Season 8, Episode 1
Alexandria, the Kingdom, and Hilltop commence the war against the Saviors.
The eighth season premiere.
- Adaptational Wimp: While Gregory is by no means any kind of badass, his attempt to get people to stop fighting in order to keep their families safe and in the Hilltop Colony did get a few people to give up and go home in the comics. Here, even though we see some Hilltoppers having doubts, nobody does, making Gregory even more pathetic than his comic book counterpart.
- All Your Powers Combined: The group's attack on the Sanctuary combines several tactics from their past battles.
- One of the group's primary directives is to cut off Negan and his men from each other to prevent a coordinated counterattack; they did this to The Governor's inexperienced militia in the season three finale to scare them out of the prison with the prison alarms and a small herd of walkers. And like the prison war, Rick offers Negan's people a chance to peacefully surrender as The Governor offered him before destroying the Sanctuary's defenses with the vehicles at his disposal.
- Carol helped lure a herd onto the premises of Terminus in the season five premiere, to trap and kill the Terminus residents. In this episode, the group lures the highway herd into the Sanctuary, effectively trapping the Saviors inside.
- Finally, Daryl is the one personally leading the herd to the Sanctuary, as he did with the late Abraham and Sasha back in Season 6.
- Alone with the Psycho: Gabriel is trapped in a trailer with Negan surrounded by a horde of undead by episode end.
- Berserk Button: When a mortally injured Savior taunts Rick about the time Negan reduced him to begging, Rick ignores him. When he says that Rick's actions will get Carl killed, Rick releases a nearby Walker and lets it eat him alive.
- Book Ends: The episode both begins and ends with an homage to the pilot episode, to commemorate the series' 100th episode. The episode (after the Cold Open) begins with a nearly shot-for-shot recreation of the first scene in the series where Rick encounters the child walker. The episode then ends with a shot of the camper Gabriel and Negan are in, as it pans up higher and higher, showing it surrounded by walkers, just like the tank surrounded by the herd in downtown Atlanta.
- Call-Back:
- The first sequence of the episode
is reminiscent, shot-for-shot, of "Days Gone Bye"'s Establishing Series Moment. Rick encounters a teenage girl walker at the chronological end of this sequence, and the walker is actually portrayed by the same actress who played the child walker back in the pilot. - The attack on the Sanctuary itself brings to mind numerous conflicts the group has fought in. See All Your Powers Combined.
- The first sequence of the episode
- Cliffhanger: The episode cuts from the Kingdom's assault on the Saviors outpost after a Savior throws a grenade.
- Continuity Nod:
- Maggie remarks that she's been fighting since the farm, where we first met her back in Season 2.
- One of the Savior lookouts the group takes out was present at the line-up in "Last Day On Earth"/"The Day Will Come When You Won't Be", and remembers how Rick begged Negan for mercy when he was ordered to amputate Carl's arm.
- Ezekiel has heard of how the Saviors conscripted Dr. Harlan Carson in Season 6's "The Other Side", after his brother Emmett was killed by Negan in "Hostiles and Calamities".
- Gregory left Hilltop for parts unknown in "Something They Need". In the following episode, Maggie and Jesus suspected that Gregory was going to rat them out to the Saviors, and this episode confirms this was indeed the case.
- Tara's group goes to the highway where the group had earlier encountered the late Fat Joey's walker trap in "Rock in the Road".
- The group sacrifices their RV to help lure in the herd and damage the Sanctuary; they lost their previous RV, Dale's, back in the season two finale when it was overrun by walkers.
- The satellite station that was the site of the group's first battle with the Saviors back in Season 6 appears towards the end of the episode, and has apparently been reclaimed by the Saviors.
- Negan says "Lemme ask you somethin', Rick", almost exactly like Shane did in the first two seasons of the show.
- Eaten Alive: Rick releases a bound walker on a Savior lookout he injured after the Savior taunts him about the two times Rick begged for mercy when Negan ordered him to mutilate Carl's arm.
- The Farmer and the Viper: Gabriel goes to help get Gregory out of the Sanctuary. However, he's woefully unaware of what a snake Gregory is, and sure enough Gregory abandons him and steals his car to save his own ass.
- Foregone Conclusion: The Flash Forward in this episode confirms that Rick, Carl, Michonne, and Judith will survive the war with the Saviors. However, in the mid-season finale, Carl is revealed to have been bitten by a walker and dies in the next episode — the Flash Forward is revealed to be a possible future Carl had envisioned..
- Foreshadowing: One of the Saviors taunts Rick by telling him, "your boy's gonna die!" Seven episodes later, Carl reveals he was bitten by a walker and dies.
- Internal Homage: Addy Miller, who portrayed Summer the child and first walker in the series, makes a return as a walker that Rick sees after meeting up with Carl, bearing resemblance to Summer such as a chunk of her cheek missing and a cut on her forehead.
- Ironic Echo: Rick delivers a great one to Negan and his lieutenants (Dwight, Simon, Eugene, Gavin, and Regina) when trying to make them decide to leave: "Are you really gonna make me count? Okay, I am counting!" This is an almost word-for-word Call-Back to what Negan said to Rick during his Mind Rape session (the incident when Negan almost made Rick cut Carl's arm off) at the beginning of Season 7.
- Mythology Gag:
- This episode is the first of the show's adaptation of the comic's "All-Out War" arc. In particular, this episode adapts the events of issues #115 and #116, with the strike on the Sanctuary.
- Negan's "I hope you have your shitting pants on" is instead directed to Gabriel, who he is trapped inside a camper with as the herd invades the Sanctuary.
- Rick's appearance in the visions he has throughout the episode is spot on for how he appears in the comic series following the Time Skip post-"All Out War", complete with a full beard and a need for a cane.
- Passing the Torch: Rick implies that he plans on passing command to Maggie after they defeat the Saviors.
- Pregnant Badass: Maggie jokes that she can keep fighting through her second trimester.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: Seth Gilliam (Gabriel) and Ross Marquand (Aaron) are added to the opening title sequence.
- Oral Fixation: Tara is chewing on a piece of licorice when she's on the highway.
- The Reveal:
- This episode confirms that Dwight's Heel–Face Turn is genuine, as he provides the group with valuable information - namely the locations of Savior lookouts - and doesn't tip off the other Saviors to the imminent attack on the Sanctuary.
- Gregory is also revealed to have fled to the Sanctuary to try to rat out Maggie's uprising.
- Remember the New Guy?: Toyed with when Rick identifies Negan's lieutenants by name except for Regina, who is a new character.
- Rousing Speech: Rick, Ezekiel, and Maggie give a joint one to their united forces before they roll out to the Sanctuary.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Gabriel stops to rescue Gregory, the latter wastes little time stealing his truck to drive away.
- Smug Snake: Gregory seems convinced that the Hilltop will side with Negan just because he says so. When that doesn't happen and the Saviors subsequently turn on him, he's totally dumbfounded.
- Storming the Castle: The allied forces attack the Sanctuary.
- Summon Bigger Fish: The allied forces plan for attacking the Sanctuary involves leading a massive herd of Walkers to it. By the end of the episode the herd has completely overrun the courtyard, but haven't gotten inside yet.
- Tempting Fate: Rick and Maggie are hopeful that this is the final battle they have to wage.
- Undying Loyalty: The Hilltop residents have developed this for Maggie, refusing to cede to Gregory and the Saviors.
- Ungrateful Bastard: What's Gregory's reaction to Gabriel risking his life to save him? Leaving Gabriel behind to die.
- Villain Ball: After being stabbed by Rick, one of the Savior lookouts decides to lie there and taunt him, instead of grabbing his walkie talkie and warning the other Saviors that Rick's on the warpath.
- We Used to Be Friends: Rick shuts down Eugene's attempt to talk to him, stating that he knows who he is.
- You Are in Command Now: Carl is left in charge of Alexandria while the others are away.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Rick has a chance to kill Negan as he cowers behind some debris, but ultimately stops himself as he's needed elsewhere to continue the attack. Maggie even states early in the episode that they won't be done with the war the same day. Thus, Negan naturally survives the first episode of the season.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: When Gregory fails to get any Hilltop citizens to surrender, Simon angrily pushes him down a flight of stairs.
"If we start tomorrow right now no matter what comes next we've won. WE'VE ALREADY WON!"
