The war continues on The Walking Dead! Rick and the other groups systematically try to take out Negan’s outposts, but they can’t escape the casualties of war. Here’s our recap of “The Damned”!
I think the easiest way to do a recap of the “The Damned” is to split it into the groups that are fighting. We have Rick and Daryl at one outpost looking for guns. Jesus, Tara, and Morgan lead the charge at the satellite outpost. Ezekiel, Carol and the Kingdom are dealing with a runaway Savior, and Aaron, Eric, and other Alexandrians are fighting at yet another outpost.
Since this is the second phase of their plan, Maggie is obviously absent as she said she would sit it out after their initial attack on the Sanctuary.
Let’s take a closer look at what happened on “The Damned”.
Group 4: Aaron, Eric, and the Alexandrians
As memebers of the Saviors are packing up an outpost to get out, their leader, Mara, realizes that one of their lookouts has been killed. Almost immediately, Aaron and the other members from the ASZ roll up and open fire.
A firefight ensues with bullets being wasted left and right, but the Alexandrians have another plan.
Keep the Saviors blocked in and soon they’ll have much bigger problems when their dead friends start rising up.
Throughout this scene, we’re shown Eric a number of times, leading us to believe that since there is os much chaos this episode, that someone will die, and it will probably be someone we haven’t grown too attached, too.
Before the Saviors can realize what the ASZ residents have done by keeping them boxed in, they dead wake up and start eating the Saviors.
Still, Eric and Francine try and kill Saviors coming up the side. Francine is shot and killed and Eric is also shot. Aaron helps him walk away, but it doesn’t look good.
Group 3: Ezekiel, Carol, and The Kingdom
After waking up from a huge explosion, Carol and Ezekiel with the rest of The Kingdom fight off walkers.
“The damned are upon us.”
Episode title insert….
They start trailing a Savior that go away. Carol tells them that if he gets to Negan first and tells him their plan, it will all be for nothing.
“Trust the King.”
Ezekiel is easily my favorite character. He gives orders to another of his troops and tells them to release Shiva from her cage… YAAAASSSSSS!
Then gives his short, simple, confident speech:
“To our foe, to his compound, and then to certain victory.”
Carol looks on completely confused, but she’s starting to see that she and Ezekiel are very good at pretending.
They follow the Savior’s trail into the woods, and they have him in sight. Carol moves to raise her weapon, but Ezekiel tells her that their friend has arrived. Shiva jumps out of the trees and kills the Savior. (Watch the awesome scene below!)
Afterward, they continue to move onto their next battle:
Group 2: Tara, Jesus, and Morgan
Over at the Satellite outpost, Morgan, Jesus, Tara, and Diane (an archer from the Kingdom) try and figure out the best way in. Jesus seems a little hesitant about the whole thing, Tara is confident they can take the post again, and Morgan, well, he’s convinced that since he’s here things will be fine.
Diane needs one clear shot to kill the guard and allow them entrance into the base. Jesus, Tara, and Diane go there separate ways, while Morgan is left with two other men who will be going with him.
They seem concerned and ask:
“Morgan, do you need us to cover you or something?”
“I do not.”
“Hey, we’re here to help. It shouldn’t just be you.”
“I don’t die.”
This is Morgan’s curse. He has watched his wife and son die. He’s be indirectly responsible for Eastman’s death, yet he always lives on. Morgan isn’t worried about what will happen inside the outpost at all… he’s on of “the damned”.
He draws the walkers attention to a single part of the fence, giving Diane and open shot. After the Saviors are killed, he stares into the walkers eyes for a very long time.
Once inside the outpost, they begin killing Saviors just like they did last time they were there.
They spread out.
Somewhere a long the way, Jesus develops a serious crisis of conscious and decides not to kill a Savior that has technically surrendered. Jesus tries to talk Tara out of killing this Savior:
“This isn’t you.”
“It is not.”
“It can’t be about revenge.”
This gets them distracted which allows the Savior to make a grab for Jesus’ gun. Once he gets it, he puts the gun to Jesus’ head while Tara trains her gun on him.
Jesus uses his ninja moves to get the gun away and takes the man hostage instead of killing him like Tara wants to do.
Meanwhile, Morgan and two others take one room. When the door opens, they kill the first Savior that appears but a few others show up behind him, and they shoot all three men.
Morgan is wearing riot gear, so there wasn’t much to worry about there, but he looks over at the two men who were with him and sees their dead faces, and he sort of loses it.
He makes his way out of the outpost, killing anything that comes in his path as voices in his head mutter along the way.
Morgan almost kills another Savior outside that says, “You were transferred, too!” But Jesus stops him.
According to Jesus, we’re taking prisoners now, and Tara isn’t a fan and threatens to tell Rick. Jesus says Maggie will understand where he’s coming from.
All that can be determined from this scene to me is that:
This “mercy” theme will be prevalent throughout the season, and Morgan needs an intervention STAT.
Group 1: Rick and Daryl
Rick and Daryl enter a very nice, older building with three other men. In this building, they believe they’ll find a cache of weapons. They believe this based on everything they know about Negan’s compounds.
They climb up an elevator shaft (Hello, Beth Greene reference.) and then split up (NEVER a good idea) to find the weapons Rick believes are there.
We find out in this scene that Dwight is the one that has provided the intel because Rick says that everything else he said has checked out, but Daryl insists he’s just a “piece of shit”.
After they split up, Daryl finds a room very similar to the one he was locked up in and takes a few moments to stare at the canned dog food and handcuffs hooks to a pipe in the wall. The handcuffs could possibly be a callback to Merle as well.
Rick encounters more drama on his path.
He fights with one Savior, eventually killing him, and moves into another room where he finds a sleeping baby named Gracie. This is playing up on the “mercy” theme by adding “grace” to the mix. Add in that the child didn’t even wake up when Rick was killing someone outside her room, we now have a new level of innocence.
Even Saviors have children that aren’t a part of this fight.
He leaves the room and closes the door quietly. In another room, he looks around when he’s approached from behind by **GASP** Morales!
Last we saw of him, he was heading to Birmingham with his wife and two kids. Somehow he has made his way to Virginia and is a Savior.
In fact, he tells Rick that he has called Negan to come back. He and the other Saviors are under orders to not kill Rick, the King, or the Widow…unless necessary of course.
Rick stands in shock as Morales aims his gun right at him.
It seems that a lot of changed since they parted ways in Atlanta…
Next week’s episode, “Monsters” will feature more war and Rick’s stand-off with Morales. Will The Kingdom and King Ezekiel make a stand against the Saviors? Will Daryl pop up behind Morales just in time?
Morales does say in the clip below that Negan has told them not to kill Rick, the Widow, or the King. Coincidently, that’s the title of episode six: “The King, the Widow, and Rick.”
Oh, Gregory returns to Hilltop.
So, yeahhhhh…
Take a look at the clips and stills from “Monsters” below!
