Three Episodes Left, Will Anything Happen on ‘The Walking Dead’ This Year?

After the gruesome murders of Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz), Negan has been unrelenting in his quest to demean, humiliate and torture the characters fans have come to love. While the synopsis is short and direct, it actually raises many questions among fans of The Walking Dead. So what if Gregory’s a worm who can’t remember people’s names – what does that matter, in the scope of things? I thought it was brilliant.

“Just the vibe in 7B, I was just talking about it with Andy [Lincoln] last night”. I expected the violence. Will it be a ploy to save everyone from the cruel hands of Negan? It goes with the territory. “Why you acting like you don’t know that?” That was four episodes ago. Nothing is happening. Characters are spinning their wheels and time’s a-wastin’.

Negan is unlike anything “The Walking Dead” has ever seen before, we have had villains but nothing like this. Sasha asks Jesus to find out where Negan lives and the episode ends with Jesus hopping in the same truck that Carl has stowed away in; pretty convenient that it has an open back. That’s the optimist’s viewpoint.

Both Jesus and Carl headed to Sanctuary at about the same point in the comics that they’re heading there now, but notably they did so alone. For a show that is generally fun in its opening minutes before the title sequence, it felt like a lot of dead air.

Episode three was arguably important as we saw how the Saviors were treating Daryl and Negan’s attempts to break him. This is getting good! He and the Saviors are still going to take half the Hilltop’s stuff, though. A food preparation montage?

Speaking of which, next week’s episode follows Heath and Tara, whom we haven’t seen since last season’s finale (and neither of whom are very well-developed characters to begin with). But then again, Jesus ends up in the back of the same truck as Carl when Sasha brings him into her awful revenge plan, so we could be looking at a Jesus/Carl dynamic instead. Shouldn’t that have been the first thing to happen after the premiere?

Most disturbing image: We’ve already touched on Gregory’s less-than-stellar morals, but the most disturbing thing from this week was when he attempted to sell out Maggie and Sasha to the Saviors. Dick. We’ve had Gareth. The community wakes up to their gates open and a vehicle in the middle of their square blasting music, attracting a horde of walkers- the Saviors did this. Enid reunited with Maggie who was happy to see the young one pay her a visit.

Anyway, now that she’s recovering at the Hilltop Colony from a nasty bout of convenient plot disease (or, in this case, a partially separated placenta), Maggie beings to assert herself as a leader.

As previously teased, “another big death” is going to happen on “The Walking Dead” season 7 and it is most likely to take place in episode 6. All of that and we even got to see Coral Carl go roller skating with his girlfriend. He owns responsibility for the previous night’s assault on the Hilltop, which was meant to remind Gregory about the “service” the Saviors provide.

Auburn University is in Alabama, although it’s still not that far (about 1.5 hour drive) from where “Walking Dead” shoots in the Atlanta, Georgia area.