The Walking Dead season 7, episode 7, “Sing Me a Song,” brought in a familiar storyline from the comics as Negan showed Carl how tough life is at the Sanctuary.
‘The Walking Dead’ season 7, episode 7 recap:
Despite seeming like she was going along with Rick’s plan, Michonne has a plan of her own. After leaving Alexandria, Michonne goes out on a trip by herself and lures walkers into the road before killing them with her katana. After piling them up on the road, she’s able to draw a female Savior out named Isabelle. It’s then that Michonne’s purpose is clear, she threatens to kill Isabelle if she doesn’t bring her to Negan.
Spencer’s circle of friends is getting smaller and smaller as he obsesses over the idea that Rick shouldn’t be leader. He still believes that they never should have followed his advice to attack the Saviors first. Somehow, despite being extremely selfish, Spencer believes he’d also make a better leader. Rosita nor Gabriel are having any of that.
Rosita also has some harsh words for Eugene after he goes back on his word. Determined to revenge Abraham’s death, Rosita doesn’t want to hear about the dangers ahead. Instead she belittles Eugene for his past mistakes and inability to fight. After bullying him, Eugene does what Rosita wants and starts to work on bullets.
The last time fans saw Carl and Jesus they had just realized they were both heading towards Negan’s camp after hitching a ride on the back of the Saviors truck. They’re both hiding, but each has a different goal in mind. While Jesus just wants to find out where Negan lives, Carl wants to come after him. So when Jesus suggests that they hop out of the back of the truck to get a look at the camp as they get close, Carl agrees.
After pretending to be worried about the jump, Carl gets Jesus to jump out first. But once Jesus jumps, Carl simply waves goodbye and continues the ride. Now that he’s alone, Carl searches the truck and finds a stash of weapons.
Once they arrive at the Sanctuary, the Saviors are shocked to find Carl is in the back of the truck and he’s able to take a few of them out with a machine gun. It doesn’t take long before Dwight stops him, but instead of killing him, Negan decides to give Carl a tour. Carl’s courage has caught Negan’s eye and he wants to learn more about him. This part of the episode almost exactly follows along with what happened in the comics.
Through Negan’s tour, fans get an even deeper look into the Sactuary. It looks like Negan just can’t help but take the chance to impress his special guest and shows Carl just how much control he has over the Saviors. He also takes Carl to meet his wives, and there sure are a lot of them. Even though Negan doesn’t get to spend alone time with them, it becomes clear that there’s tension between Sherry and Negan as she tries to protect one of her fellow wives.
At the wive’s quarters Daryl and Dwight bring in a big plate of food for Negan. Dwight might be on good terms with Negan, but he still likes to tease him about Sherry. Things get tense when Daryl tries to stand up for Carl and Negan threatens to injure the only good eye Carl has left. But Negan has bigger problems to take care of the moment.
Even though Negan is very impressed with Carl’s initiative to go after him, he still has to punish him. Much like the comics, Negan tries to break Carl by forcing him to take off his bandage. For the first time, Negan sees Carl crying after he makes fun of the deformity behind the bandage and is reminded that Carl is still just a child. It’s pretty easy to forget that Carl is still young when he’s willing to stand up someone as powerful as Negan.
Negan doesn’t let the fact that Carl is still a kid sway his way of domineering over others. After one of the Saviors interrupts them to bring up Lucille, Negan demands that Carl sing him a song. Once he does start singing, Negan begins to practice swinging Lucille knowing just how unnerving it is. This has Carl breaking down again. They do have a bit of a moment when Carl shares how he was the one who shot his mom before she turned.
Carl is saved when Negan has to turn his torture to someone else within the Sanctuary. While he was gone, Negan found out that one of his wives, Amber, went back to her former lover Mark. This means it’s time to hand out a punishment in the form of an iron. To make sure it doesn’t happen again, Negan spares Mark’s life but ruins his face forever by burning it with an iron. It’s the same punishment that Dwight faced when he returned to the Sanctuary, and now he’s forced to help Negan do it to another. Then Daryl is forced to clean up the mess left over by Mark wetting himself.
Back in Negan’s private quarters, Carl gets his courage back and threatens him. Once again Carl reiterates that Negan has no idea who he’s messing with. Instead of hurting Carl, Negan decides to bring him back to Alexandria but not before sending Daryl back to his cell.
Although Carl isn’t able to help Daryl, someone else does. While Daryl is in his cell, someone slides a note under his door with the words “Go now” and the keys to his motorcycle. There’s a good chance that it’s Dwight, but it could also be Sherry.
With Rick still out on his own trip, Negan forces Carl to show him around their house. Once Negan discovers Judith he immediately takes a liking to her and takes her out of her crib. When Rosita, Spencer, and Eugene return to Alexandria they find the Saviors are there. And Negan is on the front porch of Rick’s house rocking Judith.
Meanwhile, Rick and Aaron are hard at work trying to find supplies for the next time the Saviors come to visit. After having no luck for days, they find a sign that says “Keep going. Only thing here 4 you is trouble,” but of course they have to try.
Who ever made the sign is long gone, but his supplies still remain. To make sure that no one could easily get to his stuff though, the man put all his supplies and ammo on a houseboat protected by walkers. With no other options, Rick and Aaron decide to try and get to them anyways.
The storyline detoured somewhat from the comics, in that Rick wasn’t the one to retrieve Carl from Negan. From that point on, Rick made it clear that he wanted to go to war with Negan. Since Rick doesn’t yet know what happened with Carl, it remains to be seen how he will react to the news that Negan was messing with his children. Will it be enough to set forward the storyline of war between the Saviors and the communities they terrorize?