[RECAP] Season 8, Episode 11 of The Walking Dead, "Dead or Alive Or"

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By Carolina Gallardo (@carolgallardo)

This week's episode of Walking Dead entitled "Dead or Alive or" we got a seemingly filler episode focusing on mostly Daryl and the now refugee Alexandrians and a Father Gabriel/Dr. Carson team now on the run.  At first glance, the episode appears to be a filler episode but there were plenty of Easter eggs that could potentially develop into something much larger.

In the case of the Alexandrians, our group is on their way to the Hilltop, the last remaining beacon of hope.  With Daryl is Tara, Dwight and Rosita and there is an uneasy alliance to eventually comes to a head.  Dwight has now completely turned his back on The Saviors and is fully supporting Rick's cause, however Tara is still incredibly mistrustful of Dwight and would like to see him eliminated immediately.  Daryl at least has enough sense to understand that Dwight is incredibly useful to their team but Tara cannot put aside her emotions to see this.  Which quite frankly is surprising and hypocritical considering that we MET Tara via her alliance to The Governor.  But I digress.

Eventually Dwight leads them to a swamp that if they can make their way through, they will be on track to get to the Hilltop as well as not be detected by Negan and his team, since the area was deemed "too dangerous". 

As Daryl and Rosita work toward executing all the swamp walkers (some with growing mushrooms...gross), Tara finally cannot hold herself back any longer and decides to take a shot at Dwight, forcing him to flee.  She chases and they find themselves hiding in a bush from a group of Saviors, patrolling the area for the Alexandrians.  Dwight eventually pops out and fools the Saviors as being just one of them and being wounded.  The group of Saviors is none the wiser and they all go off, Dwight having essentially saved their lives.  Daryl is livid with Tara that Dwight got away but Tara now realizes that Dwight can in fact be trusted. 

The group eventually arrives to the Hilltop with the news of what happened at Alexandria as well as Carl's death.  As viewers we do not exactly hear what is said, but we can read Daryl's lips and understand that he says the word "Carl".  We see Maggie and Enid eventually crumple to the ground, weeping at the news.

In another area, we see that Dr. Carson and Father Gabriel have escaped from the Sanctuary and are trying to figure out how to get to Rick and his group.  They are in a car but they are very much lost.  Eventually they stumble upon a random house that contains (3) very important elements that could potentially become factors in the future:

• Antibiotics that curb Father Gabriel's infection (A possible link to a potential cure?)
• A map to the Hilltop hidden in a piggy bank (Why the Hilltop?  And why would the map to the area be hidden?)
• A ham radio (***SPOILER ALERT***: For those that have read the comic, I'm sure that many viewers' eyes enlarged at the site and reference to that ham radio; $20 says that that ham radio is affiliated with the mysterious black helicopter; Just sayin')

Beyond these elements, we realize that sadly Father Gabriel's infection has done serious damage to his eye sight and he is slowly going blind.  This is a sad and horrifying premise for existence in this world: How can one survive this apocalyptic environment as a disabled person?

Finding all these elements however, further makes Father Gabriel feel that God has a purpose for them and that these are all signs that they are on the right track.  It's interesting to see the dynamic between this Man-of-Faith vs. Man-of-Science relationship.  At a certain point, after Father Gabriel finds the strength to be able to miraculously shoot off a walker from an already injured Dr. Carson, the good doctor starts to come around to this positive way of thinking...until they are ultimately recaptured by Saviors.  In a seemingly act of suicide-by-cop, Dr. Carson grabs a Savior's gun which gets him immediately shot and killed.  They drive off with Father Gabriel weeping throughout the car ride back to The Sanctuary.

Meanwhile back at the Sanctuary, Negan is putting the pressure on Eugene to get his Armory outpost up and running and making bullets to replenish their supply.  Eugene is not working fast enough and during a confrontation when Negan brings him a captured Gabriel as extra help, Eugene suggests using walker parts as weapons (throw the bodies over the wall to the Alexandrians to slow them down).  Hearing this and seeing Father Gabriel's state gets Negan's brain immediately working and we can tell he's come up with an idea.  They are to coat all of their weapons in walker blood so that just a cut or scrape or touch with an infected weapon will be enough to do just that: Infect the enemy and turn them into weapons themselves.  He gathers all his men together and informs them that they will be utilizing the might of the walker illness to their advantage.

Post-Apocalyptic Bio-warfare if you will.

With all all of our heroes now gathered at the Hilltop, expect next week's episode to be action packed with many of our main characters on center stage.

THE WALKING DEAD AIRS SUNDAYS, AT 9PM EST ON AMC.

[RECAP] Season 8, Episode 7 of The Walking Dead, "Time for After"

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Here we are, believe it or not, Walking Dead Fans.  We have arrived at the penultimate episode leading to the mid-season finale, aptly titled "Time for After" (or what should've been called, Time for What Happens Next, in my humble opinion).  This episode largely focused on the players on both the Saviors side and Team Grimes side, and the choices made on both sides that'll likely set in motion the firestorm (literally) that we'll soon see.  Unfortunately there was a lot of Eugene talk and Garbage people talk so we hope you had your Closed Captions settings on.  But we'll walk you through all that, since that's what we're here for.

While we have the comic relief side show of Rick and Garbage People (let's be honest now) the real depth of the episode lays on the Savior side, specifically with Eugene.  The evolution of his character has been pretty incredible to watch this season and this episode is no different.  We see how the Saviors are still trapped within their walls by the overwhelming mass of walkers still banging at their doors.  Negan is still looking to his lieutenants to come up with a way out of this mess and Eugene is taking that responsibility very seriously.  Negan and Eugene even have a one on one conversation where Negan looks Eugene eye to eye and gives him a handshake, a sign of mutual respect, something that most people don't get from him he says.  This is right after Eugene tries to kiss Negan's hand (come on Eugene, he's not a mob boss), but I digress.

He's not a mob boss, Eugene...geez.

After this interaction, Dr. Carson flags him down in the hall and informs him that Father Gabriel's health is going downhill fast.  He asks if Eugene could spend some time with his "friend" (or as Eugene prefers to refer to him as "traveling companion") so that he could see what medicinal herbs he can use to TRY and tend to Father Gabriel, as best he can.

It's during this time together that Father Gabriel asks Eugene to help him get Dr. Carson back to the Hilltop to tend to Maggie.  It's clear that Father Gabriel is still holding fast to trying to ensure that even if he dies (and it's looking more and more likely) that he at least doesn't die without a purpose (a fruitless death).  While Father Gabriel continues to calmly preach to Eugene about doing the right thing, when the time comes, Eugene makes it abundantly clear at this point (and throughout the episode) that in a world where morals and values are so ambiguous, self-preservation is his sole purpose.  Oh, and he also has a few funny one liners about looking like a potato in a s&*t casserole.  HA.

Moving on though, we see that Eugene downright confronts Dwight, which is rather bold for a guy like Eugene, in my opinion.  Eugene levels with Dwight that he KNOWS that the's the mole and that he is asking for him to stop any espionage work that he was doing (although I'm not quite sure how much more Dwight could do since it seems that if events had run their course, the Sanctuary would've fallen).  It's at that point that Dwight sits Eugene down and tells him just that, that the Sanctuary WILL fall and that all he has to do to remain quiet and be on the right side, when the time comes.  Eugene tells Dwight that this is unlikely since Negan is not the "dying type" (FORESHADOWING COMIC FANS) and he insists that he IS Negan, they are Saviors and they need to SAVE people.  Dwight then goes into an excellent monologue telling Eugene that he believes that NOW because he hasn't had to involuntarily kill for Negan.  He tells him that the time will come and he will have blood on hands and there is NO going back at that point.  EXCELLENT POINT DWIGHT.  But unfortunately it all falls on deaf, hair covered ears.

We then see Eugene's life in The Sanctuary, still trying to determine how to fix the problem of the walkers outside.  One of Negan's wives (I believe her name is Tanya) arrives to pick up her fixed boom box (hey, I mean, if you're going to die anyway, might as well listen to some music on your way out).  Eugene, incredulous that she's even focused on her boom box right now, tells her that he'll work on it but he would still like to have the bottle of wine that she was going to give him in exchange.  Tanya informs him that no amount of alcohol is going to help him sleep at night and that he HAD his chance to help her and wives poison Negan and he chose to look out for himself.  OUCH.  But, she's right.  In any case, she leaves him the wine and leaves Eugene to chug his wine, in consolation.

After much tinkering and visiting Sasha's old coffin (did anyone else jump at that Sasha Walker flashback?  I did), Eugene uses components from the boombox, from Sasha's old iPod and other elements to create a musical drone, in an apparent plan to launch it off the roof and over the walker herd, to try and lead them away from the Sanctuary.  Right as he's recording his steps but before he hits the launch button, we see Dwight come out on the roof and confront Eugene, putting a gun to the back of his head.  He tells him to stop and that his actions will lead to the death of Rick, Rosita and all his friends (again, Eugene insists, traveling companions) and that he's working WITH them to save people and preserve the greater good.  Eugene says that no matter what he's screwed: Either he does nothing to improve the situation at the Sanctuary and Negan kills him OR he takes his chances trying to save the Sanctuary and he gets POSSIBLY killed by a sometime ally/sometime foe in Dwight.  Ultimately, Eugene launches the drone over the Walkers, only to be shot down by Dwight...but not before Eugene records the whole conversation on his tape recorder that was documenting the launch?

Which brings us to Daryl, Tara and Morgan.  After Michonne and Rosita came to their senses and decided that Daryl's plan was way too risky and left, the remaining members of the group decided to continue to follow through.  Although I will say that Daryl at least seemed SLIGHTLY conflicted, whereas impulsive Tara and suicidal Morgan were fully on board.  Upon hearing the gunshots from Dwight on the roof (SIDE NOTE: Why didn't Morgan and his snipers pick off Dwight and Eugene when they were on that roof having their confrontation?), Tara opens fire on the windows of The Sanctuary and Daryl puts the pedal to the metal and crashes the truck into the building, jumping out of the truck in time to run off with Tara and leaving a gaping hole for the walkers to start flooding in.  And flood in they do.

What we see next is utter chaos on the main floor of the Sanctuary, which we learned from earlier episodes, is where the "workers" primarily reside, including men, women and children.  The lieutenants do their best to get as many of the walkers as possible and we see Eugene frozen on the steps in shock, fear and anger over the situation.  He is literally shaking.  He then lets out all of his frustrations on Father Gabriel, informing him that he has NO intention of helping him at ALL with Dr. Carson and that he is fully Negan and will do everything he can to save these people.  He then storms off and goes to Negan.

In Negan's conference room (that's what it is right?), a determined Eugene informs Negan that he has a plan on how to escape this precarious situation, but he would need him to help him get to the abandoned metal shop (remember?  The one that Eugene and Abraham were at when Eugene said he use this place to make bullets? God, I miss Abraham).  Negan TOTALLY strokes Eugene's ego, calling him "magnificent" and Eugene offers more Intel to top that.  Negan is all ears, but it's at that point that the rest of lieutenants show up and Eugene cowers at the idea of ratting out Dwight right in front of him (clearly that's what he was going to do).  Instead, Eugene mentions that he can fix the intercom system too.  Fabulous.

So let's now visit Rick and the Garbage People (as much as I don't want to).  After some bizarre pseudo-naked photos, Rick is held down and Jadis brings out essentially Winslow, Version 2, being maneuvered by a metal helmet attached to a stick.  Rick immediately reacts and fights off a couple of Jadis' people and eventually pulls the Walker's head off , fights off Jadis, and eventually (finally) pinning her down.  It's at this point that she instructs her people to surrender and after some hard bargaining (what is with this chick and the strange deals?), she agrees to help him.

A fully dressed Rick and the Garbage people then arrive at the Sanctuary, with Rick trying to radio in the cavalry, to no avail.  He then sees a sniper hanging down from his post, being eaten by walkers, with his face missing (FORESHADOWING COMIC BOOK FANS).  He kills the walkers and climbs the post and is shocked to see the truck crashed into the Sanctuary and it being completely clear of walkers...and people.

So we're now left with the following questions:

• What was Eugene's plan that got rid of the walkers and got the remaining Saviors out?  Where did they all go?
• How much time has passed since Rick was held by the Garbage People?
• How will the Saviors now retaliate, since Negan informed Eugene that he fully intends to?
• What will be the ultimate repercussions of Daryl, Tara and Morgan's actions?
• And finally, who's dying in the mid-season finale??  Because we all know that's going to happen.

To help with these burning questions, we'll be posting possible predictions tomorrow morning to see just how good we are.  Stay tuned...

The Walking Dead's mid-season finale will air on Sunday, 12/9 at 9:00PM EST and will be an extended 88 minute episode.

[Episode 188] Season 7, Episode 10 of Fear The Walking Dead, "Mourning Cloak"

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This episode takes time to finally focus on Charlie. Although "Mourning Cloak" is meant to highlight the beginning of the end for her, it might serve as a reawakening for #JuneDorie, who had retreated into herself since #JohnDorie's demise (similar to #AliciaClark). And how do we feel about Howard after this episode?

We had some massive technical issues, which ended up stirring a LOT of slap-happy behavior, a chunk of it which we managed to capture in the Unedited Version of this episode. If you want to stream this and get early access to future unedited episode recordings, as well attend the real-time chat during our recording sessions, support your favorite #TWDU #podcast, here:

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David Cameo:
Rachael Burt:

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🎖SURVIVORS TIER MEMBERS:

Jasmine:

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• Mail call! Both Vanessa & Sherrandy surprise us with gifts!
• Vanessa wanted to thank us for the work we put into our Jackbox Games Charity Livestream to help her recoup the massive funds she needed to repair her roof (the clocks, in order, are Dave's, Sherrandy's and Rachael's):
  
  
• Sherrandy wrote a lovely card mounted one of the best photos we took during Fandemic.

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• We receive $1 for every delicious bag of Phineas Coffee you buy and SQUAWKING DEAD fans receive 10% off when they click this link or use the code SQUAWKINGDEAD at checkout!
  
• Dave recently posted a photo of him wearing SQUAWKING DEAD merch: our logo, with colors inspired by our coverage of The Walking Dead's 9th season (in the tri-blend fabric/color). If you want to own your own, click here:

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• On February 18th, shortly after AMC released the titles to the latter half of FearTWD's 7th season, Sherrandy recorded her take on what the title Mourning Cloak meant: how accurate was she?
  
• The Mourning Cloak butterfly does typically live much longer than the average butterfly (12 months), as opposed to a month or a season, at best.
  
  
• Charlie is the obvious reference, but might the mourning cloak actually be June Dorie, since she has retreated within herself since John Dorie's passing?
  
• And how is the mourning cloak more representative of Charlie?
  
  
• Jasmine has always liked Charlie and never cared for Madison Clark or Nick Clark
  
  
• Sherrandy points out that Charlie is one of June’s last connections to John since they had taken care of Charlie in the latter half of Season 4.
  
  
  
• But what’s the issue with living in Victor Strand’s tower, anyway?
  
  
• June & Charlie took care of one another whilst living with The Vultures after the stadium's collapse.
  
  
• 🤫WHISPERERS Tier Member Tyler Phillip Cox interviewed Erik Jensen (Dr. Steven Edwards from The Walking Dead), a character who killed another doctor for his own self preservation.
• Is June in danger after confronting Howard?
  
  
• Is being a doctor in The Walking Dead Universe always a death sentence (Siddiq, Enid, Harlan Carson, Emmett Carson, Caleb Subramanian, Dana from The Kingdom, Dante, Denise Cloyd, Pete Anderson, Hershel Greene, etc.)?
  
  
• Should June & Tomichi Okumura (from TWD) be worried?
  
  
• What is the purpose of Victor keeping butterflies in mason jars?
  
• Does Strand relate to the butterflies because they were once one thing and then morphed into something better/more beautiful?
  
  
• ...Or is Strand making potential rangers capture butterflies to haze them as John Dorie Sr. alludes?
  

  
• Could Howard be pulling Victor's strings? Or has he become a man of faith (in Victor's vision) whose faith in Strand might eventually break?
  

  
• Did Howard have children? Or always wanted to? Is that why he fosters this strange, but intimate relationship with Ali Muhammad?
  

  
• Where is Strand? Scouting ahead? Staying overnight?
  

  
• John Dorie Sr. is playing the game well (trying to, perhaps, have Strand's/Howard's ear)!
  
  
• What if PADRE is really The Commonwealth?
  
  (If you want to see what's inside the PADRE documents, check out our blog covering the episode by the same name, here)
• Callback: The radio channel Ali tells Charlie to communicate with him on is 4, which is the title of Fear The Walking Dead's 9th episode of Season 5. It's the introduction of Wes and Tess, but the overall theme? Helping others helps (fix) ourselves.
  
  
• In what way might this episode be viewed as "cringe"?
  
• Is life worth living if we're living only to survive?
  

  
• What are Arno and The Stalkers looking for and what is their end game?
• Will we ever see everything that happened during Alicia Clark's time in the bunker?
  
  
• We figure out what the female Stalker refers to as The Pit (the nuclear warhead impact crater). She asks, "Why does Victor keep sending people to the pit?"
  
  
• In the spirit of Beethoven's Ode to Joy (from the last episode, FearTWD 7x09 Follow Me) can peace between all peoples (on this show) be achieved?
• Did Ali become the butterfly at the close of this episode?
  
  
• Is Charlie really dying and why is it so hard to believe that she is?
  
  
• What will Charlie look like the next time we see her?
  
  

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[RECAP] Season 8, Episode 5 of The Walking Dead, "The Big Scary U"

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At the beginning of this much anticipated (and much hyped) new season of The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman and Scott M. Gimple promised a raucous and action packed start which is entirely what we have received for the past few episodes.  Now that we have arrived at Episode 5, "The Big Scary U", the show scaled down the action dramatically to offer a much needed character study episode surrounding its star villain, Negan himself.  And after much anticipation, we finally got a chance to see the answer to the burning question we've had in our heads since the 100th episode premiere: What in the world happened to Negan and Father Gabriel since getting trapped in that trailer?

The show starts off by showing us a brief moment of Father Gabriel in church, by himself, telling God that he doesn't fear death anymore as he used to.  His fear now is a "fruitless death" and how if he's going to die, he wants it to be with a purpose.  If that's not foreshadowing, I'm not sure what is.  Remember this moment folks because Father Gabriel is likely not long for this world for too much longer.

Moving on, a major strength the show has always had is being able to illustrate jumps in time exceptionally well and here is no exception.  The next moment we see is Gregory at the Sanctuary, speaking to Simon.  Well, more so expressing his undying allegiance to him and The Saviors.  Simon hears him out but states that he will need to speak directly to this boss (because middle management exists, even in the post apocalyptic world).  In the next scene we have all the lieutenants sitting in their own "conference room" of sorts with Negan at the head of the table.  It becomes clear that Negan isn't fully buying Gregory's devotion to the Savior cause (as well he shouldn't), as he tells him that he gets the impression that he's playing both sides (which is true).  Simon tries to back up Gregory, even going so far as to say that if the Hilltop does NOT obey Gregory's order, they will show up with a show of force and kill everyone in sight if they need to.  It's at this point that we see Negan slam Lucille (his bat, for those who aren't familiar and if so, why in the world are you reading this?) consistently on the table and make it clear that they are NOT to go in and arbitrarily kill people because as he repeatedly says, "PEOPLE ARE RESOURCES".  This very important point illustrates how regardless of how much of a sociopath Negan may be, there is a method to his madness.  We even get the impression that there is some sort of history between Simon (the right hand man) and Negan, particularly when Negan asks him if he's "backsliding" and if he's forgotten what "this" was all about.  I'm hoping we'll get more on this backstory later...

But it's at this point, that gunshots are heard and we understand where we are in the timeline: This meeting took place the day that Rick and crew stormed the Sanctuary.  We get a brief glimpse of the moment Negan and team stepped onto the balcony to confront the situation and then we fast forward to where we left off in the season premiere: Negan and Father Gabriel in the trailer.

Negan wastes no time in tackling Father Gabriel to the ground, disarming him immediately.  He informs him that they'll need to wait this out, to see if The Saviors can break them out.  As they sit there, Father Gabriel discovers what he feels is is his purpose and he believes it is to take Negan's final confession.  We then spend most of this episode with Negan and Father Gabriel, in the trailer as walkers start to break through.  We learn some interesting things in their exchange to bear in mind for the future: Negan worked with kids in the past, before the apocalypse (perhaps Vice Principal that also coached?).  Negan does not feel any remorse whatsoever for the murder of Abraham and Glenn, because he says that Rick got them into that position (kind of true, to an extent).  Negan feels that he needs to get back to The Sanctuary as soon as possible because without his leadership, he feels that they'll succumb to attacking each other like a bunch of wild jackals (very true).  But one of the most enlightening moments is when Father Gabriel apparently hits a raw nerve by questioning Negan on his "wives" (to which he responds by saying each lady has a choice in the matter) but going as far asking him if there was a wife BEFORE all this.  And was he faithful to her?  This is the second time on the show that we see Negan ask Lucille to "give him strength" essentially to not kill Father Gabriel right then and there.  What ultimately ends up happening is "Negan's Confession" where he DOES confess to being unfaithful to his then ill (and presumably dying) wife, who he could not bring himself to put down, even after becoming a walker.  A situation very similar to Morgan's own situation (coincidence?).

After Negan confesses, Father Gabriel breaks out of the trailer bathroom and the two get to the task of covering themselves in the guts of walker that Negan drags in, in order to pull a Walking Dead classic move: Covering yourself in walker guts to throw off the walkers.  We end up seeing Negan and Father Gabriel deftly moving among the walkers until they have to start fighting back as a team, Negan even going so far to save Gabriel when at one point he falls.

Within the Sanctuary itself, we see that the natives are getting restless (literally).  Among the top of the brass, we see that the lieutenants are trying to figure if Negan's dead, what happens now?  They are trapped with the walkers swarming the Sanctuary and have gotten to the point of shutting down resources such as the AC to preserve fuel and power.  Think about that point for a moment:


IN THE POST APOCALYPTIC SOUTH, THE SAVIORS HAVE CENTRAL AIR. 

That makes for a pretty compelling case on why they have so many on their side, as it is.  But that's besides the point.

Among the top of the staff, it is clear that they are trying to determine who the mole is within the Saviors that got them into this situation.  As to be expected, most suspect Eugene, since he DID come from Rick's camp.  Dwight does come to his defense which Eugene later thanks him for in his room.  This interaction eventually supplies Eugene with the pieces that he puts together to realize that it's actually Dwight that is the mole within The Saviors.
What he will do what that information is still left to be determined.  Eventually the workers start to get restless at the conditions they are having to contend with (even though they are providing the labor expected) and are wondering where Negan is and if he is alive.  Simon tries to quell this potential uprising but someone in the crowd inevitably takes a shot and Regina (one of the lieutenants) immediately executes this individual.  It's at this point, that we hear the infamous Savior Whistle (which is pretty cool, honestly), everyone genuflects and Negan shows up with Father Gabriel in tow.  He puffs out his chest and demands a word with this right hand man and Father Gabriel is gingerly taken away.

Weaved into all of this, as a small side story but not to be neglected, is Rick and Daryl, picking up on where we left off after the assault on the Saviors carrying the 50 caliber weapons.  The Savior is eventually killed, but before that, they learn that everyone from the Kingdom (soldiers wise) were killed.  They see that beyond the guns, the Saviors also have explosives that Daryl feels should be used to blow the Sanctuary wide open in order to guarantee an immediate surrender.  Rick is not in agreement however, since there are workers and women and children within the sanctuary but at this point, Daryl looks at all innocent bystanders as collateral damage (much like Simon, as a matter of fact).  They reach an impasse and even end up coming to blows believe it or not, with Rick throwing the bag of explosives out of Daryl's reach...that promptly leads to the car and all its weapons going up in a spectacular fireball.
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Well, so much for that option.

Rick then informs Daryl (after some awkward silence) that he's going to continue on the mission by himself.  He starts walking and notices a black helicopter flying overhead.

Your mind at this point should be saying, WTF???

Finally, we come to find out that Father Gabriel was put into a cell and Eugene has come to bring some comfort elements (much as he did with Sasha).  Unfortunately, we see that Gabriel is feverish and sick, deliriously talking about how they have to get Dr. Carson to Maggie immediately.  Hence my earlier prediction on Father Gabriel's death and foreshadowing.

PREDICTIONS FOR NEXT WEEK: Based on what we see for the teaser, we will be seeing characters we haven't seen in some time (Carl, Michonne, Rosita, as well as Maggie & Jesus).  It also seems that Tara and Daryl come to an alliance on taking stronger action toward the Saviors.  This doesn't sit well with me, since I really hope these two don't go on a Sasha/Rosita type suicide mission (because we all know how THAT ended up).  But I guess we'll get more insight into all that.

Also, expect in the coming weeks for Eugene take on a more definitive role in getting Dr. Carson back to the Hilltop, possibly with Dwight's assistance.

But that's just MY take...

CHECK OUT OUR PODCAST ON "THE BIG SCARY U" TO HEAR OUR LOVELY TAKE FOR YOUR OWN EARS!

[PREDICTIONS] Season 8, Episode 8 of The Walking Dead, "How It's Gotta Be"

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By Carolina Gallardo (@carolgallardo)

So the time has come for The Walking Dead mid-season finale and the show has promised that there will be a "shocking" moment, to bring tears to our eyes and to keep us talking for months to come.  Based on from what we have seen from the trailers released, it is clear that Negan and the remaining Saviors come to Alexandria's doorsteps demanding to be let in or else.  The question is, what could that shocking moment be?  Are the show runners leading us on?  Or could a moment really such exist?  Here are thoughts on the Top 5 potential scenarios, as we rate them based on shock value and probability:

FATHER GABRIEL & TARA DIE

Shock Value: 1 out of 5

Probability: 90%

From Dr. Carson's evaluation, it appears that Father Gabriel's organs are shutting down and he is not long for this world.  However since that's been made abundantly clear, if Father Gabriel were to pass away in the mid-season finale, it would be far from shocking.  Our guess is if Father Gabriel were indeed to pass away, we would see some sort of confirmation on the purpose of his life, in order for his death not to be in vain.

Tara dying would be par for the course since she's been a one woman wrecking machine this whole first part of the season (aka Rosita and Sasha last season).  Her reckless attitude and point of view that all Saviors need to be killed no matter what, may very well come back to bite her.  And we wouldn't be the least bit surprised.  But shocking?  Far from it.

NO DEATH; BLACK HELICOPTER WITH NEW GROUP

Shock Value: 3 of 5

Probability: 20%

In the episode "The Big Scary U", we see Rick walking toward the Garbage People's area and he sees a black helicopter flying over his head and it hasn't been seen since.  We can't imagine that the writers and show runners would introduce a functioning black helicopter and never address EVER again.  How exciting would it be for the helicopter to reappear and we find out that it's an existing military group?  That it's OVERSEAS military?  That the outbreak only affected the US and/or the Americas and we've apparently been quarantined?  Oh, I'm sorry...I'm thinking about how I would want the SHOW to end in general.  In any case, as exciting and shocking as that would be, I'm not sure how much of this we'll see in this upcoming episode.

DARYL DIES

Shock Value: 4 of 5

Probability: 45%

This is a tough one.  Daryl has been consistently exhibiting his typical reckless behavior throughout this war, adopting a very clear attitude that the Saviors need to be exterminated, at all costs.  We've seen this extreme ideology put him at odds with Rick, to the point that they came to blows.  After that altercation, Rick continued on to meet the Garbage People and Daryl continued on his own personal mission to attack the Sanctuary and finish them off, against all of Rick's wishes.  He drove the truck into the Sanctuary, killing many of the workers...and allowing an opening for Negan and his lieutenants to escape.  Which is exactly what a shocked Rick saw at the end of the last episode.

It's anybody's guess what Rick's reaction will be when he eventually confronts Daryl, but if The Saviors attack Alexandria and take numerous lives, that blood will be on the hands of Daryl Dixon and it's anyone's guess what his own reaction will be.  Will he sacrifice himself for the greater good, as he seems hell bent on doing time and time again?  Would the show dare kill off their darling cash cow?  At this point, no one is "safe" so it could go either way.

CARL & JUDITH DIE (SORT OF)

Shock Value: 5 of 5

Probability: 85%

Now.  We've thought long and hard about this and hear us out.  There are various reasons why we've come to this conclusion.

The still images from the mid-season finale overwhelmingly include Carl, giving off the impression that he plays a major role in the episode.  There are images of Carl primarily, some other characters, but very little Rick.  In fact, the only image we see of Rick is him standing within a smog of smoke.  What if Rick misses the entire presumed counter attack on Alexandria?  We do not know how much time has passed while he was locked up in Jadis' trailer and the moment he gets to the Sanctuary to see the state that it's in.  What if he gets back to Alexandria to find that the Saviors have bombed and torched the community and many are laying dead as a result...including Carl and his daughter Judith.

But would the show do this?  Would the show kill off Rick's children, including a toddler?  Well, there are some indications that they might.

In the season premiere, we got to see a "Flash Forward" that showed an older Rick at one point speaking to who we presume to be Judith.  But what if that WASN'T Judith?  Rick never calls her Judith by name.  And we do know that earlier this season, Rick fought one of the Saviors only to find out that he was merely protecting his baby girl Gracie, who he found hidden in one of the upper rooms.  Rick was emotionally torn to realize that he killed a man that was only trying to protect his child.  Gracie was then transported to the Hilltop for care and is currently being taken care by Maggie.

What if the little girl in the flash forward is not Judith but GRACIE, instead?  It's also worth noting that the little girl in the flash forward was holding a stuffed rabbit that looks very similar to the same stuffed animal in baby Gracie's crib (hmmm).

Coincidence?

There's also a precedent for this in the comic book, since in the comics, Judith has been dead for some time.  In that scenario, the Governor attacked the prison and Lori, attempting to escape carrying baby Judith, is shot and killed and upon falling, smothers and kills baby Judith.  

Would they dare show something like this on television?

So what if this scenario and death were to fall on CARL and Judith, in an attack to escape an attack from the Saviors?  It would be incredibly shocking, horrifying and tragically sad.

It would also fall in line with the brief red eyed flash forward version of Rick we see, standing over two graves that we ASSUME to be Glenn & Abraham.  At one point, based on his eyes, he appears very obviously distraught and we can hear him say, "May my mercy prevail over my wrath".  If we recall, that line was uttered by Siddiq to Carl and Rick during their initial encounter.  What other incident could bring him to that level of despair, other than the loss of his children?

It is worth noting however that in the same flash forward, Carl is referred to, but we never see his face.  There IS the possibility that Carl is perhaps not KILLED but seriously injured.  Picture this: We end the episode with Rick returning to a torched Alexandria, seeing an unconscious Carl and Judith laid out on the ground.  Then we come back next year to find out that Judith in fact died but Carl survived, albeit with injuries.  CLIFFHANGER.  Since you know, The Walking Dead occasionally likes to do stuff like that.  Just saying.  Either way, this is the scenario we're putting our money on.

RICK OR NEGAN DIES 

Shock Value: 5 of 5

Probability: 0%

It's worth putting out there, but don't even think about it.  At this point in the show (and the comic series) there is no way that the show is going to kill off Rick and/or Negan.  And as it's already been said, they're not the dying type.

THE MID-SEASON FINALE OF THE WALKING DEAD AIRS SUNDAY, 12/10 AT 9:00PM EST