PopHorror Let's Get Scared
A whole heck of a lot happened in “Go Getters,” this last Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead: skates rolled, watches got handed over, paintings were admired, faces were punched, cowards kneeled, cars were crushed and lips got kissed. We got to know some key players in season seven a little better – Gregory (Xander Berkley), Maggie (Lauren Cohen) and Jesus (Tom Payne), mostly – and how they reacted to the bat-wielding mania that is Negan and his Saviors. When it came to keeping Hilltop safe, we finally found out what Jesus would do. He would confront the cowardly Gregory and stand up for what he thought was best for everyone involved, including Alexandrians Maggie and Sasha (Sonequa Martin Green). And, after four episodes of nail biting, we finally found out the status of Maggie’s pregnancy.
The episode starts with Maggie lying in what looks like a safe place, possibly even a hospital of some sort. Apparently Sasha did get her to Hilltop, despite the fact that Maggie was possibly having a miscarriage and both women were left exhausted and shocked after watching the men they loved get Lucille’d. Not only does Maggie find out from the resident Hilltop doctor that she’s still pregnant, but she even gets to hear the baby’s heartbeat. The doctor also tells her that her baby’s placenta tore away from her uterus and that was what caused her the pain and fever. However, as long as she stays at Hilltop and rests, her baby should be fine. Sounds like an invitation to set up camp, doesn’t it?
The women also find out that Abraham and Glenn were buried on property by Jesus, a practice the selfish Gregory despises. “We burn our dead!” Maggie kneels at her husband’s grave and lays his pocketwatch over the cairn – a watch given to Glenn by Maggie’s father, Hershell, and then retrieved before his body was buried. This sweet, loving and touching gesture is all Maggie can do to say goodbye to Glenn.
This peaceful scene is disrupted by Gregory, who tells the two women that they have to leave, like, yesterday. He blames Maggie for his supposedly forced deal with the Saviors and thinks that when Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) finds out she’s not only still alive but right there, he’ll lose his plausible deniability and convince the big man that Hilltop was in league with Alexandria and therefore deserves to be punished as well. Of course, Negan thinks they need a little kick in the ass even without knowing Maggie and Sasha are there. To show off his total control and power over everything, Negan sends Hilltop a message in the form of a music-induced walker bonfire party on the Hilltop’s front lawn. Maggie doesn’t let a little thing like being on bedrest stop her from hopping into a tractor and squashing both the walker crowd and the souped up, classically trained hatchback. This, my friends, is the most badass scene in the entire episode, and I’m totally bummed that I couldn’t find a screenshot of it.
Despite the fact that Maggie and Sasha (along with Jesus) close the gates, kill the zombies and stop the music, Gregory only offers them preserves as payment for a job well done and insists that they still have to leave. We find out later that the Saviors broke the gate and planted the car in an effort to set Hilltop up to be “saved” by Negan’s men and were just slightly miffed that the people of the town took care of their own problem.
We get a scene where Negan #257 AKA Simon (Steven Ogg- the face behind Trevor in Grand Theft Auto V), who has come to collect that week’s rations, talks to Gregory about the painting he has hanging in his office showing a general named Charles V on horseback painted by Anthony Van Dyck in 1620. There’s this whole thing about how this general once rules over many lands, much like Negan does currently. He also tells Gregory to kiss his ass, and Gregory basically responds, “With or without tongue?” Apparently, Gregory figures that the more he bows down to Negan, the better off the Hilltop situation will be.
Not only does he bend over backward for Simon, but Maggie also notices that he swiped Glenn’s pocketwatch off of the dead man’s grave. Being Maggie, she punches his in the head. You go, girl! Damn, this guy sucks! Who is he and why is he running the place? Oh, wait. No one actually knows. Jesus says he thinks he knows of someone else who could run the community better as he smiles at Maggie. Hmmm…
There’s also this subplot where Enid (Katelyn Nacon) wants to get to Maggie at Hilltop and starts hoofing it, but not before being confronted by Carl (Chandler Riggs), who once again does not stay in the house. He follows her in a car and nearly kills her but manages to slam into some big rusty machinery instead, taking a walker out with him. He confesses he’s not there to protect her or anything chivalrous like that – it’s to get closer to Negan so he can kill him. Carl can’t stand seeing his father so broken and wants to kick that bastard’s ass into next Tuesday. Unfortunately for him, his depth perception is a bit off since losing the eye. Can he even aim a gun? They do get this teen rom-com thing going when Carl finds a couple pairs of roller skates and the two hold hands as they wobble down the road toward Hilltop. They even share a kiss just before the two teens go their separate ways at Hilltop.
Enid finds Maggie and puts sad green balloons on Glenn’s grave. Maggie then gives Enid the pocketwatch, explaining that she will remember Glenn in her heart rather than at a gravesite. She then tracks down Jesus and asks him if he can figure out where Negan lives. Smiling, Jesus says he can.
The episode ends with the Saviors closing up their trucks and driving away from Hilltop… with both Jesus and Carl hiding out in the back.
Some things I thought about during this episode of The Walking Dead: does everyone have electricity now? It seems the Hilltop not only has stoves but can bake bread. Why do women in the ZA wear tight jeans? It seems constricting for all the running one has to do. There were a lot of wheels in this ep: Enid’s bike, the two sets of roller skates, the car AKA music box and the trucks driven by the Saviors. The guy that plays Negan’s real name is Jeff. Negan is a Jeff. Not sure why this is so weird, but it is.
Come on back to PopHorror next week for a recap of the next episode of The Walking Dead. This ep, titled “Swear,” will premiere on November 27th at 9PM.
