Our group has been reunited at the Hilltop, but Negan has plans to destroy everything with Lucille and a nice bucket of walker guts. Here’s a look at episode twelve, “The Key”!
Typically on The Walking Dead, episode twelve signals the downhill slide to the finale. We can start expecting cliffhanger endings in the upcoming episodes to build tension towards episode sixteen and maybe some side character death. Based on what we know so far, this season is supposed to end the “All Out War” arc, so in theory, Negan and the Saviors will be dealt with at the end of season eight.
In the upcoming episode, “The Key”, Negan and his Saviors are about to launch a small offensive on Hilltop. They aren’t planning on killing anyone outright. They want them to turn and create more walkers. They want them to suffer. “Made to Suffer” from S3 just popped into my head. Another instance of a sociopath using the idea of walkers taking back over an area as a plan. SEE: The Governor’s convo with Merle about what to do with the prison.
Anyway, the plan is that if walker blood gets into a wound, someone might not even know what has happened to them since they weren’t outwardly bitten. If a Savior stabs someone with a bloody knife, it could have been a wound that the person healed from, but now it’s contaminated and they’ll end up dying anyway.
Thanks for the idea, Eugene.
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Another part of the episode will focuse on Simon and Dwight, who are in their own vehicle on the way to Hilltop. During this trip, Simon makes it perfectly clear that he’s not on board with this plan to turn them into walkers. He wants them all dead.
He creepily looks out the window after talking about Negan, and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Simon tried to take Negan out and take control of the Saviors. He’s got too much desire for advancement in a position that has already leveled out.
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At Hilltop, Rick is visiting a grave and sometime during the episode, he leaves the community and ends up in a car chase with Negan through the streets of a nearby town. Based on some of the stills below, it looks like he gets out at some point, and in the sneak peak, Negan is walking around in a building, taunting Rick, so maybe we’ll see them get into another fistfight?
“The Key” should lay the foundation for the fight to come a little more soundly. I wouldn’t expect any major character death in this one, but prepare for something later this season, especially in regard to Simon. Negan will eventually find out about all those dead trash people…
The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC!