The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 12 Review

The Walking Dead

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Season 7 Episode 12 Review

**SPOILERS FOR THE SHOW, EPISODE AND COMICS FOLLOW, 

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK**

Last week's episode wasn't great, but this week we're treated with a few exciting stories centering around Rick and Michonne, Rosita, and Tara that continue the momentum forward for the eventual war with Negan.  The bulk of the episode centers around Rick and Michonne searching for guns in order to bring Jadis and her Dumpsters to the battle, while Rosita goes rogue and searches for guns herself, and Tara struggles with telling Rick about the Oceanside community.

Rick and Michonne have been out on the road for a few days and haven't found a lot, and are planning on returning home when they find an abandoned school with a chain-link perimeter, with an army Walker roaming around.  They enter the school and find a carnival with loads of Walkers - some of whom are carrying guns since they used to be military - and hit pay dirt.  They also find a huge load of MREs and other canned goods, and celebrate their good fortune.  The next day they set out to get the guns by killing the Walkers, and things seem to be going according to plan until Rick gets a little too confident and tries to kill a deer, and falls into a small horde of Walkers.

Michonne comes to his aid, but finds the Walkers feasting on a dead body.  Fearing it's Rick, Michonne goes catatonic and drops her katana, and the Walkers advance on her.  Rick - emerging from his hiding place - throws Michonne her sword and she snaps out of it and they manage to kill the Walkers and take the guns.  On the way back, Rick notices Michonne's somber tone and tells her that this fight could cost both of them their lives, but if Rick dies then Michonne has enough strength to rule without him, and that everything they're doing is worth it, because it's not about them anymore, but it's about the future generations.

They arrive at the Dumpster community and deliver 63 guns, but Jadis wants more.  Rick convinces her to give them 20 guns to get more, and she agrees.

Meanwhile, Rosita is still in an anger rage and can't sit around so she goes out on her own to find guns, but instead just finds one toy gun.  Even more angry, she returns and berates Gabriel for trying to talk her out of killing Negan, because if she had then Olivia would be alive and Eugene would be with them.  Gabriel defends himself and argues that the group still needs her, and she storms off.  She visits Sasha at the Hilltop with a sniper rifle, and the two women plan on attacking the Sanctuary themselves since Rosita memorized the interior as described by Carl and Daryl, and Sasha has a map of the exterior thanks to Jesus.  The women realize this will be a one way ticket for the both of them, but they can't just sit back and wait any longer.

Meanwhile, Tara has a heart-to-heart with baby Judith, going over the pros and cons of telling Rick about the guns at Oceanside.  On the positive she thinks she can convince them to join Rick's group because Negan killed all their men, but on the negative she thinks they just want to hide and would rather fight Rick's group than join them.  Rick arrives and Tara tells him she has something to tell him.

This episode was much more action-packed than the previous one, with Rick and Michonne working as a brilliant pair taking out Walkers military style by splitting them up.  There was a lot of fun kills, especially with Michonne's katana, that reinvigorated the world they live in.  It also gave us a playful, lovable aspect of their relationship, something that wasn't shown as of late due to all the death and despair around them.  Rosita continues her one-woman suicide mission, and has now drawn in Sasha on that plan.  I don't know why they think this is a good plan, because it will obviously fail.  Tara is finally stepping up as a real player, and it'll be interesting to see how the group will approach Oceanside.

Still, the most jarring part of the episode came when Michonne thought Rick was dead.  All throughout the series, Michonne has been the level-headed, intelligent woman who always had a plan and was never caught off-guard.  But seeing her lover possibly dead sent her into a dark place where she had no plan, and she didn't know what to do.  She drops her katana, which is something she never would've done before, and left herself vulnerable to the Walkers.  While I figured she would be fine, I was still alarmed in knowing that she now has a weakness - Rick.  If something were to happen to Rick, I'm not sure how she would handle it, and my friend pointed out that's why she hates their relationship - Michonne doesn't need a man, and she's vulnerable with one.  I now see her point, and I fear for my favorite samurai going forward.

All in all, it was an entertaining episode and, with just four left this season, looks like it's on its way to the all out war.

The Score: A-