By NICK VILLALOBOS, Editor-in-Chief
The Walking Dead season seven is back!!
Sunday marked the return of the epic AMC thriller, The Walking Dead, and it did not disappoint.
In the first half of the season, Rick and company was dealing with the tragic aftermath of losing Glenn and Abraham at the hands [or shall I say baseball bat] of Negan, leader of the Saviors.
In the second half, the moral of the group has taken a complete 180 degree turn. Instead of grieving over the death of two beloved characters, the group has shifted their focus to war with the Saviors and in the season seven, mid-season premiere entitled “Rock in the Road,” we see just that.
[SPOILERS]
As the episode began, it picked up right where it left off in the mid-season finale, which was with Rick and the group’s trip to the Hilltop to speak with Gregory, the Hilltop’s “leader,” about joining in on the march toward war.
Unfortunately, Gregory is a bit of a coward and denied Rick’s proposition. Thanks to Maggie, however, the unofficial new leader of the Hilltop Colony, the rest of the community members agreed to join the march.
After winning over the Hilltop, Jesus next leads Rick and company to meet King Ezekiel and introduce them to the Kingdom.
Upon meeting Ezekiel and his pet tiger, Shiva, Rick was unsuccessful in winning over the king. Fortunately, after leaving Daryl at the Kingdom in hopes to sway King Ezekiel, and to keep himself safe from the Saviors, Rick and the group discovered a line of explosives on the highway.
Thanks to some quick thinking on the group’s part, Rick and company were able to fight off a herd of walkers, snag the explosives and make it out alive. So the trip to the Kingdom was not a complete loss.
Following the big win with securing the explosives, Rick next arrives back at Alexandria only to find that Father Gabriel took their supplies and bailed on the community.
Then as the episode concluded, Rick and company wandered into a new group’s territory looking for Gabriel, and after being surrounded by a lot of new people with weapons, Rick smiles ear-to-ear and the camera cuts to a black screen.
All in all, I’d say this episode was an absolutely perfect way to return from the break. It had plenty of intensity, a few good quotable moments and even a few laughs. It also left me definitely wanting more immediately following the screen going dark.
My expectations for next week’s episode, “New Best Friends,” is that Rick and the new group join together and continue to build up supplies and man power for the epic war against the Saviors. I expect it to have more of the same high levels of intensity too.
Be sure to check out a new episode of The Walking Dead at 8 p.m. Sunday on AMC.