Alright I am going to warn now that there will be potential spoilers from the graphic novel mentioned so if you are not interested in having any of that, then don't read any further.
First let me say I enjoyed the episode but it all felt really rushed (As mentioned by many here in how quickly the fight was just...over) and to some degree very anti-climatic. But let me take it piece by piece here for myself, and I'll probably still forget things I wanted to touch on.
Lets start with the first thing that just really pisses me off. Eugene 'saving' the day and living. I hate it. Saw it coming, as someone mentioned after the previous episode, but I hate it. I hate the character so much (In the show anyway, cause in the graphic novel he's a much better character) and I wanted him to die more then any other character in the history of this show. Hate that he's gonna live.
The fight was VERY rushed. It was like...wow. Over. And the Ocean Side people showing up, just in time, to fire bomb bad guys? Geez. Weak. I'd actually completely forgotten about them.
Morgan doing the cross over, and leaving thing, is actually one thing I think they're taking from the comic, only with him instead of Michonne. In the comic she leaves after the war with the Saviors and spends the next two years (During their time skip) traveling around on her own and then joining a group of pirate type people to use ships up and down the east coast. She actually returns to Alexandria every so often during that time skip to bring supplies and trade with the whole new system that is in place, that I'll get into in a minute.
Anyway I think Morgan crossing over and traveling is basically him doing something of what she did, minus the ships and ocean part, and it will take something traumatic happening when he's back on a visit to make him stay, much like Michonne in the comic. More on that in a minute as well.
Dwight being forced to leave....odd. To say the least. It was clear he had been helping yall all along, there is no reason for Darryl to continue to hold things against him. It's also odd because in the comic Dwight is made the leader of the Saviors, post Negan, because he's someone that Rick trusts for the new world Rick creates. Again, more on that momentarily. So anyway it's odd that Darryl would make it clear he's dead if he ever returns, because Dwight is a HUGE part of the group/community after the time skip. Seems odd to direct him in a different direction.
Rick/Negan's fight and Negan jailed....went pretty much as expected. Basically how it went down in the comic, except that the final fight takes place outside the gates of Hilltop, Rick gets his leg broke (after slashing Negan's neck), but basically the same thing. In the comic he makes Negan realize that he has a plan for a bigger, better, world and Negan realizes he wants to be part of it, right before Rick slashes his throat, but not too deeply to where he can't be saved. See in the comic it was Rick's intention, before the final fight ever begins, to simply jail him. He'd long decided at that point that he had to show Negan, and those he used to rule, that there was a better way for everyone to live.
Rick alludes to this, clearly, in his speech to his people (especially Maggie) right after telling the Doctor to save Negan. Rick has a plan for a bigger, better, world that is more akin to the one they left behind at the start of the outbreak. Now let me touch on that plan, and that walker herd, here as what I think will happen some what closely to the comic.
In the comic at this point there is a 2 year time skip. Over those 2 years Rick rebuilds Alexandria, The Hilltop, The Saviors, and The Kingdom and they have a four community area that trades, works together, and patrols all through the areas around them to keep all the areas safe. Over those two years those 4 places basically turn into little towns and it's really the beginning of an actual civilization as it once was. They trade between communities, they have some form of laws and such. It's a great accomplishment that Rick builds. Now the TV show is different in that it's more Carl's idea, that Rick decides to build toward, rather than the vision that Rick had on his own, and they even eluded to this with the book the Record lady gave to Maggie. The step by step to building the world that Rick, in the comic, builds.
As for that woman I'm not sure what they're doing with her. She's not in the comic unless she's in a future group which I'll touch on in a moment.
Now back to that Herd. I believe there is still a time skip and I'll say why I think this will work. I think that Herd is the forshadowing to the next big threat that the group faces after the time skip. They even gave a nod to this group, of sorts, in the episode. When they're looking out on the hill, and you see the big group of walkers out there, there are wooden posts across the area in front of them.
I believe this is foreshadowing the arrival of The Whispers. They're a group of people who dress in dead people's skin, in order to walk among the dead, undetected and completely protected. They only whisper, thus The Whispers, to communicate so the dead don't attack them. This allows them to basically direct the direction of this herd to anywhere they want, and if they follow them comic you'll see much later that The Whispers have corralled an ENORMOUS amount of Walkers into an area, so that they can unleash them on anyone who threatens their existence.
Thus why I don't believe that Herd will necessarily get to Rick's area, cause The Whispers are herding them some where else. Now how they start their war, or story, with this group is going to be a little more tricky at this point. In the comic it starts because they wind up with one of them, a young girl at Hilltop after a safety patrol, who Carl befriends and falls for. The Whispers come and take her back, as her mother is the leader of The Whispers, and then Carl goes to save her, Rick has to go to save him, etc. That leads to Rick meeting their leader, being warned to never come into their area again (Marked by the wooden posts). She allows Rick to leave with Carl, and her daughter (which I won't go into all the details of why, but lets say it's for very good reason and because this lady at least realizes Rick's group offers her daughter an actual life, rather then the crummy situation they all live in).
Meanwhile, before Rick meets her, when he's at their camp waiting, being held until she returns, she was in Alexandria for their festival. They were having a huge 4 community wide festival, sort of like a giant fair basically. Rick doesn't know she was there but he finds that out when he, carl, the girl, and Michonne and the couple others who came with Rick looking for Carl are returning home. On their way they come to the wood posts that mark the edge of the Whispers territory...only now, as a warning, there are heads on several of those posts. Alpha (That's what the leader of the Whispers is called) kills several of Rick's people (some from all 4 communities) to let Rick now that the warning was no joke. I won't spoil who all is killed but there were a couple of VERY big deaths in this section. One of those deaths is what ultimately leads Michonne to stop roaming and stay, which I believe is what they'll do with Morgan.
Anyway, that was long winded I know, but that sets up where I believe they're going with the next arc of this story. Now back to the present and much smaller bites of thoughts here.
The meeting at the end of the episode is not about hurting Rick, or killing him. I honestly have zero idea how anyone even came to that conclusion. All they did was make it clear that Maggie intends to wait till the right time to be able to go ahead and kill Negan. This is no different then the comic. She pretends to be on board with Rick, for the whole two plus years after the war, but shes secretly just waiting for the time to get to kill Negan.
And if the show follows that you'll see that Rick isn't an idiot. He doesn't leave Negan unguarded and Maggie and those in the comic who might not agree with Rick's decision are never the people watching the cell or allowed alone with Negan. Of course in the comic there is no Darryl so that's a different character to add in.
It was weird seeing Jesus talking to them, and acting as if he was okay with what they were planning, considering he spent all that time making it clear that they shouldn't kill everyone. Just weird. But, anyway, that scene is not at all about killing Rick. Weird that anyone got that idea.
The helicopter and the record lady....honestly I think people are going to be extremely disappointed in that I don't believe you're going to have where they're from revealed for a very long time. That is assuming the lady is part of the group I believe she is. The helicopter tells me it's for the group that Rick and them encounter after The Whispers. It's an ENORMOUS community of 100,000+ people. It's a long ways down the road. I believe it's simply forshadowing for the comic fans that group of people that they'll eventually come in contact with. That's where the comic is at right now actually. The beginning stages of them interacting with this new group. Which is enormous, extremely well armed, and by far the most advanced group of people Rick has encountered in this zombie world. I don't have a whole lot to say about them as it's not very far into this arc yet in the comic.
On a side note I actually think Maggie's character is going to be killed off next season. I was reading that she did not get signed for next season, and actually already signed on as the lead for another show next year that is starting. In the deal I read it said that her new show was open to allowing her to return to TWD on a limited basis in order to finish off her storyline there. That read to me that she won't be resigning with TWD and they're going to have to write her out of the show next season. I believe she will be one of the deaths (which I expect to happen in the mid-season finale) by Alpha of The Whispers.
This will completely change the story from the comic, in major ways, as Maggie is the leader of the Hilltop and a HUGE part of the new world that Rick has created. That's going to be an awfully big change from the comic, if that does go down like I'm expecting it to. Of course Carl dying this season has also already greatly changed things for the post time skip arc of story as well.
I expect the Whisper War to take at least the next 2 seasons, in order to not catch the comics. So expect that for those who hate drawn out things like this. It will be another 2 seasons thing much like The Saviors were.
