'The Walking Dead' recap: 'Hearts Still Beating'

Just when you think season seven of The Walking Dead started off on an almost bland note, it changes on a dime. This was certainly the case with last night's mid-season finale. There was no shortage of exciting moments; there was something happening every second. The drama was real, the suspense was nail-bitin, and the violence was fast and over-the-top (even more so than previous episodes).

At the beginning of the episode, we see Maggie visiting the grave of her husband, Glenn, before she takes watch at the Hilltop's gate. Gregory, the shady and cowardly leader of Hilltop, comes over and basically taunts Maggie, all the while rubbing an apple against his shirt. He tells her everyone inside Hilltop is praising her and Sasha for being heroes and advises her not to let all the talk "get to her head." Maggie, who has been pregnant since last season, doesn't take any of this to mind and instead asks him if he's going to eat the apple. After another nearby guard reminds Gregory of her pregnancy, he throws the apple over to her reluctantly.

We go back to Alexandria where Negan is shaving in front of the mirror as Carl and Judith look on awkwardly. As he's shaving, he gives Carl a little lesson, telling him "against the grain, kid." For a brief moment after this-back at the compound-we see Daryl getting ready to make his daring escape from his cell after getting the note telling him to "go now."

We then catch up with Aaron and Rick, who are still at Leslie William Starton's camp, where walkers have been placed in the lake as security. They are trying to decide how to cross the lake safely to get to Starton's supplies. The only means of transportation is a boat riddled with bullet holes, which they risk to get across the lake, using sharp fragments from Starton's sign as protection. Just as they are about to reach Starton's supply barge, Aaron is thrown overboard. Just when we think he is a goner, he surfaces and Rick helps him onto the barge.

Once inside, they root through the stash. Aaron comes across a rather rude note left by Starton, I presume, which includes a drawing of a hand flipping the bird and a message around it saying "congrats for winning, but you still lose." As Rick and Aaron are about to leave the camp in a background shot, we see a pair of booted feet enter in the foreground. These are the same mysterious feet we see in the post-credits scene, however, the owner of them won't be revealed until season seven returns next February.

And oh boy, if only looks could kill! We then return to Michonne and the female Savior from the end of last week's episode. Michonne still has her at gunpoint as she takes her reluctantly to Negan's compound. Before she asks the Savior how long she's been working for Negan, there is a brief moment where Michonne glares hatefully and intensely at her.

We are then introduced to a new character, Richard, who is one of Ezekiel's slightly unhinged lieutenants at the Kingdom. He meets with Carol and Morgan inside Carol's house in the Kingdom. He tries to emotionally persuade the two of them to help convince Ezekiel to go to war with the Saviors. He fears that it is only a matter of time until Negan and the Saviors decide to violate their agreements with the Kingdom.

Back at Alexandria, Rosita is inside the church with Father Gabriel, talking to him about taking out Negan with the single bullet Eugene made for her. In a dramatic moment that gave me a newfound respect for Gabriel, he basically tells Rosita that there's no point in sacrificing herself to take out Negan when she has a whole family at Alexandria to help her do it. He tells her that she isn't the only that's suffered-that everyone's in this mess together and they will find a way to overcome Negan's hold on them.

We return to Richard still trying to rally Morgan and Carol, but with no luck. Morgan refuses his request, still trying to maintain his philosophy of "all lives matter" and Carol refuses also, saying that she doesn't want to have any part in the fighting and just wants to be left alone. I thought this was a very interesting scene because Morgan and Carol have very similar mindsets, but yet they are so different and still don't see eye-to-eye with each other.

A dirty and bloody Spencer returns to his house after scavenging for the Saviors to find it ransacked by Negan. Spencer decides to clean himself up and win over Negan with champagne in an attempt to make peace.

Back at Negan's compound, Daryl finally escapes in a not so difficult attempt. He runs over to their motorcycles and is about to take off with one of them when their guard, "Fat Joey", enters with his hands in the air and tells Daryl that he can just escape freely and no one has to get hurt. In a fit of rage that must have been accumulating during his unpleasant internment there, Daryl wastes no time and starts bashing him to death with a pipe just as Jesus comes to the scene. Daryl and Jesus leave the compound untouched.

Rick and Aaron finally return to Alexandria. They are welcomed by a few Saviors inside, who start unloading the supplies from their truck. One of them comes across the rude note that Starton left them at his camp and they take it personally. They brutally throw Aaron to the ground after Aaron tries to explain that they didn't write it and kick him while he's down. While this is going on, Spencer is playing pool with Negan outside and trying to convince Negan that Rick is dangerous and needs to be killed. He asks Negan if he can do it. Negan argues that Rick is currently out scavenging for him in order to keep his own people alive and that in itself is a testament of how strong Rick is as a leader. Negan asks him why he doesn't just take Rick out himself. Negan tells him he has no guts and—in what has got to be the ultimate Negan joke so far—he thrusts a knife into Spencer's stomach out of nowhere and watches as his guts graphically spill out onto the pavement. As Spencer lays dying in the middle of Alexandria, Negan bellows "how embarrassing, there they are. They were inside of you the whole time. You did have guts!" After this, he looks around at the Alexandrians who gathered around to witness this gruesome display and asks who's going to clean up his mess. In an outburst of rage, Rosita suddenly raises the gun and fires at Negan.

Rick is helping an injured Aaron to the center of town just as Rosita fires and the two hurry to the scene. However, instead of hitting Negan, the bullet gets lodged in his bat Lucille and saves his life much to our disappointment. Negan begins to freak out, exhibiting a frightening mixture of rage and fury we've never seen of him before. He has one of his Saviors, Arat, pin Rosita down as he questions her who made the bullet. Rosita lies and tells him she made it, but Negan doesn't believe her. For lying, he tells Arat to kill somebody and the target is Olivia and Rick and Aaron stumble upon the scene as it happens.

Negan fills Rick in on everything that's happened while he was gone and Rick tells him he's got his supplies now and needs to leave. Negan tells him that he'll leave just as soon as he finds out who made the bullet that nearly took him out. First, Tara steps forward, but then Eugene is quick to accept the blame. Negan tells Rick he'll be taking Eugene with him and finally leaves Alexandria.

Michonne returns to Alexandria later that evening and empowers Rick by telling him that although they've been through a lot of hard times as a group, they somehow always managed to overcome and survive. She tells him the same thing goes for the Saviors and how they need to band together and fight, not just for themselves but for everyone. In a beautiful moment, we finally see Rick reclaim his manhood.

Back at the Hilltop, Maggie is taking watch at the gate when Rick and the group show up. A cathartic moment ensues as everyone, including Daryl and Jesus, are reunited with each other again. The episode ends with everyone banding together and getting ready to fight the Saviors.

Look out Negan, you've messed with the wrong people!

The mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead will be Feb. 12, 2017.

{"code":"internal_server_error","message":"

There has been a critical error on your website.<\/p>

Learn more about debugging in WordPress.<\/a><\/p>","data":{"status":500},"additional_errors":[]}