'The Walking Dead' Recap: 'How It's Gotta Be'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK... 

You know I have to admit, that the live action version of ‘All Out War’ on The Walking Dead has been nothing short of spectacular. There was a grand opportunity here to romanticize The Alliance’s battle with the Saviors and make Rick and the gang look like perfect heroes. After all, their cause is just, their plight powerful and their stance on why they need to fight is in many ways the age-old notion of ‘Good vs. Evil’ come to life. But the series has refused to make this conflict beautiful or black and white, instead it’s been one brutal affair.
 
After all, people have died, and died badly in this conflict and we’ve felt the gravity of their loss through and through. We’ve seen some people blur the lines between what’s right and what’s wrong and we’ve had a taste of the bad guys’ perspective and come to understand that they don’t necessarily view themselves as evil in the slightest and last night’s midseason finale of the show, ‘How It’s Gotta Be’, added another new wrinkle into that fold by showing us just how hard the Saviors will fight to further their cause and how far they’re willing to go to ensure that their side lives to see another day.
 
Granted, I think we all knew that trouble was on the horizon since the Saviors were free from the sea of the dead surrounding the Sanctuary and it didn’t take long for that trouble to find its way to the respective communities of the Alliance, and thankfully, The Kingdom was at least shown some level of mercy by the Saviors, since Gavin gave everyone there the maximum amount of time possible to turn over King Ezekiel without hurting them, only to get his hands on the King when Ezekiel finally found the courage to fight back and distract the Saviors long enough to get his people to safety. If anything, it was a touch refreshing to see a member of the Saviors such as Gavin not open fire in impatient fashion, and try to be reasonable…but that was the last time we would see that kind of mercy in this tale.
 
For Simon found the Hilltop’s convoy on the road, and used Jerry’s life and the sacrifice of another as bargaining chips to get Maggie and the Hilltop back in line, or rather, seemingly back in line since Maggie clearly has other plans in mind to resist. But despite the fact that this segment of the story was tense and harrowing to say the least, even the Hilltop still fared better than the true focus of Negan’s revenge…Alexandria. Because this once tranquil community faced all of the man’s wrath since Negan was willing to burn the place to the ground to teach everyone there a lesson and it was simply heartbreaking to watch building after building and house after house explode and burn and while these tough and ugly moments would have been enough to carry the entire hour, this episode was filled to the brim with so much more. 

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Case in point, this midyear finale also served as perhaps the beginning of Eugene’s long road back to redemption. Since the pain he’s carrying in his heart revolving around the fact that he in essence turned Negan loose upon the world once again, motivated him to finally do something good for a change since he took the time to give a guard intestinal distress in order to get Gabriel and the Doctor out of the Sanctuary and back to Hilltop and one has to wonder, that since Dwight’s treachery has now been revealed, if this act from Eugene signifies a changing of the guard, where Eugene will now handle all the sabotage of the Saviors’ plans behind the scenes in order to help the Alliance after they regroup. However, while this little moment was beautiful and uplifting in its own right, and served as a lovely contrast to Negan’s vendetta. It, and everything that came before it, were overshadowed by Carl Grimes’ journey in this episode.
 
Because the younger Grimes served as quite the hero in this episode. He was the one that organized an escape plan for everyone in Alexandria, and even had the guts to stand at the gates and try to reason with Negan, and hey let’s be honest…it almost seemed as though he reached the man on some wild and fundamental level. But in the end, all of these incredible moments from Carl, were to serve as a last hurrah of sorts, and his fearlessness in this tale, and his bravery all came from a simple mindset in that…Carl had nothing to lose, because Carl Grimes is dying. In the midst of his fight with the walkers when he went to retrieve Siddiq from the madness of the wilderness, Carl was bitten by a walker, and now, he is merely counting down the minutes until he passes into that great beyond and thankfully, it would seem that his death will not be in vain. 
 
I say that, simply due to the fact that Carl has been working toward something more in season eight. He’s been trying desperately to teach his father that there is a grand opportunity sitting in front of Rick Grimes to flat out change the world. Once the fighting is over, once the anger has subsided, Rick and everyone in the Alliance can finally do things right. There can be a day where humanity no longer fights amongst itself, and is no longer motivated by selfish goals, if they only look at the opportunity the species has been afforded and focus on doing good things for one another, then they can accomplish wonders, and while this lesson may not be apparent in the short term, since Rick is clearly going to grieve over the loss of his son…Siddiq’s survival will likely help it sink in. Because in essence, Carl gave his life to save another human being and that kind of sacrifice, will resonate with the people of Alexandria, and Rick for that matter as well…
 
However, make no mistake about it, this was a devastating episode. Alexandria lies in ruin. The Kingdom is empty and ablaze and the Hilltop is licking its wounds and a father, who has given so much to protect his family…must now watch his son waste away into a monster and this is definitely an episode that gave me great pause when it came to an end. But how Rick responds to his son’s death in the days ahead is what matters most. Because unfortunately, there is still a war to be fought, Negan still wants Rick’s head on a pike and failure means slavery for these fledging communities and all of those matters will no doubt be handled in the back half of season eight. So, in the here and the now, all the fans can do is mourn for Carl Grimes, brace themselves for his death, and wait to see how the Alliance triumphs over The Saviors so that mankind can finally get a well-deserved second chance. Until next time.  

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