Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn't seen tonight's episode of The Walking Dead.
For "Go Getters," The Walking Dead made its long-anticipated return to The Hilltop Colony, and viewers finally got to see what was up with Maggie's stomach pains - more on her story here. We also watched several different characters' stories came to a development-driven head in the back of a Saviors-driven vehicle, as a major comic book moment was put into play in the episode's final moments. But it came with one major change, and the ante has definitely been upped as far as how things could and should pay out.
The aforementioned comic element involved Carl taking fate into his own hands by clandestinely making his way to the Sanctuary and engaging Negan one-on-one. (This assertive tactic was hinted at last week, and I made the bufoonish assumption that Carl wouldn't actually do anything further in this respect.) But while the younger male Grimes was all on his own in the source material, showrunner Scott Gimple and the show's creative team decided to bolster Carl's big move by adding Jesus to the mix. And as we've all be made aware of, more Jesus in a situation can only ever be a good thing.
Bringing Jesus into this comic-familiar situation wasn't just a slapdash decision, either, as Jesus and Carl's stories going into this dangerous plan are both more layered than Carl's was in the comics. Jesus and Sasha made a connection during the episode, mostly through him apologizing for anything and everything, and by the end of the episode, Sasha figured out the perfect way for Jesus to help: by finding the Sanctuary's exactly location. This gives the battle-ready Jesus more confidence to stand up to the shitty leadership that Gregory offers the Hilltop by becoming more active in trying to take Negan down. And Sasha? Well, the Saviors' planned walker ambush pissed her off, but it also turned her back into an animal. Sasha wants blood, and she wants to use her super-sharp knife to draw that blood out.
Meanwhile, we have Carl, who has already had enough of Negan's rule, and he isn't exactly the most forgiving of Rick's outwardly subservient and lax attitude about things. Teenagers! So Carl is getting aggressive with everyone and, once he sees that Enid is taking off to find Maggie at Hilltop, he eventually joins her and their relationship is taken to the First Base level with their first kiss. And since we all know what romance does to the human brain, when Carl made his presence known to Jesus in the back of the Saviors' vehicle, his virility is probably at an all-time high. Negan will feel its wrath!
It's unclear how things will play out now that Jesus is joining Carl on the trip to The Sanctuary, assuming that's actually where they end up. Carl and Negan's comic relationship was an important building block for Carl's maturity growth, and it also provided Negan some levity in places, so here's hoping those elements hold up in the page-to-screen journey. And again, having more Jesus won't make anything worse, so fingers crossed we get to see him stomping a mudhole in some Saviors' asses if he's eventually discovered. He could get out undetected, though, but I don't think Carl will go so quietly.
Everybody wants to know where Negan and the Saviors' headquarters is, and now there are at least two people who may find out in the near future. There's always that chance that Daryl was passing on secret messages to Rick, but that might not be so likely. Unless it is. Where is Wentworth Miller to reveal a tattoo on his back that shows where all the communities are located?
It seems like we should be finding out the after effects of this crazy plan in the very near future, but then there's no guaranteeing that. What's known is that The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights on AMC, and that you can check out our fall premiere schedule and our midseason debut schedule to see what is heading to the small screen in the future.
