The Walking Dead season 7, episode 6 recap: Swear

The sixth episode of season seven, “Steal”, follows Heath and Tara’s trip to scavenge for supplies outside of Alexandria.

The Oceanside on the series, however, has close ties to the Big Bad. ties they’ve tried oh-so-hard to sever. Her lie to Rosita is an unusual challenge to the group loyalty that usually motivates the Alexandrians’ decisions, yet her apparent betrayal may actually make the group stronger once the fight against the Saviors commences. But when Tara sets off one of their alarms, she discovers that the group is also prepared to defend itself.

The latest episode of the AMC zombie drama, “Swear”, may not have seemed like much of a game-changer on the surface. She covers Tara with her rifle as she runs through the walkers left on the bridge.

Right after we see Eugene’s sad face, we cut to a profile view of him and Tara staring at one another. Oceanside hasn’t been seen in the comics – they’re just mentioned a couple of times – and the group mainly trades seafood. It was a pretty great effect to see all the sand falling from their nasty, dehydrated bodies, too, but let’s get back to Heath. Unaware of the blunder, Heath and Tara have been out scavenging for food, weapons, and medicine for weeks, finding only “eight rusty cans of okra and a bottle of aspirin”. Unsure what to do with her, the group leaves her to deliberate, but later retrieve her and they all share a meal together. It’s understandable why they would have such a violent reaction at the prospect of bringing Negan back into their lives: Once upon a time, all of this community’s men (including small boys) were lined up and killed by Negan’s forces, a swift way of ending any possible rebellion. They then invite her to join them, declaring that it would be the flawless solution to their problem, meaning they didn’t have to fear being discovered and she would be able to put down roots. Three ladies come in and ask her where she’s from. What does she see in these people and the way they are living and hiding in the woods? Tanya and her allies were debating just what actions to take with Tara: to kill or not to kill? We later learn these women have some serious trust issues after the Saviors wiped out all the men in their ranks – and now kill any strangers they come across. The women then fled in the night and have been in hiding ever since, and are unwilling to risk disclosing their location. The incident clearly weighs more on Heath than Tara, but I’m less certain why The Walking Dead wants to dredge up the same ethical questions from Season 6, especially given what we know of the Saviors’ unyielding menace now. Tara fell off the bridge and washed up on shore, while we have no idea what happened to Heath – perhaps he abandoned her. Then Cyndie tackles Beatrice and lets Tara get away. “Obviously, what’s happening with the Saviors is awful, and they do need guns, but I think she is hoping that they’ll find some other ones so that she doesn’t have to give up this group”. Besides some very sweet moments with Denise (Merritt Wever) that helped flesh out Wever’s wonderful role last season, the writers haven’t really done much with Tara. Due to her extended absence, Tara doesn’t know that the Saviors have since forced her friends into indentured servitude. Tara takes a deep, devastated-looking breath and looks to the ground like a sad character in a wordless Pixar short. It turns out that it’s Tara (Alanna Masterson). I mean, the extras do ANYTHING but bite them. Cyndie begs that they reach out and begin working with other groups, but everyone else is paranoid. Forget the visceral unpleasantness of Negan’s violence, or the ugly philosophical underpinnings behind it, and you’ll find an even simpler problem: Cruelty like Negan’s just isn’t interesting. Because kids can never be trusted on this damn show, the little girl wanted to kill her.