'The Walking Dead' Season 8 Episode 1 Plot Recap: Negan Finally Defeated?
The season 8 premiere and 100th episode of the hit television series "The Walking Dead" has finally landed on AMC.
The members of Alexandria, Hilltop, and the Kingdom have all joined forces to bring the war to Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Driving up to his doorstep in armed vehicles, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) made it clear to the group that only one Savior had to die, and that is Negan. However, a few other people, particularly lookouts, also met their ends in the process of getting to him.
Over the past couple of seasons, the Savior leader has been portrayed as somewhat an indestructible supervillain. However, during this week's premiere of "The Walking Dead" season 8, viewers learned that all that was needed to destroy this image was the alliance of the Alexandrians, the Kingdom, and the members of Hilltop, minus its leader, Gregory (Xander Berkeley), who decided to side with the big bad.
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As he emerged to meet his enemies, Negan was his usual, confident and intimidating self. His plan was to use Gregory to order the Hilltop fighters to surrender. However, this did not work out for him as Jesus (Tom Payne) cried, "The Hilltop stands with Maggie!"
When the villain seemingly ran out of ideas, a firefight followed, with Rick coming close to killing Negan. The series' big bad ended up hiding in a trailer. Does this mean that he has been defeated?
Meanwhile, an injured Gregory was found in the same trailer by Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam). The priest tried to help him, but the traitorous Hilltop leader double-crossed Father Gabriel and stole his car, leaving him trapped in the caravan with Negan as zombies went berserk.
"The Walking Dead" season 8 episode 1 titled "Mercy" also had a bunch of easter eggs, according to IGN, including some of the opening sequences that paid tribute to the series' pilot, just like when Rick woke up the same way he did back in the first season when he awoke from a coma.
In the pilot, there was a scene where he looks at the flowers at his bedside. A similar scene was also shown in this week's episode.
"The Walking Dead" season 8 airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.
