There Are Spoilers In Our The Walking Dead: Do Not Send Us Astray Review – Episode Discussion
So episode 13 of the 8th season of The Walking Dead just aired and in this one, Simon and the rest of the Saviours mount an attack on The Hilltop as per Simon’s wishes expressed in the last episode. Will Simon however be successful and what might happen as a result?
For the most part, this episode is one of the most action packed ones recently. Simon’s attack I thought was enjoyable to watch and there was a lot of shooting between The Hilltop and The Saviours. This combined with the tense atmosphere of one group going in there for revenge (Simon’s group) and the other fighting to survive (Maggie’s group), meant that things got pretty serious very quickly.
Simon having not planned things very well seemed to not really have a way in until Daryl rode by on his bike and had the central gate opened as he went inside the Hilltop, this allowed Simon to have the opportunity for him and the rest of The Saviours to get in before Maggie and the rest of her people could close it.
The Saviours looked to be taking a lot of ground initially as The Hilltop retreated into the house, but it was all a trap and they were waiting for Simon’s group to come more inside before they started retaliating. Rick also appeared in this episode with a few others and flanked The Saviours from behind until they all rallied and retreated. It’s a small victory in the war of Rick’s, but not one that came without a cost as Maggie points out after the initial fight.
A few episodes ago we saw Negan mention his intention to scare everyone by dipping things in the blood of The Walkers and having the people at The Hilltop turn as he thew infected stuff into the town somehow. It seems that although Simon had ditched this as a scare tactic, things were not all forgotten and there were several arrows used as well as other weapons which wounded quite a few people at The Hilltop. When they were treated and thought to be safe, it was not until the night when they all turned and started eating everyone one by one.
The whole thing with the people turning at night caught everyone by surprise and did take quite the toll on The Hilltop and especially Maggie. We see her after the first battle counting the cost of the lost lives and again at the end of the episode mad about the amount of graves that were now there. It’s “the cost” she says. This is likely going to put Maggie’s character on some type of path of revenge, but what she could do or what she might do from here I’m not so sure. Rick is still the leader and I know he needs to somehow find a way to save everyone. This has me curious as to what’s to come for us in later episodes of the show.
It looks to me that while The Saviours didn’t exactly win the fight in this episode, the cost was massive to The Hilltop and they didn’t really win either. I think a few episodes ago when Simon said that the people at The Hilltop “don’t scare” was true, even after all this, we don’t see that with Maggie or anyone else. They’re all insanely bent on surviving and they will all get through this somehow, they just don’t break.
I also wonder about Simon as a leader of The Saviours. During his first fight he had a complete disregard for the people Maggie had as prisoners and they all know about it, they heard him. His own people would know what he said too as they were all behind him, if they care at all for their friends this can’t really be good for Simon.
Overall this was an interesting action based episode of the show. There were quite a few developments following Simon’s attack on The Hilltop which brought a massive cost both to Maggie and the people that she leads there. With both Maggie and Rick now at the Hilltop together, I’m super keen to see these characters interact with each other more in the future as they’ve been separated for so long now in the show. I’d also like to mention that I thought the performance from Lauren Cohan was exceptional this week and I also really enjoyed Andrew Lincoln’s intensity during the action sequences in this one. Looking forward to see what happens next week.
The Walking Dead airs express from the US on Mondays from at 1.30pm and 7:30pm on Showcase on Foxtel
