Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes – The Walking Dead _ Season 9, Episode 3 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC
Rick arrives with the cavalry, and they join in to kill the walkers including King Ezekiel. Rick finishes them off by shooting the bind off a pile of logs that roll right over the walkers squashing them. Aaron is freed from the log, but is seriously injured. Since Rick sent Siddiq back home, Edin is charged with treating Aaron, and she swiftly decides that the arm must be cut off and cauterized to save his life. The problem is that they can’t give him any anesthesia because it won’t have enough time to kick in. While Daryl holds Aaron down, Enid cuts Aarons arm at bicep level.
Daryl angrily goes in search of who failed to signal the second siren, and unsurprisingly, it’s the same Savior he fought with earlier. Daryl nearly beats him to death, but is stopped by Carol. Rick takes full responsibility for what happened to Aaron and sits by his bed, begging for forgiveness. But Aaron is a bigger person than most and holds no hate or blame in his heart for any of them.
On Rick’s way back, that lone Savior tells him to keep his dog on a leash referring to Daryl. Instead of humbly remaining low key since the Savior was the one who started the fight on the bridge as well as the cause of Aaron’s injury, he taunts Rick for not controlling Daryl. Rick approaches the Savior and tells him that he came across men like him all the time in the back of his car when he was a cop. He identified the Savior as the type to blame the world for his own problems. Rick chooses to banish the Savior, who leaves gladly.
The Savior leaves that very night. Somewhere along the road, he spots something in the bushes and takes out his knife. He then recognizes that it’s a person, seemingly someone he knows, as he doesn’t attack them but instead jokes that they should not have scared him like that.
Next thing, he’s attacked and dragged into the woods. Was the Savior attacked by one of his own men? A Savior turned Whisperer? Mysterious events like this seem to foreshadow something evil is coming, Whisperers or not.
That night, everyone sits around campfires talking and laughing, proving in Rick’s eyes that humanity, and possibly civilization, is finding its way back.
All of this is what he shares with Negan, whose first suggestion is to let him go if things are going so well. Rick still can’t understand how a man behind prison walls can give out orders like he’s still in charge but that’s Negans psychological strategy talking.
Negan tries to rain on Rick’s parade by letting him know that he’s not saving the world but just preparing it for him. Negan is very good at manipulation, and that’s the very tool he intends to use should he ever break free.
Rick may be doing more harm than good telling Negan everything that happens because Negan’s intent is to use that information to manipulate weaker people into submission. However, Rick is still captivated with the idea of showing Negan that things can work without pain and violence.
What did you think of this week’s episode of The Walking Dead? Do you agree with Michonne and Rick’s decisions, or Daryl and Maggie’s? Should Negan go free? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!