This review does contain spoilers so if you have not watched the episode or are adverse to a swell review with spoilers, go read some boring review elsewhere.
Welcome back, Grue-Believers, to the next installment of As The World….wait a minute, I mean The Walking Dead. Yes, the soap opera for zombie enthusiasts. Last week she donned her sweatpants and settled in for a comfortable night on the couch with a half-gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Let’s see if she put the spoon away, threw on the yoga pants and went to a Tabata class.
I’m a little confused here; so, if any of you Grue-Believers can educate me as to what is going on in Abraham’s mind, please do so. He’s apparently sad that Sasha is going to a new patrol shift leaving him with Eugene. Throughout the conversation he is flashing back to he and Rosita in bed together and back to real time; or was it the other way around. Also, I didn’t get the whole home-made tail light necklace.
Our ninja-fied, Houdini-esque stranger, Jesus, decides to reveal to the gang that he comes from a community much like theirs and wants to show Rick and the crew. Apprehensively they accept his invitation because of the potential for the trade of arms for food. They saddle up in the RV and head to the community of Hilltop. On the way, we have a conversation between Glenn and Abraham about bringing a child into this new world. There are some great lines which include “When you were pouring the Bisquick, were you trying to make pancakes?” and “when rain is coming, I always wear galoshes and double up!” Hopefully, I don’t need to explain Abraham’s euphemisms. If so, comment below and I will give it a go. Maybe I’m starting to understand what Abraham’s flashbacks are all about.
Our crew comes up on a wreck where a car from the Hilltop community has smashed into a hoard of zombies, now buried in the wreckage. Our heroes enter the building near by the wreck and save some of the Hilltop survivors while dispatching walkers…you know how they do. Everyone loads into the RV and off to Hilltop they go.
The Hilltop community, much like Alexandria, is a walled in community. Instead of guns, they have spears (due to running out of ammo) and instead of luxurious houses they have one huge mansion and a number of trailers. They do have great gardening skills and even livestock. And, as fate would have it, one of the rescued Hilltoppers, Harlan, is a doctor — but not just any doctor, a pediatrician. We get to meet the man in charge here named Gregory who’s kind of douche. He feels that Rick and the gang have nothing of value to them so they must work there if they want any food. Throughout “negotiations” we hear the name Negan brought up again and Daryl in his squint-eyed, tough guy demeanor questions as to who he is.
We are then treated to the arrival outside the mansion by a group of Hilltoppers who had a recent run in with Negan. They share Negan has locked up one of them and let the others go to return to Hilltop and give a message to Gregory to share Negan’s demands. A quick knife to the Gregory’s gut triggers Rick and crew to take decisive, bloody action. I have to say my favorite part is, after Rick removes the bleeding body off of him — guy he stabbed in the throat — the dead guy’s girlfriend runs over and punches Rick in the face. In true WWE fashion, Michonne steps in to “Rock Bottom” the girlfriend stating something along the line of “I don’t think so bitch”. The crew then begins to form a plan to attack Negan and remove his control over Hilltop.
Not too bad, she cut back to frozen yogurt, let her hair down and appears to be heading to the drawer containing the yoga pants. This episode is directed by Michael E. Satrazemis and written by Matthew Negrete & Channing Powell. Although not the best episode, it appears to be building to what we have all been waiting for: the arrival of Negan which will hopefully make Thomas happy. We get a few action/fight scenes and of course we get Michonne protecting her new man.
The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 11 “Knots Untie” (3 / 5) on the Thug Meter