The group finally take on Oceanside

In my opinion, the second half of Season 7 of The Walking Dead has had a slow start.  The episodes were relatively uneventful but as the season progressed, it has definitely picked up. I’ve enjoyed the last couple of episodes and I’m sad that the next episode is the season finale.

This week’s episode was particularly enjoyable because there was focus on every community and every key character.  Tara (Alanna Masterson) told Rick the whereabouts of Oceanside, the community made out of all women.  I’ve wanted her to do so for weeks, especially when the group keeps stressing how desperately they need weapons for the big war with the Saviours coming up.

It came as no surprise to see Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) imprisoned in Negan’s compound, I was concerned they were going to torture her with “Easy Street” like they did with Daryl.  I bet Sasha’s never been pleased to see Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) this much before when he actually prevented her from being raped.  However, I’m pretty sure he didn’t do this out of good nature.  Soon after, the attacker was taken care of “Negan-style”; by getting a blade cast right through his neck.

Back at the Hilltop, I think I can safely say that I wasn’t the only one finding themselves laughing at Gregory’s stance while keeping watch for Walkers for Maggie (Lauren Cohan).  If he was trying to frighten them off it didn’t work because shortly after a couple of them appeared.  A brief argument saw Gregory (Xander Berkeley) determined to take care of the one but as I expected, he didn’t do a very good job.  Maggie stepped in and killed it with her trowel (efficient) but while she was doing so, Gregory found himself in a spot of bother and was having a rough-and-tumble with another Walker.  Urging him from my seat to just ‘stick his knife through it’, Gregory’s fear overwhelmed him and he was pretty useless.

Meanwhile, it all started kicking off at Oceanside.  Tara was doing her best to intimidate the leader Natania (Deborah May) and her granddaughter Cyndie (Sydney Park) but eventually Tara just starts rambling and the whole pointing a gun at them situation loses its effect after a while.  Suddenly, big explosions could be heard from somewhere.  My immediate thought was that it was the Saviours but I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be our main group.  During this season I feel they’ve lost that edge about them and become a bit too passive, so to see them all take quite drastic action and revert back to the “hard core” group we know was really exciting to watch.  A tense confrontation followed between Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the leader and it seemed like the Oceanside leader was fighting a losing battle.  Her community wants to help take Negan and the Saviours down but she’s the only one who won’t hear of it.  She isn’t the first person to oppose it but everyone else has come to their senses – I sincerely hope she does the same.

Towards the end of the episode, we were finally gifted by the knowledge of who was with Rosita at the end of the last episode.  I initially thought it was Daryl but during the week I had more time to think and I came to the conclusion that it could either be Daryl, Jesus, or Dwight.  It turns out it was Dwight and this could potentially be extremely good news for the group.  He wants to help kill Negan and although the group were skeptical, I believe he’s being truthful.  Recently, we’ve seen Dwight without that “evil” spark that the majority of the Saviours seem to have and after what happened with Sherry, it’s clear that Dwight resents Negan with a passion.

An action-packed episode, I’m happy to see that The Walking Dead seems to have regained that fire that initially drew me in.  There are so many loose ends to tie up and I can almost guarantee that we’re going to be left hanging at the end of next week’s episode to see what the final outcome is.