“I would die for The Kingdom,” says Richard (Karl Makinen). “Why don’t you?” answers back a very angry Daryl (Norman Reedus) who just stopped Richard from ambushing a Savior’s patrol and setting up Carol to take the blame in episode 10 of season seven of AMC’s horror/drama series, The Walking Dead.
As the episode begins, King Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and a handful of his men including Morgan (Lennie James), Richard, and Benjamin (Logan Miller) are making their delivery to the Saviors when it goes bad because a Savior goon picks a fight with Richard, demanding he not be allowed to ever carry a gun again. Attempting to keep the peace, Ezekiel tells Richard to hand over his gun. Not one to let it go, the Savior thug is about to hurt Richard when Morgan uses his staff to stop him, and Benjamin backs him up. Both Ezekiel and the Saviors’ Gavin call their men off, with Gavin warning Ezekiel if this keeps happening “things might get a little visceral.”
Back at The Kingdom, Daryl asks Morgan where they went, and Morgan admits it was a delivery to the Saviors. Daryl wants Morgan to help get The Kingdom ready to fight, but Morgan says no. Daryl walks off and finds Richard practicing with a bow and arrow and he admits he’s trying to get better with it since he can’t have a gun. He hands Daryl a crossbow and quickly gets him to help set a trap for some Saviors to try to launch a war.
As they’re getting ready to ambush the Saviors road patrol, Richard mentions that he’s set up some lone woman living on the outskirts of The Kingdom to take the fall for the attack. Since King Ezekiel is fond of her, it should ignite the war. Daryl asks who the woman is and Richard just blows it off saying she’s tough but crazy to live out on her own. Daryl asks her name again and Richard finally says it’s Carol. Daryl refuses to go along with the sneak attack and the two men end up fighting. Daryl wins and warns Richard if anything happens to Carol he’ll kill him.
Meanwhile, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and his gang are in a junkyard surrounded by the strange people who took them prisoner at the end of the last episode. “Are you a collective or do one of you lead?” asks the woman, Jadis, who seems to be the leader of the new group known as the Scavengers. (Pollyanna McIntosh who plays Jadis confirmed the group’s name on Talking Dead.) It’s pointed out that Rick is the leader and he talks to Jadis, representing the Alexandrians. She tells him her group lives by the motto “We take. We don’t bother.” “We own your lives. Want to buy them back?” she asks Rick and he tells her that his people already belong to the Saviors. If she kills them, her people will have to answer for it. Or, the Scavengers could team up with Rick to fight them.
Jadis declines the offer to team up and her people move in to attack when Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) grabs one of the Scavengers and holds a knife to her throat, telling their leader that he will kill her. He says Rick can do anything and get whatever her people want. Intrigued, the woman tells two of her people to take Rick to the “high point.”
Once at the top of the junkyard pile, Jadis tells Rick she needs to know if he’s worthy of her group’s help. She pushes him off the edge and down into a pit where he’s completely surrounded by a high wall of garbage. There’s no way out except to climb, which seems impossible. Michonne (Danai Gurira), clearly upset, calls out to Rick and he yells out he’s okay. (He’s hurt his leg on the way down and re-injured his right hand, which is now covered in blood, but calms the group by saying he’s okay). Rick hears the sound of a walker, but it’s not just any walker – it’s a battle-armored zombie with a helmet and spikes sticking out of him.
Rick tries fighting it but isn’t doing so hot because of his injuries. He tries to climb out of the death match pit only to come crashing down along with bags of garbage that give way. Michonne yells to use the garbage and Rick causes a large load of it to fall on the armored walker, pinning it. He then finds a sharp blade and uses it to kill the walker. Once finished, Jadis throws down a rope for Rick to climb out.
Jadis lays out a deal, telling Rick she wants lots of guns and she’ll keep what they took from them. If he delivers, then she’ll join his fight. Rick agrees to the demands and walks out limping but smiling.
Tara (Alanna Masterson) and Rosita (Christian Serratos) argue over the best next move. Rosita doesn’t want to bring supplies back to Alexandria but instead wants to start looking for the guns right away, but Tara wants to patch Rick up and go back to Alexandria.
Gabriel tells Rick how much it meant to him that Rick didn’t think he’d deserted them. He asks Rick why he smiled when they were first surrounded and Rick tells Gabriel, “Someone showed me that enemies can become friends.”
Back on the outskirts of The Kingdom, Carol (Melissa McBride) catches King Ezekiel and a few of his followers clearing out walkers for her. Ezekiel tells Carol he knows she wants to be left alone but walkers can be a bit of a problem for those on their own. No sooner is Carol back inside her house reading her book when she hears a knock on the door. Carol opens it to find Daryl on her doorstep. After a big hug, Daryl asks Carol why she left and she tells him after a very long pause that she had to.
Later in the evening as they’re preparing to eat dinner, Carol tries to explain to Daryl what she was going through. “I couldn’t lose any of you. I couldn’t lose you! I couldn’t kill them. I would kill if they hurt any of our people and nothing would be left of me after that,” says Carol to a quiet Daryl. She asks if the Saviors came and Daryl says, “Yeah,” but doesn’t elaborate. Carol asks if anyone got hurt and at first Daryl doesn’t say anything. She asks again, dreading the answer, and Daryl lies, telling her that Alexandria made a deal with the Saviors the same way The Kingdom did and that everyone is all right. They sit together and eat dinner. Daryl asks Carol if she thinks Ezekiel is okay and Carol says yes. Afterward, Daryl goes to go back to The Kingdom but first tells Carol to take care of herself.
Back at The Kingdom, Morgan finds Daryl sitting just outside Ezekiel’s tiger’s cage and is impressed with how the tiger, Shiva, seems to have taken to Daryl. Daryl tells Morgan that he found Carol and he’s glad he honored her request to be left alone. He also tells Morgan that they’re going to need The Kingdom in the fight against the Saviors and that he needs to make that happen. Once again Morgan says no. “Sorry, it can’t be me,” says Morgan, revealing he knows Daryl didn’t tell Carol what really happened to Abraham and Glenn and adding that they’re very much alike.
The next morning Daryl leaves The Kingdom to travel to the Hilltop, determined to help them get ready for the fight.
The Walking Dead season 7 episode 10 review:
Intriguing and with an emotional reunion of two fan-favorite characters, episode 10 titled “New Best Friends” reveals who the mysterious woman and the junkyard group are and what they’re all about. The episode also found Alexandrians continuing to make the case for The Kingdom to join the fight against the Saviors.
“New Best Friend” was a better episode than viewers have seen in a while, with quite a few strong scenes and standout performances making the episode seem like a return to earlier seasons of the zombie apocalypse series. One of the episode’s better scenes was the death match between Rick and the battle-armored walker, but without a doubt, the highlight of the episode was the reunion of Carol and Daryl. Melissa McBride delivers a powerful and emotional performance as Carol finally explains to Daryl why she had to leave and asks if everyone is okay. It’s an uncomfortable and riveting scene as she explains how in order to hold on to her humanity she had to cut herself out from the group or else she would lose herself trying to save them all. McBride deserves to be nominated for an Emmy for this scene alone.
With Daryl headed to the Hilltop to get them ready for war and Rick and his crew making an uneasy deal with the Scavengers, it seems the build-up to the epic war against the Saviors is finally truly underway.
GRADE: B-
