- With the winter finale creeping up next Sunday, this week’s episode of The Walking Dead revealed a lot of secrets setting up for a fall out of epic proportions. “Open Your Eyes” had characters doing just that, sometimes with deadly consequences. Oh, and Michael Cudlitz (Abraham) directed this episode, again!
An Eyeful of Daryl
Okay, look. I’m just going to start with the most important part of the episode that had Daryl Dixon stans screaming across the internet. Michael Cutlitz knew what ya’ll needed.
Shirtless Daryl.
Shirtless Daryl snuggling his dog.
Shirtless Daryl snuggling his dog and looking longingly at the acorns he saved from his outing with Carol in last week’s episode.
Sure, Daryl and Carol were at odds sometimes during the episode and he’s going to be super pissed about the whole Lydia thing, but shippers can live on tiny things like acorns for a very long time. I loved that Daryl backed her when the council freaked out about her hostage, but he is heavily against her treatment of Lydia.
We’ll see how he reacts next week when Carol returns without the teenager. In the meantime, we have this Daryl/Dog scene to enjoy forever.
I Freaking Told Tou So
Remember in the past few weeks when I was calling Dante shady AF? I feel highly vindicated now. I KNEW that dude was a Whisperer spy. And when the nightshade thing happened and he blamed Siddiq, my suspicions only grew.
However, I did not expect the reveal to happen in this episode, and I didn’t expect him to murder Siddiq! Poor guy, his PTSD was indeed being made worse by Dante. And his eyes finally opened as to what was really going on and he died right away.
And in case you’re wondering, I’m not okay about Siddiq’s death. Siddiq was such a good guy, and he will definitely be missed in Alexandria. Not just for his doctoring skills (no doc lasts forever), but for his kindness, love, and brain. And little CoCo will not have her Daddy growing up. And remember our sweet Carl died for Siddiq! Don’t mind me, I’ll just be off in the corner, crying.
I sure hope that he told someone else about the water poisoning situation before Dante killed him. And I hope Rosita is the one who gets very violent revenge for Siddiq’s death.
What Are You Doing, Lydia?
Okay so maybe Carol using Lydia like that to show Gamma that Alpha lied about killing her daughter was a little bit rude (and against Daryl’s advice), but running off into the woods was not a smart plan. She’s between teams at the moment, so she’s a wild card moving forward. If she rejoins the Whisperers, all hell will break loose because of Alpha’s lie. But she doesn’t want to go back to Alexandria after the way she’s been treated.
Will she reconnect with Negan in the future and he can help her decide where to go? And burning question – since they made a point to show that she recognized the captured Whisperer, why didn’t she say anything about Dante? I’ve always been on Team Lydia, but now I’m kind of suspicious.
Gamma is Conflicted
I loved the scenes between Gamma and Aaron. I know she’s dying to ask about what happened to her sister’s baby. How cute is it that Aaron is carrying around a drawing that his daughter made in his backpack?
I love that Aaron called her out right away for trying to get info. The Whisperers think that the Alexandrians are dumb, but they have to be somewhat smart to have survived for this long. Thora Birch’s acting was on point in this episode – showing her conflict over her sister’s death and her loyalty toward Alpha.
And I really felt for her at the end when she found out the truth about Lydia – she killed her sister based on Alpha’s lie! I hope she turns next week and helps the Alexandrians, but who knows if the gaslight campaign by Alpha will spin her doubts in a new direction.
Next Week on the Finale
Mid-season finales are tricky. We could get answers to our burning questions, or we could be left with plenty of cliffhangers. I’m guessing the Whisperers will be the villain throughout the rest of the year, so we may not get a climax for the whole Negan among the bad guys thing. And really, it’s a race between, him, Gamma and Carol as to who is going to take out Alpha.
In the preview for next week, we caught a glimpse of Judith and Michonne. Those two have been absent from the last few episodes and I miss them. We only have so many episodes left with Michonne, and it’s a shame that we don’t get to see her every week.
I’ve absolutely loved this season so far, and I will be sad to see it take a time out for a few months.
The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.
