The Walking Dead season 8, episode 1 review: Is father Gabriel going to die?
A Carl and Michonne moment
As we’ve been saying, Negan has the numbers, but Rick’s group has really prepared for this battle and may have found a way to double their numbers – by using walkers. It was interesting to see that some people were left behind at Alexandria and that included Michonne and Carl who had a really nice moment between them that reminded us of the great Carl and Michonne adventure that ended in him eating a huge can of chocolate pudding and was one of the first times we saw Michonne open up and smile.
Negan and Rick battle it out
Once all of the pieces are in place, Rick’s side meets up with all their new allies (and their newly kitted out cars rolling around with house siding on them) and head over to Negan’s compound. Although Negan lost the last battle, he came out to meet Rick like nothing happened and it’s obvious he’s prepared for Rick. Negan has one ace up his sleeve right away and it’s Gregory who comes out to tell the people of the Hilltop that anyone that stays to fight with Rick will no longer be protected by the Hilltop and it will be destroyed. He didn’t expect the Hilltop to say that they are going to stand with Maggie. Even though Rick’s side had clear shots at Negan and his lieutenants, they instead shot out all the windows in Negan’s compound.
This leaves a lot of Negan’s men injured and/or fleeing and while most of it went according to plan, when Gabriel sees Gregory, he decides to get out of his car and help him – affording Gregory a chance to jack his car and leave Gabriel in the thick of this mess without much hope for survival. Gabriel was a character that took us a long time to warm up to, but we are deep in bed with him now and don’t want to lose him, especially not to the giant horde of walkers that Rick’s group set up to attack the compound. He manages to get himself safely into the building, but facing the horde of walkers may have been better considering Gabriel just locked himself in a room with Negan.
What’s up with old man Rick?
Lastly we want to talk about the old man Rick scene that we saw from the closing seconds of season 7, because it was shown again in the premiere. At the end of this sequence we saw a close up of Rick’s eyes which looked to us like he could be becoming infected. If you remember back to the earlier seasons, we did learn that everyone was already infected and this is a storyline that hasn’t really been touched on much since then. We are hoping that they are bringing this story to the forefront since we never had any resolution to and it was a fairly huge reveal. Also, it’s always good to see these characters have the pressure put on them and while there’s quite a bit with the war against Negan, this is a cherry on an already crappy cake for Rick.
CarterMatt’s overall thoughts
There was a lot to like about this premiere: It gave us action, great character interaction (including a Daryl/Caryl hug) and a smart strategic plan from Rick’s side that was a lot of fun to watch. A lot of Walking Dead episodes give us a character or two, but this was one of those really great episode where pretty much the whole cast had some screen time and were all working together. These are our favorite episodes.
What did you think of The Walking Dead season 8 premiere? Leave us your thoughts in the comment box below and tell us if you think Rick’s group is going to end up being triumphant in this battle against Negan. If you are looking for some scoop on episode 2 of The Walking Dead then head on over to the link here where you can check out a preview.
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