It's interesting to think that at this time last week I was talking about how Rick and Negan were switching spots in their likability. It seemed like they were making a concerted effort to level the playing field and make their final confrontation (or at least the end of the war) more of a difficult thing mentally for viewers to process. However, now that this episode has almost switched that completely, I'm not sure how the finale will play out. Which, to the show's credit, was presented brilliantly by bookending the episode with a note from Carl to Rick and then Negan respectively.
It's weird to think Carl has had a bigger impact once he passed on the show than he did while he was alive. The impact of his letters are finally being felt. And I can't say that I didn't feel a significant amount of emotion when Rick was reading through Carl's letter as he wrote about everything from reminiscing to when he was a kid eating Friday night pizza to his time with Negan. There's something to be said for this show finally making its way towards building for a future rather than fighting for the present. It sure looks like we are getting that soon, whether that includes Rick & Negan alongside each other or not.
The big (albeit expected) death was that of Simon. His and Dwight's time on the show were numbered, but it was just a matter of who was going down first. Perhaps fittingly, Dwight double crossed Simon, who was then outed himself by Laura, the mysterious passenger Negan picked up in his car last week. I was always more interested in the Dwight character than I was with Simon, and so I was happy to see we got at least one more week with Austin Amelio, even if we had to let go of the brilliant Steven Ogg (who I've come around on quite a bit the past 2 seasons).
Overall, it was another solid episode in a very good second half of season 8. We're in a good place going into the finale next week.
8.3/10
It's weird to think Carl has had a bigger impact once he passed on the show than he did while he was alive. The impact of his letters are finally being felt. And I can't say that I didn't feel a significant amount of emotion when Rick was reading through Carl's letter as he wrote about everything from reminiscing to when he was a kid eating Friday night pizza to his time with Negan. There's something to be said for this show finally making its way towards building for a future rather than fighting for the present. It sure looks like we are getting that soon, whether that includes Rick & Negan alongside each other or not.
The big (albeit expected) death was that of Simon. His and Dwight's time on the show were numbered, but it was just a matter of who was going down first. Perhaps fittingly, Dwight double crossed Simon, who was then outed himself by Laura, the mysterious passenger Negan picked up in his car last week. I was always more interested in the Dwight character than I was with Simon, and so I was happy to see we got at least one more week with Austin Amelio, even if we had to let go of the brilliant Steven Ogg (who I've come around on quite a bit the past 2 seasons).
Overall, it was another solid episode in a very good second half of season 8. We're in a good place going into the finale next week.
8.3/10