Inside the episode video
Watch the inside the episode video below for this episode to get a breakdown of what happened and comments from the actors. If the video doesn’t play below, you can watch it on AMC.com.
Episode summary
In a flashback, Rick walks with three-year-old Carl down a country road.
In the present, Alden and the POWs clear walkers around the Hilltop’s perimeter.
Rick speaks to Siddiq about the circumstances of Carl’s death. Siddiq explains that Carl was helping him kill walkers to release their souls, as Siddiq’s mother once did. He regrets not having considered the risks.
Hilltoppers mobilize to ambush the Saviors. Ezekiel predicts it could be the last morning for some of them.
Rick, Maggie, Carol, Michonne, Daryl and Rosita discuss their plan of attack. Michonne wonders if they can trust intelligence delivered by Gregory.
Morgan looks around Hilltop, confused and out of sorts. He strides aggressively towards Alden and the Saviors and knocks someone to the ground before realizing it’s Henry. Rick suggests to Morgan that he stay back, but Morgan vows to finish the Saviors. Maggie refuses to let Alden and the Savior prisoners join the fight.
Rick’s army marches to battle.
Saviors mobilize at the Sanctuary. Eugene informs Negan that he manufactured the munitions as requested. Negan shoots a dummy labeled “Rick” with a test bullet and grins. He gives a map to two Saviors, Lance and Duke, and sends them out.
Rick leads a scout team to spy on Lance and Duke’s group as they set up a road block.
Negan, Laura, Eugene and Gabriel drive out together. Negan predicts that Rick will send a scout team to kill Lance’s group as they set up their roadblock. He explains that he gave Lance and Duke, who were Simon’s men, a decoy map to lure Rick’s group into an ambush.
Rick’s scout team kills Lance’s group and finds the map, unaware that it’s a decoy. Morgan hallucinates and sees Jared. Rick radios Maggie with the new ambush location indicated on the map.
Gabriel jumps out of Negan’s car and makes a run for it. Laura and Eugene capture him. Negan punches Gabriel and orders him back in the car.
Rick’s army crosses a field. Jesus suggests Morgan abstain from killing people by reserving the sharp end of his stick for walkers and the blunt side for the living. A massive herd looms in the distance.
A convoy of Saviors approaches Hilltop. Tara, Kal and others arm themselves.
Rick’s army advances to the ambush spot. Whistling begins just as it did on the night Glenn and Abraham died. Negan reaches Rick via walkie to explain that Rick’s group is trapped. Negan and the Saviors appear on the crest of a nearby hill in a massive line and open fire, but their guns malfunction. The bullets explode in their hands. Rick’s army charges.
The battle begins in earnest.
Hilltoppers evacuate. Tara, worried that the wailing of the baby will put the Saviors on their trail, stays behind to fight. Alden and the other prisoners insist on helping her.
Regina attacks Eugene for sabotaging the ammunition. Rosita shoots Regina, killing her.
Morgan goes to kill a Savior, but at the last moment heeds Jesus’s advice and knocks him out instead.
Tara and the prisoners prepare to attack. To their surprise Cyndie and the Oceansiders ambush the Saviors with Molotov cocktails.
Defeated, Laura and the surviving Saviors surrender to Rick’s army.
Rick runs out of bullets and fights Negan hand to hand. A framed stained glass window hangs from a nearby tree. Negan gains the upper hand. Rick asks Negan to grant him ten seconds to describe the future Carl envisioned and Negan acquiesces. Rick suddenly slits Negan’s throat with a shard of glass.
Negan falls to the ground clutching at his bleeding neck.
Rick orders Siddiq to save Negan. Maggie screams and demands that Negan die, but Michonne holds her back. Rick orders the Saviors to return home and proclaims that Negan’s rule is over. He points to the massive herd in the distance and declares that they must unite to fight the walkers.
Eugene confirms to Rosita that he sabotaged the Saviors’ munitions. She punches him in the face for vomiting on her.
Morgan gives his armor to Carol to pass along to Henry.
Light dances on Rick’s face as he weeps under a tree.
Alden tells Maggie that he would like to stay at Hilltop to help build a stronger community. She agrees to his request.
Rosita and Tara deliver supplies to the Sanctuary, where Saviors are rebuilding their compound. Rosita nods at Laura, who is planting a garden.
Daryl releases Dwight in the woods with a set of car keys, and vows to kill him if he ever returns.
Morgan goes to the junkyard and invites Jadis to join Rick’s community. She accepts his offer, but he stays behind, alone in the Heaps.
Dwight drives to his old house and finds a note from Sherry. He smiles.
Carol, Ezekiel, Jerry and Henry return to the Kingdom.
Maggie meets Jesus and Daryl and declares that Rick shouldn’t have spared Negan’s life. She vows to prove him wrong.
Negan recovers in the infirmary. Rick and Michonne inform him that he will rot in a cell for the rest of his life and serve as a reminder that people are capable of change.
Gabriel walks through a burned-out church. He kneels at the altar and thanks God.
In a flashback, Rick puts his sheriff’s hat on 3-year-old Carl as they walk down a country road. In the present he writes a letter to Carl and attributes the new world to his son.
Source: AMC
New characters
- None
Characters that died
- Random Saviors
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