Rick’s Blood Beard Is Back! 10 Questions We Need Answered After This Week’s ‘The Walking Dead’

In this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, “Knots Untie,” we get a glimpse of the “civilized” world outside of Alexandria for the first time in a long while, as Jesus leads Rick and a select few others to the Hilltop Colony, where Gregory leads as the Governor-lite. Things initially seem well in this other community — they have food and housing — but this is The Walking Dead, where nothing is as it appears.

Here are a few questions we have after a great table-setting episode of The Walking Dead.

1. Is Sasha Dead?

No, but there was some understandable confusion over the way the first two sequences were edited, from Abraham talking to Sasha during the middle of the day to Abraham dreaming/thinking about Sasha while he was sleeping with Rosita. WHAT DO YOU MEAN, PEACE OUT?

2. What is going on with Abraham and Sasha, then?

Abraham is clearly smitten with Sasha dating back to their time together leading zombies away from Alexandria. However, we were also reminded that Rosita is still in the picture, though the relationship between Abraham and Rosita had not been mentioned in a long time on the series. Rosita is clearly still smitten with Abraham, while Abraham seemed torn between his affections for Rosita and Sasha right up until his near-death experience when he had an epiphany. Like the guy Abraham nearly choked to death, Abraham also had a vision and I have a hunch his vision was of Sasha and their baby together. The fact that the necklace Rosita made him broke off his neck clearly suggests a symbolic shift. This is not going to end well for someone.

Also, sometimes The Walking Dead is much more of a soap opera than advertised.

3. Will there be any fallout from the Rick and Michonne romance?

Speaking of that soap opera, the Rick/Michonne romance didn’t ruffle any feathers this week. Carl was cool with it, and everyone else treated it like it was nothing. Maybe that’s how it’s going to work on the series, as well. Aside from the occasional glance or hand-holding moment, Rick and Michonne will proceed, business as usual. No need to turn it into The Walking Dead 90210.

4. There are more than 54 people in Alexandria?

That’s a lot of redshirts. If they wanted to solve the food crisis, maybe they should’ve let a few more die during the zombie war. There were only 33 in this photo from early this season, and a few have died since, which suggests quite a few didn’t show up to the community meeting. Tsk tsk.

“Your world is about to get a whole lot bigger.”

There’s obviously more out there than Negan/Saviors and the Hilltop Colony. Just how big will their world get? And how much of this new, bigger world are we going to be able to see? And when? It will be nice for the series to focus on other settings without forcing the survivors to flee from one camp to another nearly every season.

5. Where are Carol and Morgan?

Here’s a sneak peek of next week’s episode.

That’s two episodes in a row now that we haven’t seen any of Carol and Morgan, but next week, we may see a confrontation between the two, or at least between their differing philosophies. With Rick trying to convince Alexandrians (all 54 of them!) that the only way to get supplies from the Hilltop Colony is to confront Negan and the Saviors, Morgan may balk at killing men, even bad ones like Negan. That may force another showdown between Morgan and Carol. Whatever happens, it’s bound to be one of the bigger episodes, as Greg Nicotero is directing, and he only shows up for the important ones.

6. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the least creepy and 10 being the most creepy, how creepy is Gregory?

Gregory is putting out an 11 on the creepy scale.

https://twitter.com/snoyes32/status/704133233902878720

He’s less of a leader and more of a self-preservationist, and it just so happens that his self interest coincides with the interests of the others in the Hilltop Colony. For now. However, based on his clearly narcissistic tendencies, his untoward advances to Maggie, and his apathy toward Craig, if those interests cease to converge, Gregory seems like the kind of guy who would be quick to sell out his people to save himself. Anyone who calls himself a “nice guy” is most certainly not a nice guy.

7. How was Maggie’s first stab at being a leader?

Not bad. Not bad at all. She acquitted herself nicely in her negotiation with Gregory.

My concern, however, is the line she delivered to Rick, referring to their impending confrontation with Negan. “It’s going to cost us something,” she said. What exactly is the confrontation with Negan going to cost? And why have Maggie deliver that line? Is it going to cost her her baby? Or the father of her baby?

8. Who is this guy?

He tries to choke Abraham to death, Daryl breaks his arm, and now he’s going to lead Rick and the gang to Negan. Are we sure we can trust him? It wasn’t mentioned in the episode, but his name seems to be Andy. He’s played by actor Jeremy Palko, best known probably from a recurring role in Bloodline.

9. Why didn’t anyone look happy about the ultrasound photo of Maggie’s baby?

We’re accustomed to rousing music and smiling faces when we see ultrasound photos on television, but Maggie’s ultrasound photo seemed only to elicit concerned faces from everyone, Glenn included. They are scared for that baby, and maybe for Maggie. Speaking of which …

10. Who is Negan going to kill?

The foreshadowing continues with regard to who Negan is going to kill. Who is it going to be? Daryl? Michonne? Glenn? Maggie? Or maybe Abraham, because love triangles never end well on The Walking Dead.