Walking Dead Recap: Saviors Bring the Pain to Hilltop (SPOILERS)

Posted by Reinaldo Massengill on Monday, September 16, 2024

SPOILER ALERT: Do not keep reading if you have not seen Season 8, Episode 13 of “The Walking Dead,” titled “Do Not Send Us Astray”

“The Walking Dead” kept up the momentum from last week’s strong episode, with this week featuring a great battle scene at Hilltop and some hard-hitting walker kills.

The episode begins with Morgan alone in the woods. He sees a vision of Gavin, the Savior lieutenant who was killed by young Kingdom resident Henry earlier this season. Gavin tells Morgan “You know what it is” and “You were supposed to.” Morgan will experience similar visions throughout the episode.

Once he snaps out of it, Morgan sounds the alarm so that the residents of Hilltop will know that the Savior convoy (now sans Negan) is approaching. Dwight and Simon are in the lead, with Simon trying to do his best Negan impression complete with leather jacket. As night falls, Maggie hails them on the walkie talkie, demanding to speak with Negan. When Simon says he is Negan, Maggie informs him that she will personally execute all of the remaining Savior prisoners at Hilltop unless the attack is stopped. Simon informs her that real Saviors don’t get captured. With that, Daryl comes barreling toward the convoy on his motorcycle and peppers them with machine gun fire.

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Daryl speeds towards the now-open gates of Hilltop, with the Saviors chasing him inside. Once inside the gates, though, Maggie and company open fire on them. In the ensuing melee, Simon tells Dwight that he is going to gun down Tara. Daryl sees the two approaching Tara from behind and tries to warn her, but gets distracted. Dwight follows close behind Simon and shoots an arrow into Tara’s shoulder, incapacitating her but not killing her. Also during the battle, a Savior uses a knife to wound Tobin, Carol’s former boyfriend from Alexandria. Carol kills the Savior before he can finish Tobin, with Siddiq arriving shortly thereafter to render aid.

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Maggie and her troops retreat into the main house at Hilltop. Simon and the Saviors regroup and plan to surround the house and kill all inside. But before they can, Maggie and those inside the house open fire just as Rick arrives at the gates with his own contingent. Simon and the Saviors run rather than continue the fight.

The next day, Daryl and Tara argue about whether or not Dwight can be trusted after the previous night’s events. Rick keeps himself busy with work, trying to distract himself from the death of his son. Later, Carol visits Tobin in the infirmary, where the two reminisce about their romance and wonder if the fighting will ever stop. Multiple Hilltop residents also thank Maggie for her leadership, saying that without her the community would have surely been destroyed.

As night comes, Tobin dies from his wound thanks to the walker blood that was coated on the Savior’s knife. He reanimates as a walker and begins feeding on others in the infirmary. Soon, multiple Hilltop residents have turned and begin wandering toward the main house.

Meanwhile, Henry has gotten hold of a gun and approaches the Savior prisoner pen, demanding to know who among them murdered his brother. He unlocks the pen and walks inside, saying he will start killing them indiscriminately unless someone comes forward. Suddenly, they hear screaming from the main house just as one of the Saviors who was wounded in the assault reanimates as a walker and starts biting into the other prisoners. Jared, the Savior perhaps most deserving of a good punch to the face, seizes the moment and overpowers Henry. He grabs the gun and leads many of the prisoners to freedom.

Rick and the gang are forced to deal with all of their own people turning into walkers, with Carol having to deal the death blow to Tobin. Once the fighting has stopped, they realize that the Saviors have used walker blood as a weapon to infect them. They also find that Alden, the young Savior who has served as a voice of reason, decided not to follow Jared due to Simon’s willingness to let the prisoners die. Alden and several other prisoners stayed behind and are now willing to fight against the Saviors. The episode ends with Maggie looking on as more of her people are buried, pondering the human cost of the war.

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