Synopsis of 8×04: Audiences bear witness to the fallout from the Kingdom unintentionally finding the location of the Saviors’ guns. It’s a great episode for Carol.
King Ezekiel crawls out from under the pile of bodies that jumped on him to sacrifice themselves only to witness the heartbreaking devastation around him. As he looks for survivors, his fellow Kingdom followers begin to re-animate around him. Ezekiel begins to drag himself away and appears to be doomed before a fellow survivor saves him.
Inside the building, the Saviors are packing up the gun. But they’re not the only ones inside because Carol is quickly making her way to them. She takes out five men who are moving the gun from the ceiling, but unfortunately it wasn’t all of the Saviors. They come after her and she’s forced to leave the massive weapon behind to save her own life.
While making their slow escape, Ezekiel asks if the other man has seen Shiva (he hasn’t). Before they can decide how to get through a group of reanimated people from the Kingdom, the man helping Ezekiel is shot. A Savior stuck in the 1970s comes out of his hiding place to take Ezekiel hostage. He disarms King Ezekiel, but allows him to keep the cane to limp along. Harshly, he notes, “You got them all killed and they’re still following you,” as they make their slow way towards the Sanctuary and Negan.
Carol makes a move to stop the Saviors from leaving with the gun, but they are expecting her and she’s quickly pinned down behind a vehicle. The sound of gunfire is drawing a group of walkers towards her location, as Ezekiel and his kidnapper also hear the sounds. Ezekiel hopes some of his people live and the distraction allows him to momentarily disarm his kidnapper, though he quickly gets the upperhand once more.
However, their own horde of walkers is quickly closing in and the kidnapper decides to cut his losses. Before the can behead the King, Jerry shows up and cuts the man down. He helps Ezekiel up and goes about breaking the same locks that the kidnapper wanted to get through. Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done.
Spotting the gate button, Carol attempts a new tactic by tossing out a handgun and surrendering. One of the Saviors gets close enough for her to take him hostage, but they won’t lower their guns. They shoot their own man instead, giving Carol the time and cover to open the gate holding back the walkers. As they continue to shoot at her, they don’t notice the walkers until it’s too late.
She has the upperhand and is attempting to convince them to give up the guns when she notices Jerry and King Ezekiel struggle with their own group of walkers. Choosing between letting the guns go and saving Jerry and Ezekiel, she picks the King. She guns down some of the oncoming walkers and gets them safely through the gate with keys she picked off the dead Savior.
Another flashback has Carol and King Ezekiel preparing for the mission at hand. She asks about his fighting experience and is skeptical that he’s ready. He shares with her his previous life as a zookeeper and explains how he saved Shiva, also quoting Benjamin’s, “If you’re asked to be the hero, be the hero.” Ezekiel made the decision to be who he is and Carol shares that she has done the same, even if life has “decided some things too.”
In the present, they watch the guns drive off in dismay. Luckily, Carol hears a motorcycle in the distance and realizes the Sanctuary won’t be getting the guns after all. Daryl on his motorcycle and Rick in his jeep are hot on the trail of the guns. After a brief chase and gunfight, where Daryl went down once and Rick abandons his own car in favor of jumping into the Saviors’ jeep, one Savior is dead and one has swerved the jeep with the guns off the road. Either way, it looks like Rick’s group has the guns now.
As Carol, Jerry, and a wounded King Ezekiel slowly make their way back to the Kingdom, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep ahead of the herd. Ezekiel wants to be left behind, but they refuse. When they come to an especially difficult creek crossing, he again wants to be left behind, but Jerry can’t leave his King. That, in turn, upsets Ezekiel even more as he breaks down, shouting that he’s just “some guy.”
When everything seems lost, Shiva shows up and takes on the creek walkers. Sadly, she’s eventually overtaken by them and the group looks on in anguish before leaving. The three make it back to the Kingdom, but as the people gather for King Ezekiel’s words, he continues to limp past everyone without saying anything.
English