‘The Walking Dead’ recap: ‘Sing Me a Song’

This episode of  The Walking Dead was definitely a Negan and Carl episode. We learn more about the lifestyle within the walls of Negan’s compound while at the same time, we see what Carl is capable of when put under pressure. We also see the gruesome consequences of breaking the rules in Negan’s world. A lot happened in the scope of this 90-minute special so let’s get started.

This episode picks up immediately where episode four left off, when Michonne finds the mattresses—the ones stolen by the Saviors—burnt and left neglected on the side of the road outside Alexandria.

At the beginning of this episode, we see a mixed look of hatred and distress playing on Michonne’s face as she looks on at the charred mattresses. She quickly snaps out of it and takes action by continuing to walk down the road while whistling the popular children’s tune “Farmer in the Dell” as a way of luring two walkers out of the woods. After a little while, she stops and slices them with her trusty katana and we see her use the two bodies to begin forming a road block to inhibit the Savior’s passing.

While this is going on, we see Rick and Aaron, who left Alexandria towards the beginning of episode five to scavenge supplies for Negan’s return, waking up just after 5:30 a.m. inside the back of an abandoned truck and immediately they groggily get up and begin the day’s scavenging.

We are then introduced to two new Saviors—albeit for a brief moment—who are sitting in the back of their supply truck and conversing as they wait for a herd of walkers to thin out up ahead. They talk mainly about a fellow Savior they nicknamed “Fat Joey” and all the useful things he’s done for their group. Using a small mirror akin to the ones prison inmates use behind bars, one of them notices that the herd has thinned out significantly and with that, they climb back into the truck and continue on towards Negan’s compound. When they fire up the ignition, we see Jesus and Carl pop up from behind boxes in the back of the supply truck.

Jesus advises Carl that they should both hop off the truck and follow on foot just to “see what they can find.” Carl fools him by telling him to show him how to do it first, in which case Jesus jumps from the truck and waits for Carl to do the same, but Carl doesn’t jump. Instead he stands and waves goodbye to Jesus as the truck continues to the compound. Jesus just smiles and shakes his head in a “damn kids” sort of way.

Once the truck reaches the compound, the two Saviors start unloading the supplies and Carl immediately guns both of them down and holds the rest of the Saviors at gunpoint telling them, “I only want Negan, he killed my friends-no one else needs to die.” Negan hears this and steps in with his usual cocky swagger and begins taunting Carl, telling him he’s adorable brandishing the weapon. Dwight quickly tackles Carl and takes the gun away from him. Negan holds a hand out to Carl and tells him “he’s going to show him around.”

We briefly cut to Rosita and Eugene who are leaving Alexandria so Eugene can make the bullet that Rosita requested. Spencer and Father Gabriel are leaving at the same time to scavenge for supplies, much to Rosita’s objection.

Back at the compound, Negan leads Carl into what I like to call his “harem” where he keeps all of his wives. Negan leaves Carl to discuss softly with one of his wives, Sherry, about a manner between Amber (another of his wives) and her ex-husband Mark. In this conversation, we learn that Amber cheated on him with Mark and when Dwight comes in with Daryl, Negan tells Dwight to “fire up the furnace.”

Negan leads Carl from his “harem” to a bedroom/sitting room that I assume is Negan’s. They sit down and Negan basically breaks Carl down emotionally just as he did Rick in the season premiere. He forces Carl to take off the bandage covering his missing eye and once he does, Negan makes fun of how “hideous” he looks, which upsets Carl to the point of tears. After pretending to apologize, Negan changes the subject by asking him if he likes music. When Carl doesn’t respond, Negan forces him to sing him a song. Carl refuses and Negan firmly reminds him that he killed two of his men and that he wants something in return for that. Reluctantly, Carl begins shakily singing “You Are My Sunshine.” As he’s singing, Negan stands behind him and purposely intimidates him by swinging Lucille, his barbed-wire covered baseball bat. When Carl is done, Negan tells him it’s time to go.

Negan has Carl follow him out to a bigger room where the rest of the Saviors have Mark tied to a chair next to the furnace. Everyone kneels as Negan addresses them and firmly reminds them of their mission statement as Saviors and what the consequences are for breaking the rules. And with this, Negan has Dwight hand him the iron that has been heating inside the furnace and Negan presses it gruesomely against the side of Mark’s face, as punishment for sleeping with Amber. This doesn’t kill Mark, but he does pass out.

Meanwhile, Eugene and Rosita enter an abandoned factory where Rosita is going to have Eugene make her a bullet, so she can take matters into her own hands and kill Negan herself. Eugene goes against his word and basically tells her she needs to keep a more level head. This infuriates Rosita, who gets in his face and tells him he’s weak and the only reason people care about him is because they feel sorry for him. Reluctantly, Eugene makes the bullet for Rosita.

Back at the compound, we see Negan and Carl back in Negan’s bedroom, where Negan begins asking him what he’s going to do with him. Carl loses it again and gets in Negan’s face, telling him he’s “going to jump out of the window himself to save him the trouble of killing him.” Negan is not the least bit taken-aback by this, instead he smiles and tells Carl he’s going to take him for a ride.

As they leave the compound in a supply truck (with the stealthy Jesus on top of it) Negan stops to tell Daryl that he’s taking Carl. Then, as they take off again, we see that Jesus is mysteriously no longer on the roof of the car.

We then cut to a female Savior driving up to Michonne’s barricade in the middle of the road leading to Alexandria. She stops and gets out to inspect it, gun at the ready. Then, we see the tip of Michonne’s katana enter from the right side of the screen and touch the Savior’s temple. Incapacitated, the Savior is then taken hostage by Michonne, who forces her to get in the car-at gunpoint-and drive her to Negan.

However, Negan and Carl are just arriving at their destination: the armory at Alexandria. Negan knocks on the door and Olivia answers. He asks her where Rick is and she replies that he and Aaron are still out getting supplies for him. Negan decides he’s going to stay at Alexandria and wait for Rick’s return. After forcing Olivia to make him lemonade, he has Carl show him around Alexandria. What follows is a ridiculous montage of Negan standing barefoot to feel the carpet in one of the bedrooms, observing the water pressure in one of the kitchen faucets, playing darts in Carl’s bedroom and meeting his little half-sister Judith.

We go back to Rick and Aaron who come across the camp of a dead Leslie William Starton, who has his entire stash protected by walkers that he placed in the pond in front of his residence.

This episode finally ends with Eugene, Rosita and Spencer arriving back at Alexandria. Rosita gets her bullet and Spencer comes back with canned food he acquired for the Saviors. A Savior opens the gate for them and the three realize that Negan has returned. Negan is sitting on the front porch, bouncing baby Judith on his knee, while Carl helplessly sits next to him. Looking mainly at Judith, Negan happily talks about taking up residence at Alexandria and questions why he’s still keeping them all alive and why he isn’t “burying them in the flowerbed.”

Overall, in this episode we learn:

  1. More about the life inside Negan’s compound and the intimidating influence he has over everyone.
  2. Carl may be tougher than we thought.
  3. Spencer is still uncertain about Rick and questions his leadership.

This episode ended on a suspenseful note and set the stage for what may be a rather exciting and brutal mid-season finale next Sunday night.

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