The Walking Dead “Service” was written by Corey Reed and directed by David Boyd. This was another “super-sized” episode, but I have to say, I’m not sure why. While it was an intense episode with more remarkable performances from Andrew Lincoln (Rick) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Negan), the plot itself felt like it could just as easily have fit into the regular timeframe. As so often with
The Walking Dead, the title resonates with several themes in the episode. Largely, it refers to the Alexandrians being in service to the Saviors now. But on a more personal level it resonates with Negan’s final words to Rick – Rick is “servicing” him in an even more intimate way.
As the episode opens, it’s important to remember that while we’ve had some time to recover from Glenn and Abraham’s deaths, the Alexandrians are still reeling. The episode opens with Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Rick in bed. But unlike the last time we saw them here, they are back to back, both pretending to sleep. Rick watches, without Michonne noticing, as she takes a hidden rifle out of the chimney. Rick doesn’t stop her as she heads out – instead he goes to Judith – and this becomes a nice parallel to their scene at the end of the episode when Rick reveals what he knows about Judith to Michonne.
Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Spencer (Austin Nichols) are heading out on a scavenging run and stop to ask Eugene (Josh McDermitt) to let them out. He’s not the new and improved Eugene from the end of last season. He’s retreated and is simply trying desperately to “give them what they want.” He’s trying to repair a radio for them. Rosita is harsh with him – he’s still an easy whipping post for her. The three are interrupted by the arrival of the Saviors.
There’s a terrific shot of Negan in silhouette. This playing with sihouettes and light is a theme throughout the episode that seems to underscore latent violence. He knocks on the gate with Lucille, calling out like the big bad wolf he is. Spencer opens the gate as Rosita and Eugene are rooted to the spot. Rick arrives and opens the gate, but he points out it hasn’t been a week yet, underscoring why they are still so shell-shocked. Negan takes out a walker and calls it “service” for them. And then he makes Rick hold a bloody Lucille for the entire time they are in Alexandria. It’s an horrific reminder of what Rick has already lost to Negan.
Daryl (Norman Reedus) is with Negan’s group. Rick tries to talk to him, and Negan stops him. None of them are allowed to speak to Daryl. Rick tries to tell Negan that they’ve set half the supplies aside for him, but Negan tells him that he decides what they are going to take, not Rick. Negan taunts Rosita and then forces Rick to show him around. Rick keeps his eyes down as much as possible.
Most of Negan’s men move out, but Dwight (Austin Amelio) further taunts Rosita. He takes the guns from Rosita and Spencer. Then he tells her to go and get Daryl’s bike for him. As a final insult, he takes her hat and empties her water canteen.
Michonne misses almost the entire occupation as she takes target practice in the middle of a field. This is how she learned to survive before – by going off alone. She wastes a lot of ammo and makes a lot of noise, only to have to rely on her katana anyway. She’s a terrible shot. Except that she inadvertently kills a deer – so dinner! Interestingly, the walker she kills is a “ginger,” and this brought me right back to Negan’s entrance into Alexandria. He wants to create maximum discomfort, so he asks if he should be pissed off at Spencer for not knowing who he is. But he paints himself as magnanimous for not “killing a ginger” – a clear reference to his killing of Abraham.
It’s horrible to watch Negan’s people taking all the comforts out of the houses. Tobin (Jason Douglas) is watching as they gut his house. And then one of the Saviors brings Negan the video that Deanna took of Rick when they first arrived in Alexandria. In it, Rick talks about being prepared to kill. Negan comments on the epic Rick-beard, and it’s an interesting contrast. Feral, deadly Rick to civilized and now subservient Rick. Negan segues right from reminding Rick about what he once was to asking about where Maggie (Lauren Cohen) is. And as if Negan wasn’t disgusting enough, he tells Rick he’s pretty sure she must have been married to number two, and that he really loves widows like that because they are just empty inside. He’s clearly intimating that he wants to bring her back with him and force her to have sex. Rick is on the verge of losing it – he raises his eyes, and it’s the murderous Rick gaze we’ve been waiting for. He even flexes his fingers on Lucille, but when Negan calls him on it, Rick lowers his eyes again.
Perhaps my favorite scene in the episode is Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) freaking Negan out. Negan tells him he’s creepy as shit, sneaking up on him with that freaky smile! Gabriel apologizes but has already asked if Negan wants to pay his respects – Gabriel has been busy. He’s fixed a grave to make Negan think that Maggie is dead.
Negan continues the mental torture over Maggie’s “grave.” Gabriel is brushing the dirt off his pants – our first clue that Maggie isn’t dead. Negan tells them that the first one was on him, but the second didn’t need to happen, but that was on Daryl, and this third death was a shame and a direct result of Daryl’s actions. It’s clear that Daryl is going to take this burden on as well. With any luck, he’ll have picked up on the dirt on Gabriel’s pants. Negan is interrupted by a gunshot, and they all run to find the cause.
Was anyone surprised that it was Carl (Chandler Riggs)? Carl is pissed that they’re planning to take all the medicine, not just half of it. Negan is clearly impressed by Carl’s “man-sized balls,” and Carl clearly doesn’t really know what to make of Negan. Rick is quietly freaking out and trying to defuse the situation, but it’s been a long time since he and Carl were truly in a parent/child relationship.
Rick is bathed in sweat in this scene while Negan and Carl seem to remain cool. Carl is willing to give up the gun and accept that Negan’s “half” is what he says it is, when Negan asks him if Carl wants another demonstration of how serious Negan is. Carl backs down because, like Rick, he really doesn’t want to be the cause of anyone else’s death. But Carl has reminded Negan about all those guns…
They are also planning on taking all of the guns, so Negan is particularly pleased that Olivia (Ann Mahoney) has such meticulous records – except that also leads them to discover that two guns are missing. Once again, Negan targets the vulnerable, and he’s going to kill Olivia if they don’t find the missing guns.
Rick gathers all the Alexandrians in the church and it creates a nice parallel scene to Rick taking control of the town – only this time, he’s trying to impress upon them that Negan is now in control. Rick reveals that he thought about hiding guns – maybe for years, but it’s not worth it if any of them get killed. He asks them to give up the guns. Rick asks them to give them what they want so they can live in peace. Aaron (Ross Marquand) tries to stop Eric (Jordan Woods-Robinson) from speaking up, but he won’t listen. Aaron saw what Negan is capable of, but the others haven’t. Eric wants to know how they get out of this. Rick is too beaten down at this point, and says there is no way out. Eugene points out that not everyone is at the meeting.
It’s interesting that Rick almost immediately knows that it’s Spencer. Gabriel helps Rick tear Deanna’s house apart. Gabriel tells Rick that he has faith that they will find a way out of this. He has faith in Rick. Things change. They weren’t always friends – and who would have seen that coming? Aaron has searched Rosita’s house, but Rick tells them Spencer’s done this sort of thing before. Even more disturbing than the guns Rick finds, is the food and liquor that Spencer is also hoarding. Spencer is always going to be only about himself. But finding the guns also gives Rick pause to think about Gabriel’s faith that they would get out of it.
Spencer and Rosita return to the site of Denise’s death to retrieve Daryl’s bike. It’s where he left it to go after Dwight. Spencer rails against Rick, blaming him for not thinking things through and now this is their life. They simply have to accept it and learn to live with it. At first, it seems like Rosita may be suicidal as she wanders off into the walker-filled woods, but there is method in her madness. She’s actually after the guns the dead Saviors still had on them. She insists that this is NOT their life. She’s not done fighting. She is rightly angry when she later finds out that Spencer had guns that he was keeping secret even from her even when he saw her risking herself to get guns. Spencer is clearly still only about his own skin – and Rick calls him on it at the end of the episode.
One of the Saviors (Robert Walker Branchaud) is going to take Enid’s (Katelyn Nacon) balloons – her keepsake to remember Glenn. It’s totally creepy as he seems an awful lot like a pedophile on top of everything else. Carl, Rick, Gabriel, and Aaron, have to stand by and watch as he humiliates her into saying please and almost begging to be allowed to keep them. Carl is clearly furious and looks to Rick. Rick tells him “they’ll be gone soon” – and you just know this is the kind of weakness that Carl can’t tolerate.
Michonne returns at almost exactly the worst possible moment, but only Rick sees her in the abandoned house. Rick asks Negan to give him a second and Negan says no until Rick is forced to say please and almost beg. Rick sees an opportunity to curry favor with Negan – but at what cost to his relationship to Michonne? He forces her to give up the rifle even though it was never on the inventory list. And as a final insult, even though he just pointed out he was leaving all the food, Negan does take the deer Michonne shot. However, he doesn’t take her katana, and that’s so much more a symbol of her strength.
Lincoln is wonderful in these final two scene with Gurira. His emotional turmoil – anyone else flashback to the prison and Lori’s death? – is clear. He can’t face losing anyone else. He’s barely holding it together after losing Glenn. Gurira has no verbal response, but it’s clear that she doesn’t see Rick’s need to keep the people he loves safe at any cost as a weakness. She may not agree with it, but she still gets him. I loved the way this scene was staged in the gutted house, but I hope that isn’t symbolic that this is going to gut their relationship. My own feeling is that once Rick gets over the deaths, he will find his rage again.
Negan is impressed that Rick gave up the gun. He says this is something that they can build a relationship on. Rick takes the opportunity to say that now that it’s clear they can follow the rules, can Daryl stay. Negan says they’ll let Daryl plead his case. But Daryl won’t fight for himself. He clearly thinks he deserves what’s happening to him.
Negan tells Rick that it’s time for them to go out and earn something interesting – or someone else will die. Negan tells Michonne to drop the deer – he’s told Rick they’re leaving all the food because starving people can’t earn, but he’s happy to humiliate Michonne in this way. He also gets a dig in to Rick by saying he likes a woman who buys him dinner and doesn’t expect him to put out. He’s clearly figured out that Rick and Michonne are in a relationship. Yet he doesn’t take her, so he demonstrates – as he so often does – that he knows how to maximize his abuse and leverage. If only there was footage of Rick ripping Joe’s throat out with his teeth – Negan might be a bit more careful.
Dwight takes a final cheap shot at Rosita, but she gives it right back by telling him that the only other thing they found with the bike was a bunch of his dead friends. Dwight takes Daryl’s bike and stops beside him, telling him he could have it back if he just said the word. Daryl remains silent, eyes fixed on the ground.
Rick is right there and hears it, so it has to be clear to him what Daryl is doing. Negan takes a moment to taunt Rick further. He wants Rick to say thank you before he goes. As Negan takes out another walker – a nice parallel to the beginning – Rick is just on the edge of using Lucille on Negan. I loved the close up shot on Rick's deadly stare as the light almost whites him out - as rage is on the verge of taking over his better judgment. But he pulls himself back from the edge.
Negan’s parting words to Rick are “I just slid my dick down your throat and you thanked me for it.” Daryl and Rick lock eyes as the trucks drive out, and Rick looks up at the sign at the gate: “Mercy for the lost. Vengeance for the plunderers.” And it would seem they have lost their way.
Rick closes the gates and tells Spencer they’ve taken the guns from his house because they were going to kill Olivia. Spencer’s only comment is “You went into my house?” Rick tells him it’s because he’s small and weak and that they got lucky with them. Spencer tells them that they should have made a deal when they could. Spencer throws Glenn and Abraham at Rick. Without turning around, Rick tells him that he’ll break his jaw if he ever says anything like that to him again. Spencer says he understands. But he also tells Rosita that he had the guns because he didn’t trust Rick. He also tells her that he agrees that this doesn’t have to be their life. I can’t believe that he wants to fight in the way that Rosita does, however. He likely wants to run because he is small.
Michonne comes on Rick re-making their bed on the floor. He tells her they’ve taken most of the mattresses. It’s not like they haven’t been there before – and maybe it’s time that they toughen up again. Michonne points out that everything they have they got by fighting. Michonne suggests they could band together with Hilltop, but Rick’s already run the numbers. It isn’t enough. They will have to play by the rules and build a life, but Michonne wants to know what kind of life?!
Rick tells Michonne about Shane. He tells her that Shane got Lori and Carl to safety. Interestingly, he doesn’t tell her that he was in a coma. He goes on to say that Shane and Lori were together because they thought he was dead. And he reveals that he knows that Judith is NOT his!! He loves her, she’s his daughter, but he had to accept that she wasn’t his so he could go forward. He had to accept that this is their life now so that no one else dies. Michonne tells him that it’s not his fault when people die. Again, Lincoln and Gurira are just fantastic in this scene. She kneels down to help him with the bed and tells him that she’s gonna try.
Yet, in the next scene, she has wandered back out to her practice site. She sees carrion birds circling and goes to investigate. She finds the mattresses burning on the side of the road. It was simply a way to further subjugate the Alexandrians. They didn’t just take what they needed. Michonne is angry – and rightly so.
The final shot in the episode is Rosita going to Eugene and asking him to make her a bullet. The big question is whether the surprise they will have for Negan will be Eugene’s bullet making plant or not. It’s clear that virtually everyone wants to fight except for Rick. But it’s also pretty clear that Rick is just about at the point where he will be on board.
What did you think of the episode? Do you love to hate Negan or do you just want him dead as soon as possible? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
