The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 7 Review

The Walking Dead

Sing Me a Song

Season 7 Episode 7 Review

**SPOILERS FOR THE SHOW, EPISODE AND COMICS FOLLOW, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK**

"Sing Me a Song" is the penultimate episode before the mid-season finale, and the show has been suffering this season from lack of excitement and focusing too much on secondary characters and elongating journeys that could've been cut in half.  Besides the volcanic first episode, and the great second episode featuring Morgan, Carol, Ezekiel and SHIVA, the remaining episodes have been just alright at best.  We didn't need to see a whole episode of Daryl being traumatized at the Sanctuary, nor a whole episode of Tara at Oceanside (the two could've been combined into one 90 minute episode and it would've been fine).  Maggie and Sasha's experience at Hilltop was a decent episode, but that too could've been leaned down so we could see more of the Kingdom, since we haven't visited there since the second episode.  Basically what's going on is there's all these new communities, new characters, and too much focus on Negan who - as amazing as he was in the comics - doesn't translate well to the screen.  He praddles on with elongated monologues and is one step away from twisting his handlebar mustache.

Still, I absolutely love the show.  I will not quit on it, because I've been a diehard fan since the graphic novels.  Plus I've been through six seasons with these people, and to give up on them now doesn't seem to make sense.  Reading the novels, I know it's going to get a lot better with some really explosive action, and everything is leading (slowly) to that.

With "Sing Me a Song," the show pulls itself even closer to its graphic novel source, with four scenes in particular practically pulled out from its source material.  While I can appreciate the fact that they're following the novels more closely than before, it also serves as a detriment, because now I know what is coming.  They've deviated from the comics in several ways in the past:
-Shane making it to Hershel's farm, being killed by Rick and again by Carl after reanimation (he never made it to the farm in the comics, and was killed by Carl first and then Rick after reanimation, but only after a long time later after burying him)
-The Governor not cutting off Rick's hand
-The Governor not raping Michonne, and Michonne's rightful revenge (let's just say it's a real kick to the gonads)
-Hershel getting beheaded instead of Tyreese
-Carol remaining alive instead of killing herself over depression
-Sophia dying at the farm instead of still being alive

...I could go on and on, and that's what I appreciated the most about the show.  It was able to keep to the comics in heart, but make vast differences in appearance.  Now, it seems to be the graphic novels brought to screen, and I was sitting with some friends watching it and I was quoting events that would come later in the episode.  It wasn't as shocking or surprising as it used to be.

With that said, I think it was still a solid episode that finally focused on several storylines at once, even though it muddied the plot, it still set things up perfectly for what I'm hoping will be an explosive mid-season finale.

Carl & Negan: The A Story
The main focus of this episode is Carl and Negan.  After arriving at the Sanctuary, Carl (in all his Carl idiocy) decides to go gun blazing, killing two men before demanding to kill Negan.  Negan arrives and, as in the case of foolish folly, Carl is easily taken down by Dwight.  However, instead of killing the kid, Negan takes a shine to him, admiring his bravery (I call it stupidity) and basically serving as a mentor, which is the first big comparison to the comics.

Negan shows Carl around, proves to him how powerful he is by appearing before his men, who bow before him.  He then takes him to his harem - a group of women all dressed in black, all staying in one room - where he talks with Sherry (Dwight's wife) about something bad that had happened: one of his harem went back to her real husband, and now he has to be punished. 

Negan then takes Carl to his private room, where he orders Carl to remove the bandage around his eye.  In the second comic book nod, Carl removes the bandage and Negan asks to touch it, which causes Carl to cry.  Negan shows humanity by telling Carl he's genuinely sorry, and forgets he's just a kid.  However, he still needs to be punished for killing two of his men, so he forces Carl to sing a song while he swings Lucille, and Carl tearfully sings "You Are My Sunshine."  This whole scene was panel-for-panel retelling from the comics, and one I was thankful was done, as it solidified this strange parental relationship between Negan and Carl.  Before the apocalypse, Negan was a teacher, and it shows that he still has that nurturing instinct - even though he's also breaking Carl down in the process.

Negan then takes Carl to the main hall, where a man is tied to a chair.  That man is Mark, who slept with Negan's wife Amber (who, in reality, is Mark's wife, but under Negan's rules, all women are his wives now).  To punish Mark, Negan sears his face with a hot iron in full gory detail (and also the third moment directly from the comics), even the peeling of his flesh as he removes the iron, causing Mark to go unconscious and urinate on himself.  This is what happened to Dwight after he ran off with Sherry, and there's no doubt he doesn't like it.

Finally Negan decides to take Carl back to Alexandria, and he finds that Rick isn't home, but Olivia is.  He once again makes fun of her weight, and says he'd still sleep with her.  Although not directly taken from the comics, Olivia then slaps him.  This happens in the comics, but it's around Negan and his men, who threaten to kill her, but Negan tells them not to, and that it was his fault.  Here, he tells her he's even more turned on by her because of what she did, but it was still a nice nod to the comics as well as a fun sort of justice for Olivia.  He tells her to make them some lemonade while Carl shows him around the house, and in a truly tense moment, he discovers Rick's secret: Judith.  He sits with Judith on his lap and Carl out on the back porch, and threatens to kill Rick and Carl and bury their bodies so he could live in this utopian suburbia.

Jesus: There And Back Again
Jesus was on the truck with Carl when they arrive at the Sanctuary, Jesus having poured syrup on the road to mark his way back.  He tells Carl they need to jump now, and Carl tells him to go first.  He does, and finds that Carl had no intentions of jumping.  He is then seen on top of the truck as Negan takes Carl back to Alexandria, but once again disappears before it leaves.  Where he went, no one knows, but it's finally nice to see Jesus getting some meatier roles and showing how truly ninja he is.

Daryl: Subjugated Yet Free
Daryl is there when Carl is caught by Dwight, but in his current state he can't do anything about it.  He's forced to clean up after Mark's mess, and is sent to solitary confinement after threatening Negan before he leaves (and looking at the roof of the truck, so maybe he saw Jesus up there).  While back in confinement, he receives a note that says "go now" with a key attached to it.  Who sent Daryl the message, and will he take advantage of it?

Rick & Aaron: Not Quite As Awesome As Rick & Daryl
Rick and Aaron go out on a supply run, and end up at a place once owned by a man named Leslie William Starton, who was readily prepared for the apocalypse (the first Doomsday Prepper we've seen), but who seems to have not made it.  He left a long message saying if the readers made it that far, he was for sure dead, and has a lot of supplies.  Rick and Aaron go on to find his home - which happens to be a houseboat, with a literal sea of Walkers guarding it.

Michonne: One Woman Killing Machine
Michonne (aka my Samurai Goddess) is out on her own again, whistling "The Farmer in the Dell" as she draws two Walkers from the woods, which she subsequently kills.  Eventually she kills enough Walkers to make a road barrier, which a woman from the Sanctuary stumbles across.  Michonne ambushes her with her sword, demanding her her to take her to Negan.  The girl tries to fight back, but Michonne literally bashes her head against the steering wheel a few times, showing who's really in control.  The woman finally reluctantly agrees.  While I love seeing Michonne all BA again, I'm extremely worried that she wants to take Negan on her own.

Rosita & Eugene: Who Really Wears the Pants?
A few episodes ago, Rosita asks Eugene to make her a bullet, to which he agrees.  He takes her to the foundry where he took Abraham before, but is now having second thoughts.  He tells Rosita he doesn't want to make her a bullet because one bullet wouldn't do much good, and Negan would kill her.  Rosita explodes at Eugene, calling him spineless and the only reason he's still alive is because he lied and people felt pity for him.  After this verbal beating, Eugene makes her a bullet, and she later apologizes, which he doesn't accept.  Hopefully this is the kick in the pants he needs to do what he did in the comics: make bullets for Alexandria that turned the tide of the war. 

Spencer & Gabriel: The Walking Dead Odd Couple
While on a supply run for Negan, Spencer - in all his crybaby, entitled, spoiled brat way - tells Gabriel that this is all Rick's fault, Rick is a terrible leader and he could do so much better.  While he does so in an extremely irritating way, I can't help but agree in a sense.  If Rick didn't go all grandiose and take out that satellite station, things would've been a lot different.  Still, Rick is heads and tails a better leader than Spencer will ever be, and Gabriel tells him that the thought isn't sinful, but acting on it is.  Gabriel - who was never one of Rick's biggest supporters - then comes to Rick's defense and tells Spencer that Rick not only kept the group alive, but brought them together.  Finally, Gabriel has fully redeemed himself in my eyes after season five, where he tried selling out Rick to Deanna.  Spencer keeps complaining, and Gabriel tells him to stop the car, and tells him he's being a tremendous s---, and then proceeds to get out of the car and walk home.  He'd rather take his chances alone on the road with Walkers than deal with Spencer's whining one minute longer.  Gabriel is now awesome.

Spencer then, strangely, runs into the woods like a teenage girl who's about to bawl over losing her boyfriend to her best friend, and finds a Walker in a tree.  He brings the Walker down and finds a crossbow and a note written in Latin (because, why not a note be in Latin?), and returns to Alexandria with more supplies he garnered from the directions on the note, because he took Latin in school (what a wild coincidence!).


The Summary:
Next week is the special 90 minute mid-season finale, and hopefully a lot of events will come into play.  I'm not expecting the all out war to begin just yet, but I am heartened to see in the previews not just Alexandria, but the Kingdom as well.  Maybe the groups will finally start coming together.  Also, I really, really, really hope Spencer gets his comic book ending.  That would be really sweet.

The Score: A