The Walking Dead season 8 episode 13 review: Do Not Send Us Astray

The Hilltop survives an attack by the Saviors, or so they think. Infected weapons take their toll on the community, leaving everyone scrambling to survive.

Warning: Spoilers below.

Before we get into the action of “Do Not Send Us Astray,” we have to address the little kid in the room — Henry. Oh, Henry. Why did you have to go and pick up a big boy gun and cause all that trouble?

Seriously, there’s an issue in television writing where children are written to be boring so that we ignore them, or they cause problems for everyone so that we hate them. Granted, this show has found some ways to get around it with Carl maturing or look-at-the-flowers Lizzie Samuels being a sociopath.

Sadly, Henry hasn’t done anything to interest us and instead, caused a whole lot of mess for everyone else. Morgan, we’re going to blame you a bit for this because of the horrible job you did convincing Henry that Gavin was his brother’s killer. Guess he was too busy with hallucinations of Gavin saying “you know what it is” to focus.

Macsen Lintz as Henry, Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier – The Walking Dead _ Season 8, Episode 13 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

What was Gavin even talking about? The only hint we have to what “it” is would be Gavin’s next line, when he tells Morgan, “You were supposed to!”

This could reference how Morgan was supposed to kill Gavin, but Henry did it instead, thus taking away his innocence. If Morgan had killed Gavin, Henry wouldn’t be the killer-grieving child he is now.

The kid unlocks the Saviors’ prisoner pen, threatening to shoot them all up unless his brother’s killer comes forward. This makes a whole lot of no sense because these guys weren’t really Gavin’s people, and Gavin’s killer could be any Savior. But the show likes to make things all too easy, and Henry’s brother killer is actually there.

Henry focuses on sexy Savior boy Alden who is trying to help, not once focusing on Jared, the always annoying and mean Savior who is actually his brother’s killer. All the Saviors end up escaping, and Henry winds up missing by the end of this episode. When Carol finds out, all we worry about is if this will be another Sophia-like search.

Henry, congrats on being the kid to ruin things. You’ve taken the crown from Carl, who wound up getting Dale killed.

Callan McAuliffe as Alden, Lauren Cohan as Maggie Greene – The Walking Dead _ Season 8, Episode 13 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Speaking of sexy Savior boy, Alden is getting a little too close to Maggie. Could this be the start of some relationship between the two? Bad boy gone good who wants to help the Widow lead, and help her find love again? It’s almost looking like that, but I really don’t see how Maggie would fall for a guy who hung out with her deceased husband’s murderers.

The focus for this episode was Maggie’s struggle to lead while exacting her own vengeance on the Saviors. She basically taunts the Saviors when she sends a coffin holding one of their own, knowing they’d come for the community. Sure, this is war and people were going to die regardless. But Maggie is fighting both for herself and those around her, and oh, how quickly those lines can blur. Her worst realization in “Do Not Send Us Astray” is that Negan wasn’t even there and Rick wasn’t able to kill him either. Fantastic.

Austin Amelio as Dwight, Steven Ogg as Simon – The Walking Dead _ Season 8, Episode 13 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Simon happily takes on his role as interim leader of the Saviors, announcing that this attack on Hilltop is meant to not just be a warning, but a full-blown massacre. Dwight questions the plan, noting Negan could return at any point. Simon’s all about acting now and answering for it later. Could this mean he hopes to just take Negan out himself and be done with his boss for good?

Interestingly, Simon ends up proving Negan’s plan (well, truly Eugene’s plan) wasn’t the best. Negan thought infected weapons would only take out a few people and intimidate everyone else. What we saw instead though was a bunch of walker-killing-chaos, and if Negan had continued this, everyone would have died. Simon’s plan to snuff everyone out makes more sense, in the end.

However Simon still messes up. He calls the imprisoned Saviors “damaged goods” and leaves them behind. As for the ones who escape, who knows what will happen? The ones who stay could be highly useful intel for Hilltop. Simon also thinks it’s a bright idea to walk towards a house filled with fighters in the dark. Welcome to your classic ambush scenario.

Though we definitely missed Negan and his grim one-liners, this episode was filled with action and reminded us how terrifying walkers can be. We also saw more of our old favorites and lingering plots were addressed.

Most importantly? Tara and Daryl discussing whether Dwight is still a traitor. Tara finally brings up the hypocritical thing we’ve shouted about this whole season; she was a part of the Governor’s prison assault that got Hershel killed. Maggie was able to forgive Tara. Why can’t Dwight be forgiven too? Daryl disagrees, likely because when Dwight killed Tara’s beloved Denise, he was actually aiming for Daryl. He thinks Dwight tried to kill Tara during the Hilltop battle, but not so fast.

Dwight was very likely shooting at Simon and missed. There’s also the fact that Dwight’s arrow wasn’t tainted, meaning he never wanted to follow Simon or Negan’s plan. Fans of the comic may remember this tactic. Dwight shot Rick with a clean arrow to prove he was on their side, not Negan’s.

The show did follow one of its common tropes of a side character getting a bunch of lines, up until they die. In this case, it was Carol’s former boo, Tobin. On a side note, when anyone who has a chance of dying could turn, strap them down. Don’t care if it’s a flesh wound. those people should be tied down until you’re sure they won’t bite you.

That brings us to one of the favorite parts of this episode: the walkers. Something we may all have forgotten is how dangerous walkers are. The show has become so much about boring ol’ humans and their problems that walkers have lost their appeal. There are gates with communities, guns with ammo, and walkers being used as weapons or distractions. In this episode, all that went out the window when a few infected wandered around the Hilltop’s main house.

Undead Afterthoughts

In a world where doctors, and really anyone with medical experience, is a blessing … how are you going to yell at Siddiq for helping? Take what you can get, lady!
Siddiq, you need to learn how to read the damn room. Talking about a prayer for the dead to grieving Rick Grimes? No, no, no.
Alden, we know you’re cute and you want to help Maggie, but come on. Even if you weren’t there when Glenn died, you know how wrong this is.
Henry is like Sophia in more ways than one, meaning Carol could go crazy looking for him.
Negan, where you at?

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