The Walking Dead S6 E12: Not Tomorrow Yet

Of course the plan went to hell at the end. The capture of Maggie and Carol shows why you do not send a pregnant woman out on a murderous raid. I don’t mean to be sexist and suggest that pregnant women are all delicate little flowers who can’t handle anything but perhaps it was not the smartest idea to send Maggie out with the kill squad. There are more prudent ways to help out and it’s not like Maggie hasn’t contributed anything: that negotiation last week was a masterstroke. Granted, she was supposed to be a lookout, and maybe Carol’s hesitance in letting Maggie help is what got them captured, but still.

Of course, when has anything gone right for this group? I really didn’t expect them to waltz in and claim Negan’s empire unchallenged.

The raid on Negan’s headquarters was exciting and nightmarish. It was very chilling to watch Glenn and everybody stab those guys in the head in their sleep (and they were really heavy sleepers; I would have awoken at the first sound). The Walking Dead is making an effort to paint Negan’s people as brutal, given the Polaroids of humans whose skulls were crushed by the Neganites.

The show better have a hell of a payoff for how brutal Negan is because it will need to justify the awful brutality displayed by Rick and company. This is the first time they have ever crossed the line of straight-up murdering people for food. To its credit, the show does not take these actions lightly, with characters feeling real agony over having to commit mass murder (and the guy with long hair being unable to do it at all). We can all have a lively debate about how justified the group’s actions are but if you look at it objectively, you have to wonder who is in the right here.

Speaking of agonizing over murder, Carol is back in a big way after being absent the last few weeks. I liked the part with her keeping a running total of the people she’s killed so far because, even if she had no choice but to kill, it gives the murders some weight. If you think about it, killing 18 people puts Carol up there with some famous mass murderers and of course it will take a toll after awhile.

The past is starting to haunt Carol, with her dumping out that acorn-beet (mmm!) cookie on that kid’s grave in a nod to guilt. Maybe she feels that the end is near, what with taking up smoking (unconvincingly) and hooking up with that townie and all the wistful talk of motherhood. I hope they’re not doing the classic move of all of that extra character development just to kill her off because Carol is by far my favorite.

The way Abraham dumped Patty/Marge/Whatshername was just unnecessarily cruel. She didn’t do anything to deserve that. You think he’d realize that he will still have to see her every day and not burn any bridges so badly. It's not like he can just move away to a nicer neighborhood.