The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 14 Recap And Review: The Other Side

With only two episodes left in season 7, “The Walking Dead” is preparing us for the great war to come against the Saviors. In “The Walking Dead” Season 7 episode 14, we see an hour full of our main characters sorting out their emotions and trying to blame themselves of the losses that they’ve had. To be honest, it almost felt as if it’s an episode made to stall until we get the bloody and gory parts (which never came, by the way.) Shocking revelations and mini-cliffhangers also happened, with us wondering who that person in the last shot is.

The Walking Dead: The Other Side

In today’s episode, titled “The Other Side”, Maggie rallies the Hilltop for the upcoming war against the Saviors, while Sasha and Rosita travel to the Sanctuary to kill Negan. The Saviors raid the Hilltop unexpectedly, making Daryl and Maggie hide in a cellar; the Saviors leave Hilltop with Dr. Harlan Carson, to replace his now-deceased brother, Emmett, as the Saviors’ new doctor. Sasha and Rosita encounter Eugene while breaking into the Sanctuary and try to bring him back to Alexandria, but he refuses. Sasha sacrifices herself, telling Rosita to go back to Alexandria because the group needs her; she locks Rosita out and shoots her way into the Sanctuary, while Rosita flees and sees someone holding a crossbow watching them.

Sasha and Rosita Finally Make Amends

In the many episodes of The Walking Dead, we’ve only seen trickles of interaction between Sasha and Rosita, especially since their love triangle with Abraham. Now, we are treated to a decent amount of time for them to sort things out. As they travel together, they finally make up and resolve their mutual hostility over Abraham. But instead of talking about their feelings and themselves, they resolve their issue through discussing about the men in their lives. There’s a bit of zombie-fighting throughout the time that they’re together, but it doesn’t seem to distract them from addressing the elephant in the room.

Sasha compliments Rosita about her wide-ranging skill set, and they come to a final conclusion where Rosita tells Sasha that she’s not really mad at her. “I thought I hated you, but maybe I just hated that he figured out his shit first.” Rosita says.

The scene plays well, but just as we all thought that the beautiful exchange would last for a little bit more, Sasha breaks the ice by saying what most of them have been saying since Season 1, “we shouldn’t be wasting time, let’s go.” Off they go to what could be their timely deaths.

Daryl Gets Emotional, Blames Himself for Glenn’s Death

When the Saviors raid the Hilltop, we see how useless of a leader Gregory. I’m not going to be surprised if he breaks and suddenly sells out the Hilltop. But one thing that’s amazing with Gregory is how he still manages to keep Maggie and Daryl a secret. Maybe he has some tricks up his sleeve as well.

Anyway, the reason why this raid is important is for us to see some interaction between Maggie and Daryl. Throughout the show, we see Daryl avoiding Maggie as she trains the Hilltop people. They’re forced to hide in a cellar when the Saviors come bursting in. Finally, some time for them to talk.

The Walking Dead showrunners know that the only thing fans love about the show right now more than being reminded of how much we all loved Glenn is to see Daryl break and show his emo side. The show knows this too well that they put Daryl into a very dark place (literally and figuratively).

When Maggie finally confronts Daryl in the cellar, we find out that Daryl has been blaming himself about Glenn’s death all along (looks like Rick ain’t the only one who feels so.) Daryl gets a beautiful crying moment, seeing how much he loved Glenn. But Maggie, who loved Glenn most of all, tells Daryl he’s wrong to blame himself and that Glenn thought Daryl was “one of the good things in this world.” They end up hugging and Maggie then asks for his help in winning the war. Daryl obviously agrees, and my god what an awesome scene this was. Now this will ultimately lead to Daryl showing up at the Savior’s compound for a surprising  collaboration with none other than Sasha and Rosita.

What The Hell, Eugene?

Has Eugene always been Negan all along? This is one of the most frustrating scenes in The Walking Dead. At the end of this week’s installment, three huge things happen. Sasha and Rosita successfully infiltrate the Savior’s compound, AND THEN Sasha locks Rosita outside so she could survive. Rosita then sees Daryl right outside the compound, ready to help. But it’s too late. Sasha went rogue.

This obviously means that Sasha won’t kill Negan and that she’s going to die. Horribly. But what really caught my attention is how Eugene acted when Sasha and Rosita was to rescue him. He freaking cries and begs them to leave. What. The. Actual. Hell. Eugene.

I can see where Eugene is coming from though. In the Savior’s compound, he has a mission, clear objectives and the lasting sense of authority that he only got to do for a short time with Rick and the gang when he BS’ed his way through it. So could this mean that he’s switching sides, or is he that good at conning that he’s almost too convincing? I’m pretty sure that trying to decide if Eugene is inherently evil or just really good at pretending is everyone’s game right now, and all we can do is to endure for the last two episodes.

As for us and the entirety of The Walking Dead Season 7, it’s down to finger-crossing and hoping for whatever best there might be.

Photo via Gene Page/AMC

Photo via Gene Page/AMC