The Walking Dead; 6.16 "Last Day on Earth" (open spoilers)

Cafe Society
61

The Saviors road gang leader said something about making an example of him and his friends had to die because they stole from the library? I assumed he was a Savior who rebelled, just like Dwight, and was now being punished.

I’d really like to know who the two body armor guys were - the ones who promised to help get Carol some medical attention.

And I do agree that it was anti-climactic. Actually showing the killing would’ve been so much better than spending the next six months guessing who dies. And if they don’t show it in the season premiere it would really suck. If they just flash forward a year or so down the road and said victim is just not around, that would cause riots in the streets.

62

Yes. Note the massive (tiger) paw print seen earlier in the episode.

63

Given the spear that one guys had, I assumed they were from Hilltop. No?

64

These guys are who I’m not understanding. I thought a few weeks ago someone said the spears that we had seen were the work of the Hilltop people. That makes me want to believe the armor guys are with them, but I guess not.

How did this entire colony of people escape notice from Alexandria? They said the place was only 12 klicks away, meaning just over an hour or so to run there. There seem to be a lot of groups that are around that are just now popping up. It’s confusing and getting old.

I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to stick it out, this is becoming Lost like. These last few episodes have been rather boring, and I didn’t really care who got killed last night.

65

I thought it was an excellent episode. As I said last week, through his own hubris Rick has started something that is much bigger than he imagined. This episode showed us exactly how big of a hornet’s nest he kicked. I liked how they built the tension through Ricks’ group continually running into the roadblocks that escalated in size and number of Saviors. It was a way to slowly reveal exactly how large this group is and more importantly - how organized, equiped, and disciplined they were. Negan was two steps ahead of them the entire time. However, if Rick and his group were paying any form of attention he would have realized they were over their head with The Saviors already. The show certainly dropped hints all season:

Darryl’s RPG Encounter - The guy mentioned how things usually go, with them killing one person to get their attention. This indicated that the Saviors had a method and process that they followed to gain control of survivors or communities that they encounter. In and of itself, a minor thing at this point of the story and easily dismissed as just “these guys are bad guys” and Darryl is a bad ass and blew 'em up.

Hilltop Vacation - Again, we get the reinforcement in the events at the Hilltop with the assassination that The Saviors are not just an unruly band of survivors. They plan and they force submission. It is revealed again that their MO is to kill one person to intimidate and gain submission of survivors or community.

Carol & Maggie’s Day with the Girls - The lead female Savior had radio communications which indicates organization and a source of supply/electric to keep them charged. More importantly, in the scenes where she was communicating with the un-seen group of Saviors she was using radio discipline. Code names, back-up frequencies in the event of their communications being compromised, etc. It reinforced that The Saviors were not just a bunch of brutal survivors but a well disciplined and coordinated group.

Carol’s Roadside Shoot 'Em Up - The Savior mentioned they had seen vehicles with spikes through them back at Alexandria thus they knew that was where she was from. This reveals they’ve had scouts watching Alexandria and had already collected intel on the location and one could assume how many people were there.

So… well organized, effective communications, coordinated, using scouts who are gathering and reporting intel on Alexandria, obviously well armed, and although brutal they are following a certain ideology behind Negan. It is easy to see that after capturing Glenn, Darryl, Sasha, and Michonne that The Saviors began setting up roadblocks in anticipation of a rescue party being sent out. It is also easy to imagine that their scouts reported the RV leaving Alexandria, even perhaps with who was in the RV (i.e. Rick).

As for the ending, sure I’d prefer to have not had a cliff-hanger on the identity of who met their fate at the end of Lucille but… it is t.v. and series do this kind of thing all the time. If I had to choose who it was, I’d pick Glenn. It would be a far greater dramatic impact for him to be the one who died vs. Michonne, Abe, Eugene, or any of the others (leaving Rick and Coral out of it). However, if I was a betting man… it is Abe.

66

Why do you guess not? The Hilltop Folk are living in a sort of Medieval level of technology. These guys looked exactly like that type.

67

That wouldn’t really move the story at all. We’ve been to Hilltop.

68

I don’t recall any discussion about the rescuers on Talking Dead. Seems like if they were from some new, unknown group, there would be some discussion about it. But I could be wrong…

69

The guy with the spear was far from Hilltop, trying to wrangle a horse. To me, that implies a new group that’s traded with Hilltop before, as opposed to a militant faction within Hilltop.

70

Did Eugene give up the groups location to save himself? Rick looked at him like that was the case, and it’s so easy to believe.

71

I’m wondering if these guys will wind up being members of “The Kingdom” (from the comic book) :

72

It certainly looked that way from the way everyone gave him the evil eye when he was brought out.

73

I’m also thinking it’s Glenn, thanks to the dramatic impact of it all.

There was also a clock ticking as Negan landed the first blow, which then slowed to a stop. There’s speculation that it’s symbolic of the pocket watch that Hershel gave to Glenn.

I’m also thinking Glenn’s death would largely influence Abraham, as he’s also considering fatherhood. It would be a fair way to trigger a response in not only Abe, but possibly Sasha and/or Rosita. It would very obviously influence Maggie, Rick and Carl, especially given he’s one of the originals. For maximum effect, Glenn seems like an obvious choice.

[spoiler]It would also be a nice way of hiding things in plain sight, as Glenn did meet his end, here, in the source material.

Then there is this slowed audio from the scene.[/spoiler]

74

I’m thinking it’s Michonne because of the conversation Rick and her had after eating the shag-apple. I forget exactly the words, but it was something along the lines of we’re going to live free like this forever and ever with sprinkles and rainbows on top! It can’t be Rick… so it’s Michonne, and Rick loses another lover. And Carl loses a mother-figure.

75

They’re from the Kingdom, which, in the comics, is also anti-Negan. They set up their “village” on the grounds of one of the local colleges. Ezekiel,their leader, used to work at the zoo, and has Shiva, a pet tiger.

76

Are there any other things from the comics that you’d like spoil for us???

77

Well, I watched it and after an hour and a half, they are captured. . .again. That seems familiar, I think I saw it somewhere before.
Did you ever notice that when there is a real disaster, people band together and help each other with a few scum-balls mixed in. On TV, there are a lot of scum-balls and a couple of good people and they are pretty stupid.
In stead of killing off the actors, maybe, they should work on their top-notch writing team. A new perspective might bring a breath of fresh air to this show. It may not help, but it sure can’t hurt.
And " the talking dead" is no more than a commercial for the next show.

78

The whole thing is really a flash-sideways and they end up in a chapel in purgatory.

79

He might have clarified the route, but Negan knew the ultimate destination, it was just a matter of that final touch with Eugene.

Its obvious in hindsight, but Negan has a spy in Alexandria and my vote is on Enid. Since the remaining Doc was in Hilltop, it was just a matter of herding them in the right direction, as per Rick saying that they want them to go in that direction, after breaking through the red rover.

Its possible that Eugene was the spy, since it was his plan for them to dismount after running through all other means of getting through the blockade, beating him would have given the impression that he did not give up the information lightly, but that would seem pointless at that time, unless he was not supposed to be on the mission, and was supposed to open the gates to avoid a seige. THen he was given a beating for being useless.

Now after some sleep, I tend to view the score card as thus

The girls are safe, both as a control on the males and as breeders

Glenn–Maggie
Rick – Michonne–Carl–Enid
Abe–Sasha+Rosita
Darryl-- Rick
Rick --Alexandria–Judith

All the above,have both a control and hostage against future actions. Negan wants them alive, as they are a useful resource, as his territory increases, he needs lieutenants to run the territory and extract tribute, but at the same time, control his existing lieutenants from thinking succession.

Eugene and the other guy, are not especially useful, so they are now expendable

So batter up

Declan

80

I must have missed the line where they explained it, but where was Rick and them taking Maggie?