Original subtitles

The plan doesn't change. We need that food.

We get to a radio tower, find the supply house,

and wait for the others.

Previously on "The Walking Dead"...

Yumiko: I have reason to believe my brother,

a thoracic surgeon, is living at the Commonwealth

and is looking for me.

Which one of you is Eugene?

Hi. I'm Stephanie.

Gabriel: It's a little hard to put up a wall

with broken tools and an empty stomach.

Aaron: Our walls are about to fail.

[Crickets chirping, animals howling]

♪

How much farther, Daddy?

Well, we, uh, took a wrong turn

at the fork a ways back.

But, uh, we're heading the right way now.

We're almost home.

I'll be glad when we get there.

Yeah, me, too.[Walker growling]

Daddy? It's okay.

[Knife unsheathes]

[Clicks tongue]

♪

You lost?

♪

I'm scared.

It's gonna be okay.

Just stay close.

[Whistling]

♪

♪

[Walkers growling, whistling continues]

♪

Gracie?

Gracie?

Gracie!

Gracie!

Gracie!

Gracie!

[Overlapping whispers]

[Grunting]

Stop!

[Gasps]

[Panting]

[Birds chirping]

[Metal clanking]

[Sighs]

[Snoring]

[Toilet lid creaks]

[Zipper unzips]

[Urinating]

[Walker growling in distance]

♪

Dudes...

Dudes? Dudes!

Breach! They're inside the wall!

Man: Breach!

Man #2: Grab your weapons!

Daddy?There's a breach!

Hey, Gracie, uh, I need you to head downstairs

into the basement and don't let anyone in, okay?

Just like we practiced, alright?

And you stay there, okay? You have your whistle?

Okay.

Okay, go now.

[Indistinct shouting]

[Walker growling]

♪

Get 'em back!

Woman: Use the beams!

[Indistinct shouting]

Fill the hole!

[Growling continues]

Fill the hole!

[Growling continues]

That's it!

[Growling continues]

♪

[Walkers growling]

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

[Upbeat music plays]

[Laughter]

♪

Hello!

I'm Lance Hornsby.

Welcome to the Commonwealth.

♪

[Laughter]

If you're watching this video, you've made it through

the rigorous screening process of the Commonwealth community

and have been approved to join us.

[Laughter, cheering]

Under the leadership of Governor Pamela Milton,

we are over 50,000 strong,

with every person specially assigned

and curated to the job best suited to their skill set

to keep this community thriving.

♪

This orientation will give you a taste

[Distorted] of what we have in store for you.

[Normal voice] The future starts here.

[Laughter, cheering]

♪

[Cheers and applause]

Community.

♪

Caregiving.

Security.

♪

That's "The Commonwealth Way."

♪

[Birds chirping]

Pamela Milton?

Wow.

"Eugene Porter.

Work Detail -- high-school teaching pool.

Boarding Detail -- Bungalow 13, Sector 1..."

Yes! Okay.

This is a good sign.

Pardon my gazing of a gift horse in the gullet,

but what in the heck are these details meant to convey?

Job assignments and housing.

Permanent residency here was not our intent.

If you have a problem with it,

take it up with the case supervisor.

Princess: Wait. What jobs did you guys get?

Doesn't matter. We're not here to work.

We're here to get help.Uh, totally.

I-I was just curious 'cause they gave me "retail clerk."

Made me wonder if they have a mall here,

'cause that'd be frickin' amazing.

I used to love working in the mall.

They put me in animal control.

I imagine all of these are based on jobs from before the fall.

Yeah, mine isn't really an assignment.

Looks like an invitation.

Someone wants to meet and talk about, and I quote,

"Opportunities within our great community."

Ooh! Yumiko's fancy! Must be the accent.

Eugene: We need to plot a course correction ASAP

before these entanglements usurp our Plan A.

I think a multi-pronged strategy would be in order.

Agreed.

I'll see what this case supervisor can do.

Um, I'm gonna go with Ezekiel.

I wanna see more of this place.

And I'm feeling lucky.

I'm supposed to meet up with Stephanie.

I'll get the lay of the land and the proverbial skinny.

Maybe whoever gave you that can help.

[Paper rustles]

[Pen scratching]

[Door opens]

[Door closes][Clears throat]

Excuse me.

Your case supervisor can answer all your questions.

Yeah, I don't seem to have one of those.

Just this letter from the Office of State Affairs.

Yes, ma'am.

How can I help?

Well, during processing,

I was inquiring about a family member living here,

but I haven't heard anything since.

I'd be happy to help you with that.

[Walkers growling, hammers pounding]

The wall's gonna be more fragile since they broke through.

People are getting anxious.

There's dead on the north side.

We're banging the wall to spread them out.

It's working. For now, but they'll be back.

Yeah, we need a long-term fix.

Any update on tools?

Still haven't replaced what the skins destroyed.

And we're back to square one on food.

What's left of the horse has been salted and jerkied.

Stuff's nasty, but it's going fast.

What about Hilltop?

Maybe some of the blacksmithing tools survived the fire.

A few of us can make a run,

maybe see if there's some game nearby while we're at it.

Yeah. And if there's nothing left?

If we can't make Alexandria safe,

we need to start thinking about other options.

Alexandria's our home.

I'm not ready to abandon ship.

Not yet.

We gotta fight to save it first.

[Walkers growling]

♪

♪

[Sighs] We should get moving.

The others could already be at the outpost.

Or it could just be us.

[Sighs]

[Birds chirping]

You know the only way this works

is if we trust each other.

Why would I ever trust you?

I don't know, Maggie.

'Cause you want to stay alive, same as me.

If I stay alive,

it'll be in spite of you, not because of you.

Jesus.

You know, if -- if that's how you feel,

I don't understand why you haven't put me down yet.

Shit!

I ask myself that question every day.

Shit.

♪

[Walkers growling]

[Hooves clomping]

[Horse neighs]

Aaron: Whoa.

♪

♪

♪

Jesus.

Look.

♪

Practically been picked clean.

Might be more than the dead.

Heads up.

♪

Those are our people.

♪

Dude...

[Walker growling]

It's Troy.

♪

Let's just get this done.

♪

♪

[Walkers growling, spears plunging]

♪

♪

♪

Carol: We need to keep moving.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Eyes open.

[Walkers growling]

Judith: Ready? Start!

Good. Again.

[Growling continues]

Center yourself.

Weight on your back foot.

[Birds chirping]

Aim for the head, then stab!

Good. Again.

Young man: Look. This is crazy.

God. Oh!

What's wrong?

[Laughter]

Whoa! Oh!

Oh, oh!

Hey!

You shouldn't be doing that!

[Walker growling]

Whoa!

Judith: Get away from there.

Calm down. We're just having fun.

It's dangerous.

If you don't stop, I'm gonna tell Rosita.

Shut up! You talk too much.

No wonder your mom abandoned you.

What did you say?

You're such a baby.

She must've gotten tired of all her whining.

Say it again.

I dare you.

Judith, don't.

Stay away from me, you psycho.

What are you looking at?

[Walkers growling]

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

[Wood creaks]

Doesn't look like anybody's been here, so...

So we wait.

Yeah.

How long?

How long would you want someone to wait for you?

I just think the longer we stay here,

the more likely it is that these lunatics catch us.

Look, how about we take this food back, alright?

I know it's not a lot,

but at least it's something.

It's nothing.

We need to feed a whole community.

Maggie, you need to know when to cut your losses.

Those losses...

...are my people.

I know. I do.

But you still have people.

You still have Hershel.

Do you think I don't know that?

It's the reason we're doing this.

But "we" can't.

See, that's my point.

Alright, look, I-I know I don't get a vote here,

and that's fine, but here's mine anyway.

We give it 'til sundown.

And if the others don't show by then,

they're not gonna.

♪

[Bell jingles]

♪

♪ She's a three-speed girl♪

Man: Um, I'll be right with you.

♪

♪ Well, lawdy, lawdy♪

♪ She's a three-speed girl♪

♪

[Sighs]

[Sighs]

Hi. How you doing?

Just got a fresh batch of doughnuts out of the oven.

I-I'm actually looking for someone.

Man: Cake's frosted and ready, boss.

Should I run it over to --

Hi, Tomi.

Jerry: Not much, but better than nothing.

Everything we have, gone.

Not everything.

A lot of us are still standing.

Remember that.

There's more.

We need to take care of it before we keep searching.

Wait. Look.

♪

The way they're moving...

They're being herded.

Whisperers.

♪

♪

[Grunts]

♪

Stop! Don't kill him!

I know him.

What the hell is he doing here?

♪

Let's find out.

♪

Extra sprinkles, please.

Of course. Oh.

I have the order ready for Ms. Milton.

Just a moment.

Here you go.

I included samples of our newest flavor, Praline Dream.

Eugene: Excuse me.

That wouldn't happen to be Rocky Road there, would it?

♪

Thank you for your patience.

Yeah, no problem.

And keep the change.

Thanks.Thanks.

[Cash register dings]

Here you go.

It's not black raspberry, but see what you think.

♪

Mmm.

[Chuckles]

Hot damn.

♪

If you don't mind me saying,

this place has all kinds of creature comforts

I never knew how much I missed.

I'm an interesting creature,

so this is a fine day for me.

Well, it's a very fine day for me, too.

I'm glad you're here.

♪

Where are you? You drifted.

♪

A lot of people back where I'm from

could use a place like this.

Yeah.

While I'd be content to keep strong with you indefinitely,

I wouldn't be the man I am

if I didn't do what I came here for.

I, uh...

♪

We can't stay.

We need to help our friends.

Given the significant amount of red tape

around every nook and cranny here,

I was wondering if I could get some advice

on how to cut through.

I wish I had some,

but everything really moves slowly around here.

Want to sit?

♪

[Grunts]

♪

The town radio is in there.

I bet you'd feel better

if you could talk to your people back home.

But you're afraid to ask.

I'm afraid to involve you in something

that's not your responsibility.

I want to help.

Are you sure?

I work in the Comms Department.

I could get access to the equipment,

but to get official clearance,

it would take a couple weeks, so...

So back to square one.

♪

We found the deputy supervisor.

Says it'll be five weeks to see her boss.

Might as well be years.

[Radio chatter in distance]

By any chance, is there an unofficial version

of your offer?

♪

♪

Oh, wow.

♪

[Door creaks]

Boy: Mom said we have to stay here.

[Indistinct conversations]

♪

Who did this?

Who broke our handprints?

Judith: Was it you?No.

Don't lie.

You gonna pull another knife on me?

I said I didn't do it.

Come on.

[Door opens]

[Door closes]

I can help you put it back together, Judith.

Me, too.

We all will.

♪

[Footsteps approach]

I remember when you made those.

You were so small.

♪

Carl wanted you to have a memory together.

[Voice breaking] Now it's broken, and he's gone.

♪

Everybody is.

♪

I miss them all, too.

♪

Does it get easier?

♪

I'd be lying if I said it did.

♪

I'm worried I'll start to forget about them.

♪

Judith.

♪

♪

You know, I never really knew my dad.

And my mom died when...

I was a little older than you are now.

I still miss her all the time.

For a long time, it was just the two of us.

And we moved a lot, from job to job.

But she always managed to keep us going.

I didn't know it then, but...

she was teaching me to survive on my own.

So I'd be okay if she ever wasn't there.

And Carl and your dad did the same thing for you.

So you'd always be able to get though the tough times.

Pieces of wood are nice.

♪

But you don't need that to remember

how much they loved you.

♪

Besides, I'm reallygood at fixing things.

[Both chuckle]

♪

Name?

And don't give us any of that Alpha/Beta garbage, either.

Keith.

That's my name.

What are you doing here, Keith?

I'm not hurting anyone.

Just answer the question.

A-After Alpha fell, the herd scattered.

Those who weren't killed or burned are gone.

I'm all that's left.

You haven't seen anyone else?

No.

Then why do you keep the walkers?

Protection, comfort.

Old habit.

What do you think?

I think I haven't met a Whisperer who wasn't a liar.

What about Mary?

You believed her.

How do you know he's lying?

What makes you so certain he isn't?

How well do you know him?

He wasn't part of my mother's inner circle.

He was afraid of her.

Well, that proves he's got eyes, not much else.

Keith: Lydia.

I snuck food to you during the long winters

when Alpha wasn't looking.

You remember? Tell them.

I'm not sure.

Guess she doesn't know you that well after all.

It doesn't matter.

My mother's dead. He's not hurting anyone.

No, he's hiding something.

You think it's a trap?

Wouldn't put it past him.

Aaron's right.

We need to make sure he's not a threat.

Let's get him into the cellar

until we decide what to do with him.

No. No!

[Door creaks]

♪

Dude... Aaron: What is it?

Nothing good.

♪

♪

He's not alone.

Let's see what else he lied about.

[Wood creaking, items clattering]

♪

♪

♪

How many more?

What?

How many more of you are out there?

This is it, I swear!

You expect me to believe that?

After you just lied to my face?

Aaron, look at them. They're scared.

They're just trying to be people again.

Or they're a threat, hiding in plain sight

before their people come back and ambush us.

We weren't all monsters.

Keith: Please. Please.

♪

This is Nabila's.

Jerry... No.

They were in Alexandria.

They burnt down our home.

♪

What do you wanna do?

♪

Look out!

[Grunting]

♪

♪

My turn.

[Indistinct conversations]

♪

[Radio chatter]

[Conversations continue]

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

You're -- You're a swordswoman and an archer?

Yeah, I'm pretty good with a slingshot, too, in a pinch.

Wow. Not bad for a barrister.

Wow. You've changed, Miko.

So have you.

How did you even find this place?

I fled Chicago when things first started going bad.

After I left you that voicemail,

I got in a car and headed east.

Ran out of gas about 20 miles north of here

but got lucky enough to link up with some good people.

We all wound up here pretty early on

when the Miltons made this place a safe haven.

It started with a few secure blocks,

but the community's been expanding

a little at a time ever since.

I, uh -- I almost forget

what's going on outside these walls.

And you've just been here this whole time,

just making cakes?

I like baking. It makes me happy.

Tomi, you were a surgeon.Hey, no.

Please, not now.

But you could save people.

Still trying to run people's lives, Miko?

I'm not trying to start anything.

I just want what's best for you.

When was the last time you saw me happy, Miko?

Truly content?

Can't remember.

Maybe now.

I like my life the way it is.

It's the one gift I got

out of the world falling apart.

Please, don't ruin this for me.

Of course I wouldn't.

Look, just tell me one thing.

Is this place really as good as it seems?

Better.

So if I wanted to get help for people,

I could do that here?

Anything's possible,

as long as you follow the rules.

Want some cake?

Hell yes.

♪

Hey!

Fancy meeting you here, Mercer.

Ooh! Oh, they clearly got a gym in this joint.

Your chiseling is perfecto.

Uh, excuse me. Got business inside.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!

I... I wanted to thank you.

For what?

For making sure this got back to me.

No need.

Just returning your property, "Princess."

Was there something else?

Yeah.

You have really beautiful eyelashes.

♪

[Growling]

Aaron: Tell me where the others went.

[Keith crying]

Where are they?

How many more?

Huh?

[Crying continues]

Answer me!

[Keith screaming]

[Growling]

Lydia, help me! Please!

Where are they?!

[Crying] Alpha was right about you people.

You pretend you're better than the dead.

But dead is honest.

Your friends are better off.

[Growls][Screaming]

♪

♪

See, the clock's ticking now.

Do you feel better off?

Or I can help you.

I can cut off your hand

before the infection spreads and you turn.

Would you like that?

We don't have much time.

Please...Where are they?

I don't know! I swear!

You have to believe me...

Are the Whisperers still a threat?

No! Stop lying!

Aaron, enough!No, I need answers!

No, you want something else.

I don't have to be here to watch it.

Again.

[Walker growling]

Just tell the truth, man.

What do you want me to say?!

There were more of us!

But they -- they're gone!

I don't know!

What the hell are you doing?!

Stopping you from doing something else

you're gonna regret.

I'm doing what I have to to keep everyone I love safe.

You of all people should understand that.

Not like this.

Look around.

We are standing on the ashes

of what the Whisperers destroyed.

Gracie is going hungry because of them!

The world is full of people who are beyond saving,

and I am not gonna wait for them

to show up at our doorstep.

No.

What happened to Henry...

and how I felt after...

it controlled me.

I let it take me down a very dark path.

People that I care about were hurt.

Now everything that I do, I carry that.

This is a path you don't want to go down.

Now you let him go.

Let him go.

♪

[Groaning]

♪

♪

[Knife clanks]

I can cut your hand off or you can do it yourself.

Choice is yours.

♪

Okay.

Ah.

Told you I'd find it.

Right here?

Alexandria.

Alexandria, this is Eugene. Come back.

Eugene! Eugene, are you okay?

Rosita?

Oh, it's dang good to hear your voice.

You too. I got Judith here.

Hi. Are you all safe?

Hello! Hey, Judith.

Yes, we're all safe. We're doing okay.

Uh, how are things there?

Well, the war's over.

Uh, Alpha and Beta are dead.

But... Alexandria's trashed,

and we're running out of food.

I'm sorry. I didn't get --

[Voice breaking up]

Yeah. Eugene?

Eugene, are you still there?

[Static]

Eugene, where are you?

Is he gone?

Something's haywire. Lost the feed.

Stephanie: Uh, try a higher frequency.

Hands up! Move away from the radio.

No harm's been done, I can assure you.

You're under arrest...

[Groaning]

...for the unauthorized use of government property.

♪

♪

What are you doing?

I'm leaving.

Not with those supplies you aren't.

I'm taking them back to Alexandria.

This mission isn't finished.

It is for me.

♪

[Grunting]

Stop it!

♪

♪

[Footsteps approaching]

[Door opens]

Oh, my God. You made it.

Hey.

♪

Are you okay?

Been better. Been worse.

Same.

We found each other in the woods.

Made sure no one followed us back here.

Good. Sit down.

We...didn't know if you'd survived.

But if you did, knew you'd be here.

What about the others?

Duncan, Agatha, Cole, they're --

they're dead.

Alden's hurt.

He's holed up in a church somewhere.

Daryl and Frost, I don't know.

So then...

we wait.

♪

We wait.

[Sighs]

♪

[Breathing heavily]

Holy shit.

I've ruined everything.

I just...

Where is the young woman that was with me

at the train station?

You are hereby notified that you're being charged

with wanton trespassing, reckless endangerment,

and illegal communication with a foreign entity --

all violations of Article 4,

Section 2 of the Commonwealth criminal code.

You've been granted a hearing before a judge

within the hour.

If found guilty, you will be dropped off

in a zone far outside our walls

and banished from ever returning.

We did what we did for good reason.

If you'd just let us explain --

Tell it to the judge, although it won't matter,

especially since you've been here less than a day

and already broken several laws.

We wanna talk to our lawyer.

You have an attorney?

Damn right we do. A fancy one, too.

So if this place likes rules so much,

you have to let us have one. It's our right.

Rights are for citizens.

You're asylum seekers.

Privileges come when you've earned them.

Please, just...

let me talk to Stephanie.

She can vouch for us.

She's being processed and charged separately,

as a citizen.

That's some bullshit.

Hornsby: I'll take it from here, John.

Let them go.

Mr. Hornsby, I can't. They're awaiting trial.

Do not move them.

I'm going to find Mercer.

[Door closes]

Wait. Was that...

Cheesy video guy!

Hornsby is someone that you guys can trust.

Thank you.

Don't thank me so fast.

He might be able to stop you from being banished,

but it won't be scot-free.

You'll have to pay for what you've done.

One way or another.

♪

Lydia: I'm sorry about all this.

I understand.

After all his people have lost.

If Alpha were still here, she would've done worse.

For you -- mushrooms.

For you and the others.

Thank you -- for this and for what you said.

We weren't all like her.

Some of us just wanted to survive.

Don't ever look back.

You don't think we've changed, do you?

It's not for me to say.

I can prove it.

How? We saw one of your people.

The girl who came out of the cave

where Alpha kept the horde.

♪

What did you say?

After the collapse.

There were many,

then there were two, and then she was all alone.

Was she all right?She looked hurt but alive.

Where did you last see her?

In the woods.

By the screaming cave.

What do you think?

I'm thinking it's probably a good thing

you didn't kill him.

Do you know where that is he's talking about?

Yeah, yeah, it's near Alexandria.

We gotta go...now.Carol, Carol.

No. Connie's out there alive.

I know. It's getting late.

It'll be dark before we get back.

Start at first light, yeah?

♪

[Horse neighs]

♪

♪

Kelly: I found her camp.

But something's not right.

Magna: She thought they were being followed.

♪

I don't understand. What happened?

♪

You're either with us, or you're not.

♪

[Gasps]

♪

♪

Kang: This episode is starting with this dream,

and all of those past foes

are just a representation of the different traumas

that our people have been through

and everything that is swirling through his mind

as he's thinking about how to create

a better future for his daughter, Gracie,

who, herself, came out of trauma,

was the daughter of Saviors that were killed

during the attack that our people were involved in.

You know, I think that really tells us a lot

about his mindset

going into all of the action of this episode,

because he's just thinking,

who were all these people that we've had to fight,

all the times that we just barely made it through,

all the times that Alexandria almost fell.

And is this gonna be the thing that finally breaks us?

And I think Aaron really is determined

to make sure that doesn't happen.

Mercy!

♪

Kang: Aaron's always been sort of our humanitarian.

He's the guy that brings people in,

that evaluates people

and decides whether to trust them.

And I think that Aaron is in a really different headspace.

He is seeing the world as being much darker

than he wants to think of it as being.

If the fans will remember,

he went out with Gabriel shortly before this

and ran into this man out in the world,

played by the wonderful Robert Patrick,

who was this survivor who had just had

such a dark view of humanity.

But, you know, their lives

were really, truly in danger there.

They could have both died.

And I think Aaron has all of that

kind of spinning through his head.

He's thinking about all of the damage

that the Whisperers have done,

just destroying their communities

and not only running the herd through there.

Some people, like, went back and just trashed the place

and burned their crops just really to make it

so that they could never go back to Alexandria

and have a safe home.

And so I think, for Aaron,

this is enemy number one.

Whisperers.

[Walkers growling]

He doesn't trust them.

He has a sense that this guy is being cagey and shady,

which he is.

He's right that the guy is lying to him.

And so he thinks like,

why wouldn't he be lying about everything else?

Like, everything we know about the Whisperers

is that the vast majority of them

are willing to do whatever Alpha said,

and they lived under that for years.

So I think that he's kind of in that dark headspace.

When Jerry discovers that they were

definitely at Alexandria and probably helped trash it

that tells him something,

and he's getting very emotional.

We felt that Carol was the right person

to pull him back from the brink,

because I think the journey that we've shown Carol on

is that she felt like she went a little too far

in her revenge mission against Alpha.

She is not insensitive

to the fact that there's been fallout from that.

There is true suffering.

So she sees Aaron going into that same kind of dark headspace

that she was in.

And right or wrong, whatever he feels,

whatever he thinks needs to be done,

what she sees is this guy who's there

that he's torturing.

And that could be the start of a much more slippery slope.

And I think she just doesn't want

to see that happen to Aaron.

♪

This is a path you don't want to go down.

Now, you let him go.

They just get to try to hash it out.

And in some ways, the universe rewards them

for that decision,

because if that guy had died,

they would have never gotten that clue

that Connie is out there.

We saw one of your people,

the girl came out of the cave where Alpha kept the horde.

What do you think?

Thinking it's probably a good thing

you didn't kill him.

Kang: What's really interesting about the Commonwealth

is that they have attempted

to put the world back the way it was before,

or at least based on a memory of what it was before.

But, you know, I think the complicated thing is,

was there ever really a perfect time?

And do you want to replicate something that might have been

a little bit broken to begin with?

In some ways, the Commonwealth works exceptionally well

and people have been very, very safe.

But to do that, they really, like, have kind of embraced

this caste system that they all live under

and this sort of the authoritarian bend

to some of the ways that the community works.

So given that this really is an American story,

we wanted to draw upon kind of American source material

for what the propaganda would look like.

The writing department,

we basically furnished a bunch of these slogans

just to kind of give a feel for the types of things

that the Commonwealth might be asking people to do

to try to make this a nice place to live.

Hey!

Fancy meeting you here, Mercer.

Ooh! Well, they clearly got a gym in this joint.

Your chiseling is perfecto.

We really love writing for Princess,

as well as our new character, Mercer.

There's such depths there

that we just kind of get to unpeel slowly.

And for Princess, we had this moment

where they're being questioned

and they they question her about this $2 bill,

and she starts to tell this story.

Essentially, like, it means something personal to her.

And at one point in the interview,

she turns to Mercer and, like, looks

at him standing there and says..

When we're done with these questions,

can I get my $2 back?

When she gets it back,

she just knows in her gut that it was him,

because they saw that bin of money that was

all marked for confiscation on the way out.

They know that that has to be,

like, the way that they deal with money.

So she's thinking, like, maybe he's not as scary of a guy

as he seems when he's just, you know, doing his job.

And I think from Mercer's side,

he sees something about her,

that there's a sweetness there.

And he sees that she sees him in some ways.

And I think that she sees

that he sees something more in her.

And so in that moment with the $2 bill, like,

we wanted this chance to just

start to break the ice more between them.

You have...

really...

beautiful eyelashes.

So Maggie and Negan --

they're the last two standing of this group.

So, they're just in this really uncomfortable position

where neither trusts the other person,

neither really even likes the other person,

although I would say that Negan

has this kind of a respect for Maggie.

He doesn't trust her,

but he does, like, respect

the type of a leader that she is.

But at the same time, Maggie just very grudgingly

accepts that she needs him,

but it's always uneasy between them.

They can't even decide on whether to stay

or go from this house.

It works out the way Maggie wants,

but it doesn't mean that Negan's wrong

about everything he's saying to her either.

Maggie: Oh, my God. You made it.

Our people -- they're such a family,

and so there are moments

when they decide strategically, we have to keep moving.

But those are not decisions that are made lightly.

And I think in this case, Gabriel feels like,

well, we've gotten to the safe house.

We've only just barely gotten here.

Of course we wait, because that was the plan.

And so if that was not the plan,

he probably also would have been like, we have to move on.

But Negan is very pragmatic in his own way,

but he's also kind of selfish.

And I think that that's kind of the fun of Negan.

There's a lot of times where Negan,

if you're really talking about self-preservation,

his point of view makes a lot of sense, you know,

and it's not like entirelyselfish.

Like, he is saying,

let's be really, really, like, practical

about what we can realistically get done.

Is this just a suicide mission we're on?

He has no desire to die.

♪

I think with Judith, we really wanted to deal

with the fact that she's growing up,

and she's growing up with both of her parents

just out in the wind,

and she's in this really odd position of, at times,

having to be more grown up than she really should be.

She's had to be a fighter from the beginning,

and that's been important to survive.

But at the same time, there's just ways in which

she's still very much a child,

and if a bully is saying terrible things to her...

You talk too much.

No wonder your mom abandoned you.

...she's a little lost and just reacts

in the way that she knows how,

and I think that she's also pulled back from that, though,

realizing, like, "I think I might have reacted

a little too strongly," but she's so upset.

And so how do kids deal with things that are just beyond

what they should really have to grapple with?

And how does that take an apocalyptic flavor.

In this episode,

which was directed by Gregory Nicotero,

I do think he might have purposely kind of used

some of that feel from the earlier season

where Rick and Carl were kind of talking about

what it's like to lose people and just no more kid stuff.

Rosita is there with Judith,

and I think we wanted to tell a story

that it has taken the village

to raise all the children of the apocalypse.

Rosita is one of Judith's many, many aunts

that just adores her and would do anything for her.

And I think that it's important for Judith to feel that.

And I think, you know, Christian did a great job

kind of, like, telling this story that is comforting,

but at the same time, like, it's just kind of

like I'm gonna tell you that it's going to keep on hurting.

She's very real about the nature of grief with this child.

And it still makes Judith feel better

because it's like she'd rather know the truth.

Pieces of wood are nice...

...but you don't need that to remember

how much they loved you.

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪