With Negan, the menace felt like a deliberate a part of his act; he did large public spectacles to make folks perceive the penalty for crossing him. With Simon, the cruelty felt performative, like he was making an attempt to show to the folks round him that he was match to be Negan’s right-hand man (that is bolstered by Jorne’s script this week). The Croat doesn’t really feel like he’s placing on a present, apart from maybe himself. Negan’s crew wasn’t afraid of Negan. Simon’s crew have been pals with Simon. The Croat’s brotherhood all appear to worry him, no matter how extremely positioned within the group they is perhaps. The Saviors would have found out a solution to cooperate or suborn with Amaia (Karina Ortiz) and Tommaso (Jonathan Higginbotham); the Croat goes to smash them to bits.
Any plan involving sneaking right into a closely armed fortress surrounded by the hungry undead goes to be a tough one to tug off, however at the least Amaia and her group make a fairly cheap try at divide and conquer, with Negan and Maggie shifting the Croat in a single path and her group taking out the goons that stay behind. Unsurprisingly, the whole lot goes unsuitable, however the plan itself is strong sufficient, given their lack of manpower and rising desperation. Principally, it permits the second unit crew and director Kevin Dowling an opportunity to craft some very intense set items, from the creep by means of zombie-infested subway tunnels to get into Penn Station to skulking round inside the slender concrete halls of the station itself and additional into the large lure set for the group by The Croat and his brotherhood.
The skulking and whatnot is very well finished by all concerned, however one of many higher sequences within the episode is definitely performed for laughs. Negan has been main The Croat on a wild goose chase all through the bowels of MSG; at one level, Negan is up a number of flights of stairs from The Croat, and the 2 lock eyes. The Croat yells for him to come back discuss, Negan retains working, and The Croat merely shrugs his shoulders. It’s a much-needed punchline for an episode that in any other case can be pretty dry, and it establishes that, maybe, the Croat’s want for vengeance exists solely in Negan’s head, not within the Croat’s actuality till Negan refuses The Croat’s reward and crosses a line.
As Negan mentions on this episode, a lot of folks need him lifeless, together with Maggie. He labored laborious to earn forgiveness from the folks he’d wronged at Hilltop, however clearly he hasn’t managed to forgive himself for the issues he felt like he needed to do to maintain The Saviors in line. His fatalism, from making preparations for Ginny’s care to sending his spouse and baby off to Missouri, stems from a spot of ache. Negan deserves to die, in keeping with Negan.
