The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 7 Sing Me a Song Recap Review
Is it all a game with ‘The Walking Dead‘s” Negan? All the insults. All the jokes. Then the 180 turn where he acts like a normal guy just “busting chops.”
No.
All his moves are calculated to get a certain result. He wants to get in the head of every single person he encounters. And stay there.
Carl got a headful of the sadistic bastard this week. Remember he and Jesus had the bright idea to find Negan’s compound. They did, and then Carl had the even brighter idea to go it alone after Jesus bailed from the food truck.
We got a better look at the industrial compound where Negan runs his army. Not sure what they manufactured there in the past, but it’s now a terror factory. And guess who’s in charge of production.
Let’s just gloss over the fact that Carl could have killed Negan this very episode.
He had the drop on the guy and even capped two of his cronies. But Negan somehow knew the kid wouldn’t shoot him as he stepped out from behind cover.
In the real world, no one, not even a kid, would have failed to pull the trigger on a man who had beaten two close friends’ heads in with a bat. A real-world Carl, with no TV show to carry on a storyline, would have killed Negan then went down in a blaze of glory.
Let’s forget it and keep moving forward.
While Carl was getting the tour of Negan’s community, Rosita and Eugene were off to make that magic bullet. Spencer had other plans and Rosita is pissed at him.
She may be the most bitter person in the aftermath of Glenn and Abraham.
Spencer and Father Gabriel went on a road trip themselves, but it was cut short when Gabriel saw what a low-life Spencer was. “A tremendous shit” I believe the priest called Spencer, who is talking a lot of junk about Rick.
As if his mom, Deanna, could have stopped Megan somehow.
What the hell is Rick doing while Rosita is calling Eugene a coward and guilting him into making one magic bullet? He and Aaron are scavenging. They seem to hit the jackpot as they find a prepper who liked writing warning signs on his property.
The doomsdayer apparently bit the dust and his stockpile is there for the taking. All Rick and Aaron have to do is swim past bobbers in a pond to get to the houseboat.
Easy right?
Back to the main plot of “Sing me a Song.”
I was looking for Carl to be offered a woman. Negan did give the boy a beer for his trouble. But sadly no hookup for Carl.
Instead he was humiliated by having to show Negan his missing eye. Quite a traumatic experience for the kid. For me too.
This was punishment for killing the two guys when Carl arrived uninvited.
Negan is just playing Carl. This psychological warfare works great on adults, as the human mind can only endure so much. But on a youngster like Carl, it is much more effective.
I can see this “little serial killer” becoming a fan of Negan at some point.
Being made to sing “You are my Sunshine” can certainly push anyone over the edge of sanity.
Also seeing a man have his face peeled off with a hot iron will test one’s sanity. Carl had to watch as Negan punished Mark, who had his wife taken by Negan, only to “cheat” with her afterward.
Negan’s a stickler for the rules, so poor Mark got the Dwight treatment.
Pretty gross scene and tough to watch the new janitor, Daryl, have to clean up the urine soaked floor after Mark pissed himself.
And yes, we all think you are a “lunatic” there Negan. Good grief.
The guy is starting to win me over though with his comedy routine. It’s hard to look past all the brutality, but maybe these mental games are taking a toll on me too. Rick is just not a comedian and I like to laugh so…. #TeamNegan?
There were lots of moving parts at the end of this episode. Next week is the midseason finale BTW.
Sanitation manager Daryl received a key and a note telling him to bounce. I’m guessing it’s from Dwight’s ex-wife. Is it a trick? Probably.
Michonne has made a roadblock by stacking dead undead.
Her little plan worked out as she carjacked one of the Negan females. “Take me to Negan,” were her orders.
So we have Rosita with a magic bullet wanting to pop Negan. And now Michonne is headed his way.
Too bad for Michonne he won’t be there when she arrives. He is taking Carl back to Alexandria.
Negan takes a tour of Carl’s home as they wait for Rick, and poor Olivia gets crushed with a fat joke.
She was exaggerating about them all starving, so she kinda deserved it. #TeamNegan?
He didn’t even take any of their groceries last time. And she is looking plenty healthy herself.
Your guess is good as mine as to what Rosita will do when she sees Negan with Judith. Hopefully, it’s not something truly stupid.
After all he’s just being a friendly neighbor and inviting passers-by to his cookout later in the day.
Don’t worry TWD fans. Negan isn’t gonna hurt Judith. I don’t think.
He apparently only brutalizes grown men. Oh and boys over ten are subject to murder according to the Oceansiders. But they seemed like a bunch of gossips to me.
#TeamNegan?
Is Negan winning you over? Or do you want him dethroned sooner rather than later?
How Can The Walking Dead Bounce Back In the Ratings?
With the huge ratings drop on this season of “The Walking Dead,” we’ve discussed what is behind the problems, but now with this latest episode feeling hopeful, here’s some ways the show can get back to it’s normal self again.
Negan Really Needs A Great Backstory Or At Least A Reason To Understand Him
Right now the biggest problem with Negan is that he’s a dick. I mean, he’s supposed to be a dick, that’s just his persona, but he is only a dick, and nothing else, which has created this unlikable-for-the-wrong-reasons character that pales in comparison to many of the show’s past villains. The Governor, arguably the show’s best villain, had a sad backstory where he was keeping his zombie daughter alive, and we got to see his humanity in a few “Brian-centric” episodes to show he wasn’t all bad. Even the Terminus cannibals were given a story about how they were once a group that helped people, but that backfired on them, so they became monsters.
We have none of that with Negan. Seven episodes after his introduction, and the show hyping him up for many before that, we have really gotten nothing about who the man is other than some power-hungry loon that speaks in non-stop innuendo. We don’t know anything about his past or how he became this way, and his interactions with most characters are all the same. I hear that Negan will be getting some backstory in the future, and if they handle his Carl comic plotline correctly, that could humanize him a little bit. But for now, it’s easy to see why people think he’s not a great villain in a show that has had many better foes.
Daryl Needs To Become Daryl Again
We are sort of in uncharted territory with this Daryl plotline, where once it seemed like he might be taking over Carl’s bit in the comics, but now Carl himself is on his way, and Daryl is currently a Negan slave for who knows how long.
It’s just stomach-churning to see Daryl in a position like this. We have never this seen this character degraded and humiliated to this degree, and he seems even more broken than back when Merle or Beth died, which is saying something. I get that this is building to some big Daryl revenge plotline, but it would be nice if that started sooner rather than later.
It’s Time For Rick Grimes To Get A Plan, Any Plan!
One of the keys of the comic version of this story is that while Rick is acting like Negan’s humble servant, the entire time he’s starting to formulate a plan about how to take the man and his Saviors down. We seem to be on the verge of that happening in the show, but for now, like Daryl, Rick seems totally broken by Negan, and it’s characters like Michonne and Rosita who are the ones who seem determined to fight on while Negan has shaken Rick to his core.
Again, this is sort of exhausting to witness as a viewer. Everyone knows Rick will get his groove back eventually, but every week that goes on where he doesn’t, and shows no indication that he will, just feels like wasted time. If Rick doesn’t have a plan yet, he needs to get one, and if he has one, he needs to share it with both his friends and the audience, so we know this is heading somewhere productive.
Hurry This Whole Thing Along
While many aspects of the Governor’s Woodbury/Prison war plotline were solid, one that wasn’t was that the entire thing dragged on way too long, longer than it ever did in the comics with more false endings than Return of the King. At a certain point, The Walking Dead was on pace to run for 20 seasons, given how much they were stretching out comic material, and I worry that they’re going to do the same thing with Negan’s war here, and it’s going to be even worse.
“All Out War” is a 12 part comic plotline that ends at issue 127. We are currently at approximately issue 104 tonight. That means it’s taken us 7 episodes to get through 4 issues of this plotline, which is in keeping with the show usually taking longer to get through storylines than the comics. So what does that mean for 23 more issues of the Negan war to come?
I worry that this will stretch on for years in its current form. At the very least, it’s easy to see the Negan war lasting through the end of season 8, meaning it will run for two years and have been promoted for about two and a half. Given the fatigue already setting in, unless the action picks up soon, I just don’t know how long fans’ attention will be held.
Take A Page From Game of Thrones’ Editing Book
At this point, it’s sort of unavoidable that The Walking Dead is going to be split across four or five locations for the foreseeable future. That could work in theory, but the show is handling it poorly. Remember Carol and Morgan? Characters we have literally not seen since episode 2, and probably will not see tonight?
The show is splitting up its cast but is failing to properly edit itself to show multiple locations at once. A show like Game of Thrones, where the cast is scattered to at least a dozen locations does this incredibly well, and at most, we usually go only two weeks or so without seeing a major character. The Walking Dead seems content to let us see someone like Carol twice a season at this point.
The show may be getting better about this. This week we have Michonne, Rick, Negan, Daryl and Jesus all in different places in one episode, but overall, they really need to be cutting in people like Maggie and Sasha and Morgan and Carol when they can, or else they end up like Tara and Heath where we totally forget they exist until they’re randomly given a bottle episode.
Obviously, there’s more work to be done, but these are my major suggestions going forward. I feel like the show is about to pick up the pace again, and ratings may start to turn around as soon as tonight, but this season, in general, has definitely been cause for concern. Hopefully, we are moving toward a better place with The Walking Dead.