Gene Page/AMC(NEW YORK) — Rick and company got ready to fight back against Negan and his Saviors, on Sunday night’s mid-season finale of The Walking Dead.
Maggie pays her respects at Glenn’s Hilltop grave, and then takes the wall at Hilltop.
At Alexandria, Negan shaves and makes a spaghetti dinner for Carl and Rick — who still hasn’t arrived from his supply run.
At the Sanctuary, Daryl takes his mysterious note and key, and slips his cell.
On their supply run, Rick and Aaron prepare to make their treacherous lake crossing in a hole-filled boat over a walker-filled lake.
At Alexandria, Spencer makes inroads with Negan’s crew showing off the goods he’s found and requesting a meeting with him.
Meanwhile, at Carol’s house, Morgan pays a visit. She insists she wants to left alone. Just then, a Kingdom member visits, saying he needs to talk.
At the Sanctuary, Daryl sneaks out. He manages to find clothes and scarfs down peanut butter.
At the lake, Rick and Aaron struggle to get to the boathouse, walkers in the water everywhere. Aaron falls in, but makes it against all odds.
The pair get to the boathouse, which is loaded with guns. They also find a note with a drawing of a middle finger on it — presumably from the guns’ owner.
As they leave the scene, it becomes obvious they were being watched by a figure in boots.
Michonne, in the car with the redheaded Savior, questions her about Negan and his camp. She stays silent.
At the Hilltop, Sasha plots to leave Maggie behind and kill Morgan on her own.
At Maggie’s house, the Kingdom member tells Carol she needs to convince King Ezekiel to fight the saviors. She refuses and sends him away.
Back at the Sanctuary, Daryl continues his escape. He runs into Fat Joey; he tells him he can escape if he doesn’t hurt him. Instead, Daryl bludgeons him, just as Jesus spots him and they flee together — but not before Daryl finds Rick’s trademark pistol on the fat corpse and takes it.
Michonne and the redheaded Savior pulls up on the hill. When Michonne sees the breadth of Negan’s army, she has second thoughts. The Savior tells her to leave, but to kill her before she escapes.
At Alexandria, Spencer and Negan have a drink, and a game of pool al fresco.
Rick and Aaron pull up and offload their found gear. When Negan’s goon finds the middle finger note, he thinks Aaron is insulting him and throws him a beating. Rick is helpless.
Over their game of pool, Spencer makes his move, explaining he’d make a better leader than Rick.
Negan explains Rick swallowing his hate and working for him takes guts, whereas Spencer waiting for Rick to leave to scheme didn’t take any. So Negan cuts Spencer open to find his.
Rosita stands up, and raises her gun and fires her single bullet. Cut to commercial.
We learn the shot hits Negan’s beloved bat Lucille, saving his life. He flips out. Negan questions Rosita about who could have made the bullet; she insists it was her. She gets cut in the face as payback for scarring Lucille.
Negan then orders one of his henchwomen to kill someone and she shoots Olivia, just as Rick runs to the scene.
Negan tells Rick he’s done him a bunch of favors: he spared Carl — even fed him spaghetti; he killed the scheming Spencer, and saved them all from feeding another person — and based on Olivia’s girth, it’s quite a favor.
Eugene comes clean and takes the blame for the bullet. Negan takes him away. Dead Spencer turns and Rick kills him.
Later on, Michonne returns, explaining how badly they’re outnumbered. She tells Rick that they have to fight anyway. He agrees.
The episode ends where it began: Maggie paying tribute to Glenn’s Hilltop grave, then taking watch on the fence.
This time, she spots Rick, Michonne, Carl, and Rosita, Tara and rest of Grimes’ gang. Once inside Hilltop, Rick spots Daryl. They hug, overcome. Daryl gives Rick his Colt Python back. He tells Maggie she was right: “We have to fight.”
After darkness falls, a lone figure watches Alexandria: it’s the boot-wearing guy who watched Rick and Aaron take the boathouse booty.
The Walking Dead returns to AMC Sunday, February 12.
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