Negan pays Alexandria a visit in Season 7 Episode 4 of The Walking Dead, titled Service, and decides to collect his supplies. Following Josh’s recap, both Josh and Violet provide their reactions to the episode.
- His thoughts on Service, Episode 704 of The Walking Dead
- Her thoughts on The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 4: Service
On this episode of The Walking Dead, the setting for the episode is back in Alexandria. Based on the dialogue in the show, it appears that a few days have spanned since we last saw Rick and the gang. Opening up the episode, we have Rick and Michonne laying in bed together. Eventually Michonne, appearing very suspicious, gets up and seems to be getting ready to go somewhere. She grabs some supplies and what appears to be a rifle from the fireplace of the house. As she steps out the front door, Rick sees her leaving but says nothing.
Meanwhile, at the front gate, there is Rosita, Spencer and Eugene. Eugene is working on repairing a radio as Spencer and Rosita seem to be planning a supply run of sorts. After some back and forth, Rosita tells Eugene to open up the gate, but Eugene pauses, which irritates Rosita to the point to call Eugene out for not helping out. Eugene defends himself by saying they need to have stuff ready for Negan, and he is working on fixing the radio he has in order to provide them with some tunes to listen to. That does make me curious though–whose broadcast will be heard? Unless it is going to be some sort of player rather than a radio. But again–do they have music to be played?
Unfortunately for the trio, and the rest of Alexandria, their plans are interrupted by a visitor at the gate. Several visitors, in fact — led by the very man we have been talking about. Negan. Negan demands to be let into the gate, and Spencer actually resists at first, which Negan warns could be a problem. But eventually Rick shows up, and things seem to “calm down” in a way.
But Rick tells Negan that he is early, and that he was supposed to have a week. But Negan plays this off as saying he missed Rick, and then offers his kind services clearing an approaching walker.
Daryl has been brought to Alexandria, wearing his garb that has the letter “A” written on it. Rick tries to ask Daryl how he is doing but Negan shuts that down right away, saying no one better even look at him much less talk to him during the visit. At this point Negan has his men search the place, leaving himself alone with Rick for a tour of the place. Negan even asks his “gracious” host to hold Lucille for him during their visit.
Dwight, meanwhile, goes off to assign a side mission for Rosita and Spencer. He harasses particularly Rosita, taking her hat and canteen of water, basically giving her a finite amount of time for her mission. The mission for Rosita and Spencer? Find Daryl’s missing bike. Rosita and Spencer begrudgingly accept and head out.
As Rick provides his “tour” of Alexandria, Rick reminds Negan that it was supposed to be half of the supplies. Negan tells Rick that “half” is whatever he feels like. We see Negan’s men taking mattresses from the houses, among other things. Then we see another henchman bring Negan a camcorder–the one with Rick interviewing for Deanna. Negan remarks that he would actually be afraid of that man, essentially saying that Rick in Alexandria is a “neutered” version.
Another topic that comes up during the tour is Maggie. Negan is hoping to see her, and asks Rick where to find her. Father Gabriel meanwhile makes his introduction as a priest. Negan asks where she is, and Rick remains silent. This causes Negan to make the assumption that Maggie didn’t make it, based on how sick she looked. Rick rolls with that idea, and Father Gabriel backs it up further by offering to show Negan the grave. The 3 visit the grave, and Negan laments the loss–he figured he would be able to sway her to be his wife, remarking how empty most widows become inside.
Then later, Negan and Rick are interrupted by a gun shot. Finding the location of the gunshot results in discovering Carl pulling a gun on a man named Davey in Negan’s crew. Carl is upset because they are taking all of the medicine, and Negan shows up, commenting on the “giant man-sized balls” Carl has. Rick tries to talk Carl down, but Negan cuts Rick off, saying he is having a conversation with Carl. Negan warns him of the wrath to come if Carl doesn’t hand over the guns. Speaking of guns, Negan realizes there must be an “assload” of guns given the size of the original armory Alexandria had combined with the weapons they took from one of Negan’s bases. So next stop? the armory/supply/pantry area.
Olivia is at the building, doing her duty, and Negan remarks, “I can’t be the only one to notice that you got a fat lady in charge of keeping track of rations, can I?” But Negan does Rick and the gang a “solid” saying that he will let them keep all of their food, since they are nearly out. But all guns, they will be taken by the Saviors. So Negan begins to round them up, but learns that there are some guns missing. He then decides that maybe Olivia needs to be let go of her job as well as life in general since she is not able to keep the armory list up to date properly. Rick pleads with Negan, and eventually buys a little bit of time. Rick holds a meeting in Alexandria asking for everyone to turn over their guns. Eugene then remarks that Spencer might have something to do with the missing weapons, so Rick goes through his house and finds hidden rations, and guns he had stolen.
We also see that Davey, the man giving Carl a hard time, is now being creepy with Enid.
Outside the wall, Michonne has decided to have some target practice on some walkers with the scoped rifle she had taken. She doesn’t do very well though, and has to resort to katana-ing them down. After that wraps up, she discovers that while she wasn’t able to hit a walker, she accidentally shot a deer. She decides to take him home for food.
Rosita and Spencer, meanwhile, locate Daryl’s bike. While they get the bike, Rosita also find a walker that has a gun on him, and decides to take it out. Spencer, meanwhile, had been really dogging on Rick about his leadership.
Michonne eventually makes her way home, and finds Rick talking to Negan while holding Lucille. Rick pleads with Negan to allow him to talk to her, to which Negan decides to allow. Rick pleads with her to turn over the rifle, to which Michonne refuses at first, but then eventually gives in. Negan is pretty happy that Rick is playing ball, handing over this rifle. Then Rick asks if Daryl can stay in Alexandria. Negan says that it is basically up to Daryl to make his case. But Daryl remains silent, which results in him being loaded back up in the van he came to town in. Meanwhile, Rosita and Spencer have come back with Daryl’s bike, and Dwight tells Daryl that he can have it if he just says, “the word”. But Daryl still remains silent.
So, Negan wraps up his meeting, and gets his best friend Lucille back. Then Rick gets into an argument of some comments Spencer made regarding Glenn and Abraham.
Back home, Rick is preparing is now less comfortable bed, and Michonne is not happy about the way things have been handled, but Rick says that Negan is too powerful for them to take on. Michonne says they should team up with Hilltop, but he says they still don’t have the numbers.
Then Rick breaks down with Michonne telling her about Judith, and who Shane was, and how he believes that Judith is not his kid biologically, but wants to protect her all the same. Then we see Michonne out and about the next day where she discovers that the Saviors decided to just burn the mattress they took rather than use them.
His Thoughts on The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 4: Service
So this was an interesting episode to see how Negan would feel after his initial confrontation with Rick. Rick certainly doesn’t seem like the cower person that Negan seems to be hoping to grind Rick into, but Rick seems to be calculating the odds, and realizing survival is what they have to do for now. To me this seems odd for Negan to accept, as you would think that he would see this unrest which Rick is displaying though the episode quite a bit, and one would assume that that will culminate into something pretty big down the road. Perhaps Negan does see this though, and considers it more of a tolerable nuisance than a credible threat.
As for how Rick even would have a chance now, they will certainly need to figure out how to get some firearms. We know they have one with the one Rosita has, but I wonder if there are others hidden. There are rumors that in Maggie’s grave are firearms, which could be true, but it would have to be unaccounted for guns, like perhaps the ones they had just recently stolen from Negan.
I expect to see more interactions between Carl and Negan, as they have had some salty interactions so far. In the comics they also have some interesting storylines, and I wonder how those will play out in the show.
I am curious when we will be seeing alliances pop up though, given we have 3 separate groups being subjugated by Negan. I can’t imagine them standing for this forever, especially when Michonne is already suggesting working with them.
It looks like next episode, we visit Hilltop, so we will have to see what happens there. I am sure if Maggie is feeling better, she is going to push for retaliation on Negan. But we will have to see how much support she actually gets, since she and Gregory (the leader of Hilltop) don’t seem to see eye to eye.
Her Thoughts on The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 4: Service
Finally. This was what I’d been waiting for — a continuation of the storyline after the gruesome losses Rick’s group sustained during the first episode this season. We only had to wait through two other episodes to get here. And then we were rewarded with an extended episode, lasting 90 minutes (well, with commercials) rather than the standard 60. The episode wasn’t all that exciting though. I was surprised to see Negan on their doorstep already, though. I had kind of wanted to see what happened in the interim, directly after coming back to Alexandria, rather than a good bit of time having passed and them facing Negan again already.
But what a devastating loss the Alexandrians sustained, with Negan taking “half” — which pretty much just means Negan taking whatever he wants. Then of course with Negan taking all of the guns, threatening to kill Olivia if all of the guns weren’t recovered. Rick seems utterly broken and devastated, not even wanting to attempt to fight back, not even wanting to risk Negan finding out that they have an unlisted gun. He just has too many people that he cares about now, that he doesn’t want to risk losing any of them. With Rick in such a beaten down state, others are going to have to step up and lead the Alexandrians in any sort of resistance again Negan. Rosita has the right idea trying to scavenge guns from walkers and having Eugene make bullets.
One surprising scene was the show actually acknowledging Judith’s questionable parentage. It seemed like this was something that was going to be swept under the rug and never spoken about. But then Rick came right out and said he knows that Judith is not his! I mean, does he really know that for sure? It could have been either him or Shane who fathered Judith. Without DNA testing, we’ll never really know for sure. However, Hilltop and Negan seem to have good doctors and equipment, so maybe it’s possible. Though maybe that’s beside the point. The point is that even with Rick’s belief that he is not Judith’s biological father, he still loves her like she is his daughter regardless. (Okay, I admit, I still want to know for sure!)
Well, it seems like we still have another unexplored storyline this season — Maggie and the Hilltop. I don’t think anyone actually believed that Maggie had died. Or at least I didn’t anyway. I felt like it was obvious that it was supposed to be a ruse. They wouldn’t have her randomly just die off screen like that, especially so soon after Glenn’s death.
Scenes from The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 5: Go Getters
Preview of Season 7 Episode 5 of The Walking Dead
