'The Walking Dead' Season 8, Episode 6 'The King, the Widow, and Rick' Recap: Rick's Camp Reels From War [SPOILERS]

It’s a redeeming episode for “The Walking Dead” tonight. The latest episode, titled “The King, the Widow, and Rick,” shows how the survivors in Rick’s (Andrew Lincoln) camp reels from the recent phase of the “All-Out War” with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and the Saviors. The upper hand is clearly in Rick’s hands, but it doesn’t come easy. From the get-go, he knew that they are bound to lose a few people, if not many.
The episode starts off with a foreboding sense of comfort. The previous episodes have focused on the communities of Alexandria, The Kingdom, and The Hilltop and their assault on Negan’s Sanctuary. Now that phase one of their offense is done, we’re now taken to some kind of healing process for our apocalyptic heroes. Rick’s soldiers from Alexandria arrive in a convoy as Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Carl (Chandler Riggs) meet them. In The Kingdom, a memorial altar was built for the ones they’ve lost. Carol (Melissa McBride) looks on and is delivered a letter from Rick and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) giving her an update on how they did in the assault. Carol also did the same and informed The Hilltop and Alexandria of what happened to them—losing their soldiers with only her, King Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and Jerry (Cooper Andrews) as the remaining survivors.
Meanwhile, we see Rick traveling somewhere, later revealed to be The Scavengers’ junkyard. He comes to them offering his previous deal to team up with them. He shows them evidence that the Saviors are losing, but Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) refuses to agree to Rick’s deal. She later takes him as a prisoner.

The Hilltop dispute

Jesus (Tom Payne) has his captive Saviors tied to the walls outside The Hilltop. Maggie meets him outside and blames him for putting their community in such a tight situation by bringing these prisoners with him. Gregory (Xander Berkeley) banks on Maggie’s reluctance to have the captives and tells her that it’s a bad idea. Maggie wants to end the war with Negan (and Negan himself). But Jesus thinks that maybe these people can be turned from their allegiance to Negan and begin to live with them as part of the community. It’s a bad idea to Maggie, but she goes back inside to consider the options that she has.

Once inside, Gregory tries to manipulate Maggie into thinking that he can be an effective right hand. She has none of it, even as Gregory tells her that it’s a bad idea to let wolves wander around amongst the sheep (with Maggie being the Shepherd). Finally, Gregory relinquishes his control over to her! However, it’s also obvious that Maggie is keeping receipts of what Gregory did to sell them all out to Negan.
That night, Jesus continues watching over their prisoners as walkers drone in the background. One Savior named Dillon (Callan McAuliffe), however, sets himself apart. It’s clear that he didn’t want to be a Savior in the first place, and of all the prisoners, he proves to be a submissive one. Jesus fears for their safety as Dillon rambles on, seemingly repentant.
The next day, Maggie calls them all inside, including the prisoners. Turns out that she had a change of heart, and instead of killing them all in one swift action, she has them imprisoned in a makeshift cage. As they go in one by one, she also has Gregory taken inside with them, since she realized that he is the wolf that could potentially endanger the residents of The Hilltop. One Savior tries to grab a gun, but Maggie hits him with her rifle. Dillon thanks her for having them inside the compound.

Later, Aaron (Ross Marquand) has a grief counseling session with Maggie and Enid (Katelyn Nacon). It’s hard for him to accept that his boyfriend died. Maggie shares the same, and it’s been hard for her accepting Glenn’s death too. Jesus comes in and thanks her for having the prisoners inside, but Maggie tells him off by saying that they could be used as bargaining chips for Negan—something that Jesus didn’t see coming, especially from Maggie. Her character has evolved since then, and now she has to deal with tough decisions that could make or break their community.
Aaron prepares to leave, but Enid comes running after him and asks to come with him to “win this war.”

The Kingdom and King Ezekiel’s lost faith

After King Ezekiel lost all his foot soldiers during the battle, he’s now succumbed to his guilt and finally drops his act as King of his people. Carol has none of it and attempts to talk him out of his brooding. Jerry guards King Ezekiel’s door as Carol tries to call King Ezekiel outside. She tells him that they need to gather everyone who can fight to meet with Rick—to no response. However, a boy named Henry (Macsen Lintz) looks on as he practices his staff-fighting skills. Jerry tells her that it’s no use calling him outside because he’s obviously lost confidence in himself. Carol leaves, but Henry follows after her, telling her he could fight. She tells him to stay, but he doesn’t.
She goes out to scout, and we see Henry fighting off a couple of walkers with his staff. He’s obviously good at it, but Carol shoots the walkers down. She gets mad at the boy for following her and tries to scare him off, but he insists to fight with her. He wants to come with her to the Sanctuary so he can exact revenge for his brother. Carol eases up and finally lets Henry come with her.
They head back to The Kingdom so Carol could have a talk with King Ezekiel. She prepares to shoot down the doors with a shotgun, but Jerry tells her that it’s been unlocked all along. She comes inside to find a defeated Ezekiel sitting on the floor of his throne. She tries to talk him out of sulking, but Ezekiel just couldn’t shake off his guilt. Carol breaks down and begs for his leadership. The Kingdom needs Ezekiel to stand up as their King again, and she tells him to just play the part that he’s been playing since the apocalypse. She also finds out that Ezekiel kept on visiting her back in the previous season because she makes him feel real about himself. Carol tells him that he is, and begs him to be the leader again. Despite Carol’s pleading, Ezekiel says that he can’t.

Alexandrians feel like they’re sitting ducks

Rick tells everyone to stay put as he has something planned (but it doesn’t look like his plan is coming along, though). Michonneis impatient, and she needs to see the Sanctuary. She prepares to leave, but Rosita (Christian Serratos) tells her to stay put, just as what Rick instructed. Michonne doesn’t care, so Rosita is forced to come along with her. Meanwhile, we see Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Tara (Alanna Masterson) plan about killing Dwight themselves. He’s been of great help to them, but it still doesn’t make the good things he did add up to what he did wrong. They want to kill him together.
As Michonne and Rosita drive through the road, they hear faint music coming from somewhere. They head out to investigate and are led to an abandoned warehouse, where the sound is overbearingly loud. They go in and see two Saviors loading up a huge speaker system on their truck. They get into a fight when Michonne accidentally kicks an apple to the two Saviors. A woman tackles Michonne down while the man heads off to fight Rosita. But as Rosita reaches for her gun, she finds it gone. She grabs a nearby RPG and blasts the man to pieces. The woman runs off to the truck and activates the speaker. It’s loud now, and they both fear that she could reach the Sanctuary in no time.
The woman speeds away, and just as she was about to be out of sight, a truck rams onto her truck and stops her. It’s Daryl and Tara. The music dies as Daryl shoots the woman dead. Michonne tells both of them that they were going to use the music to lure the walkers surrounding the Sanctuary. Tara asks them why they were out in that area, and Michonne tells them that they need to see the Sanctuary. They ask Tara the same, and Daryl tells them that they have more work to do than just sit around and wait for Rick.

Carl and his new friend Siddiq

Elsewhere in the episode, Carl is out in the forest looking for the guy who asked him for food back in the first episode. He finds the guy trapping a walker and killing it. When the guy sees him, he retracts and thinks that Carl is there to kill him. Instead, Carl offers food and water, and the guy gratefully takes it. Carl then learns that the guy’s name is Siddiq (Avi Nash).

Just like when Aaron found them wandering around before Alexandria, Carl asks Siddiq the same question that Aaron asked them all—how many walkers he’s killed and how many people he’s had to kill. Siddiq answers him obediently, and Carl sees that he poses no threat. He’s glad that he’s finally found him. Siddiq also tells him that he kills walkers to set their souls free, as what his mom used to tell him during the apocalypse. Carl then offers to bring Siddiq to Alexandria.
On the way back, they encounter a group of walkers feasting on a dead deer. Carl decides to kill them, for Siddiq’s mom. They both go in for the kill, but Carl gets tangled up as he falls on the dead deer. Two walkers approach him, but he ultimately shoots them both in the head. Siddiq also kills a few approaching walkers. After they’re all dead, he tells Carl that he doesn’t want to be a burden and that he should have left. But Carl, in an impressive display of noble humanity, tells him that he is now responsible for Siddiq.
The episode ends with Jadis in the junkyard seemingly preparing for something. She marks a container van with an “A” and leaves, just as an eye watches her through a hole. It’s later revealed to be Rick, naked and bound, a captive of the Scavengers.

‘The Walking Dead: The King, the Widow, and Rick’ Overall Verdict

Tonight’s episode of “The Walking Dead” is a relatively slow episode—albeit containing important plot details that could further show where the “All Out War” storyline is heading towards. We’ve already seen how Negan’s camp is doing in last week’s “The Big Scary U,” and now we see how Rick’s camp is doing. Frankly, it’s not as good as how you’d think, considering the victories they’ve all accomplished. People were lost and the communities are reeling from the war.
But one impressive character development in this episode would be Carl’s story. In the previous seasons, he was portrayed as an angry teenager full of resentment towards the world. Now, he’s a humanistic individual who’s holding on to the last bit of hope that there are still good people out there. Enter Siddiq, who seems to have no ulterior motive, but a mystery nonetheless.
As for the Scavengers, maybe they still have a standing deal with Negan? It’s possible that they are his failsafe, and he might just regain the upper hand with the help of Jadis and her people. But then again, this also brings into question the other communities featured in the last season of “The Walking Dead.” What about the Oceansiders? Where will they stand? And will they ever team up with Rick’s camp? And what about Jadis’ “A” spray on Rick’s prison trailer? It’s an obvious callback to Terminus, so maybe they’re not really who we think they are?
“The Walking Dead” continues next Sunday with “Time for After,” 9/8c on AMC.