In the eleventh episode of The Walking Dead season 7, titled “Hostiles and Calamities,” Eugene gets settled in at the Sanctuary just as the Saviors realize that Daryl has escaped. With Daryl gone, Dwight is in the hot seat, so he turns Negan’s attention to someone else. Meanwhile, Eugene gets to meet some of Negan’s wives, and Dwight is sent on a mission.
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Eugene Adjusts to Life Among the Saviors
After spending the previous two episodes focused on Team Family, I have to admit that I am disappointed that this entire episode is devoted to Negan and the Saviors. I think Negan and the Saviors work better in smaller doses, and it just doesn’t seem necessary to focus another whole episode on them, even with Eugene added into the mix.
When Eugene arrives at the Sanctuary, he is understandably terrified of what Negan has planned for him. Luckily for Eugene, Negan takes a different approach with him than he did with Daryl. Instead of being thrown into a cell and tortured, Eugene is led to a furnished apartment full of amenities — including a record player and a gaming system — and offered a meal of (almost) anything he wants. Yes, Eugene clearly is on Easy Street.
Later, Eugene gets an official tour of the Sanctuary and is told about the points system. Eugene is then led to see Negan. Negan wants to know if Eugene is really as smart as he thinks he is. After blabbing on and on about his qualifications, Eugene proves himself by helping Negan with a problem he’s been having. Apparently, the fence walkers are starting to fall apart, so Eugene comes up with a way to not only keep said walkers bodily-intact but also to protect their heads from “hostiles and calamities.” Negan is thrilled — he even dubs Eugene “Dr. Smarty Pants” — so he offers to let some of his wives spend the night with Eugene but only in the form of dinner and drinks.
That night, Eugene plays some video games to entertain Negan’s wives, but they are more interested in conversation. When they find out that Eugene is capable of making bombs, they are very interested. Eugene then proves his skills by making a small bomb and setting it off, much to their delight.
The next night, the same women return to Eugene’s apartment to ask for his help. You see, Negan sent three of his wives to keep Eugene company, but one of the three was not in a good mental place. The other two tell Eugene that this woman, Amber, wants to die, and they want to find a way to help her do that. They ask him if he can make her a pill to end her life. Eugene hesitates because while he is certainly capable of doing so, he doesn’t know if he should. After they tell him that they know he is a good man, he caves and says he’ll make something for Amber.
Has Eugene Switched Sides?
After his chat with Negan’s wives, we see Eugene gathering the supplies he needs to make the suicide pills. We also see him taking full advantage of his newfound power by hoarding it over one of the Saviors and by taking all kinds of things he doesn’t even seem to need. He then heads back to his apartment to make the pills.
Alas, when the two women come back to get the pills, Eugene refuses to hand them over. He realized that they don’t want the pills for Amber but that they are actually planning to use them on Negan. They remind Eugene that Negan killed two of his friends, but Eugene claims that that was fair since his group killed many more of the Saviors. They then threaten to tell Negan that it was Eugene’s idea to make the pills, but Eugene knows that Negan will believe his word over theirs because they are replaceable and he is not.
Negan comes to see Eugene later that night, and he doesn’t even get the whole “Who are you?” question out before Eugene jumps in to respond, “I’m Negan.” The next day, we see Eugene overseeing the Saviors as they enact his plan for the fence-walkers. Dwight joins him, and they have a brief chat where Eugene once again confirms that he’s fully on Team Negan now. Dwight, on the other hand, seems less than enthused about his position among the Saviors, which makes sense given what occurs in this episode.
Dwight is Punished
Dwight is not pleased when he learns of Daryl’s escape. In fact, Dwight goes into full-on panic mode upon finding Fat Joey dead and a motorcycle missing. Dwight is even less impressed when he sees the note someone slipped Daryl, and he realizes that someone helped Daryl escape. Based on his reaction to said note, he clearly knows who wrote it.
Once Negan gets back and learns that Daryl is gone, he has Dwight beaten and thrown into Daryl’s cell. Later, he comes to chat with Dwight and tells him that Sherry went missing right around the time that Daryl escaped. Negan marvels at that “coincidence,” but Dwight insists that Sherry didn’t let Daryl go. Negan wonders if maybe Dwight let Daryl escape. Yet all it takes is Dwight responding with an “I’m Negan” to convince Negan that Dwight is still on the right side of things. Negan then releases Dwight from his cell and tasks him with finding Sherry and bringing her back.
After being released from his cell, Dwight is checked out by Dr. Carson. Carson takes the opportunity to talk about Sherry. He says Sherry was soft and had a big heart, but that kind of person doesn’t last long at the Sanctuary. Once Carson stitches him up, Dwight goes back to his apartment, grabs a bag and a carton of cigarettes and takes off on his mission to find Sherry.
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Dwight Goes Home
It turns out that Dwight knows exactly where Sherry would go after leaving the Sanctuary. She went back to their old house. When Dwight arrives, Sherry has obviously come and gone, but she left a letter behind. As Dwight reads the letter, we see that the handwriting matches up perfectly with the note Daryl received, thus confirming that Sherry was the one who helped him escape.
We hear Sherry’s letter via voice-over. In it, she talks about how she and Dwight always planned to come back home if they ever got separated. She tells Dwight that she can’t wait for him because she doesn’t know if he’d come with her, take her back to Negan or just kill her. She says she feels guilty for forcing Dwight to live under Negan’s rule because now Dwight has become everything he never wanted to be. She admits to letting Daryl go and says she did it because Daryl reminded Dwight of the person he used to be, and she wanted Dwight to be able to forget. She also tells him that being under Negan’s rule is worse than being dead, and she hopes he realizes that someday. She ends the letter by saying, “I loved who you were. I’m sorry I made you into who you are.”
Dwight reads the letter and has a bit of a breakdown over all he’s lost. We then see him pull out his carton of cigarettes, and it turns out to contain his and Sherry’s weddings rings. (Austin Amelio does a beautiful job with these scenes, but if they are meant to make me feel for Dwight, I am afraid they do not. They do, however, make me like Sherry a little more.)
Dwight Frames Dr. Carson
After failing to find Sherry, Dwight heads back to the Sanctuary and decides to set someone else up for Daryl’s escape. That person turns out to be Dr. Carson. Dwight takes Sherry’s letter and plants it in the doctor’s office. When Negan finds the letter, he has Carson dragged out in front of Eugene and all the Saviors. He then confronts Carson about his “betrayal,” but Carson denies any involvement.
Alas, it turns out that Dwight spun a little tale for Negan off-screen. Dwight claimed that he killed Sherry after she got surrounded by walkers but that before she died Sherry told him that Carson let Daryl go for her sake. When Carson tries to argue that Dwight is lying, Negan doesn’t believe him. He then threatens Carson until he “admits” that he let Daryl go.
Negan’s punishment for Dr. Carson is pretty harsh. After beating the man, he pushes Carson into the furnace head first. (At first, I wondered why Negan would kill the Sanctuary’s doctor, but then he makes a comment that it’s good “we got a spare Dr. Carson.”)
What did you think of this episode of The Walking Dead? Has Eugene really turned to Negan’s side or is he just playing the part in order to survive? Could he have a long-term plan in mind that we don’t know about yet? What did you think of Dwight framing Dr. Carson? Did this episode do anything to change your opinion of Dwight? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
The Walking Dead season 7 airs Sunday nights at 9/8c on AMC. Want more news? Like our Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of AMC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
