The Walking Dead season 7, episode 8, “Hearts Still Beating,” had Rick returning to Alexandria only to find Negan had killed more of his friends.
‘The Walking Dead’ mid-season 7 finale recap:
Sanctuary:
After getting a note from a mystery person, Daryl escapes from his cell. A trail of matchsticks leads the way out but there are still Saviors walking around. Trying to avoid getting caught, Daryl makes a stop at Dwight’s room to change his clothes and snack on some peanut butter.
Once he finally makes it outside, Daryl finds Fat Joey is guarding and has to kill him. As he’s going to leave, Daryl spots Jesus by the motorcycles. They’re able to leave together out of the gate that Joey was guarding.
The Kingdom:
Carol is still trying to live in solitude, trying being the key word. She can’t seem to get the privacy she craves as others keep coming to visit her. First we see Morgan stopping by with some food, but she’s quick to try and rush him out. Just as Morgan goes to leave, Richard appears at the door with supplies. But that’s not the only reason that he came, he wants to talk to both of them about the Saviors.
Richard retells the story of how King Ezekiel met the Saviors and struck a deal with them. He thinks that eventually the Saviors will come after them, his hope is that Morgan and Carol can convince King Ezekiel of that. Richard wants to strike the Saviors first and destroy them, but they need to convince King Ezekiel first.
This is exactly what Carol is trying to avoid though, she doesn’t want to be involved or fight. She lets Richard know exactly that, she just wants to be left alone. Morgan lets Richard know that if he tries to do this, lots of people will die. Even though Morgan thinks they’re better off leaving the peace, Richard isn’t having it.
Before he leaves, Carol tells Morgan that she doesn’t want anyone else to know where she is. If he runs into anyone they know, Carol says he should tell them that she’s gone.
Alexandria:
Rick and Aaron are still trying to get to the supplies they found floating on a boat protected by walkers. Somehow, they make it through the maze of walkers without getting bit (although they have a couple of close calls) and get what they came for. What they don’t know is that someone starts to follow them as they leave.
Back in Alexandria, Negan is still waiting for Rick to return and making himself at home. This includes spending the day with Carl shaving, cooking, and having dinner together. Since Negan still wants his lemonade, Tara brings some to Olivia.
Spencer hands over the items he found while scavenging, and easily makes friends with the Saviors that take them. Eugene on the other hand, they make fun of for watching on. Meanwhile, Rosita goes to see Gabriel and divulges her plan to kill Negan. She’s wrought with guilt thinking that she should have been the one to die the first night they met Negan. Gabriel tries to convince her of otherwise, but it doesn’t seem to work.
Rosita spots Spencer on his way over to see Negan, all dressed up with a present of liquor. He tells her that he wants to make a good impression and get closer so they can eventually turn on them. He also wants to know why she never wanted to see him again after they slept together, and Rosita explains she was just using him. However, she agrees to have dinner with him later.
When Rick finally does return to Alexandria, the Saviors are quick to go through their haul. Then they forced Rick to watch on as they beat Aaron up for a note they find in the loot. Meanwhile, Spencer makes his move and gets friendly with Negan with booze and pool.
He makes a proposition to Negan that they remove Rick as leader, saying that he doesn’t play well with others. Because his mother was leader to begin, Spencer proposes he takes over. Since Spencer waited to approach Negan about this when Rick wasn’t around, he accuses Spencer of having no guts. That is until he slices Spencer open and sees his literal guts spill out.
Armed with the bullet that Eugene made, Rosita takes a shot at killing Negan but misses and hits Lucille instead. Outraged, Negan has one of the Saviors kill someone as punishment and she shoots Olivia in the face. By the time Rick makes it to the scene, Spencer and Olivia are already dead.
Negan is quick to tell Rick how reasonable he’s been, given that he didn’t kill Carl even after what he did. He also fills him in on what Spencer wanted. Rick isn’t happy and just wants them to leave. When Eugene admits that he made the bullet, Negan decides to take him as prisoner. It’s an emotional scene as Rosita screams for them to take her instead.
After killing the Savior Isabelle, Michonne returns to Alexandria with the knowledge of where the Sanctuary is. Now that she’s seen where they live, Michonne knows how outnumbers they are. But tries to convince Rick that they need to fight back anyways, and they need to do it together. Shockingly, Rick agrees with her.
Hilltop:
The people of Hilltop community are quite impressed with Maggie and Sasha, which has Gregory seething with jealousy. This leads to Maggie and Gregory having a tense conversation. With everyone giving them food as thanks, it’s clear that the people are glad to have Maggie and Sasha there.
When Maggie questions Sasha about where Jesus is, Sasha doesn’t admit that she sent him looking for Negan’s home. This has Enid questioning Sasha’s motives as she knows the truth. But Sasha is able to convince Enid that they need to keep Maggie safe at all costs, still Enid is convinced there are more people that want to go after Negan than just them.
After some time apart Rick and some others from Alexandria go to Hilltop to see Maggie. Rick admits to Maggie that she was right to want to fight Negan back from the beginning. What he wasn’t expecting was to see Daryl there too. It’s very emotional and everyone is very happy to be back together again. Daryl even presents the revolver that had been taken from Rick. Now that they’re all reunited, they’re ready to push back and fight Negan.
Later on, the mysterious person that followed Rick and Aaron to Alexandria is seen outside their walls. The person watches Father Gabriel as he stands guard, but they disappear into the woods without taking action.