(Spoiler Alert: Do not keep reading if you did not see this week’s episode of “The Walking Dead”)
“The Walking Dead” took us deep inside The Saviors’ Sanctuary this week, with Carl (Chandler Riggs) going rogue in an attempt to kill Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and free Alexandria from his grasp once and for all.
Carl and Jesus (Tom Payne) start off in the back of the truck we saw them climb into back at Hilltop. Jesus deduces that they will be arriving soon and it would be wise to jump out and tail the truck the rest of the way. Carl seems nervous and suggests Jesus go first so Carl can see how best to jump.
Once Jesus jumps off, he watches Carl continue on with the truck. At the Sanctuary, Carl grabs an assault rifle out of a crate and lies in wait. Negan comes out as his men start unloading things. One of them notices Carl and Carl opens fire, killing two men.
A tense standoff ensues that ends with Carl being tackled by Dwight (Austin Amelio). Rather than kill him, however, Negan decides to have some fun with Carl instead. Morgan continues to demonstrate his ability with the Negan role, taking a bite out of every scene with the sociopathic glee he has cultivated as the character.
Negan takes Carl to meet his many wives, a group of Savior women who agreed to “marry” him in exchange for special treatment for them and their loved ones. But all is not well in Negan’s love nest. One of his wives had a dalliance with her former man, causing him to fail to perform an assigned task. He interrogates the woman, and she tearfully confesses.
At the Sanctuary, Negan takes Carl to his private quarters and forces him to remove the bandage over his eye. Carl unwillingly complies, but exposing the wound makes him weep. Negan tells him that his missing eye is a sign of toughness and that Carl should not cover it up.
Negan then goes to administer the punishment for the Savior who slept with his wife. He has the man tied to a chair and gives a speech to everyone about the importance of following the rules. Dwight has fired up a massive furnace in the Sanctuary and hands Negan a red hot iron that has been heating up inside.
Negan takes the iron and uses it to burn the man’s face, just like he previously did to Dwight. We sickeningly get to see the man’s melted skin stick to the iron as Negan pulls it off, with the man having passed out in shock. Afterwards, Dwight and Sherry (Christine Evangelista) share a terse moment together in a back stairwell.
Spencer finds a walker up in a deer blind, tied to the tree. He uses a grappling hook to pull down the man’s compound bow, but inadvertently brings the walker down too. Going through its pockets, he finds a note written in Latin.
Elsewhere, Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Eugene (Josh McDermitt) have gone to make Rosita a bullet. Eugene again tries to talk her out of it, but she insults him as a coward and he meekly gets to work for her.
Back in his room, Negan asks Carl what his punishment should be for killing two Saviors. Carl says if Negan was smart, he would kill everyone at Alexandria because they will fight him no matter what.
Negan seems amused with Carl and decides to take him home. Before leaving, he stops off to insult Daryl (Norman Reedus). As Negan’s truck leaves the gates, we see Jesus stowed away on top, but he disappears and continues scouting the Sanctuary.
Back in his cell, someone slides a note under Daryl’s door that says “Go now.” Attached to the back of it are a single match and a key.
Back near Alexandria, Michonne (Danai Gurira) has assembled a pile of walkers and laid them across the road. When a Savior scout drives up and exits her car, Michonne takes her hostage, demanding to be taken to Negan.
Out on the road, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Aaron (Ross Marquand) come across a gated property. They investigate and believe it could contain a large cache of weapons and food. The only problem: they are stored in a houseboat in a middle of a lake filled with walkers left their as security.
Negan arrives at Alexandria and revels in telling Olivia (Ann Mahoney) that he would be happy to sleep with her if she’d like. He also finds Judith in her crib and begins carrying her around, telling her that he could easily kill her father and brother and move himself into the community permanently.
'The Walking Dead': The Most Shocking and Disturbing Deaths So Far
"The Walking Dead" has never been shy about gore and death, but some characters' demises hit harder than others. Now that the final season is upon us, let's take a look back at the carnage from past seasons.
Andrea's sister Amy (Emma Bell) was the first sympathetic named character to go, when a random walker bit her at camp.
AMC
The death of Jim (Andrew Rothenberg) in Season 1 showed the characters how to treat a bitten person for the first time.
AMC
Sophia (Madison Lintz) was beloved by all, but Rick did not hesitate when it came time to pull the trigger when she became a walker.
AMC
Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) was the moral compass of the group, so it was upsetting on several levels when a zombie ripped his guts out.
AMC
Shane (Jon Bernthal) was ready to kill Rick over his love triangle with Lori, but Rick acted first.
AMC
T-Dog (IronE Singleton) gave his life to save Carol from walkers when the group tried to take the prison.
AMC
Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) died during childbirth, prompting Carl to shoot her in the head to prevent her reanimation.
AMC
Daryl's brother Merle (Michael Rooker) finally tried to be a good man by defying the Governor -- and it got him a bullet in the heart from the Governor himself and a new life as a zombie.
AMC
Andrea (Laurie Holden) failed to see The Governor for what he was -- a bad guy -- and paid the ultimate price.
AMC
Hershel (Scott Wilson) wanted peace, but The Governor took his head to prove a point to Rick.
AMC
Tyreese (Chad Coleman) let his guard down for a just a moment, but long enough to get bitten by a walker.
AMC
Lizzie (Brighton Sharbino) killed her sister Mika (Kyla Kenedy) before Carol shot Lizzie in the back of the head.
AMC
Beth (Emily Kinney) finally had enough of Dawn, the tyrannical overlord of Grady Memorial Hospital, stabbing her with a pair of scissors as a parting gift. But Dawn immediately shot Beth in the head -- prompting Daryl to in turn shoot Dawn.
AMC
Noah (Tyler James Williams) endured one of the most gruesome deaths in "Walking Dead" history thanks to Nicholas.
AMC
Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge), Ron (Austin Abrams) and Sam (Major Dodson) all died within seconds of each other. Sam got eaten when the horde invaded Alexandria. Jessie died as she tried to save him. Ron then attempted to kill Rick, but got stabbed by Michonne and was subsequently eaten.
AMC
Abraham (Michael Cuditz) was the one we had to wait six months to see murdered by Negan. He, of course, got his head beaten in with Negan's barbwire-wrapped baseball bat, Lucille.
AMC
But Abraham wasn't Negan's only victim that night. After Daryl punched Negan, Negan decided he had to make another example out of someone in the group -- and he chose Glenn.
AMC
Spencer (Austin Nichols) thought he could use Negan to kill Rick in order to assume control of Alexandria. But Negan had other plans, gutting Spencer in full view of everyone in the community.
Gene Page/AMC
Olivia (Ann Mahoney) suffered plenty of indignities at Negan's hands, and he eventually repaid her by having her shot.
AMC
Ole Dr. Carson (Tim Parati) made a critical error by saying mean things about Sherry to Dwight over and over again. So Dwight framed the good doctor for helping Daryl escape from the Saviors -- and Negan threw him into the furnace for it.
AMC
When King Ezekiel's crew was short one cantaloupe in its tribute for Negan's Saviors, Benjamin was shot in the leg as punishment. Unfortunately, the shot hit an artery, and young Ben bled out.
AMC
It turned out that Richard had tossed one of the cantaloupes because he wanted to start a war between the Kingdom and Saviors -- and he thought they would kill him for being short. They shot Ben instead, but Morgan strangled Richard the next day after Richard confessed.
AMC
Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) used Eugene's suicide pills to kill herself while she was theatrically locked in a casket because of some ridiculous thing Negan was doing. When Negan opened the casket she popped out as a walker and saved Rick and the residents of Alexandria in a clutch moment.
AMC
Morales (Juan Gabriel Pareja) returned in Season 8 after having been gone since Season 1, but that return was short-lived. Now a member of the Saviors, Morales was around again for about 10 minutes before Daryl shot him.
AMC
Eric (Jordan Woods-Robinson) got shot during the Alexandrians' battle against the Saviors, and then bled out and turned into a walker after a tearful goodbye scene with his boyfriend Aaron (Ross Marquand).
AMC
Shiva the tiger bit the dust while saving Ezekiel, Carol and Jerry from a bunch of walkers in Season 8. There were just too many and they swarmed and ate her.
AMC
Carl (Chandler Riggs) died in the Season 8 mid-season premiere after suffering a zombie bite in the first half of the season.
AMC
Gregory (Xander Berkeley) got his long-overdue death when he was executed by hanging for trying to murder Maggie in the Season 9 premiere.
AMC
Jesus (Tom Payne) was killed when he tried to decapitate a zombie only to discover that zombie was actually a living man disguised as one -- this was Alexandria and Hilltop's first real contact with the Whisperers.
AMC
Near the end of Season 9, the Whisperers made a big statement by killing 10 named characters at once and putting all their heads on spikes. The most notable among those killed were Tara (Alanna Masterson), Enid (Katelyn Nacon), Henry (Matt Lintz) and Tammy Rose (Brett Butler).
Siddiq (Avi Nash) was killed in Alexandria by Dante, who it turned out was a Whisperer infiltrator, because he discovered that Dante had poisoned the town's water supply.
Earl Sutton (John Finn) was killed during the battle with the Whisperers at Hilltop when he was bitten by one of their zombie horde. Over the course of this conflict, the Whisperers got his wife Tammy Rose and his son Kenneth as well.
1 of 33
As the final season kicks off, we look back at some of the emotional devastation this show has wreaked over the past decade
"The Walking Dead" has never been shy about gore and death, but some characters' demises hit harder than others. Now that the final season is upon us, let's take a look back at the carnage from past seasons.