Season seven of AMC’s The Walking Dead is starting to move towards an inevitable war with Rick’s people and The Saviors. Who will join that fight? As of now, The Alexandrians, a select few Hilltop citizens who agreed to help, a new group referred to as “The Garbage Pail Kids” and Daryl Dixon. What’s wrong with this? Both The Kingdom and The Hilltop are out. Ezekiel refuses to fight them and Gregory doesn’t want to either. Some people volunteered but it’s not enough to take them down. Eugene was taken in the mid season finale by Negan and some Saviors, it’s time we caught up with him.

This episode stars:
•Josh McDermott as the cowardly, yet smart, Eugene Porter, a new hostage of The Saviors.
•Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan, the big bad at this point, and leader of a group called The Saviors.
•Austin Amelio as Dwight, one of Negan’s top guys who seems to be slowly changing sides and turning on Negan.

Introductions and the return of Easy Street

The Savior who refers to Eugene as “Haircut” takes Eugene to his room and we later see him head bob to Easy Street. Eugene is later taken to Negan, but first…

Fat Joey is discovered and Daryl Dixon leaving is revealed

Major things in the mid season finale come up, those being: Fat Joey being killed by Daryl in his escape, and Daryl escaping The Sanctuary with Paul “Jesus” Rovia. That leaves a question, who set Daryl free? That answer was finally revealed in this episode. Negan sends a series of guys into Dwight’s room, they beat him up and then we see Dwight in Daryl’s cell. Negan taunts Dwight, reminding him of where he was in the past (in those cells) and Negan reminds him that “you were on the wrong side for a long time”. Negan also reveals that Sherry is gone, asking Dwight if he set Daryl free and if he knows where Sherry went. Dwight says he didn’t let Daryl out, but he also says that he has an idea for where Sherry is. Negan let’s him out, has Dr. Carson patch him up and then Dwight heads out to find Sherry.

“Hostiles and Calamities”

Eugene meets Negan… again… Negan asks Eugene if he is a real smarty pants or if he is just some a*shole. Eugene says that he is indeed a smarty pants and proceeds to explain himself, saying that he reads a lot, etc. before Negan deducts that Eugene is in fact, some as*hole. Eugene then counters, reiterating that he is smart, saying that he is a doctor, which later comes back to bite him, and then proceeds to tell the same lies that he told Abraham Ford, Glenn Rhee, Rosita Espinosa, Maggie Greene and Tara Chambler, that he was a scientist and part of the Humane Genome Project. Negan praises Eugene, saying that he is smart, titling him “Dr. Smarty Pants”. Eugene then talks about the fence walkers, suggesting that scrap metal is used to cover the compromised walkers and this way it protects them from outside forces… like “hostiles and calamities”. Negan rewards Eugene for his idea, sending some of his wives over to hang out “have some drinks, some laughs”.

Science Experiment

Eugene shows Amber (who doesn’t really pay attention but rather drinks herself stupid out of guilt, she was the wife who slept with someone else and Negan burned the man’s face with the iron in episode seven “Sing Me A Song”, like he did with Dwight), Frankie, and Tanya, all of which are Negan’s wives, and all three were sent by Negan to keep Eugene company, a “bomb.”

Tanya and Frankie later talk to Eugene about making pills for Amber, who apparently wants to end her life. Eugene reluctantly agrees to make the pills, before which he asks for Amber’s weight (about 120 pounds) and then Tanya says they need two pills. As we come to find out, Tanya and Frankie wanted the pills for Negan, not Amber. Eugene knew this and made the pills but refuses to give the pills to Tanya and Frankie, who call him a coward for not giving them the pills to kill Negan.

Dwight, Sherry, and Dr. Carson

Dwight sets out to find Sherry, which he does and he goes to their home previous to the apocalypse and finds a note from Sherry, stating that she did in fact let Daryl go. Sherry did it because Daryl reminds Dwight of himself and that she feels guilt over making Dwight who he is now, which is someone he does not want to be. She says that they always talked about running away from this, having beer and pretzels, which we later find out, Dwight actually brought, leading us to believe he was ready to run away with her. Dwight does not find Sherry, but he takes the note, snipping out a note at the end “goodbye, honey”. Dwight returns back to Negan’s Sanctuary, where Dr. Emmett Carson patches him up and checks the wounds.Dwight is forced to lie to protect Sherry, saying that Sherry was killed by walkers but admitted she let Daryl go. Dwight then plants the note in Dr. Carson’s desk and Negan finds it, the doctor is out in a similar situation as we saw with Mark, when Amber slept with him and what we can assume happened to Dwight after he tried to run away. Negan almost irons the doctor before having him admit he set Daryl free. Negan has Eugene and his other Saviors watch as he throws Dr. Carson into the fire that was heating up the iron. Carson obviously and ultimately dies, Sherry is MIA, and Dwight is free.

Closing Scene

Eugene and Dwight overwatch as Saviors are melting down iron on the walkers, like Eugene had suggested in the earlier stages of the episode. Dwight asks Eugene if he is in or out. Eugene says “I’m Eugene. You’re Dwight. We are Negan”. It sounds almost contrasting to what was said previously… Eugene talks as if he and Dwight still have their sense of identity to themselves rather than just identifying as Negan, like the others do. Eugene may not have flipped yet, and Dwight may be changing sides.

I interviewed Matt Delmar for his input on the episode.

Q: What did you like about the episode?

Matt: I liked the dark humor, the false sense of security with Dr. Carson before Negan threw him in the fire and Eugene jamming out to Easy Street.

Q: What did you dislike about the episode?

Matt: I honestly thought Eugene would be beaten up by Negan, like the others have.

What’s next?

The next episode is titled “Say Yes”. It will follow Rick and Michonne at a carnival, looking for guns for their deal with Jadis and her group. Rosita is also seen looking for guns.