Synopsis of 7×10: Friendship is the theme, as certain relationships are forged, strengthened, and broken throughout the episode. A long overdue reunion occurs, trash people are encountered, and probably the coolest walker of the season is seen.
Morgan is confronted by Daryl when they return from the supply hand-off. He’s convinced that Carol wouldn’t have put up with this treatment and would’ve been the first to lead the charge to kill all of the Saviors. Morgan agrees with Daryl, explaining how that is the precise reason she left. In his wake, Daryl and Richard bond over a shared goal and Daryl finally gets a crossbow back!
With a plan in place, Richard and Daryl are awaiting some Saviors. Richard wants to kill them brutally, with guns and Molotov cocktails, so that when others find them, they’ll be able to track the attack to a cache of weapons and a lone woman on the outskirts of the Kingdom. Daryl immediately latches onto this fact and forces Richard to admit that it’s Carol they’re setting up to take the fall for the hit.
It may push the Kingdom into acting, but Daryl isn’t interested in putting Carol in harm’s way and they end up fighting themselves. He tries to convince Daryl that they have to make the hard choices to save more people down the line, but Daryl isn’t having any of it. Just as quickly as their friendship blossomed, it was over.
One of the more interesting shots of this season showcased how organized and efficient the trash people (‘heapsters’) are, as they filed in around Rick’s group in the junkyard. An overhead shot showed them organizing and converging in the middle of a cleared space.
Rick asks for them to show him Gabriel before they begin talking, which they oblige. They admit to watching Rick and Aaron get the boat supplies and Rick tries to explain the Saviors to them. The woman in charge, Jadis, declines Rick’s pitch and there’s a scuffle before Gabriel makes a more impassioned plea on their part. He promises that Rick and his group can get her whatever she wants in return for her assistance.
Jadis, who neglects to speak in full sentences, signals to her people using hand gestures, and is altogether slightly odd, decides to show Rick the Up Up Up. They take him to the top of a trash heap – where a terrible green screen is meant to convince us of an orderly and massive dump – and she explains to him that they take, they don’t bother.
To test him, she throws him down the trash pile into an enclosed area. Disoriented, it takes him a moment to realize he might not be alone. Stumbling over a skeleton, the coolest walker of the season (I’m calling it now), with a metal helmet covered in spikes and multiple spikes sticking out of its skin attacks Rick. He puts a spike through his hand when he pushes it away by the face and scrapes his leg when he kicks out at it, but eventually realizes he can use the trash walls to his advantage. Burying it under trash and pinning it down, Rick proceeds to pike the walker and is thrown a rope to climb back up for his efforts.
She wants guns, a lot of guns, in order to assist Alexandria in the fight against the Saviors and RIck agrees to supply them. Eventually, she agrees to a third of whatever they get from the Saviors plus half the jars from the boat. Rick belatedly realizes they were waiting for someone to get the boat supplies for them and she reiterates that they take, they don’t bother – not even the walker he’d just brained had been set up as a test. It was just a guy they’d known.
Ezekiel and some of his men visit with Carol, after having tripped her wire perimeter alarm. They bring her cobbler and she sends them on their way. Shortly after, someone knocks on the door and it’s the reunion we’ve all been waiting for! Daryl had been walking by and he saw Carol out on her porch. They hug and she explains to him that she had to leave.
Deal struck, Rick returns to his group. Gabriel lies to Rick about being jumped in Alexandria’s pantry, claiming they made him take all the food – rather than packing it himself like we saw in the episode previous. Gabriel also claims that he knows things will get hard, but Rick’s faith in him and their friendship will prevail and ultimately things will be set right.
Rosita is the only one still keyed up and ready to fight. She insists on going out alone to being the search for guns, but everyone else tells her to calm down. They have to take the supplies and injured back to Alexandria to re-group. Rick grabs a trash cat statue for Michonne and tells Tara that she can help tell them where not to scavenge at the very least. She touches her bracelet from Oceanside briefly and agrees.
Carol is tearfully explaining to Daryl that she couldn’t lose any more people and she couldn’t kill any more people, even though she would have if she’d stayed. It would have destroyed her. She asks if everyone is okay once being told that the Saviors found Alexandria and Daryl lies to her, telling her that they got them all and made a deal like Ezekiel. He doesn’t tell her about Glenn and Abraham.
He goes back to the Kingdom and is sitting with Shiva when Morgan finds him. Daryl finally admits that he understands why Morgan lied about Carol, but that they need the Kingdom and Morgan is the one who can make that happen. Morgan says he can’t do that, but he sees how they can relate to each other. He knows Daryl didn’t tell Carol about the deaths because she would be in the Kingdom ready to fight.
In the morning, Daryl leaves for the Hilltop in preparation for the fight against the Saviors and hallelujah, the plot is moving forward swiftly! Next week, Eugene! Negan! Lucille! …And Dwight I guess.
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