[WARNING: SPOILERS, DUH]

Season 7 Episode 10 of The Walking Dead starts off with The Kingdom’s usual exchange with the Saviors. An untidy Savior with very long blonde hair thinks it’s dangerous to let Richard have a gun, but Richard boldly remarks that he hit him first. They all point their guns at each other, but of course, everyone is bluffing. Honestly, I didn’t even react when I saw this scene. King Ezekiel demands that Richard hand over his weapon. Richard does so and then backtalks. Dang it, Richard! The blonde Savior tries to hit Richard, but Morgan interferes by whacking the Savior in the wrist with his staff. This causes a domino-effect of every one striking at each other with their fists and staffs. When the “fight” dies down, the blonde Savior shakes his head vigorously and tells the king, “We can’t have this” (which kind of reminds me of when my elementary school teacher scolded me for setting the class bird free). King Ezekiel needs to make changes–force Richard to not take part in the weekly exchanges. I guess Richard and I need to work on our behavior… The Saviors leave and take Morgan’s staff. Later, Daryl tells Morgan, “You know, if Carol were here, she saw all that [Morgan’s wounds], she’d knew about Abraham… Glenn… she’d be leading us right to them [the Saviors]. Ready to kill them all.” Morgan simply answers, “And that’s why she left.”

Ouch.

Carol doesn’t want to kill anymore. She loves Daryl and them so much, but being with them requires her to make sacrifices–sacrifices she no longer wants to take part in. As horrible as this may sound, it’s true: love requires murder in a world full of Walkers and Saviors. 

Later, Daryl has a chat with Richard. Because they both want the same thing (fighting the Saviors), Richard gives Daryl a crossbow. Um, YES! Daryl finally gets his signature crossbow (although what’s-his-face still has his other crossbow)! Anyway, Richard invites Daryl to a mission to kill some Saviors. The two hide behind an abandoned truck in front of the road the Saviors take weekly. Richard wants to anger the Saviors so that they can fight back; thus, triggering Ezekiel to show some agency and fight them in return. Before the plan goes in motion, Richard says they might kill a loner in the woods in the process. He claims that it needs to be done, but Daryl won’t get passed that and demands her name. And guess what? It’s Carol. Daryl, unsurprisingly, no longer wants to be part of this scheme. “She’s living out there on her own. Just waiting to die! If we don’t do anything…more people will die!” Richard rebuttals. He is determined to carry out his plan with or without Daryl. Daryl’s strategy? A fist in the face. 

Daryl warns Richard that if Carol gets hurt in any way (even if Richard has nothing to do with it), he’ll track him down and kill him. 

And now… We’re back to where the last episode ended. The group that closed in on Rick and his friends take them to their community–a landfill. Yes, a landfill. The communities walls are literally made up of garbage.

The leader of the new group is this pretty woman with a really bad haircut. “We owe your lives,” she tells them (yeah, that’s not freaky at all). “You wanna buy them back?

Before negotiating or anything, Rick tells her that they have one of his people: Gabriel. A few seconds later, Gabriel comes out unscathed. Rick is happy to see him. Then, he turns back to the leader of the other group. Back to business. Rick tells the lady with lopsided bangs (I’m just going to call her Lopsided Bangs) that their lives belong to the Saviors. “And if you kill us, you will be taking something from them…And they will come looking.” 

I find it ironic how he threatens the new group with what he fears the most: the Saviors. He tells Lopsided Bangs, “Either they [the Saviors] kill you or they own you, but there is a way out… join us in fighting them.”

Lopsided Bangs lady says no in an almost laughing matter. Everyone starts punching each other out. Shocker. 

Gabriel grabs one of the new group’s members and threatens to kill her. Everyone suddenly stops punching and starts listening. Gabriel informs the new group that the Saviors have so many things like food, vehicles, fuel, etc. He drops the knife, “If you join us and we beat them together, you can have much of what’s theirs… more than what you can imagine!” (Guess he took some rhetoric classes from our Rick). Gabriel states that they can show them what they could do.  Lopsided Bangs tells her (I’m assuming) second in command, Tamil, to show Rick their “Up Up Up.” I guess she’s testing if he’s worth their help? I don’t know. She’s crazy.

So, they take Rick to the top of a mountain of trash and then shove him down to the other side. An armored walker full of spikes emerges from the garbage and attacks Rick. Rick pushes it back, but gets injured in the process. Michonne yells at him from the other side to use the walls (the garbage). Taking Michonne’s advice, Rick uses the trash walls to his advantage and kills the scary-looking Walker with a piece of glass. Lopsided Bangs finally agrees to reason. She asks for guns. Lots of them. Rick agrees, but as long as she agrees to join them in fighting the Saviors. They reach a consensus: Lopsided Bangs’ group could keep what they stole from Alexandria, but Alexandria will keep two-thirds of what they steal from the Saviors.

Rick asks Lopsided Bangs if she had that thing out there [the Walker with spikes] so that people could prove themselves, but Lopsided Bangs says, “No. His name was Winslow.”

Yep, I’m convinced. She’s absolutely crazy.

Rick asks her for her name. It’s Jadis. I guess there’s no need for me to call her Lopsided Bangs anymore.

Rick emerges from the trash and walks to his group.  “We have a deal,” he says with a goofy smile on his face, while blood gushes down his arms and legs.

Meanwhile, Carol is reading comfortably at her new home. Someone knocks at her door. Yup, you guessed it! IT’S DARYL!

Carol embraces him and tears up. Daryl’s voice cracks as he asks her, “Why’d you go?”

I’m crying… I love them so much.

Rick has a heart-to-heart with Father Gabriel. Gabriel asks Rick what made him so confident that the new group was going to agree with him. Rick tells him that someone showed him that enemies could be friends (wink-wink). Awwwww.

Meanwhile, Carol explains her reason for leaving to Daryl. “I couldn’t lose anyone… I couldn’t lose you… I could [kill]. If they [the Saviors] hurt any of our people, that’s what I would do. And there wouldn’t be anything left of me after that.” 

Carol wants to prevent herself from becoming some kind of killing, emotionless machine. It’s so easy to lose yourself in a world that’s so messed up. That’s why she left and tried to isolate herself from everyone.

Carol then asks Daryl if any of the Saviors came. Daryl says yes, but lies to her and says that everyone is at home and okay. She smiles in relief and wipes her tearstained face. Before leaving, Daryl gives her one last embrace and then tells her to look after herself. 

My heart is breaking.