The Walking Dead Episode 611 Recap and Review: Knots Untie

Last episode our merry band of survivors found Jesus. This episode they have decided to follow him…back to his community, in pursuit of hope of greater civilization. Let’s recap and review The Walking Dead episode 611: Knots Untie

[divider] The Walking Dead Episode 611 Recap: Knots Untie [/divider]

Abraham and Sasha are walking back to Alexandria and they have a discussion of the experiences he had in the war. The discussion turns towards whether or not it is a good idea to have kids, inspired by Maggie’s pregnancy.

Sasha then drops the bomb that she is changing shifts and Eugene will be replacing her. Abraham is clearly frustrated at being friendzoned and the episode cuts to a scene of Abraham and Rosita in bed. Rosita gives him a necklace she made, because arts and crafts will always be important, even in the apocalypse. Rosita invites him into the shower but Abraham is still is thinking about Sasha.

Carl confronts Jesus on the stairwell of his house, somewhat startled by his “mom and dad” coming out of the bedroom. The crew shows up fully armed andthey all have a sitdown where Jesus explains his escape from the “cell”, and how he has seen their arsenal and their rations.

It turns out Jesus represents a community and wants to start a trading agreement. He says that he is already trading with other communities and groups. As he tells them “Your world is about to get much bigger.”

Doctor Denise gives Daryl some oat bread and she says that he reminds her of someone she used to know. Rick and he are loading up and he has the awkward DTR about him and Michonne with Rick. The crew loads up in a RV and heads for Jesus town.

On the road trip, Abraham and Glenn talk about why he would want to have kids, while Jesus watches Rick and Michonne hold hands. They come across a crash and immediately they are concerned that Jesus is playing a trick on them. They handcuff Jesus and then go into the office where it looks like people are holed up. They find two people who say there are two more people, one of whom they find in the next office, who says the fourth, Freddie, was hurt in the crash. Abraham nearly slits Freddie’s throat but they are all fine.

One of the people they find is Harland, a doctor, who passes on some prenatal vitamins to Maggie.  Freddie is having a bit of an emotional breakdown. The Winnebago then gets stuck in the mud but Jesus tells Rick not to worry because they have arrived at the Hilltop.

Jesus says he trusts them, letting them keep their guns, while revealing that Hilltop ran out of ammo months ago. As they enter the town, it is clear that they have some things going well for them: chickens, a blacksmith, FEMA trailers, and the Barrington House, a living history museum that has become their home. There is a weird moment with the Hilltop leader, Gregory, and Rick encourages Maggie to be the liaison for Alexandria.

Abraham then continues his “settling down” world tour, having a very quick conversation with Daryl.

Maggie and Gregory have a conversation where they are both feeling each other out, setting up the details for their trade situation. Gregory thinks he has the advantage, offering to let people work there but Maggie is having none of his nonsense, especially his coming on to her. The conversation ends with a stalemate.

Rick and Jesus then take on the next wave of negotiations, with Rick and crew needing food. But Jesus needs a few days to convince Gregory. But at this point, someone storms into the mansion. It is a crew that was making a delivery to Negan, who killed lots of people and still has someone captive.

The largest guy stabbed Gregory, saying it was a message from Negan and all heck breaks loose. By the end, Rick has stabbed a guy in the neck and had him bleed out all over him, Daryl saved Abraham, Michonne then smacked down.

After a tense moment, Jesus calms everything down and tells Rick everything is not what it seems.

Gregory survived the attack and Jesus shares about Negan and the Saviors, who beat a 16 year old from the Hilltop to death. Since then, half of everything the Hilltop has been making has been going to Negan. Daryl then takes lead negotiator role, saying he and the crew will take out Negan for supplies, a cow, and food.

Basically the Alexandria crew is negotiating with what they are good at: confrontations and battles. Gregory invites Maggie in to finalize the deal. Gregory isn’t sure the captive is worth the effort. By the end of the negotiations, Maggie says they will do it for half of everything they have, right now, or the deal is off, knowing and saying she has leverage. Gregory agrees to it.

We then see the Alexandria crew loading up supplies and they convince one of the Hilltop team to come to show them what he knows about Negan and Jesus asks to go along as well.

As the episode ends, Glenn and Maggie get an ultrasound and are sharing the picture with everyone, with Abraham holding it last and Glen giving him a knowing nod.

[divider] The Walking Dead Episode 611 Review: Knots Untie [/divider]

This week’s episode is a 7. There is nothing inherently bad in the episode but it was a set-up for the future things to come. They introduced the Hilltop then moved into the next piece, Negan and the Saviors, which we all know is headed towards being a big deal.

Some notes:

If Alexandria was in such desperate shape supply-wise, why were they not showing and building that up in previous episodes? Even just a few lines about the necessity of that truck that wound up in the pond last week would have helped. It just felt like we suddenly went from “We are doing great” to “We have to kill people to survive.”

Arrogance is going to lead to ruin. Yes, they could all be fine but based on the hype that they are giving to Negan, this battle isn’t going to end well. They are jumping in without any intel.

Jesus is meh so far. (Please don’t ever quote this out of context.) I know he is a big deal character and Earth Nerd Clave is a huge fan. But they really haven’t shown much out of him at all yet.

The Abraham and his desire or lack of desire to have kids was weird. I am hoping there is a pay-off down the road because from this standpoint, this episode, it just feels like an odd, wedged in student film idea, which the show has been guilty of before as well.