The Walking Dead season 7, episode 12 review: Did Tara tell Rick about Oceanside?

On the last episode of “The Walking Dead” we saw the story of Eugene play out in a pretty powerful manner, one that involved plenty of mystery surrounding his allegiances, and also the future status of Dwight both within the Saviors and as a human being still capable of rational thought.

We didn’t expect to revisit the Sanctuary tonight, so it was hardly a surprise to see the focus shift more over to Rick and Michonne in their new quest to find guns for all of the people of Garbageland. We were hoping going into the episode that this didn’t mean that we actually had to see Garbageland again, especially since we liked the journey of Richonne through the old carnival, where they discovered food and had their own little version of a date on The Bachelor where they talked about the future after they conquered Negan’s world owner. (Is defeating Negan = their version of a final rose? We’re certainly left to wonder at the moment.)

After their little date, we got back to the task at hand, which was trying to find guns and fending off walkers. It was nice to actually see said walkers turn up as a threat, but they weren’t that much of a threat. the reality here is still that these are characters who are reasonably easy to thwart, given that Rick and Michonne can look at one wrong at this point and they will spontaneously combust. This is the struggle of zombie battle scenes in season 7. There was some cool stuff with climbing out of the car, but we’re almost numb to some of the specifics at this point just because we’ve seen SO much over time.

Eventually, Rick found a handful of guns, but this still wasn’t enough to make Jadis happy. Yet, she still wants more! We did have to see Garbageland, but it was luckily only a short trip.

The best moments of the story were when the two of them had small, intimate conversations. Rick realizes that the battle against Negan could mean that they lose people — it could mean that they lose each other. Michonne made it clear that she was afraid of losing him, and that was a nice, lovely, and touching human moment. He had to convince her that “fighting the fight” was so much more living than continuing to accept living under Negan’s thumb.

The Rosita story you were demanding … oh wait

Rosita is upset. There you go … for the most part. She turned up in the closing minutes of the episode, and she convinced Sasha to work with her and “take the shot.” She wants to finish what she started with Negan. This isn’t going to end well, right?

Tara’s dilemma

Should she talk about Oceanside to the rest of the group, or should she not? We’re glad that she found someone to confide in, but the problem is said someone was Judith a.k.a. the quietest child of all time. She wasn’t going to say a whole lot to anyone.

Eventually, Tara did make the confession to Rick, but that was after he went through all of the trouble.

Overall

For an episode featuring Rick and Michonne first and foremost, this hour proved to be all sorts of entertaining. One of the best things about this hour was seeing everything that Rick and Michonne went through, and the emotional progression of the two of them as people.

The downside is that other than these conversations, Rosita whining, and Tara speaking with a child, there wasn’t all that much that happened tonight until the closing minutes. Grade: B-.

Did you like tonight’s episode of “The Walking Dead”? Leave us a comment with your thoughts in the box below.