he can. When Maggie asks who, he looks, admiringly, at her and tells her they’ll talk about it later. Sasha privately makes a deal with Jesus – she wants him to find out where Negan lives, but not tell Maggie. Outside,Maggie and Enid are reunited. Enid tells the ballad of tractor-wielding Maggie,who admits she had practice, by running over a boy’s car in high school.

As Sasha, Maggie and Enid eat together, she gives Enid the watch, stating that they don’t need things to remember the ones they love, they have each other. She says a prayer and they eat. We end with Sasha sharpening a bowie knife while chewing on Abe’s cigar, and Jesus stowing away on one of the supply trucks, pouring out Greg’s alcohol – only to find Carl hiding out, too. We are one step closer to a Negan “whodunnit,” with the suspects piling high! The only thing about this ‘whodunnit” is that the culprit will be a hero, instead.

 

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