The Walking Dead gave us an episode that was easier on the feels but still felt like a punch in the gut in “The Lost and the Plunderers.” Rick & Michonne are mourning Carl, Jadis lost all her people, and the Negan era is starting to crumblr right before our eyes. This epiosde also magnified a huge question that we’ve had on this show from day one: Who are you inside?
Who are you without your family, your friends, your day to day life? Who do you choose to be once it’s all gone? We’re already seeing who Rick is without Carl, but who is Jadis without her people and who is Negan without his army?
Let’s talk The Walking Dead’s “The Lost and the Plunderers”!
Rick and Michonne’s Sorrow Over Losing Carl
Death’s on TV are only made better/stronger by the episodes after the passing. It’s a testament to the shows writing if the people on the show ACTUALLY look like they’re still mourning, which a lot of TV shows forget about.
Rick and Michonne are still mourning and they’re not going to stop anytime soon. They’re not going to stop living, that’s not what Carl wanted from them. But they’re going to see him at every turn, think about him when things get hard, and wish that he was there when Judith does something cute and adorable. They’ll still be mourning.
Michonne is better at expressing herself. She tried to save the gazebo that Carl sat at and couldn’t help but press her hand against the hand print that her surrogate son left on the porch. She’ll heal sooner. Now Rick, he’s another story. Right now he’s in a spiral, his mind focusing on Negan as the reason his kind was killed instead of accepting the fact that Carl died helping people.
A walker killed Carl. Not Negan. And it’ll be interesting to see how his death, and the sorrow that comes from it, play into their actions.
Who is Jadis Now That She’s Alone?
I’ve never liked Jadis, let’s make that clear. From day one her and her garbage peeps drove me insane with their way of speaking and general “whatever” when it came to helping people or honoring agreements. In general, they were untrustworthy people that in some ways were worse than Negan. He actually keeps his promises.
“The Lost and the Plunderers” made me feel pity and sorrow for Jadis and what she lost at the hands of the Saviors. Without her people she was lost. No longer was she this leader of a group of monosyllabic group of artists with slicked back hair that chilled in the garbage heaps. She was the Jadis before the apocalypse; alone, scared, drifting through life and desperate to find somewhere she belongs.
I felt for Jadis. I saw her pain and understood her for the first time since she came on screen. Like Rick and Michonne, she has been stripped of something she cared deeply for, her people. Now she must decide what comes next. Does she sit back? Does she wallow? Does she let these crimes against her people go? Or does she try to do better? Does she try to reinvent herself like we’ve seen Rick & Co. do plenty of times into someone stronger, fiercer, and better at handling this world?
Whatever comes next, I’m actually interested in who Jadis is and what kind of woman she decides to be by the time season 8 ends.
Negan’s Remorse For Carl’s Death Felt Real
Yes, Negan is the worst. And yes, he took it too far by blaming Rick for Carl’s death. Rick trusted his son and knew him to be a capable fighter in the face of this zombie world. Yes, Carl died by getting bit but it doesn’t erase that his kid was someone he trusted. Keeping all of this in mind, including Negan’s dick move of blaming it on Rick, I still felt like Negan was…kind of hurt by Carl’s death.
Am I the only one who saw the pain in his eyes? The hesitation in his voice? The actual remorse on his face? He thought that out of everyone of Rick’s group, that Carl would survive. And if you’ve read the comic you know that their relationship turned into something more fascinating and surprising. (But no spoilers. Go and read the comics. Buy those bad boys and support the show!)
Things are shifting for Negan. His men are lying to him, he’s losing the communities around him, and the kid he thought would be part of the new world order, is now gone. Slowly, even if he doesn’t realize it, his time as leader is coming to an end. When that time comes, like Jadis, he will have to decide what kind of man he’ll be and what steps to take going forward.
Here’s hoping that Negan doesn’t turn into another Governor.
Check out the trailer for next week’s all new The Walking Dead:
The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.
