Things got a little messy at Alexandria. Two dead bodies and one person beaten within inches of his life.

Hearts Still Beating is the last time in two months we’ll see the survivors of the zombie apocalypse. And for this very reason, the episode gave a glimpse of what’s going on with everyone and what to expect (in bits and pieces) in the other half of Season 7.

Let’s dive right to it

Carol and Morgan (The Kingdom)

The list time we saw Carol (on The Well), she had decided to “go and not go” by living outside the gate of The Kingdom. Nothing has changed with Carol; she still wants her privacy but she invites Morgan in when he drops off a basket of fruits. Their reunion is cut short when Richard (one of Ezekiel's trusted soldiers) pays a visit and tries to elicit their help. He wants Carol and Morgan to “help convince King Ezekiel to attack the Saviors”. 

Morgan and Carol want no part in the bloodshed and turn down his offer even after he more or less calls them hypocrites. When he leaves, Carol tells Morgan not to visit again and to tell anyone who comes by that road that she no longer lives there. For someone who wants no company, she’s sure as hell willing to use one of them as her little errand boys. If you really want to go Carol, then go for real.

Richard on the other hand, has a secret that is breaking his heart – a trailer (in the middle of the forest) filled with lots of supplies that are no doubt ammunitions considering his wish to go to war with the Saviors.

Aaron and Rick

These two are still where we left them last week – trying to cross the water filled with walkers to get to a canoe filled with supplies. After giving the short pep talk “today and only today”, the two get into a hole-filled boat and paddle to the canoe with make-shift rows. Amidst fighting off the undead, the boat starts to take on a lot of water while the two are about to switch boats. Aaron gets dragged into the water by a very hungry walker and for a few heartbeats; we thought we lost him because he wasn’t visible on the surface. However, he later comes up for air and yells “I’m okay”. For some weird reason, the walkers no longer considered him tasty food once he was in the water with them. One would think he’d be immediately gobbled like a pack of Maltesers.

True to their hopes, the canoe is filled with supplies – guns (without bullets) and food. The owner of the canoe however is a very sour loser as in a trunk filled with a supply, there’s a note which has the sketch of a middle finger and the words "Conngrats for winning but you still lose" . That note causes a lot of trouble later. Also, there seemed to be someone watching Aaron and Rick from the docks. Would that someone turn out to be a lot of trouble later? We don’t know. All we saw was a pair of boots.

Michonne (Enroute The Sanctuary)

Michonne is still holding that Savior (Isabelle) hostage and forcing her to take her to Negan. Isabelle finally does but not before Michonne tells her why she’s doing what she’s doing – “I’m gonna find a way that we win” she says. On getting to the foot of the Sanctuary; Isabelle for some reason chooses to save Michonne – she tells her where to find a silencer and what to do with the car when she’s done. It’s a little confusing as to why a Savior cared so much about Michonne – enough to give her life.

Gene Page/AMC


Darryl/ The Sanctuary

Darryl is still where we left him on  Sing Me a Song– musing on the note (and key) that was slipped beneath his cell door. He later takes the risk and slips out of his cell. He however has to make a pit stop on his sweet escape when he hears voices coming down the hallway. He sneaks into a nearby room, hungrily eats a jar of peanut butter and changes his clothes. He later makes it out of the building and just as he’s about to take a motorcycle, Fat Joey walks in.

Joey tries to convince Darryl that he’s cool and is just going to walk away like he saw nothing. But Darryl has lost his faith in humanity and chooses to bash Joey’s head in with a rod. Jesus walks in on the scene and the question of “who slipped the key under Darryl’s door” is answered.

Negan/ Alexandria

Rosita is still holding on strong to the idea that she can kill Negan. Father Gabriel however convinces her to sit tight because after the Negan phase blows past, Alexandria will need her. Meanwhile, Spencer has handed over all the supplies he found to the Saviors and one of them is flirting with him. This act somehow boosts Spencer’s confidence as the next couple of minutes, he’s dressed all pretty and boosting his confidence the way we regular folks do – talking to ourselves in the mirror.

Rosita sees him while he’s walking by and asks if he has a “hot date”. Spencer talks about taking advantage of their good relationship with the Saviors. Speaking of relationships, he asks Rosita why she ended whatever they had. Rosita more or less says it was just sex and Spencer asks her to a “no string” dinner. Rosita happily accepts his offer.

Negan who has spent the day playing house – and teaching Carl how to shave - is sitting in front of the house when Spencer walks up to him. It felt like Spencer was taking the wine to the woman who hit on him but we were deliberately misled. He offers Negan the half bottle of alcohol he brought by and the two decide to play pool outside. While the two are playing, several Alexandrians come out to watch the game. 

Spencer gets ambitious and tells Negan about how Rick is the reason for the death of his family and he can be the leader because Alexandria was his mother’s vision and warns Negan that it never ends well for anyone who works with Rick. Negan believes Spencer wants him to do his dirty work because he has “no guts” to kill Rick himself. He goes ahead to cut Spencer right across the stomach and spill his guts. The aspiring Governor of Alexandria died with his guts in his hands. You have to give Spencer credit though – it takes a lot of ambition – or stupidity – to take that kind of proposal to Negan.

Gene Page/AMC


While this slaughter is going on, Aaron and Rick have arrived and are giving everything they found to the Saviors. At this rate, the fine people of Alexandria are more likely to die from hunger than by Negan’s hands. One of the Saviors finds the note which Aaron found on the canoe and believes that they put it there as some kind of prank. For that reason, two of the Saviors start to beat the life out of Aaron while Rick stands and watches. I’m curious as to what Rick would have done had he been allowed to approach the Saviors doing the beating. Was that act enough to bring out the badass Rick? The saviors soon tire of Aaron and leave him for Rick to carry. Rick and Aaron are within blocks of Spencer’s place of death when they hear a gunshot.

Rosita shot at Negan! And she missed!! Somehow, the bullet had gotten stuck in Lucille instead. Rightly, Negan is enraged and wants to mess up Rosita’s face. But he gets distracted when he finds out that the bullet was homemade. He wants to know who made the bullet. But first, someone has to pay for Rosita’s crime. So he asks one of his deputies to shoot someone – and she decides to kill Olivia.  Olivia dying was kind of an “I told you so” moment for Rosita because Eugene warned her that someone else will pay for her crimes. Not her. But of course she chose not to heed his warnings and will live (however shortly) to regret that mistake.

Rick walks in on the shocked and grieving faces of his people and confronts Negan. “We had a deal” he says to Negan but Negan tells him just how patient his being with Carl shooting some of his comrades, Spencer trying to convince him to kill Rick and Rosita trying to kill him. Despite Tara and Rosita’s efforts at taking the responsibility for making the bullets, Negan ends up taking the real bullet maker - Eugene. So now the Saviors have tons of weapons and an unending supply of bullets. These are not great odds for the fine people of Alexandria.

Michonne makes it back to Alexandria and tells Rick (who is in Morgan's cell)  that he was right – the Saviors have the numbers but she believes they can beat them if they do it together. Considering how the day has been for Rick, its not surprising that Michonne suddenly made a lot of sense to him.

The Hilltop

At the Hilltop, Maggie is more or less the leader and is getting gifts upon gifts from the Hilltop residents. She even gets a visit from jealous Gregory who tells her not to let the victory get into her head. Meanwhile, Enid has found out that Sasha wants to kill Negan thanks to a miscalculated lie on Sasha’s part. Sasha convinces Enid not to tell Maggie if she truly cares about her because Maggie would try to help. I don’t know when love blossomed between Enid and Maggie but let’s just go with it.

Maggie receives visitors at the gate and it’s her very own people – and Tara. Rick, Michonne, Carl, Rosita and Tara came by to tell her that she was right and they are ready to fight. Darryl who was able to make the reunion comes out and they all share hugs. You can tell the show wants you to feel emotional at this so-called-reunion because of the soft music, hugs, meaninful glances and nods. That hug between Rick and Darryl however, did a great job of warming my cold heart.

It looks like Alexandria, The Hilltop and possibly The Kingdom and the Community of women are all going to be going up against The Saviors in the next half of Season 7. Kind of convenient for Rick and co. that Maggie is now president and was able to open the Hilltop doors to them.

Questions

Do you think these groups have a fighting chance against Negan?

How is Negan going to take the news of Darryl’s escape and Fat Joey’s Death? If he chooses to immediately storm Alexandria with half of what he’s got, what chance do they have? They have no weapons, no Rick and no Michonne. No one who can fight is back at Alexandria.

Why on earth did Negan shave?

Share your thoughts in the comment section.



The Walking Dead returns February 12 on AMC