The Walking Dead Season 8, Episode 6: "The King, the Widow, and Rick"
by Phil AkinWarning: This review may contain spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of The Walking Dead.
A lot happens in “The King, The Widow, and Rick”, and yet nothing really happens. This episode jumps around more than a kangaroo on crack. That’s not to say it's bad by any means, because this episode does sow a bunch of seeds. It’s just that there is little overall plot advancement. There are a lot of match-ups this episode that are intriguing though. We have pairings with interesting characters like Maggie and Jesus, Carl and Siddiq, and Michonne and Rosita (well, maybe not her). Does the story move forward? Yes, but not by much.
To kick things off, Jerry has a new axe! I was very sad when he broke the other one in the episode from a few couple weeks ago, so I’m glad to see that he has a new weapon. He still insists on playing along with the whole “King” act, even though Ezekiel doesn’t seem to care anymore. Ezekiel is still wallowing in sorrow over the unnecessary loss of Shiva. Since the Kingdom is running low on fighters, Carol becomes a recruiter for child soldiers, albeit reluctantly. What could possibly go wrong?
Image from Geek Chic Elite
Maggie has probably the most interesting storyline this episode. She deals primarily with Jesus and the Saviors. Jesus, having a good heart, tries to take care of the Saviors by giving them food and water. Maggie understandably doesn’t like this, and to keep Jesus somewhat satisfied, she locks all the captured Saviors into a cage inside the Hilltop’s walls. But the beautiful thing about this makeshift prison is that everyone’s favorite douchebag Gregory is thrown in there as well. Gregory will most likely try to gain the favor of the captured Saviors, but only time will tell if he’ll have the spine to lead them if that does happen. On another note, Jared seems prime to die at any time now, as he planned on breaking out of this cage twice, but was stopped both times. Perhaps Morgan will kill Jared before he leaves for Fear the Walking Dead.
Although Siddiq takes a departure from his comic book counterpart, the scenes between Carl and Siddiq were incredibly appealing to me. It’s always nice when the group gets a new member. Hopefully AMC doesn’t kill him off next week. Carl takes a page out of Rick’s book and questions Siddiq, making sure that he’s trustworthy enough to let into Alexandria. Carl also speaks about how sometimes the kid needs to show the parents the way. Typically, stuff like that tends to come back around, so we’ll have to wait and see how Carl shows up his dad. Maybe he will convince Rick to spare Negan?
Rick has his own interesting little adventure in this episode: he tries to talk Jadis into joining his group again. The show finally reveals why Rick was taking pictures with the Polaroid in previous episodes. It was to prove to the Scavengers that the Saviors had been beaten (or so they think). However, Jadis and her group think that Rick’s threatening them, so naturally they strip him naked and lock him up. One can’t help but wonder if this is all a part of Rick’s overall plan, or if it’s going completely off the rails. After all, Daryl seems to really be into disobeying Rick now.
Image from AMC
Speaking of Daryl, why is he still here? He isn’t really serving a purpose anymore outside of becoming an antagonist for Rick. He killed Morales, who could’ve been a new and interesting subplot. He killed Todd after Rick told him that he’d be spared. Not to mention he got into a fistfight with Rick. Daryl is on his way to becoming a villain. Don’t be surprised if he outright turns on Rick. You heard it here first: Rick will either kick Daryl out of the group or put him in the prison cell that Morgan built. As much as I’d like to say Daryl will die, I doubt that will happen.
But in all seriousness, the scene with Daryl and Tara crashing into that Savior truck with all the speakers was cool to see. Almost as cool as when Rosita shot that Savior with an RPG. At pretty much point-blank range, seemingly without any recoil too. There isn’t much of a budget with that explosion either. Guess they used it all on Shiva in previous episodes. What will happen with Rick? Will Gregory try to kill or harm Maggie for locking him in with the Saviors? Will Daryl become a minor villain, or even a major one?
