The Walking Dead: Season 7 Episode 7 – “Sing Me a Song”

As we approach the end of the first half of The Walking Dead’s 7th Season, we find ourselves in the build up stage for more good watching. I can only hope so, as the 2 episodes before episode 7 were far under par for what we have come to expect from The Walking Dead.

“Sing Me a Song” had a lot of promise going for it, however the episode was a little fragmented and I felt that if they had condensed Tara’s story from last week into a half-episode along with what was going on with Rick and Aaron, which on the balance of things didn’t get enough air-time in this episode.

Since there were a few little stories going on in this episode, instead of skipping back and forth like they did I’ll look at each one in turn, starting with Michonne.

The episode started with Rick’s beau, picking up where we last saw her having seen the pile of mattresses that the Saviors burned at the side of the road. Her little story then had her whistling a tune whilst walking down the road, which was in fact quite a good nod to Omar from The Wire. Getting back to it though, Michonne was drawing out nearby walkers from the woods, to kill them, and drag them into the middle of the road to create a make-shift dam of sorts. This little construction project paid dividends with a Savior driving up to it and stopping, only for Michonne to sneak up on her and demand that she be taken to Negan at sword-point. After a slight struggle, with the unnamed Savior hitting the breaks hard so that Michonne would drop her weapon, Michonne retained control on the situation and after slamming the Savior’s face into the steering wheel a couple of times again demanded to be taken to Negan.

That was it for the Michonne part, so now I’ll move onto Spencer’s story. It started with him about to leave Alexandria with Gabriel, and asking Eugene and Rosita to go with them. However, as Rosita had an ulterior motive, Spencer and Gabriel were to go alone. Now, Spencer is a bit of a dick – to be fair, he can be forgiven somewhat as his whole family have died since Rick and his cohorts arrived at Alexandria. Still, he’s not a likable character by any stretch, and his time can’t come soon enough.

He’s already had too many words written about him so I’ll be brief about his mini-story. As he and Gabriel were driving down the road, Spencer told him of how much he hate’s Rick and that he hopes he never returns from his supply run – in return, Gabriel defended him, called Spencer a “tremendous shit” and walked back to Alexandria. Spencer meanwhile ran into the woods and came across a walker who was stuck on a hunter’s tree-stand. Upon pulling the walker down he found a note with some Latin writing on it. We last see Spencer when he is back at the front gate of Alexandria, arriving just after Rosita and Eugene do. He reveals what happened and that the Latin note was a set of coordinates to some supply caches, and he had his car loaded up with supplies – that it would appear would be given straight over to the Saviors who had made their way back to Alexandria – but we’ll pick this up again later.

Next we’ll look at Rosita and Eugene, who we pick up on after Rosita had demanded that Eugene make her a bullet from a previous episode. Still, we know already that they were on their way out of Alexandria and declined a lift from Spencer. They ended up in the machinists shop that Eugene and Abraham had been before, with Eugene now having second thoughts on making a bullet for her. Rosita persuaded him after she insulted him, calling him a coward and saying that he owed it to both her and Abraham. Finally we see them both almost back at Alexandria, where Rosita apologize’s to Eugene for what she said to him, but Eugene refuses and says he wants to go back to the “awkward silence” before they meet Spencer again…

The next little story we will visit will be Rick and Aaron’s, which saw them on their supply run waking up inside a box-truck, opening the back to see something that they hadn’t seen the night before – this turned out to be a sign with a threatening message painted on stating “Keep going, only thing here for you is trouble”. The 2 venture on however, until they come across another message that basically was warning trespassers again against making a go for the supplies that the writer had, but also that if they hadn’t been shot yet by the time they had gotten to the end that the writer was probably dead and to “have at it, assholes” referring to the supplies. Rick and Aaron move on until they found an old houseboat in a pond, surrounded by walkers tethered in the water.

Finally we’ll be looking at Carl and Jesus. We last saw them stowing away in the back of one of the Saviors trucks, with Jesus pouring out some syrup out of the back so that they have a trail to use to find their way. Jesus said that they needed to jump out and finish their journey on foot, leaping out and hiding by the side of the road, and looking on while Carl waved at him remaining on the truck.

When the truck Carl was in reached the Sanctuary, he had grabbed an assault rifle and proceeded to kill 2 of the Saviors as they went in the back to unload it. Carl demanded to see Negan (along with Michonne’s antics and the assumption that Rosita’s bullet it for him, he really is Captain Popular these days) and that nobody else had to die. This of course was a fools errand from a fool, so it wasn’t any kind of surprise when Dwight tackled him turned his gun back on the hairy little gimp. Negan however made Dwight stand down, insisting this is “No way to treat our guest.”

Negan decided to take Carl on a tour of the Sanctuary, from showing him his harem of wives (one of which he had to have a “one-on-one” with about her cheating on him with her ex) to showing how he has the total respect of the Saviors, stopping them from doing anything to announce that they would all get vegetables with their dinner without the need to spend “points” to which he whispered to Carl “You see that? Respect.”

Negan then had a little sit-down chat with Carl, stopping abruptly and stating that Carl was very much like a birthday present and to remove his bandage to see “What grandma has got for me!”. Carl refuses, until Negan reminds him that he killed 2 of his men, and he wants to see his wound. Carl removes the bandage and shows him his eye socket; Negan looks delighted and exclaims about how disgusting it is, which makes Carl start crying. Negan actually looks shocked by this, and apologizes stating that he forgets he’s a kid.

At this point, Fat Joey comes in with Lucille which Negan had forgotten. Negan makes a point of asking if he treated her “like a lady” and asked if he had “Pet her little pussy like a lady” before laughing saying that “A baseball bat doesn’t have a pussy!” Making a point to Carl that men break each other’s balls, and that this is stuff that Rick should be teaching him. Before again making the demand to “Sing me a song” after Carl had killed 2 of his men, finding out in the process that Carl had not only witnessed his mother’s death, but had shot her.

After this, Negan and Carl enter the main compound of the Sanctuary where Mark (the guy who had sex with one of his wives) was tied to a chair. Negan remind everyone of the importance of the rules, before taking a red-hot iron to Mark’s face.

After this, Carl then starts berating Negan for not killing him, Rick or Daryl when Negan then says they’ll go for a ride. Negan, Carl and some of the Saviors start riding in a small convoy to Alexandria (which started with Negan on the roof of a truck, before getting off – remaining at the Sanctuary).

When Negan and Carl get to Alexandria, Negan asks Olivia where Rick is, she says that he is on a supply run for them and that they are starving – Negan laughs and mocks Olivia’s size before apologizing to her and offering to have sex with her to pass the time. She slaps him, but when we were watching this, my wife smiled and said “Hell yeah!!” I sure do pick ’em.

Moving on, Negan is then on a tour of Rick’s house, until he comes across Judith, who he picks up and is clearly smitten with (in a kind of paternal way) whilst we end Carl and Negan’s adventure with them sitting on the porch with Judith on Negan’s lap. Negan openly wondering about the possibility of killing Rick and Carl whilst making Alexandria his permanent home before kissing Judith’s nose.

Right, this episode was absolutely all over the place – there was not enough time spent on Rick and Aaron, too much time spent on Carl (more than 3 minutes is generally too much time) and it felt as if they were cramming too much into one episode – especially when you consider the previous 2 episodes were not very good and could have been cut down considerably.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan again stole the show however, being an antagonist that you just can’t help but like, Chandler Riggs was actually pretty good in this episode, it’s unfortunate however the the character Carl is such a gigantic wet-blanket. There wasn’t really enough of anyone else to make any informed opinions on how they were, but although this episode was very scattered, it was much more watchable than last week’s adventure with Tara.

Next week is the mid-Season finale, which I’m waiting with baited breath for as overall this season hasn’t been quite up to the usual standard of The Walking Dead, but can be redeemed slightly with a good send off before Christmas.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Ladies – would you have reacted more like Olivia or my wife at Negan’s sexual proposition? Let us know in the comments below, the RGM Forums or on Twitter. If you like what you’ve read then feel free to share this article on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pintrest or Reddit using the buttons available!

REVIEW OVERVIEW
Overall
5.5
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Hi! I'm Richard (aka Toolbox 24) one of the writing team at Real Game Media. Gaming for as long as I can remember and being hooked from a young age from the Commodore 64 up to the current gen. Hobbies include gaming (obviously), music, driving (finally), good TV and movies. Enjoy the site and remember to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
the-walking-dead-season-7-episode-7-sing-me-a-songBetter than recent episodes, but still not what we want. With the Maggie and Tara focused episodes seeming like fillers, this episode felt like it was over-filled with too much crammed into it. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is the absolute boss as Negan and I can only hope that his performances continue as they are as he is the most magnetic person in every scene he is in. What will the mid-season finale bring next week?