‘The Walking Dead’ Recap: Negan’s Sanctuary & Daryl’s Hell
The writers have finally answered the question that is keeping you up nights, I’m sure. How the hell have The Saviors managed to hang on to their humanity? Well, that’s easy. They watch recorded “Who’s the Boss?” episodes, drink alcohol, and play table games. Dwight even whittles toy soldiers out of wood. It’s like a lazy college weekend, for sociopaths. The renegade Dwight has still not learned his lesson as we watch him “assemble” items he clearly has no right to, in order to make himself a fried egg sandwich. Given the way the men genuflect in fear as Negan and his Lucille pass, I’d say that there is not one ingredient in that sandwich worth dying for. His stolen moment is disrupted as a couple of men putting a newbie walker in the gates outside “The Sanctuary”, Negan’s compound. Are they placed there for security’s sake? Are they turned colleagues? Right now it’s unclear, but one walker catches Dwight’s eye, someone he may have known as a man. While this is happening, another sandwich is being made. No eggs, mustard, pickles, tomatoes, and lettuce. This one is made of dog food, delivered by Dwight to our hero, Daryl. He is living in a dark locked storage closet being used as a cell. He sits half-dressed, dirty, hungry and eating wildly. It is an apocalyptic version of “groundhog day” as the humiliation repeats. Every iteration seems to steal a little more of Daryl’s soul. He is eventually given clothing and finally let out of the room. Dwight uses Daryl’s bow to keep him in line as they move through the building.
He is taken to a doctor, who is still with a patient, Sherry, Dwight’s wife. She has just learned that her pregnancy test was negative. Dwight looks uncomfortable wishing her luck, the next time. He is not the potential baby daddy. He warns her not to talk to Daryl. She ignores him and begs Daryl, who she immediately recognizes, to just do what they tell him. Negan has him taken to the walker wrangling detail we witnessed earlier at the fence. Dwight first taunts him with how good he is getting at learning to shoot the bow, then tells Daryl that he can either become one of the walkers, or be like him… Jeez, I would have to think about which is the worse of the two fates, in Daryl’s shoes. Back at his cell, Dwight is trying to get Daryl to give in, and he still refuses – despite the fact that the daily grinding out of the “Who’s the Boss?” theme (on level 10) is pushing him to the point of insanity – something Negan appreciates. Despite praise from Negan, and a promise of being allowed to have any woman he wants, Dwight refuses, seemingly heartbroken by Negan’s joke that he can have a go with his ex, Sherry. Negan wonders if Dwight’s penis works after having it nearly bitten off by “that guy” (Eugene) or if he has another issue. Dwight pretends he can’t say yes to another woman because he hasn’t finished convincing Daryl to join them. Negan isn’t buying it. The tension mounts when a call comes in about “orange situation” – a grab and run. Negan tells Dwight to send someone else to recover the runner and items, and ends up praising Dwight when he insists he wants to do it himself, riding off on what looks like Daryl’s bike. If only he’d trusted Daryl when he met him.
Back at the cell, the dog food sandwiches and blaring theme music continue. “Fat Joey” closes, but does not lock the door. Daryl takes the bait and leaves his cell to look around. At the same time, Dwight comes across a small herd of busted up, immobilized, walkers, who appear to have fallen from a bridge, above. He looks up just in time to see another headed his way. As he is knocked to the ground and fighting for his life, the herd crawls his way. He manages to shoot the walker pinning him down, but we are sent back to the cell before learning his fate with the rest. Sherry has found Daryl and begs him to go back to his cell before it is too late. She warns him that he will never get away. He will be found and much worse will happen when he is. Why IS she hanging around in the creepy dark basement? She is undoubtedly sincere, but he still makes a break for a group of motorcycles nearby. Too bad! He is surrounded. They were waiting for him, Negan included. He asks each man in the group who they are and each man calls himself Negan, proof to Daryl that he is everywhere at all times. He tells Daryl this sucks because his life was about to get so much cooler. He gives him three choices: be put on a spike and work for him as a dead man, work for him to earn points and he’ll wish he was dead, and finally, work for him and live like a king. Which is his choice? He decides to attack an unimpressed Daryl, who grabs Lucille. Negan is impressed and angry, leaving Daryl to be beaten by his men. As this goes on, we find out that Dwight lives, pushing the bike, damaged by the walker’s fall, down the road. He puts the bike down when he sees the runner he was chasing, now fighting off a walker.
Daryl is back in his cell. Sherry is there telling him that after they lost Tina, her sister, she remembers that they took his stuff to go back to Negan and she told him she was sorry. She remember that he told her that she was “gonna be”. She wants him to know that she is sorry. She wishes she hadn’t come back. Dwight is snarling at the runner about what he’s done. He owes and will now owe Negan even more. The man begs to be let go, they use to be friends. He brings up what Negan has done to his wife, Sherry – which causes Dwight to deny that she is his wife. The runner tries to point out that they don’t have to do what Negan says, he is only one person. The runner talks about his own wife, Maria, and their belief that they would be ok, but they realized they were wrong, there were more monsters. He wants to die, rather than go back. He wants Dwight to kill him. Dwight (“D”) threatens to put everyone the man has ever spoken to “on the fence” with the other walkers. He threatens to dig up his wife’s body and feed her to the crows. He tells “D” that there is nothing left but he’ll go back. A remorseful Dwight shoots him from behind as they continue walking.
Back at The Savior’s compound, Sherry is hanging out on the basement stairs smoking, when Dwight comes back. She hands him a cigarette. He asks if Negan is good to her, she tells him that he is. She wants to know if he is happy. He says yes. Gift of the Magii, they are both lying to make the other happy. Both say it’s better than being dead, but don’t seem to believe it. AH! Back to the theme music… Daryl seems resolved to being forced to deal with the loud music and dog food sandwiches, he has stopped flinching at the sound. Dwight tells Daryl that he got his friend (Glenn) killed , just as he got his sister-in-law (Tina) killed. He thinks Daryl should stop pretending that he doesn’t know the score – the comment earns “D” the dog food sandwich thrown back at him. Dwight keeps pressing, telling Daryl that he should be dead but Negan has taken a shine to him and that makes Daryl lucky. On the ground is a polaroid of what appears to be a human body. Glenn’s? A new song plays on level 10, Roy Orbison’s “Crying”, which causes Daryl to break down and cry, but Dwight doesn’t seem pleased with himself. When he returns in the morning, Daryl is face down, a puddle of his own sick next to him, and the polaroid. He takes Daryl, whom they assume is completely broken, to Negan. Negan tells the story of how “D”, and his super hot wife and super hot sister-in-law worked for points, especially the sister who needed meds. Tina was supposed to marry him, but the three took off with the meds instead. It cost him an arm and leg to try to recover him, but no luck, until they came back.
With Lucille being a stickler for the rules, he still had to do something. Dwight looks tormented as Daryl hears that Sherry begged for Dwight’s life by offering to marry Negan. It was a start, since she’s super hot, but not enough, there are rules. Dwight got “the iron” (explaining the burns to his face). Now Dwight is one of his top guys and Negan thinks Daryl could do the same. All Daryl has to do is answer a simple question, “Who are you?”. No answer. He is given the chance to answer. “Who are you?”, and he answers, “Daryl”. Negan calls it a dumb as choice. Dwight seems horrified, and even more ashamed. This is the second time in two days someone has shown the courage he couldn’t. Daryl tells Dwight that he understands why he did it, but he can’t. Dwight tells him that he will end up on the fence, which is where he goes immediately after leaving Daryl. There we see the runner, with a bullet hole in his back as Dwight slinks back into the building.
When do the pigs with bellies full of rot arrive?
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I’m an exasperated soap fan who keeps hanging on – waiting for the daytime I once loved to return to its former glory! Hey, it doesn’t hurt to have a dream. I learned to love soaps thanks to my wonderful mother and grandmother. I’ll always have fond memories of daytime, most especially of ‘Another World’, my first stoap love. The ever great, but sadly defunct, daytime shows like Ryan’s Hope, Search for Tomorrow, The Doctors, Loving, and many others keep a special place in my heart, as well.