The Walking Dead - Warning Signs - Review

The Walking Dead “Warning Signs” was written by Corey Reed and was directed by Dan Liu. The episode contains a few big surprises about the groups you’d least expect to be working against Rick’s (Andrew Lincoln) vision of the future. With only two more episodes with Andrew Lincoln, it’s hard to see any way for him to make it out of this alive… There are plenty of throwback moments in this epiosde to make it feel like a tribute to some of Rick's best moments. I can't say that I'm very hopeful about the show's longevity after Rick though...

As the episode opens we see that Justin (Zach McGowan) is indeed dead – and we’ll return to this spot of “Final Warning” by the end of the episode when we learn that it’s been Oceanside executing the Saviors who worked under Simon who killed their men.

There are lots of loving shots of Rick – as the show prepares to say goodbye to him. We see him kiss Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Judith (Chloe Garcia-Frizzi) before laying a hand on Carl’s handprint as he goes out and surveys Alexandria, picking a tomato and laying it on Carl’s grave.

Rick returns to Michonne who is working hard to put her Charter together. He thanks her leading in Alexandria – and she insists it’s with him, but really, he’s been spending all his time keeping things together at the bridge. She mentions that Judith has a cough, but Rick has checked and there’s no fever so he’s not too worried. Michonne is going to take Judith to Siddiq (Avi Nash) just to be sure, and Rick points out that they’ll have to promise Judith a family-fun-day to get her to go. He then suggests staying and going with them, feeling things are ok for a day at the bridge without him.

Michonne points out that Maggie (Lauren Cohen) is trying but she’s still angry – and so is Daryl (Norman Reedus) – and maybe others. Rick insists that even if everyone isn’t all the way there, they’ll get there. We find out that Oceanside is almost there – just one final murder… Rick thanks Michonne for everything she’s done and is going – and it already feels like a goodbye. He convinces her to stop working – and build for the future a different way. Will he leave her pregnant the same way that Glen left Maggie with Hershel?

Maggie and Kal (James Chen) – please stop calling him Glen-light! – bring the supplies to the bridge and run into some angry Saviors, lead by Jed (Rhys Coiro) and Regina (Traci Dinwiddie). Jed tells her that his name is “Mud” – and she’s the “Widow” – when he helps himself to a tomato. Laura (Lindsley Register) steps in before things can escalate. Kal is clearly not happy about having to put up with the Saviors, and Maggie is not even trying to hide that she is grinding her teeth when she insists that they are trying to make it work.

We get a musical interlude of Michonne, Rick, and Judith’s fun day – more happy memories to make losing Rick… easier? Harder? Rick is interrupted in reading The Wizard of Oz to Judith by a runner. They are stopped just as Dorothy is about to go over the rainbow – the end to Rick the Wizard’s new world? We also get another close up of Rick and Michonne holding hands after learning that Maggie has found one of the Saviors (Justin) clearly murdered.

Things are starting to get out of hand, and Alden (Callan McAuliffe) tries to step up and calm the Saviors, but Jed insists he’s no longer one of them. Jed is really barking up the wrong tree by standing up to Carol (Melissa McBride). The Saviors want guns to protect themselves, but Daryl insists no guns. Jed points the finger at “garbage lady” – and Regina also suspects that Anne (Pollyanna McIntosh) could be looking for revenge for Simon killing her people – oh, they are so, so close!

They are about to go after Anne and Daryl – and only Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) steps up for Anne. Interestingly, Arat (Elizabeth Ludlow) also steps in to try to keep the peace – yet that will hold no weight for Daryl later in the episode. It’s interesting to see that in each camp, some people are trying to look to the future, but there are still those in each that are too tied to the past. It’s another great moment – and a bit of a throwback to the first season when Rick rides in and breaks it up – the Sheriff has arrived! Rick may not have his uniform anymore, but the beige shirt is very reminiscent of it.

Rick asks Gabriel to vouch for Anne – and he lies and says he was with her all night. Rick puts Gabriel in a tough position as he asks Gabriel to look out for Anne – for her own protection, but also just in case she was involved. He tells Gabriel he needs someone he trusts – and that’s something Gabriel has worked hard to earn.

Alden asks Rick to consider guns for a few trustworthy people who have made a change. Both Maggie and Daryl are adamant that the Saviors get no guns. Maggie questions Rick’s decision to consider giving guns to the Saviors – she’s not happy about it. The wound on Justin looks like an arrow (because it was a harpoon…) so Rick worries it was Daryl.

Anne is not happy when Gabriel asks her about where she was. She’s not happy that Rick asked at all. Gabriel simply asks if she saw anything – she won’t answer. When Gabriel presses her, she asks if he thinks she’s hiding something – and then walks away without answering. And of course, we know she saw the helicopter.

Rick goes to Daryl – and Daryl tells him to ask. Rick tells Daryl that the wound was made by an arrow or a bolt. Daryl asks if this is the kind of shit that Rick used to do, and Rick admits that it was when he had to. Rick admits that he doesn’t think that Daryl did it. Daryl tells him that it was only a matter of time – bringing people together who hate each other. Daryl resents that the Saviors get a future when Glen, Abraham, Sasha and all the others don’t.

Rick asks Daryl to just try – and to let others see that he is trying to leave the past behind. I loved that again, the show brings us back to the first season. Rick reminds Daryl that he moved past prejudice and hatred not to kill Rick when Rick left Merle to die on the rooftop. Rick asks Daryl to take the same chance with the people who are trying to atone for what they did. He also stresses that the dead already own the world – and they need to move past that. Rick at least gives Daryl pause to think.

Everyone pairs off for a grid search to try to determine what happened to Justin. Maggie is paired up with Cyndie (Sydney Park). Maggie and Cyndie see walkers, and Cyndie reveals that she knows the area because they used to live there before Oceanside. Maggie and Cyndie find a bunch of walkers in a house and start to take them out. Maggie tries to draw them away, but when Cyndie goes through the porch, there are a few tense moments. We get yet another great shot of walker hands coming through a boarded up door – again a throwback to the very first episode and the dead inside cafeteria in the hospital when Rick wakes up.

Rick, Daryl, and Rosita (Christian Serratos) show up just in time – and Cyndie if fine, but she’s opened up the cut on her hand again – and of course, that’s another clue. Beatrice (Briana Venskus) and Arat should have beaten the others to the house, but are no shows. The find Beatrice unconscious – and Daryl retrieves her harpoon gun… and Arat is missing. Maggie points out the obvious – whoever knocked Beatrice out took Arat.

Rick, Carol, Maggie, Cyndie, and Jerry (Cooper Andrews) try to decide what to do. The Saviors are going to lose it and leave if they find out. Rick is worried that they’ll then lose the bridge. Jerry asks what they’re going to do if they do “nab the perp.” It’s a good point – he asks if it will be a Gregory or a Negan. Cyndie jumps in to say that whatever it is, the person will get what they deserve. It’s clearly not working to have people running around implementing different justice systems. How do people act if they don’t believe that there is a code of conduct they need to adhere to or if they don’t understand what the consequences to their actions will be. Rick tells them to pair up with someone they trust – and stay out til they find Arat.

Rick pairs up with Carol. Rick questions whether the Saviors should be a part of all of it. Carol – always the wise one! – tells Rick that the choice isn’t up to them. The Saviors have to want the future the same way they do. Carol is discouraged and tells Rick she saw it starting all over again. She wanted to pull the trigger to stop in before it could begin. Carol is pretty sure that they are going to have to fight whether they want to or not.

Rick insists he won’t let it come to that. He confesses to Carol that every morning he wakes up wanted to kill Negan – and then all the others. But then he remembers everyone one they’ve lost – since the beginning – another throwback – and he insists that he needs to honor them, and life, by not taking lives. “Because it’s us of the dead, and every life counts now.”

Maggie and Daryl pair up – and neither are sure whether they really agree with Rick or not. Maggie confesses that she wants to be able to look forward and not back. But she can’t let go of what might have been. Daryl tells her that she doesn’t have to – he hasn’t. But Maggie insists that what Rick’s doing is right – and better for Hershel. Maggie and Daryl come across some walkers – and Daryl recognizes the bolt in one of the – and knows who took Arat. It doesn’t make a lot of sense for Maggie to look confused – they both have to recognize it – but perhaps she’s just surprised that it’s clearly Oceanside behind the murders.

Meanwhile, Anne has gone back to the junkyard and contacts the helicopter – and she identifies herself as Jadis. They ask her if she has an A or a B. Jadis asks if they took them. They say no pick ups – and just want to know if she’s got an A or a B. She insists that she’s paid her share and wants a pick up. They tell her she has to bring them an A.

Gabriel has followed her. He asks her is she was involved in Justin’s death – and wants to know what she’s done. Jadis admits that she’s done bad things. She admits to trading people, and Gabriel knows that she was going to trade him and Rick. She confesses that she did it for supplies for her people. She tells him that she tried – but she knows that they don’t trust her. She appreciates that he was the only one to stand by her. She asks him to go with her – it’s far but they can go together. It could be different for them. She tells him he can’t tell anyone – and that he has to trust her and help her with one small part of the deal.

Gabriel takes her hand, but can’t turn his back on Rick and his trust. Jadis wants him to choose her, to trust her. When Gabriel insists he can’t do it – she knocks him unconscious and remarks that all this time she thought he was a B. Clearly, he’s going to be her A to trade.

Carol is taken by DJ (Matt Mangum) and Jed. They’re leaving and taking guns with them. Rick holds his gun on Jed who holds a knife to Carol’s throat. The two had been stalking them and Jed throws Rick’s comment about every life counting right back in his face. Meanwhile, Carol has a knife – because she’s CAROL – and they have no idea! Rick insists that there’s no going back – but Jed doesn’t care. Rick and Caorl work together like a well oiled machine – and Carol takes Jed down. Jed wonders why they don’t take him out – and Carol, somewhat bitterly, remarks “because every life counts.”

Maggie leads Daryl back to the former Oceanside community. It’s what she’d do. Sure enough, they find the missing ethanol. And then they find them trying to make Arat beg the way she made Beatrice’s husband beg. Arat appeals to Daryl, who asks if they have a reason. Maggie points out that people will find out. Cyndie insists that Arat is the last one and it will be over. Maggie insists that it will never be over.

Cyndie paints a vibrant picture of the community that they’d built. She then tells them about Simon’s “final warning.” Cyndie admits that they fought because they couldn’t forget. They went along with Rick because they thought they didn’t have a choice, but Maggie showed them the way with Gregory. Rick’s rules weren’t the only rules – and it was time to get their own revenge. Maggie actually looks sorry that they did it because of her.

Arat tries to beg. She tells them that she didn’t have a choice – Simon would have killed her too. But Arat killed Cyndie’s 11 year old brother. Maggie wants to know what Arat said to Cyndie when she begged for her brother’s life. When Arat tells them she said “no exceptions,” Maggie and Daryl turn and walk away. Arat insists that she’s changed – and we’ve seen that she has – but Maggie and Daryl have not.

At the bridge, the saviors leave. Crushing a tomato as an on-the-nose symbol of the crushing of Carl’s future – let’s not forget the tomatoes in his dream. Maggie tells Daryl that Cyndie has now shown Maggie the way – just as Maggie showed Cyndie. She’s determined that they tried Rick’s way a chance, and now it’s time for her to “see” Negan – and clearly take her own revenge. It’s quite telling that we’ve seen Daryl’s angel wings start to deteriorate – started of course by Dwight’s taking his vest in the first place.

I really liked all the throwbacks in this episode. I’m enjoying watching the groups try to move beyond the dead to every life mattering. The big question now is whether there are enough people committed to the future and willing to let go of the past to create a bigger and better future or will the groups simply splinter off again. What did you think of the episode? Do you think that Jadis can still redeem herself? Will Maggie kill Negan? I really think that the writing is on the wall and Maggie will leave to go with Georgie to make a better future for Hershel – so that she can make the break with the past. I suspect that Rick will sacrifice himself to save Gabriel – or be the unwilling A that Anne must produce. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!