Damn, this episode was firing on all cylinders this week. The highlight was of course the Negan and Lydia drama at Alexandria. Although hinted at in the premiere, we see the further development of an interesting sort of friendship/mentorship as Negan offers life advice to Lydia on how to deal with life in Alexandria and putting up with the Douche Squad bullying her. The scene where she carves the squirrel up was downright hilarious. It's kind of interesting to see Darryl trying to handle things in a mature and professional matter, even though you just know the squirrel carving thing is easily something he might have tried in his youth, or even in the earlier seasons of this show. Just as fascinating is Negan actually dispensing useful and logical advice on fitting in and dealing with people. Then things take a turn when the Douche Squad gangs up on Lydia and beats her up, leading to Negan coming to her rescue and resulting in the death of one of the Douche Squad. The people of Alexandria want Negan put to death, feeling their obligation to honour Rick's promise to Carl as expired, and Negan realizing the tide is turning against him after he actually does the right thing and defends the innocent for once, escapes and disappears.
The Highwaymen seem to be becoming TWD's Redshirts. We lost two of them to the Whisperer Spikes last year after barely getting to know them, and now Margo in her third appearance joins up with the Douche Squad and gets killed by Negan. Speaking of the Douche Squad, I know one of the guys was one of the "cool kids" at Hilltop who Henry was trying to impress last year, who was the other guy? I didn't recognize him, is he new, or has he been there before?
I kind of wonder, what with Darryl joining the Grimes family for dinner, looking after RJ while Michonne and Judith are gone, and representing Michonne by proxy on the Council, are they setting up for after Michonne leaves? Is Darryl going to assume her position on the Council, and become the kids' guardian? I can kind of see that, having sort of a surrogate family situation with Darryl, Lydia, Judith and RJ.
We see this week that Ezekiel is just as messed up after his losses as Carol, maybe more so. True, Ezekiel isn't hallucinating, but Carol also hasn't attempted suicide either. This certainly helps differentiate this from any of the other times Carol got messed up mentally, which as mentioned in regards to last week's episode is a somewhat frequent occurrence, this time we have someone else experiencing the same loss, being messed up by it and having their own extreme reactions to it.
And we seem to be setting up a recurring story thread for the season (or at least, this half-season) of strange happenings in the Communities, in that I'm almost certain the tree falling on Hilltop is connected to last week's Walker Surge at Alexandria, and despite what the characters are saying, I still don't believe the Whisperers are involved with either, but rather some unknown new group.