The Walking Dead Season Seven, Episode Eight: “Hearts Still Beating” Review

With Daryl escaping The Sanctuary, Maggie and Enid and Sasha at The Hilltop, Jesus still MIA, Rick and Aaron on the run, Spencer and Eugene and Rosita just arriving at Alexandria only to find Negan there with some Saviors, waiting for Rick to return with supplies.

In the 90 minute mid season finale, titled “Hearts Still Beating”, Negan took two more lives.

So what exactly happened in season seven, episode eight: “Hearts Still Beating”?

The Sanctuary

Daryl Dixon has had a tough half season so far. From watching his buddy Abraham get beaten to death, to then being stupid enough to intervene on Negan taunting Rosita, to then watching one of his closest friends, Glenn die, who was expecting a child with his wife and being responsible for his death, to then rotting in a cell inside Negan’s Sanctuary for the rest of season 7A.

Last episode, someone slid Daryl a note with a key, the note reads: “Go now”

So, who set him free? That would be Paul Rovia, or Jesus.

Upon escaping, Daryl steals Dwight’s clothes, breaks some of his things and totally destroys most of the man’s room.

On his way out to his bike, which we last saw used by Dwight in “The Cell” and it also rested near a bunch of other bikes, which is a call back to Bud and the other Saviors we saw on bikes in season six, the same ones Daryl, Sasha and Abraham killed on the road in the episode “No Way Out.” Daryl encounters Fat Joey, who “promises” he won’t say anything about Daryl leaving. Daryl inches closer and eventually starts to smash the man’s head in with a pipe, this is an obvious callback to Glenn and Abraham both dying in the premiere of the season, “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be” and from this we can clearly see that Daryl is traumatized by the deaths of these two men and he feels very guilty and has tons of remorse over the death of Glenn, which he caused.

The Hilltop

Maggie Greene-Rhee, Sasha Williams and Enid were all last seen in The Hilltop, run by the infamous Gregory, who is very selfish and self-centered, it is also the home of Paul Rovia, otherwise known as Jesus and it has Dr. Carson, who is there for Maggie throughout the remainder of her pregnancy. On a side note, the doctor at Negan’s Sanctuary is actually this guy’s brother. The last we saw of any of them was episode five of this season, titled “Go Getters.”

What’s changed since then? Not a whole lot.

Maggie is getting praise for her saving The Hilltop and her actions in “Go Getters,” taking out the walkers and all that. Maggie has been given tons of food and has lots of support from The Hilltop’s citizens.

At the end of the episode, we see Jesus and Daryl both arrive at Hilltop. It appears as though Maggie has forgiven Daryl what happened to Glenn. Daryl has a tearful reunion with Rick, Michonne, Maggie, Carl, Enid, Jesus, Rosita and Sasha. He even give Rick back his revolver, which he took from Fat Joey after killing him.

The Strange Cabin

Last episode before this one, titled “Sing Me A Song” followed primarily Negan and Carl in The Sanctuary, but we also saw Rick and Aaron head out to find Negan supplies, saying that they only had one day to get things for him and his people. Rick and Aaron arrived at a cabin. Surrounding the cabin was a lake which was full of walkers and the only way to get over the lake was by taking a bullet riddled boat across. Rick and Aaron know the boat won’t be able to support them the whole time, so they both try to make it to a canoe. They do, except Aaron gets pulled under by some walkers and it looks like he is dying.

Aaron survives and Rick and Aaron take what they can from this guy’s cabin. Little do they know that someone is watching them and it might be the owner of this cabin.

The Alexandria Safe Zone

Negan stopped by Alexandria last episode, titled “Sing Me A Song”, Carl Grimes in tow and from what we’ve seen, Negan has been corrupting good things and memories for the people of Alexandria, in specifically for Rick and Carl. For example, in “Sing Me A Song”, Carl sings Negan a song, probably one his mother sang him and Negan corrupts that by swinging Lucille in front of Carl as he sings. Negan does the same thing throughout this episode and in many different ways. Negan corrupts the image of family dinner, by cooking food for Judith, Carl, Olivia, and even Lucille, who he sets at Rick’s chair.

Spencer tries to make peace with Negan, bringing him some alcohol and even playing pool. Spencer states that he wants Rick out of power and that Negan should put him in power in Alexandria. Negan calls him out for being spineless, saying that he had to wait for Rick to leave to even approach Negan with this. He also says that Rick is out there getting supplies for him as they speak, while Spencer isn’t, Negan calls Spencer gutless, before he slashes Spencer’s stomach open and proves himself wrong.

Rosita Espinosa, who just got a homemade bullet from Eugene Porter, lashes out and she shoots at Negan… but misses and hits Lucille by mistake. Negan then has Rosita pinned down and has Arat cut her face while Negan tries to figure out who made the bullet, discovering that it is homemade. Eventually, Eugene admits it was him and Negan tells Arat to kill someone. After a pause, Arat fires her gun, shooting Olivia in the face.

Deaths

Three “main” characters died in this episode: Spencer Monroe, Olivia, and Fat Joey. What do these deaths mean for the survivors that remain?

Fat Joey

As we heard from the Saviors in the truck in “Sing Me A Song”, Fat Joey was in charge of rerouting walker herds away from The Sanctuary, Alexandria, The Hilltop, and The Kingdom and possibly a few more locations.

When we see Negan and Fat Joey in this episode, he is talking to Negan about how there was a problem in the rerouting process (Mark leaving and going to his former wife, Negan deals with this later by talking to Mark’s former wife and by burning Mark’s face with an iron, which he also did to Dwight). There was almost no time in between Negan taking Carl and this conversation and Fat Joey’s death in this episode. Which means that The Hilltop, The Sanctuary, Alexandria, and The Kingdom may all be in more danger that we originally thought.

Olivia

Olivia wasn’t a major character, but her death is interesting. In a way, she saved Tara if Arat had literally killed at random as Tara Chambler would’ve been up there with Carl instead of her, but Olivia insisted on staying there and standing strong against Negan.

Her death also introduces us to Arat and we see her as someone who may be a key player moving forward.

Spencer Monroe

Spencer’s death was expected and very predictable. Many even knew the manner of death, as it was the exact same as his comic characters death. Spencer’s death means that there are no more surviving members of the Monroe family, as Aiden died in season five, Reg died in the season five finale, and Deanna died in “No Way Out” and was put down by Spencer himself. Spencer’s death means that Rick shouldn’t face much opposition from the Alexandrians and that the plan will finally be made to take down the Saviors.