After suffering through a grueling season premiere we’re leaving Rick and the others behind to catch up on Carol and Morgan. Carol, who’s injured from being shot by a Savior wakes up to find herself being escorted by the men in armor. She escapes during a walker attack but doesn’t make it far until the armored people locate her and take her with them.
Carol awakes two days later in a hospital room with Morgan at her bedside. He explains they’re staying in a new survivor community called The Kingdom, which is brimming with life. He escorts her to a school auditorium to introduce her to a man named “King Ezekiel,” who has a throne, grey dreadlocks, and a tiger named Shiva.
Carol sees right through the fantasy but attempts to play along. Ezekiel questions Carol’s reluctance and surmises, “Perhaps you think me mad.” With a smirk, Carol responds, “I don’t know what the hell’s going on in the most wonderful way.” Ezekiel reminds Carol she can stay at The Kingdom so long as she does her part to help. He sends them off and Carol tells Morgan this place is make believe and she’s going to leave when she’s better.
Later, outside the walls, Ezekiel and his soldiers force pigs to feast on a tied-up walker. A small group of walkers approach and the youngest solider, Ben, practices his machete skills on one of them, but Ezekiel ultimately finishes the job. They warn Morgan not to tell anyone back at The Kingdom about their operation.
The group returns and Ezekiel asks Morgan to improve Ben’s fighting skills. Morgan agrees and begins training him immediately. Meanwhile, Carol wheels around The Kingdom to pilfer a knife and clothes. Shortly afterward Ezekiel takes Morgan and Ben outside the walls again and explains they’re purposefully infecting the pigs to trojan horse them into the Savior community. The Saviors arrive for the pigs and one of them taunts Richard, leading him to punch him. Everyone draws their guns until Ezekiel makes them stop. Richard takes some punishing blows and The Saviors depart with the infected pigs.
That night Ezekiel catches Carol trying to break out of The Kingdom. She explains/lies she’s useless to the cause but Zeke tells her (like he told Michonne in the comics), “Never bullshit a bullshitter.” Carol calls The Kingdom a fairytale and Ezekiel admits his people need need it to feel safe. He explains, “They needed someone to follow…so I acted the part. I faked it ‘till I made it.” He also reveals his past job as a zookeeper and how he saved Shiva’s life at the zoo. Carol sympathizes but cofesses she just wants to leave. A dismayed Ezekiel says he’s sorry for whatever bad she’s been through.
The next day Morgan escorts Carol to a nearby house where she’ll stay from now on. He leaves her and hours later, hears a knock on her door. It’s Ezekiel and Shiva, who seem like new allies.
WELP, that episode ended on a better note than last week. But what did YOU think of Ezekiel and The Kingdom? Did it live up to the hype from the comics? How/when do you believe Rick and his group will find them? Tell us in the comments!
“Ezekiel has a tiger”… & his starry shirt.
What a nice recovery ep!
Right? Gave me just what I needed!
How do you feed a tiger during the apocalypse?
It’s explained in the comics: Shiva can eat the walkers and she won’t get sick.
One Savior at a time when no one’s looking.
Carol + Ezekiel romance brewing?
We are always so eager to see hookups. Anyways, it’s actually hard for me to pair Carol with anybody, honestly. But I see Carol with Morgan more so than with Ezekiel. Least of all would be Daryl. Can’t believe people are still on that ship.
I’m not necessarily eager. And I know people love to speculate on who is going to hookup with who (no matter how unlikely), but given that Michonne is with Rick, someone has to take comic Michonne’s place.
Nothing towards you. I just get a little annoyed when two people smile at each other & that INSTANTLY means someone’s prepping the Bisquick mix.
No offense taken. And I understand what you mean, heh.
Poor Tobin never stood a chance.
Excellent episode and frankly I did not seethe sexy coming out in King Ezekiel, but dang, he is hot and so cool!
so good and right. Tainted pig meat!
Well, that was interesting. It’s kind of funny, because I feel that Carol’s purpose in this episode was to basically serve as an extension of the non-comic reading viewers, as they were probably feeling the exact same way she was. For many, this episode represents a very large leap of faith. We just had one of the hardest episodes to watch in a long time, and following it up, one of the most… surreal? Odd? I really can’t find the right words. This is where the series starts to resemble the comic world a lot more and I have a feeling that some individuals (non comic readers again) may have more trouble accepting this episode than last. At any rate… some analysis and thought….
Ezekiel was perfect. The actor nailed the part, I felt. It was a great casting choice. Also, was Shiva CG? If so, very good job. I was worried about the realism, but Shiva was convincing enough to me and wasn’t overused. So very nice.
Morgan has become more likeable again. I am starting to like him as a character as I once did. I wonder what there plans are for him and how much longer he will last.
Carol. Oh dear. I’m sorry, but I feel her character has slowly devolved. I’m at the point where I feel she lends nothing to the show and I couldn’t care less if they offed her. They very well might. Who knows. I am tired of the self pitying I don’t care about anything anymore Carol. I liked the “I’m going to destroy Terminus” Carol. The confident Carol. I don’t like what they’ve done to her character. They did the same thing to her they did to Morgan, and it didn’t suit either character.
The Kingdom. Very interesting. Honestly, the Kingdom reminds me of post all out war Alexandria. The architecture is very Georgian. For someone living on the footsteps of Alexandria (me) and used to actually live in Alexandria, it’s been hard adjusting to knowing that nothing in the show looks like Northern Virginia. A small qualm, but it takes away some immersion for me. Obviously they couldn’t really film there…. or could they? Go to Stafford or somewhere just South of NoVA. At any rate, that’s neither here nor there. I liked the Kingdom. In many ways, it seems more established than Alexandria was.
Stray observations… al lot of my friends where questioning how Morgan knew who the saviors were. He only shot one. Carol ran into them, but how would she have known her name. Then I thought a little more about it. After Daryl, Abraham and Sasha’s run in with the Saviors, I’m sure that Daryl and all of them talked and Carol likely found out through them. So it would make sense that after Morgan saved Carol, she would have informed him about who they were. That’s what I’m going with at least and will give a pass on that.
Also, I loved the personal talk between Carol and Ezekiel. In the comics, if I recall, it was Michonne he divulged his story to. It seems like this episode covered a few issues.
All that I wonder is now, how the Kingdom and Alexandria will link up. Or does the Hill Top know of their existence? How will Carol and Morgan find out about Glenn and how will they react. I know we are in the slow slog to all out war. Will Carl sneak a ride in a truck and mow down Negan’s men? This Carl is so much older than his comic counterpart was. If I were Negan and that happened I wouldn’t think twice about ending him, so we will see if it even happens.
At any rate, this was a build up episode. It helped us relax after last week. No new shocks. Maybe hard to receive by some. I won’t say it was a bad episode. I expected it to be like this.
Not implying the episode was bad. I liked it for what it was worth. It wasn’t great… it was what it had to be.
This ep had a Z Nation feel to it at first, I admit. But I think Ezekiel’s story told to Carol should alleviate any feeling of it being odd & I hope people were paying attention; I’m glad his story was told in this ep.
I love that badass Terminal Terminus Carol, but I also like what they’re doing with her now. That kind of no-holds-barred killing history has to weigh heavily on a person & bring about changes. So for me, that’s real. And it’s not that she doesn’t care about anything anymore… she’s had enough of all the killing she’s done. So she does care… she has a conscience about that. She’s on the complete opposite side of the spectrum from Morgan, whose story is also interesting & in my opinion, has given his character purpose. They are changing as they go along & they’ll both have to come to a place where they’re at peace with how they have to handle things…. in the midst of the vilest of villains they’ve encountered yet. That’s plenty interesting to me!
Shiva is a combo of CGI & animatronics…she exceeded my expectations!
I agree! Khary Payton is doing a great job as Zeke, and Shiva looks grrrrrrrrreat! They said that Shiva is a combo of CGI and animatronics.
Morgan knew about the Saviors because of the “town hall meeting” Rick held in the church of the ASZ at the beginning of EP 6:12 (Not Tomorrow Yet). Morgan even protested about attacking the Saviors.
I think the Kingdom knows about the Hilltop, and they probably trade with them. Remember in EP 6:15 (East) when Morgan and Rick were searching for Carol, and they stumbled across bodies and walkers at a small farm.They ran into the Kingdom member who was searching for his horse, and Rick ended up shooting at when he was running from the barn. Rick then spotted the spear the Kingdom member had been carrying was made at the Hilltop (by Earl the blacksmith), and he tried to convince Morgan that he should have let him shoot the Kingdom member since some from the group of Saviors, who Carol mowed down on the road, had been carrying the same spears. Morgan disagreed and said Rick couldn’t be certain that he was an enemy just by that evidence.
This was a definitely a fun episode for comic readers, and I’m looking forward to the rest of Season 7!
Ahhhh! Good memory. I forgot about that meeting. Feels like it was eons ago. So then Morgan would definitely know about the Saviors 🙂
It’s very interesting that Morgan now has a very sensible believe in what he is doing and going. He has come from killing everyone he sows, to not kill anyone- and now he told Benjamin: “You have to find your own way. Your own truth. Sometimes that changes.”
I loved that Choir singing Bob Dylan (congrats to Nobel Prize Mr Dylan!)
And then we have Carol. She had come from to being abused by her husband-also Sophia gets abused from her father- losing her daughter made her strong like no one else. But she broke again – probably because all rest and peace in Alexandria got all the hard stuff in her past came up to her. “Look at the flowers, Lizzy..” and she is good in her way to survive- blind in with those surrounding her. But when those Saviors took her and Maggie, she was having a breakdown. She struggles. Like Rick and Morgan- both went crazy. It’s more strange if you don’t get mad at this.
I don’t know, but there is something in Carol and Morgan and everything they are going true that make it good for them being friends. They are learning stuff and things from each other!
This episode wasn’t soup or salad, it was super solid! Really enjoyed it all around. The exploration of the communities, the saviors deal, as well as a little look into what could be some important characters. Was sort of taken aback by Ezekiel’s demeanor at first, but was cracking up when he came clean to Carol and started talking normally. In a way it parallels Negan, both thrust into the roll of power simply because people envisioned them as such (and neither said anything on the contrary).
Heck, I could even see the first time Negan used Lucille it was to brutalize some rapist. Everyone saw but didn’t know what was going on and was like “let’s not fuck with that dude”
Its a good idea to feed the Saviors the infected pigs….but there are so many of them, ok so maybe the ones who become infected with cause a panic in the camp, but Negan is no dummy, lol, he will figure out that they got tainted meat…and boy will he be out for revenge.
It was a good episode, not great, but I think we all needed the break. But while watching my interest is in finding out how our group is doing. I’m not a comic reader, so I haven’t any clue about where we’re heading. I’m hoping that eventually the other groups will combine to take Negan down. It’s apparent that some saviors may revolt against Negan’s reign (as demonstrated by Dwight’s attempt to escape last season). I’m also hoping we don’t loose any more of our core group too soon. Don’t think I can take it just now. As for Carol, I think she just needs a minute. She’s been through so much even before the apocalypse started. She cares about the group, but caring has brought her great pain. And after that Carol/Maggie captured episode, she just snapped. She can’t take the constant killing and losses so I think she needs a breather and time to sort things out. We’ll get her back, probably a somewhat revised version perhaps.
As a addicted comics reader, trust me, the next events are going to be awesome, the best in my opinion.
Loved this episode. Jerry is awesome!! “Deuces”. Really enjoyed watching Ezekiel too. Episode 3 looks like we are going back down the rabbit hole with daryl. Can’t wait.