Dwight and Eugene take centre stage!

© AMC

Written by Sophie Williams.

Before this episode even began I was excited purely due to the fact that Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) was going to heavily feature.  Yes, I despise him for taking the life of Glenn, who was my favourite, and Abraham but, Negan’s character is so brilliant in the way that even the viewers at home fear him and what he’s going to do next.

At the beginning of the episode the Saviors learn of Daryl’s disappearance.  Obviously, Negan is more than a little peeved when he discovers this, and already I’m gripped, just five minutes in.  At long last, we’re reunited with our favourite character with a mullet when Eugene (Josh McDermitt) appears.  We haven’t seen Eugene in a long time and the images of Negan brutally murdering Glenn and Abraham are clearly still at the forefront of his mind.  He begs for his forgiveness but is surprised when he’s given a pretty decent room to stay in and is offered any food he wants.  After requesting lobster (because lobster is few and far between in the zombie apocalypse), Eugene has a snoop around his new room and sees that the fridge is full – no doubt with food that his friends have sacrificed. Just as I was enjoying this episode, Eugene switched on the CD player and to my horror “Easy Street” started blaring.  Luckily, it was for only a few seconds so Eugene obviously hated it as much as I do.

Dwight (Austin Amelio) had a lot of focus in this episode which I liked because he obviously has depths that we, the audience, can see but Negan appears oblivious to.  Upon finding a note, it’s clear that he recognises the handwriting: Sherry.  He’s not quite sure how to process this when he realises it was her who released Daryl, but he doesn’t have long to register it before a group of Negan’s thugs come up behind him and batter him.  Elsewhere, Eugene is offered three of Negan’s wives for the night, but only for entertainment purposes.  Eugene’s a gentleman towards them, acknowledging the fact that they don’t want to be there and are not there by choice.  Impressing the ladies (and everyone at home) with his scientific knowledge, they ask him to create a pill that Amber can commit suicide with.  However, their story was unconvincing when Eugene very quickly realised it was for Negan, not Amber. I’m interested to see what Eugene does with this weapon, if or when he uses it, it’s bound to be chaos.

The best part of the episode for me was when Eugene was taken to a furnace room with a crowd of people below.  He watched on in horror as Negan held a red-hot iron very close to the doctor’s face. I felt as though I could feel the heat of the iron through the TV as the doctor falsely proclaimed that Sherry’s note he had belonged to him.  It obviously didn’t and I could see Dwight’s guilt creeping onto his face when Negan threw the doctor into the furnace.  Towards the end of the episode, I was personally surprised when Negan offered Eugene a position of power.  It wasn’t long before he was giving orders and looking all important.  Dwight had returned by this point after discovering his wife has run away, far away from the Saviors.  The pair seemed to be on the same level after they both declared they were ‘Negan’.

I’m interested to see how this progresses.  Despite his cowardice, we know Eugene is a good man and I think it’s only a matter of time before Dwight joins the fight against Negan.