Spoilers for The Walking Dead are below.
So, we all know that The Walking Dead is one of the grossest shows on television, and the show’s corpse-filled setting is a testament to why Smell-o-Vision should never have really been a viable concept to anyone. Tonight’s episode, “The Same Boat,” delivered another outstanding combination of special effects and shocks for a selection of kills that totally outshined last week’s silent-but-deadly ambush on The Saviors. Here are all of those gut-punching moments, in order of how crazy they were.
The Headshot
Tonight’s episode brought up an interesting issue (repeatedly) when The Saviors accused Carol and/or Maggie of being the “bad guys” for taking out so many of their people seemingly unprovoked. Jeananne Goossen, she of The Night Shift fame, played one of those accusatory Saviors, and came complete with her own sad story about her past. She also had an injury suffered in part because she follows Negan, which was a nice bit of foreshadowing. But she won’t be telling stories any longer, as her attack on Maggie didn’t go so well, and Carol showed up in the nick of time to put a bullet in her head. I mean seriously, she tried to cut Maggie’s pregnant stomach! That’s a move only a villain makes, no matter how you look at it.
The Walker Trap
One would think that using walkers as threats against enemies would make the Saviors a little more alert to that act as a source of danger elsewhere. But Jill Jane Clements’ character is much too interested in getting her nicotine fix than thinking her squad’s kidnapping skills were top notch, and so it’s no big surprise when she walked into the room where Maggie and Carol set up the reanimated Donnie and immediately got attacked. Things did take a darker and more unexpected turn, though, when Maggie took the older woman down and got absolutely unhinged when turning her captor’s head into ground meat. She’s got a lot of tension, that Maggie.
The Assassination of Non-Negan
At the end of the episode, viewers finally reconnected with Rick and the others who were holding that one Savior hostage. As we’ve been shown multiple times from different Saviors, Negan is not only a leader to follow but also a population-governing ideology. To stand with Spartacus Negan is to be Negan, and though most viewers know that we have yet to meet the terrifying antagonist, Rick and his crew still have almost no idea of who or what this guy and his name represent. And so when the out-of-luck dipshit lied and claimed he’s Negan, Rick wasted little breath before putting the guy down. It’s a moment that again made us question what a “good guy” really means anymore.
The Paula Kabob
In her all too brief appearance, actress Alicia Witt made quite an impression as Paula, the sorta-leader of the group that kidnapped Carol and Maggie. She was given just enough dialogue to get her viewpoint across without going all Bond villain, while also unwittingly poking at Carol’s crumbling sense of right and wrong. But instead of using Carol’s olive branch to escape, Paula unwisely stood her ground and soon found herself with a couple of new holes in her midsection, courtesy of one of those walker stakes. That was bad enough, but then one of the walkers leaned in and turned her cheek into poorly-sliced pancetta. This show loves stretching out cheeks in disgusting ways, and I don’t think I’m alone in thinking more shows need to bring this gory act into their stories.
The Barbecued Saviors
This was seriously one of the most disturbing death scenes in all of The Walking Dead’s history, even though the horror was almost all implied rather than seen on screen. Carol and Maggie trapped two of the Saviors inside a room and then set it on fire, and they screamed as they burned alive. It was another moment that made one question how balanced the severity of Carol’s actions was as compared to the sins these Saviors were responsible for. Because a gunshot to the head is one thing, but setting people on fire and then sticking around is something else entirely, and you can tell that it hit both Carol and Maggie pretty hard. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish we’d have seen some sickening effects when the Saviors burned, but I guess Alicia Witt’s taffy cheek will have to do.
The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights on AMC.
This poll is no longer available.
