The Walking Dead tugged at the heartstrings with its winter finale episode, the appropriately named, “Hearts Still Beating”. Warning, spoilers ahead…
As Rick and Aaron continue to scavenger for Negan, the aforementioned leader of the Saviors is still making himself at home in Alexandria awaiting Rick’s return. Meanwhile near the Kingdom, Morgan and Richard visit Carol. Richard does his best to convince both of them to take up arms against the Saviors and persuade King Ezekiel to do the same. Neither of them is too eager to fight again. In fact, Carol would rather just be left alone. We’ll see what happens when they find out about Glenn and Abraham.
At the Sanctuary, Jesus helps Daryl escape but not before Daryl kills Fat Joey, preventing him from informing Negan’s men of his escape. Back at the Alexandria, Spencer bearing gifts of whiskey visits Negan. Spencer uses this opportunity with Rick gone to try and convince Negan that a change in Alexandria’s leadership would be a good thing for everyone involved, including Negan himself. Negan wonders why Spencer hasn’t killed Rick just before gutting him with a knife leaving him with his guts hanging out and dying in front of everyone.
Then there’s Rosita who has had a death wish ever since Abraham died. She pulls out her gun and takes a shot at Negan. As luck would have it, the bullet only does damage to “Lucille”. A pissed off Negan orders one of his followers to cut Rosita’s face. He demands to know who made the bullet. Rosita claims she was the one but Negan isn’t buying it. He asks again and she refuses to answer. He then orders Arat to kill someone. Arat quickly kills a defenseless Olivia with a shot to the head. Rick shows up and Negan explains how he let him and the others off easy this time. The Saviors take Eugene who confessed to the making of the bullet, and the stuff Rick and Aaron had collected for them.
The final scene shows Rick, Carl, Michonne, Rosita and Tara arriving at the Hilltop Colony to reunite with Maggie and Sasha. Rick embraces Maggie and tells her that she was right about the need to fight. He understands what needs to be done. He then sees Daryl and the two friends hug. Daryl then hands Rick a gun. It’s a symbolic way of saying that the sherif is back in town. Sure some of this was predicable but at the same time and to be fair, we’ve also been waiting for this as well. Rick got his mojo back as he realizes that they can no longer live in fear of what might happen. Too many lives have already been lost to Negan and his Saviors. No more. The fight resumes in February 2017.
