The Walking Dead S07E04 Review: Negan Arrives in Alexandria

The Walking Dead, Season 7, Episode 4: Service

So we're just jumping around from one locale to the next in a series of relatively focused episodes. The first episode was Negan's big entrance. The second was the Kingdom, the third was the Sanctuary, and here we return to Alexandria... and thankfully, a brief timeskip has gone by for some things that they said they were going to do at the end of the first episode (Maggie and Sasha buggering off on their own, breaking the news to everyone else in the community) happened off-screen. Oh, and Daryl's conditioning is apparently complete at this point, too. 

So this episode has Negan come knocking on Alexandria and unleash a whole can of abuse on the poor Alexandrians. And maybe if the episode had something more beyond 'hey, look at Negan being a dick and everyone being helpless to stop it!' it would've had more substance. Maybe if this was the B-plot in last episode (which felt like it dragged on in some places, but not as noticeable as this one).

Negan's army of saviours come claiming to be partners and bosses to Rick, but as angry as everyone visibly is, they can't do shit against Negan's people, or Lucille will start swinging and crush someone's skull. What happens is basically looting, but both sides are being relatively polite about it. Relatively. Everyone's guns gets taken. Dwight tells Rosita to bugger off and get Daryl's bike for him, without any excuses. Enid and Rosita get lecherous comments from the raiders. All their medicine get taken, none of this 'half of your shit' business. All the while Rick's just getting put into his place, and just like the premier, Negan gives Rick a weapon to hold -- Lucille, in fact -- and pretends to give him some modicum of power while at the same time forcing him to basically, as Negan so eloquently puts it, "stick my dick down [his] throat and thank me for it."

Both Rick's defeated state and Negan channeling a weird, less manic and more jackass version of the Joker are pretty entertaining, but honestly I didn't feel like it needed to be forty minutes long, and the long, long stretch as, oh, look, Olivia's (who I don't remember ever being named) inventory of guns ends up not lining up with the guns present, leading to a frantic search for said hidden guns. And of course it's Spencer, self-righteous, food-hoarding tit that he is. The thing, though, is that it's honestly a bit unnecessary beyond showing just how OCD and thorough that Negan's people are being with the guns, and yeah, it's tense and shit, but even if Negan went through with the threat, baseball batting Olivia or Spencer... or both... isn't just going to have the same impact as Glenn or even Abraham.  

And for all the huge bluster that Negan's group puts up, or Rick's spineless kowtowing, the entire episode honestly pales to Michonne discovering what Negan did with the mattresses he took from Alexandria -- just burnt them and left them in the road for no real reason than to give the Alexandrians a huge middle finger. It's not just their guns, but also their furniture and objects of comfort, and Michonne's reaction to that is just well-done. 

There's a brief subplot with Michonne going out on her own with a hidden rifle to hunt deer only to show up at the worst possible time, and Rick voluntarily goes to talk to Michonne and give Negan the rifle. There's also a subplot about Rosita basically being out for blood, looking for an undocumented gun among the corpses in the wild, and she took the bullet casing Negan left behind when he shot that pistol randomly and recruiting Eugene's bullet-making services... and Rosita just generally being defiant to Dwight. This is easily the most interesting Rosita has ever been, to be honest. And we have this... weird bizarre speech where Rick confesses to Michonne that (at least he thinks that) Judith is actually Shane's son but he has to deal with that or something? That had absolutely no bearing to him keeling over and sucking Negan's metaphorical dick. Carl's a ticking time bomb and very nearly shot one of Negan's people, and honestly I'm surprised Negan just let that slide without bashing someone's face, but he keeps saying how much he is impressed by the 'future serial killer'.

Oh, and Gabriel's awesome in this episode, isn't he? From scaring the bejeezus out of Negan for doing a little Batman ninja-appearance thing, to making a fake grave for Maggie (who Negan makes no secret just what he wants to do to hot young widows) it's a little hard to believe that it's the same double-crossing panicky priest from two seasons ago.

So yeah, it's not a strong a showing as it could've been, but at least they're quickly moving through the plot and having Negan show up a couple of episodes down the line after some distractions, unlike the meandering nonsense we had in season six. Yes, it's just the buildup phase for this big new villain (though Negan is far more impressive than other recent 'big bads', like say, the Terminians, Wolf the Wolf or Jessie's abusive husband) before his eventual fall either this season or the next, but it's definitely more interesting in that we at least have some modicum of confidence that the writers have an actual story in mind instead of just stalling.