The Walking Dead season 8 episode 13 review: Do Not Send Us Astray

One of the things I find hardest about The Walking Dead is remembering just who some of these people are. I’m always playing a little game with myself. Is this person talking someone I’m supposed to remember? Is it someone getting lines as a guest-star because they’re going to die later in a horrible way? I’m never quite sure. Some people who I assumed would be long-dead by now (Diane) are shaping up to be important. Other characters drop in and the show acts like they’ve been there all along (Hilltop has a doctor who isn’t Siddiq or a Carson brother?) when they’ve literally never been on screen or said anything.

Even if these are just regular characters I’ve missed, it doesn’t really matter. By the end of the episode, pretty much anyone who isn’t a major character is going to be dead. The Saviors are coming, and unlike when Negan was in charge, there won’t be any posturing threats; Simon is coming for blood, and while his people don’t have as many guns as they should, they have a lot of poisoned weapons and a slightly modified plan. Kill if you can, but wound whenever possible. Meanwhile, Maggie has a plan, and she’s going to execute it masterfully.

There’s not a tonne of plot to discuss this week, as the focus is mostly on action. The saviors roll up slowly to Hilltop with an urge for blood. Maggie and her survivors spring a series of traps on them, with lots of people firing automatic weapons into the darkness while various Saviors skulk around and try to get the drop on the waiting fighters. It’s a pretty solid series of fight sequences, and it looks very dramatic on screen; it covers everything from melee weapons to bow and arrows to machine guns and vehicles.

It’s nothing that hasn’t been done before on The Walking Dead. At this point, there are no new battles available, but it’s shot pretty well and is pretty exciting. That the Saviors are beaten back isn’t surprising. They’re not prepared for Simon’s mission, but he’s going to go through with it despite the death toll. It’s a pretty even battle, despite Hilltop being ready and waiting for the attack and Negan’s people being unprepared. Jeffrey E. January does well by the battle sequences, and the performances are fine, but the script is something of a disappointment.

The discussions the characters have outside of the battle scenes are familiar rehashes of things already spoken of. Writers Angela Kang and Matthew Negrete have another discussion between Tara and Daryl about Dwight’s honesty or lack thereof. Simon’s announcement to Dwight that he’d rather beg for forgiveness than ask for permission when asked what he’d do if Negan comes back was also really funny, but there was a strange through-line of side characters (and characters I’ve never seen before) popping up after the fight with the Saviors to praise Maggie’s leadership skills.

I get that they’re all high off of a rousing success, and the praise is to create dramatic irony, but it feels heavy-handed even by The Walking Dead‘s standards. Maggie’s whole plan, which saves the gates of Hilltop from battering and lured the Saviors in for a series of traps, has a lot less to do with keeping her own people alive than it does for her desire to force Negan to look at Glenn’s grave prior to killing him. Meanwhile, Negan’s plan of spreading poison to the Hilltop folks, also works like a charm, as those who were injured during the battle get sick immediately, die overnight, and come back as walkers in a matter of hours.

Knowing Negan’s plan makes the events after the battle a little more effective. We see that several important characters are nursing small injuries. None of them turn (at least, not yet), but Rick’s cut and Tara’s injured, and the only character seen taking medical treatment is Rick (several other characters also get medical treatment, but get infected anyway).

People getting sick and dying have always been present on The Walking Dead, but rarely has it been so prevalent—this was always something that happened to zombies our heroes stumble across, not friends and loved ones. This is the most that sickness has been featured on the show since Carol killing people dying of the flu back at the prison and since Jim died slowly from an infection in the first season. It’s a strange thing for The Walking Dead to come back around on, given that it’s basically half an action movie mashed with half a soap opera.

There’s no attempt at realism; there aren’t a lot of people starving to death in this underfed community (food only recently became an issue), people still have gasoline for generators, and a blind man can shoot a zombie in the head from 20 feet away. To have people dying from infected cuts is just kind of funny, especially considering just how much zombie gore has gotten into eyes/mouths/open wounds over the years. Injured people die and come back as zombies; why isn’t there a quarantine? Where are the guards on the gates, or the guards standing over the prisoner, or just bog standard locked doors?

Do Not Send Us Astray was a solid episode for part of the time. The action sequences, both the beginning gun battle and the ending zombie battle, are very entertaining and well executed. Unfortunately, there is a lot of dumb stuff in the middle. A peak, a slightly lesser summit, and a considerable valley between them. It sums up both this episode, and most of this season of The Walking Dead.