Exercise: recap of a movie or a TV show’s episode inspired from those of Vulture.com. October 25th, 2017.
The Walking Dead, season 8 episode 1: “Mercy”
After a season 7 full of disillusions and pain for Rick’s group, Alexandria, the Hilltop, and the Kingdom are back to take their revenge on the Saviors. The battle in Alexandria, in the season 7 finale, left us with hope. After having mourned Glenn and Abraham’s deaths for most of the previous season, Rick and his group are ready for the war.
“Mercy” opens the new season with a big-bearded-Rick waking up in what looks like a recovery room, with a cane — remember, the first episode of the show also started that way. Next thing we know, he’s crying and starring at graves — as if it wasn’t hard enough to get over Glenn and Abraham’s deaths, now we have to prepare ourselves to lose (at least) another important character?!
Then, the episode sets the action. Rick, Ezekiel, and Maggie are seen motivating their people, and organizing an assault at the Sanctuary. Meanwhile, Dwight is snitching the Saviors’ positions to Daryl, to help the group eliminate the bad guys, while Carl runs into a stranger at a gas station. Rick arrives, scares the guy away, and Carl gets mad at his dad for spying on him. He returns to the scene later to leave canned food for the stranger, which let us think we will see him again soon…
A herd of walkers is then led toward the Sanctuary, thanks to kitsch explosions of containers and cars, showing us once again that the producers like bad visual effects and don’t care about the fans’ critics.
The group then shows up at the Sanctuary with armored vehicles and dozens of guns. Negan and his slaves — my bad, I mean friends! — show up at the door, with their overinflated ego. They brag about holding Gregory, who they think is the leader of the Hilltop, when he actually means nothing to the community — nor to the fans. Rick explains that Negan is the only one who has to die, and repeats that he’s going to kill him. He begins a countdown from ten to zero… and starts shooting at seven. And somehow, nobody’s hurt in the assault?! The Saviors manage to go back inside the building, and the group starts shooting at the windows, wasting an alarmingly great amount of bullets!
Before leaving, Rick blows up the RV, and Negan goes hiding somewhere else. For some reason, Rick takes a polaroid of Negan playing hide and seek, before urging Gabriel to leave, as the walkers start going in the Sanctuary. It could have ended well for Rick’s group, if Gabriel wasn’t so naïve and didn’t go back for Gregory, begging for help, before stealing Gabriel’s car and driving away without him — come on Gabe, it was predictable coming from a coward like Gregory! The episode ends with Gabriel hiding in a bunker… where Negan is waiting for him, hoping that “[he’s] got his shitty pants on,” as the walkers start surrounding them.
Summary: The 100th episode gave a nod to previous seasons with similar scenes (like the opening and the last scenes), and the war only began and promises lots of deaths…
Claire Legeron 