‘The Walking Dead’ Recap: ‘Bonds’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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There are, a great many reasons why I watch and adore The Walking Dead. But of those, one of my genuine favorites is the sheer fact that this series does a phenomenal job of setting up its future. Because year in and year out, there are often subtle and grand hints as to what we might encounter as the season rolls on, or in the case of the ‘All Out War’ story arc, the heartbreak that might come our way when our intrepid heroes run into a particular group, such as the Saviors. If anything, all of this is on my mind today, simply due to the fact that last night’s episode of the series, ‘Bonds’, took the time to play the setup game in epic fashion, starting with a grandiose introduction of the world that lies beyond Virginia.
 
That was explored by way of Eugene’s journey in this tale. For a simple upgrade of the radio system over at Hilltop produced an unexpected result in that, someone from far away answered and was willing to chat with Eugene for hours on end. And this was actually quite a lovely little vignette to enjoy since we got to see Eugene’s softer side once again, and learn a little more about his past, all while being reminded of how small our world really is, even at the end of the world apparently. But what matters the most here is that there are clearly other communities out there, and while we didn’t learn much about the mysterious woman on the other end of the radio, it’s clear that Eugene is determined to learn more about where she’s from, setting up future discoveries and surprises.
 
However, while all of that was pleasant and fun in its own right, it was the only positive setup present in this particular tale. For the rest of the episode more or less provided us with a sense that there is some serious trouble on the horizon for the communities now locked in a struggle with the Whisperers and Alexandria might suffer some unexpected losses in this fight, and soon. Because a great deal of people there are suddenly suffering from a strange illness, one that aches the stomach and leaves its victim with a fever, and it is spreading and honestly, I cannot help but wonder if this is a result of Alpha’s work to mess with the rivers nearby. Because if you recall, Gamma was slicing open the dead before sending those corpses downriver to create a dam, and if Alexandria is using water from these rivers for consumption, small amounts of the rotten contents of those bodies could be creating this illness. Plus, this segment of the story also made Siddiq’s situation all the more harrowing since he’s still struggling with his memories of Alpha, and how his journey ended in this tale raises more questions than answers about where his loyalties lie.
 
Yet while that alone would have been enough to leave us gravely concerned about the future of this community, there were still more harbingers of doom to be found in this tale, and one of them involved Daryl and Carol. Because our favorite Dixon brother decided to join his best friend on a little mission, one designed to uncover the location of Alpha’s horde, so that it could be destroyed and well, a mission filled with sitting and idle chat, ended up quite tense when all is said and done. For it is obvious now that Daryl is filled with concern in regard to his BFF, and is taking more extreme steps to understand where she is at mentally right now, even going so far as to search her bag while they were out in the wild, and really the implication here is that their Biffle-ship might be in jeopardy now that Carol is locked in a dark place and that was only compounded further by what came next.

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​For eventually they realized that the only way to truly discover the location of the horde, was to violate the treaty and cross over into Whisperer territory and while this should have been a routine scouting run, it quickly turned into quite a disaster. Because Carol made a smidgen of noise, and that of course led to a tense chase sequence where the Whisperers tried to discover whether man or animal made that noise, and while Daryl was quick to disguise himself with blood in order to evade detection, Carol was far less subtle about the true nature of why she came out into the woods on this day. Granted, she was being honest about trying to learn more about the horde, but she wanted a prisoner, all in the hopes of gathering intel on Alpha and her plans, something that she was successful in obtaining and well, her lies and her fury are only putting a deeper wedge between her and her best friend and of course, no good can come from placing a Whisperer in custody.
 
But truly, the centerpiece of the night once again involved the legend that is Negan, only because we came to learn what happened to him shortly after his quick and violent run-in with Beta last week and as it turns out, Negan was all about signing up to join the Whisperers’ cause. But I think we can all agree upon the fact that he really doesn’t seem to be the strong and silent type, especially when one considers that he offers up some of the finest one-liners this show has to offer. But that didn’t stop him from expressing his desire to put on a skin suit and walk amongst the dead and surprisingly Alpha was willing to see whether or not he was up to the task of immersing himself within the strange lifestyle that these people have chosen to embrace, and she asked Beta to test him like never before to see if he was in fact, worthy.
 
Which led to quite the hilarious sequence of events wherein Negan kept proving Beta wrong as he accomplished every single task that was asked of him, and he even kept his cool when the second-in-command kept him away from food. But despite his best efforts to fit-in, Negan simply couldn’t win Beta over and the hulking Whisperer decided it best to just let Negan be devoured by the dead and be done with it. But much to the Whisperers’ surprise, you can’t keep an enigmatic frenemy down and Negan emerged victorious from his encounter with the dead and even took a knee to pledge his allegiance to Alpha and well, it doesn’t get more foreboding than the possibility of two powerhouse villains, joining forces in the hopes of bringing down a mutual enemy and that’s precisely what the implication is here and that’s terrifying to say the least.
 
However, I’m still not sold on that being Negan’s true intention, and the fact that some of Alpha’s flock were quick to feed him and hold him in awe when he walked back into that camp, alongside some of his discussions with Beta on the nature of leadership, leaves me wondering if he’s trying to put himself back in charge of a group of people once again. Or if this is indeed a long con designed to topple the Whisperers. Either way, this is truly the top storyline to keep an eye upon in the days to come and when all is said and done, this was quite the cool episode. Because there is so much to chew upon in this one and so many grandiose setups for the future that it quite frankly, left me hungry for more. For all of this foreshadowing makes it clear there are some powerful moments ahead, the kind that may change the landscape of the show and that means I’ll be counting down the minutes until next week’s episode to see how these plot points develop further as we barrel toward what might be an explosive midseason finale. Until next time. 

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