On Season 7 Episode 15 of The Walking Dead, titled Something They Need, we actually had a few different storylines going on at the same time–something unusual for the show. This episode follows up with Sasha, a bit of Gregory and Maggie in Hilltop, and Rick and company. Check out Josh’s recap, followed by our thoughts about the episode.
- His thoughts on Something They Need, Episode 715 of The Walking Dead
- Her thoughts on The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 15: Something They Need
Sasha
So, unfortunately we do not get to see the shoot-out that Sasha has with Negan’s men when she ran into the compound at the end of last episode, but we do see that she is still alive. She is also in the closet we have seen other characters in, such as Daryl. She seems uninjured. She gets her first visitor that we first see, named Dave, who seems to politely offer her water. But things get creepy real quick when he asks her what she will do for him for some water. She tells him off, and Dave is about to get physical, when Negan shows up. Giving Dave a new nickname, “Rapey Davey”, Negan reminds Dave that rape is against the rules. Dave tries to apologize; however, Negan refuses the apology, and counters with a knife through Dave’s neck.
Then Negan gives his pitch to Sasha–she can stay in the closet, and wait for Dave to turn and eat her, or she can use a knife that Negan gives her to try to stab him, or she can take out Walker Rapey Davey and potentially earn a spot working with Negan. Negan leaves her to think about this, and willingly lets her keep the big knife for now.
Eugene, meanwhile, comes to pay Sasha a visit, and tries to explain that if she wants to survive, working with Negan is the best course of action. He also admits his lack of courage, and explains how he tried to be brave and it just didn’t work. Sasha isn’t having it though.
Then Negan comes to pay her another visit. It looks like Sasha might have changed her mind at this point. Sasha has taken out Walker Rapey Davey. Negan sees promise in his newest potential acolyte, but admits he is not sure he can trust her yet, and takes her knife away. Another interesting bit that comes out of this is that Negan says that a “little birdie” old him that Rick is up to no good, and that tomorrow will be a “big day”…whatever that means.
Sasha is left alone again, and Eugene pays her another visit, telling her that he is glad that she came around. But Sasha doesn’t seem like she has, as she sobs through the door, telling Eugene that they are going to make her betray her friends. She says she can’t do it, and asks Eugene for a weapon to help her commit suicide. Eugene seems heartbroken to hear this, and tells her he will consider her request. As he walks away though, we see that this is all an act on Sasha’s part–inside the closet we see her grinning, potentially hoping to get a weapon from Eugene to take Negan down.
Eugene comes back a little later, and says that he has agreed to help her. Unfortunately for Sasha, it is not the most helpful of ways though–Eugene’s weapon of choice is a poison pill he had made a few episodes ago.
Hilltop With Gregory and Maggie
The scenes in Hilltop are brief, but pretty important to seeing where the character of Gregory is going. Maggie is outside the walls of Hilltop doing some gardening, and Gregory comes out to speak with her. He is baffled that she is out there alone. They have a conversation, and Gregory and her talk some, and Gregory seems fairly civil with her for once. Maggie asks Gregory to watch her back, and we see that Gregory still has some contempt for Maggie when he briefly contemplates stabbing her to death. We see him silently decide to–then back off on the decision.
Maggie had asked him to keep an eye out for Walkers, and one shows up. Maggie says she will take it down, but Gregory insists he will do it. But when it comes down to it, Gregory wusses out and Maggie has to save the day. But while Maggie is dealing with that one, Gregory is blindsided by another one. Still unable to take that one out, Gregory pleads for help while wrestling the Walker away from his face, as he struggles on the ground.
Maggie comes to his rescue after dealing with her walker. Just as this all goes down, a group of Hilltop people go by, and stare at Gregory’s incompetence. Maggie yells to the passersby that “it’s okay, he’s never killed one before”, which winds up embarrassing Gregory more, as apparently he had told his group he is pretty efficient at killing them.
Gregory then sulks back to his office, and has one of his lackeys get a car ready–it looks like he might be visiting Simon after all.
Rick, Tara and the Gang and Oceanside
The bulk of this episode revolved around Oceanside, and Tara breaking her promise to those people. When Tara tells Rick about the women’s colony, Rick asks why she didn’t say anything before, and Tara says she made a promise. Rick and the gang then devise a plan to get the guns that Oceanside is holding–which, if push comes to shove, might mean some violence.
We first see Tara armed with an (empty) pistol, and she confronts Natania, leader of the Oeanside community. Tara asks her to help Rick and the gang out with some weapons–and even join up with them to take Negan down. As expected, Natania refuses. Cindy then shows up (she is the girl that helped Tara escape), and Tara has them both at gunpoint. Tara tells the two that they should make this easy, as Rick and the gang are going to come in with violence if she can’t convince them.
Unfortunately, Tara is not able to convince the two, and Rick enacts the plan outside of Oceanside. The plan seems to be to surprise the encampment with bombs, “herding” the people into a central location before they are able to retrieve any weapons to defend themselves. The plan seems to go off without a hitch. Rick’s team holds the entirety of the colony hostage, it seems, as Michonne watches from above with her sniper rifle.
Unfortunately, Tara fumbles her part of the plan, and eventually surrenders her empty pistol. She still tries to plead with Natania and Cindy, and while Cindy seems to come around some, Natania refuses. Natania then, holding Tara hostage, heads out to talk to Rick.
Natania essentially tells Rick that they aren’t helping, because they know what will happen, and tells Rick and the gang to leave. Michonne trains her gun on Natania, but Tara tells her to not fire. After some time during the intense stand-off, Cindy actually takes Natania down herself.
Things aren’t resolved quite yet, when a group of walkers that seemed to be attracted to the explosions that Rick and the gang made, make their way to the encampment. Rick’s group, along with a bit of Oceanside’s help, eliminate the walkers in a fairly systematic, efficient way. This seems to impress Oceanside, and many seem to want to help Rick and the gang out.
But Natania refuses to assist still, so Rick is forced to take the guns from the group. Some of the women want to go, but someone (I am not sure if it was Natania or Rick) decided that it is either all or nothing as far as Oceanside helping–and nothing seems to be the choice being told.
Natania is pretty upset watching Rick and the Survivors taking the weapons, and Tara notes to Rick, “You’re right, I don’t have to feel bad”.
His Thoughts on The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 15: Something They Need
So, I thought this episode was one of the better ones of the season. there has been a lot of pretty mediocre episodes this season, that feel like they just drag on, and nothing really happens. While this episode is still dragging its feet it seems, at least there were some interesting aspects to the episode.
One part that I am really curious about, is the “little birdie” that Negan is referring to. Someone seems to be giving some information to Negan and I am wondering who it could be. It can’t be Eugene, because he was taken before any plan was being developed. It can’t be Rosita, because she didn’t see Eugene for long enough, and made her escape. It can’t be Gregory, because we see that he is just now making preparations to visit Simon. This leaves me with two likely options. One is a popular theory, which is the Junkyard group. That group could be playing both sides of the field, hoping to get a little something from each until they destroy each other. My other theory is actually Aaron’s significant other, Eric. He seems very concerned about Aaron’s safety, and seems to hold some contempt for Rick. The plot for Eric to be the traitor does resemble Spencer’s storyline pretty closely, but at the same time, I think he might be trying to get Negan to kill Rick so that this whole rebellion is put down, and to Eric, that could make Aaron safe again. Hopefully we get the answer on this on the season finale.
As for Sasha, I am curious how that plays out. She is seen with Negan in the preview for the season finale, and she clearly does not want to rat out the Survivors out, but does she kill herself? Does she escape? I think she is a good candidate for dying in the finale, one way or another.
Gregory is another storyline that I am curious to see what happens. If Gregory talks to Simon, Maggie is going to be in some pretty big danger. I am curious to see if he actually makes it to Simon.
Then finally Rick and Oceanside. Rick’s actions are a huge moral dilemma. Rick, the “good guys”, which they have seemed to decree themselves as, essentially force their way into Oceanside and rob them of their weapons. It is a pretty tyrannical way to handle the situation, but at the same time, Rick is at the end of his rope in terms of what he can do to save his people, and at the very least, he is only using intimidation, omitting violence/killing of the Oceanside residence. But still–is he any better than Negan doing this? If so, is it just marginally?
I am really not sure on the answer to that question. What if Negan finds Oceanside, rolls in and wipes them out? Oceanside currently has minimal firearms, if any, now to defend themselves. If they are overrun by a Walker horde, guns would surely be useful for that too. Or another group of people that stroll in to take what is theirs–Oceanside is on the brink of being defenseless now.
Overall, I had a good time with the episode though. I look forward to finale, despite AMC dragging the Negan storyline out for two seasons. Hopefully next season we actually get some action, and the war properly begins between the two sides.
Her Thoughts on The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 15: Something They Need
Now this, this, is the type of episode of The Walking Dead that I prefer to see! It’s an episode where we can have multiple storylines going on at once, instead of isolating one storyline! We had almost everything this episode, except for The Kingdom. Which is fine. I’m not saying that we need to have everything in every episode. Just that it’s possible to have several aspects of the overall storyline going on at once, while still being able to learn about particular characters, and gain character development.
If anyone was still unsure about Eugene’s mindset, we learned about it straight from the source, as he explained to Sasha what he’s been going through and how he’s come to terms with his situation. I’m not sure what’s going to happen with Sasha at this point. The “weapon” Eugene gave her isn’t going to be very easy to use against Negan. She’ll have to gain his trust to get close enough to him that she is able to poison his food or drink. That doesn’t seem like something that’s likely to be able to happen very soon. But it would be interesting to see her try. I’d also like to see Eugene have a chance to come back to the other side.
So now, Rick and his group have the guns that they need to take to the Junkyard group and have them join in the fight against Negan. We still need to get The Kingdom involved in this fight, though, as well as the Hilltop people, but we seem to be running out of time, since we only have one episode left. Hopefully there’s time to have this all come together before the end of the season.
Side Note: Did anyone else have conflicting emotions of being both disappointed and glad that they didn’t play “Easy Street” while Sasha was being held in the cell?
Scenes from The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 16: The First Day of the Rest of Your Life
Preview of Season 7 Episode 16 of The Walking Dead
