[RECAP] Season 9, Episode 3 of The Walking Dead, "Warning Signs"

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By Carolina Gallardo (@carolgallardo)

Warning Signs" deals with the heavy and quite grim topic of honoring the dead...And how that all means very different things to many different people.
The third installment of the new season of "The Walking Dead" labeled "

We start the episode immediately where we left off and we see that our long haired Savior Justin has become Walker food and once turned, rises up, a now reanimated walker.  This allows us to see that his death was caused by some sort of puncture wound through the torso.  Hmmmm...the plot thickens.  I kind of thought that Justin was going to last longer than he did, but there you have it.

In the meantime, Rick is more than happy to just play house with Michonne and Judith for the day (aww) by turning Judith's doctor's appointment with Siddiq into a fun filled family day full of activities.  At the same time, in far contrast, we also have a group of menacing Saviors approach and question Maggie while on her way to deliver food to the Sanctuary.  Dead Justin hasn't been uncovered at his point and this group (that includes Arat) are on a mission to find him, hence them questing Maggie.  Eventually dead Justin is found and this leads to a frenzy of accusations back at the campsite, with the fingers pointing mostly to Oceanside, Jadis/Anne and Daryl.  Things escalate very quickly when Daryl raises his crossbow to answer to the looming threat but Rick rides in just in the nick of time to break it up.  From there on out, Rick puts back on his sheriff hat, figuratively, and starts trying to unravel the mystery of who the potential killer may be.  He acknowledges that Daryl COULD potentially be the culprit and goes so far as to "question" this potential suspect.  Daryl of course, denies it, but goes as far to say that if it WAS him, he wouldn't hide it for one minute.  He's right of course.  Rick also questions Gabriel on if he thinks Jadis/Anne is potentially up to anything but Gabe defends Jadis, especially since he knows where she was last night (*wink wink*).  After meeting as a group to determine next steps and how they will treat the perpetrator (will they receive a "Negan" punishment or a "Gregory" punishment),
everyone partners up for safety reasons and to attempt to uncover who's behind the Savior murders.

Among these couplings, we have Maggie and Cyndie from Oceanside who walk over to an abandoned cabin that Cyndie comments used to be an area where they once set up camp before having to scramble to the shore.  They attempt to clear out some of the walkers by the cabin but are quickly overwhelmed by the extent of walkers.  Fortunately for them, Rosita and Daryl quickly show up and save Cyndie in particular, who was barely keeping a walker at bay.  They wonder what happened with the other group that should've been in the area and they end up finding Beatrice apparently knocked out in the woods with her partner, Arat, now missing.  Yet another Savior abducted.

But in the midst of all this, we cant forget about our good friend Jadis/Anne (Anne just doesn't work for me, personally) who revisits the junkyard, her old stomping grounds.  And here's where things get very interesting: We see her grab a Walkie Talkie from the same concealed safe where she once got apple sauce after all her people were killed.  She then begins to communicate with a male voice on the other end who begins to question her on whether she has an "A" or whether she has a "B".  The more we hear, we can start to infer that they are talking about people and certain people fall into category "A" and some fall into category "B".  It appears that Jadis can obtain supplies or some sort of escape perhaps, if she can supply the people on the other end (who are the ones operating the looming helicopter) with human resources.  Until she can guarantee an A or B, however, she is out of luck.  Father Gabriel followed her and overhears this exchange and immediately confronts her.  She doesn't divulge much but she does acknowledge that this is some sort of human trafficking and she actually pleads for Father Gabriel to come with her and escape with these people to apparently much better circumstances.  Much to her dismay, he refuses and informs her that he has to let Rick know about this development.  Faced with this situation, Jadis states that she thought he was a B and knocks him out cold.

The mystery around Jadis and the helicopter continues and I am 100% HERE FOR IT.  The idea of Jadis being a covert secret agent or double agent is an exciting and intriguing one and we'll have to wait to see how this further develops.

The search for Arat goes on, however, and that leads to Rick and Carol to having a heart-to-heart on their thoughts on the Saviors and how regardless of the past, they are resources.  They are then confronted by the same group that confronted Maggie on her way to deliver food, led by Savior Judd.  He ends up taking Carol at knife point and threatening her but at Rick's urging, he lowers his gun and Carol stabs him in the shoulder (just a surface wound though, no biggie).  He's told to put some pressure on it and that he's been spared because "Every Life Counts".  Carol practically rolls her eyes 180 degrees into the back of her head as she utters those words.

Finally, in the episode's most heart wrenching moment, Maggie and Daryl come across an area with a walker that's been taken down and has a spear/arrow through them. Daryl immediately knows who's responsible for the Savior murders and Arat's disappearance.  They come back to the house where Maggie and Cyndie were before and they find some of the Oceanside women, lead by Beatrice and Cyndie, holding Arat at gunpoint, with her on her knees begging for her life.  Everyone is in tears and when Maggie and Daryl ask Cyndie if they were responsible for the Savior murders they admit that indeed they were, but solely because these particular Saviors were the ones that conducted the raid on their community and murdered all their husbands and sons.  Cyndie says that when Maggie gave the order to hang Gregory, they realized that some things truly are unforgivable and Rick's stance on forgiveness isn't necessarily the law of land.  Beatrice mentions how Justin murdered her husband and Cyndie tearfully retells the story of her 11 year old brother, how he was also held at gunpoint and how Cyndie begged for his life...from Arat.  Arat who was the one who coldly murdered her little brother because even a child was not above being murdered.  No exceptions.  Maggie asks Arat to verify if this story is true and once Arat tearfully takes ownership of her actions, while at the same time pleading with Maggie and Daryl that she had no choice and she is now a changed person, Maggie takes a moment to think about this...and then she slowly turns around and walks way.  Effectively giving Oceanside the order to execute.  Which they promptly do, as Arat continues to cry out to Maggie and Daryl for help.  Oceanside's revenge has been waged and is now over.

This situation leads Maggie to tell Daryl that as much she wants to believe in Rick's Utopian vision, she can't quite get past her OWN feelings of anger and revenge.  She states that they gave Rick's vision a chance but it's time to go visit Negan.  Daryl agrees.

The idea of "turning the other cheek" is an ideal that is difficult to hold up in today's society, never mind under the circumstances of what Maggie, Daryl and everyone at large has experienced.  So are they wrong for not being able to let go of that rage?  I, for one, can't say that they're wrong for feeling how they feel...but are they justified in wanting to go kill Negan?

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