Episode 4 of the latest season of The Walking Dead was almost completely lifted directly from the comics – albeit with a few F-Bombs being replaced, but the whole tone, feel and ambiance of the episode mirrored the comics perfectly with the only real differences being the Daryl influenced ones (Daryl actually being there, Rosita and Spencer going to find his car etc).
The episode started off normally enough, with Rosita and Spencer about to depart Alexandria, when Negan and a good few dozen of his henchmen turn up, with Negan – as charismatic as ever – knocking on the gates with the universally known line “Little pig, little pig – let me in!”, continuing his penchant for turning children’s games and nursery rhymes into something much more sinister after his horrific game of eenie-meenie-minie-mo in the season opener.
Immediately, Negan imposes his authority over Rick and the people of Alexandria, telling his people to go and scour the safe zone for anything they wanted, Rick’s pleas that they were early and they should decide what was “half” of their stuff falling on unsympathetic ears, Negan insisting that he was the one who decided what they took.
The main aim throughout from Negan was to metaphorically castrate Alexandria and Rick in the process, this being done with a constant smile on his face, even when Carl (Corrral) pointing a gun at his men and even threatening him. His flawlessly white smile shining through and his threats carrying the weight of Glenn and Abraham’s deaths being enough to halt any kind of insurgency from anyone within Alexandria.
Some points that are worth mentioning, being that Daryl was among the Saviors who turned up to loot the place, but remaining silent throughout – even when given the chance to “plead his case” to stay, silence being his response. I mean to be fair he probably still has “Easy Street” going through his head on a constant loop from the previous episode. However, from my perspective, he’s doing this in order to punish himself for causing Glenn’s death. Not only this, but when Negan asked about Maggie, Gabriel stepped up and told him that he could pay his respects, with a freshly dug, but empty grave, being where they said she was – this possibly to hide the ties that Alexandria and the Hilltop share. However, on seeing Maggie’s “grave”, this obviously unsettled Daryl more than Negan, with Negan’s only remorse seeming to be that he wanted to take Maggie back to the Saviors compound in order to fill the gap that Glenn’s death would have caused – figuratively and literally.
Negan’s men and women went about their business around Alexandria with Carl’s outburst helping Negan make the decision that he should confiscate all of the guns that they have, as well as take as many mattresses as they could. Whilst taking their stuff, Negan told Rick that they could keep their food, that they would be of no use to the Saviors if they all starved to death, insisting that he should thank them for that – while also mentioning that it was interesting that they don’t have much food whilst a “fat lady” (Olivia) was in charge of it.
Whilst taking all of the weapons that Alexandria had, it was found that 2 handguns in the inventory stock list were missing, Negan then threatened to kill Olivia if they weren’t found, which led to a town-hall style meeting with everyone in order to find out who had taken them, Rick admitting that he was no longer in charge, that Negan was. Throughout this episode, Andrew Lincoln played the part of a completely broken man to perfection, Rick appearing weary, tired and completely beaten.
As it all turned out, the guns were in a little hiding place of Spencer, who was out with Rosita looking for Daryl’s bike for Dwight. Spencer admitting to her later on that he had them because he didn’t trust Rick after he took over following his mother, Deanna’s death.
Throughout the episode, Negan was goading Rick into thanking him, from twice killing a walker outside the gates, to letting them keep their food – Negan finally tells him that he won’t leave until he says the 2 magic words. Rick reluctantly says “Thank you” to which Negan (again straight from the comics) says “In case you haven’t caught on…I just slid my dick down your throat…and you thanked me for it.”
After Negan and the Saviors left, Rick conceded to Michonne that this was a situation he and everyone else had to accept in order to survive, much like his decision to accept that Judith is Shane’s daughter and not his. Michonne tells him that she’ll try to accept it, but had previously floated the idea that they could band together with the Hilltop to take on the Saviors – an idea which Rick dismisses as their numbers still wouldn’t be enough.
In a show of utter piss-takery though, Michonne was out in a field (that she had previously been to to practice her sharp-shooting, with little luck) to see smoke, when she found the source, she’d found that the Saviors had burned all of the mattresses that they took from Alexandria – another show of their mindset, to take away their comfort in order to make them more obedient.
The episode ended with Rosita picking up a bullet casing and visiting Eugene, demanded that he “Make me a bullet”.
All in all the episode, “Service” was a fantastic one, like I mentioned pulled almost scene for scene from the comics, and displaying all of the tension and atmosphere that you would expect from them at this point. Jeffrey Dean Morgan steals every scene he is in and Andrew Lincoln portrayed Rick as an utterly defeated man to absolute perfection. The Walking Dead is going from strength to strength and I cannot wait to see how the next 4 episodes before the mid-season break are going to pan out.
