The Walking Dead season 7, episode 4, “Service,” sent Negan to Alexandria for the first time, with Daryl in tow.
‘The Walking Dead’ season 7, episode 4 recap:
For the first time in The Walking Dead season 7, fans are brought back to Alexandria. Rick and part of the group that was taken by Negan and the Saviors have returned home to try and get ready for the first pickup by their new ruler. It’s only been a few days since they watched their loved ones brutally killed right in front of them, and they’re still trying to process what their future will look like.
Although Rick and Michonne are still living together, there seems to be some kind of disconnect between the two. While Rick is still sleeping in the morning, Michonne sneaks out to practice her sniper skills. She doesn’t even bother to explain herself when Rick wakes and watches her leave their house. Instead, Rick goes to take care of Judith.
Anger seems to be Rosita’s main emotion at the forefront. She takes her frustration out on Eugene who doesn’t want to help go on a run before the Saviors arrive. It’s too late anyways, because Negan decides to surprise them all with an early visit.
Negan isn’t happy when Spencer questions who he is, and Rick’s attitude by his early arrival doesn’t help either. Despite the tension in the air, Negan continues his over the top comical self. He even says that he’s giving them a service by killing a walker before entering Alexandria, but then makes Rick hold Lucille.
Once he’s inside of Alexandria, Negan is excited by the possibilities. But before he can get a look around, Negan has to shut Rick down from talking to Daryl. If they don’t talk to him, they don’t have to chop anything off of him. The only way they can protect Daryl right now is to ignore him, and that is pure torture to Rick.
Dwight stops Rosita and Spencer from leaving, takes their guns, and orders her to go get Daryl’s motorcycle. With all of the anger rolling off of Rosita, she can barely contain the urge to fight back against them.
Meanwhile, Michonne is having a hard time figuring out how to accurately shoot with the sniper. After many tries on aiming at a walker, she ends killing it with her katana. Walking back towards Alexandria, Michonne is disappointed to discover that she accidentally shot a deer with one of her bullets.
Negan and the Saviors seem to think they’ve hit the jackpot with Alexandria. They’re quick to take all of the luxuries they can find, including mattresses. The way that Negan taunts Rick about Maggie and hints at wanting to become romantically involved makes is clear that he’s testing his control over him. Father Gabriel makes Negan think that Maggie died, though. That doesn’t stop Negan from making more comments about her.
A gunshot ringing through Alexandria stops Negan in his tracks. They quickly discover that Carl is threatening to shoot one of the Saviors for taking all of their medicine. Negan seems impressed by Carl’s courage, but still threatens to teach another lesson if he doesn’t back down. It also makes Negan realize that the group is stronger than he originally thought, and wants to take all of their guns to make sure they can’t strike against him.
Rick leads Negan to meet Olivia, who shows the Saviors their stash of guns. It doesn’t slip by Negan that Alexandria doesn’t have much food in stock. He so kindly says they won’t touch the food, and even wants a thank you from Rick but just gets a bit of attitude back. Even though it looks like they’re cooperating, Negan still doesn’t feel satisfied.
Spencer and Rosita mange to find Daryl’s bike, just where it was left near the tracks. While Spencer complains about Rick’s actions and the situation they’re in, Rosita is distracted. Before he knows it, Rosita is running off into the woods with her knife ready to kill walkers. Afterwards she searches them for guns, knowing Negan will be taking them from Alexandria.
When the gun inventory comes up short, according to Olivia’s records, Rick explains that they must be with someone that left Alexandria. Negan doesn’t accept that excuse though, and thinks they’re purposely holding out on him. Another lesson seems imminent for Alexandria, but first Rick is given the chance to question his people.
For those that weren’t there when Negan killed Glenn and Abraham, it’s hard for them to comprehend the danger that they’re in. No one seems to want to give up the guns that are missing and question why they even have to. Eugene points out that not everyone is at the meeting, so Rick goes on a hunt to find the guns. Even though Rick is feeling pretty hopeless right now, Father Gabriel has faith that things will get better. Luckily, Rick steps on a creeky board at Spencer’s house and finds the missing guns.
Disturbed as they are to see a group of Saviors bothering Enid, Rick hands over the guns to Negan. He’s not going to kill Olivia now, but he wants to know who had the guns. Then Rick notices that Michonne has returned and goes to get the gun from her. It’s obvious that she’s shocked he is so easily handing over the guns. They’re able to use the excuse of hunting, thanks to the deer, and hand over the gun to Negan. Rick tries to use their good behavior as a way to sway Negan to leave Daryl with them. But Daryl doesn’t speak up when Negan asks him about it.
Now that Rosita and Spencer are back, Dwight takes the bike from them. For whatever reason, he seems to be getting joy out of messing with her. Negan gets just as much enjoyment out of messing with Rick and can’t help but make one last degrading comment to him before leaving.
Rick fills in Spencer on what happened while they were gone, to explain why they had to search his house. Instead of apologizing for his stash, Spencer gets annoyed with him. He isn’t impressed by Rick at all and thinks they should have done things different. Rosita is annoyed with Spencer too, she can’t believe he didn’t tell her that he had guns after she went after the walkers for one.
Michonne wants answers from Rick, he didn’t have to hand over the gun that she had since it wasn’t listed. They’ve always fought for what they had, and Michonne can’t understand why they don’t do it now. Rick admits that he once had a friend that took care of his family while he was in the hospital during the breakout, Judith isn’t his daughter but he’s accepted it to keep her alive. The only way to live and keep his family alive is to do what Negan wants, Rick explains, and Michonne needs to accept it.
Despite what she said, Michonne went out on her own again. But gets distracted when she sees smoke in the sky which leads her to find all of the mattresses from Alexandria were set on fire by the Saviors. Rosita isn’t backing down yet either and goes to Eugene to ask him to make her bullets.