We found ourselves back at the Sanctuary on The Walking Dead. What happens when Negan’s MIA for a few hours? Lots of issues apparently. Here’s our recap of “The Big Scary U”!
“The Big Scary U” was the first extended episode of the season, and I’ll be honest, it didn’t need to be.
The opening showed us how Gregory ended up at the Sanctuary before Rick and the other’s attacked, but we didn’t need this backstory, and we didn’t need Simon’s super approval of Gregory. We finally understood the pancake eating line, but that wasn’t reason enough to include this.
It showed us that Gregory is even more ridiculous than previously thought because he says that he knows that Negan doesn’t want to kill people, but that’s a damn lie, and Negan lets him know it.
He’s gonna give it to you straight. #TWD pic.twitter.com/xUv4mLAYCt
— The Walking Dead AMC (@WalkingDead_AMC) November 22, 2017
Then we get into the trailer with Negan and Gabriel, and it’s an attempt to make Negan confess his sins to Gabriel, but even that falls flat. At this point there is no redeeming Negan, and any attempts to do so are counterproductive. Let a villain be a villain for goodness sake.
Even his backstory, apparently someone let this sociopath teach children at one point, doesn’t redeem him because we find out he cheated on his sick wife, and when she turned, he couldn’t even put her down. So they try and parallel him to Morgan in that respect, and HOW DARE YOU?
Negan and Gabriel talk, and Gabriel explains his fear of having a fruitless death. If you’re familiar with the Bible, you’ll know that this word choice is very important. Christians are supposed to be able to judge their spiritual growth by the “fruit” they produce.
Are you leading people to Christ? Being an example of Godly behavior.
In his death, Gabriel wants to save souls. This is to atone for being complicit in the death of this parishioners. Gabriel is a strange character. He’ll kill a Savior, S6, but now he’s trying to save Negan’s soul.
It doesn’t work, but we do learn a little about Negan. He also tells Gabriel that without him in the Sanctuary, things will go south. He’s the glue that holds them all together.
After Gabriel tries to attack Negan, Negan punches him in the face and they decide its time to get out of the trailer. To do that, they cover themselves in walker guts and blend in with those that have taken over the courtyard area.
Gabriel being Gabriel slips and falls, alerting the walkers that they’re not actually walkers. Negan uses Lucille to get away and Gabriel shoots the walkers…instead of shooting Negan.
They make it to the edge of the loading dock when several walkers fall on them. We don’t see how they get out of it, but they do.
Inside the Sanctuary, Negan’s small council is subtly freaking out. Simon wants to find out who the leak is, Dwight tells him they have other stuff to worry about, and Eugene realizes that this could all be pinned on him without many facts since he’s the outsider.
After Dwight takes the heat off Eugene, he goes to Dwight’s room and thanks him by offering a jar of pickles.
Dwight basically ignores him then shows him out, not taking the pickles.
The workers inside the Sanctuary start to rise up against Negan’s council because they want to know where Negan is. Regina shoots a kills one of the workers to prove a point. And tells them she is Negan.
At the sound of Negan’s whistle, everyone hits a knee.
“I’m guessing a lot of people thought I was dead. Chewed up. Never to be crapped out again. Well, here’s a little refresher on who the hell I am. I wear a leather jacket, I have Lucille, and my nutsack is made of steel.”
He has Gabriel taken to a cell, and after a shower, he visits with his council and basically the same convo takes place:
How did Rick know all this stuff? Who told him? And who is going to meet Lucille?
Negan stops Eugene and tells him to go and make Gabriel comfortable, so he brings him a pillow and some other things. When Gabriel doesn’t respond after Eugene knocks, he opens the door and Gabriel is curled up in a ball, shivering and sweating, and most definitely not okay.
Meanwhile…
Rick and Daryl talk to the Savior that was in the jeep Rick crashed. He tells that them that the King, the psychotic, short-haired lady, and Jerry have survived, and instead of shooting him, Rick lets him die then stabs him in the head.
From this point onward, Rick and Daryl’s tension skyrockets in a really out of character way. If they had used some of this time to show and let Daryl voice his frustration with Rick and with things of late, it would have been better.
Daryl wants to blow up the Sanctuary with dynamite. Rick doesn’t want to do that because some of the workers are innocent and might turn to their side…eventually. Daryl tries to compromise and tells Rick they’ll only blow up the side of the building the workers aren’t at.
When Rick turns down this offer, Daryl grabs the TNT and starts walking. Thus ensues a fight between Rick and Daryl that causes the TNT to be thrown into the jeep that’s on fire and everything blows up.
The explosion seems to knock them out of it, and Rick takes the time to tell Daryl:
“Choke holds are illegal, asshole.”
Which is a clear throwback to S1 when Shane tries to subdue Daryl after he finds out about Merle getting cuffed to the roof.
In the end, Daryl takes his bike in one direction to “complete the mission” and Rick has to walk because his truck doesn’t work anymore after the wreck.
This idea that they have to “complete a mission” is very S4 Beth Greene “everyone has jobs to do” and S4-S7 Abraham’s mission-minded attitude.
In the end, we realize that Rick is going to Jadis, the trash queen. Why would he do this is beyond me, seeing as how she sold him out last time, making her literal trash as well, but what do I know.
We’re entering episode six next week still on DAY ONE of war, so unless things spend up a lot or we see a huge time jump, old Rick is a ways off.
What did you think of “The Big Scary U”? Does this change your perspective of Negan? Do you think Gabriel has been bitten?
We’ll see you next week for “The King, the Widow, and Rick“!
