Violet recaps Season 7 Episode 14 of The Walking Dead, titled The Other Side, where we catch up with Hilltop, and Rosita and Sasha head out on a mission. Following the recap, we also share our thoughts on the episode.
- His thoughts on The Other Side, Episode 714 of The Walking Dead
- Her thoughts on The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 14: The Other Side
Hilltop
We go back and see what’s been going on at Hilltop. It appears that Maggie has been training the residents how to throw knives, and that her pregnancy is going well. Enid stays by her side all along, helping her. Sasha helps train the Hilltop residents how to wield a knife. She also gets Jesus to draw her a map of the outside of Negan’s compound, then studies the map, all without Maggie’s knowledge. As for Daryl, he stays withdrawn from the others. This catches us up to the scene at the end of Season 7 Episode 12 where Rosita arrives at Hilltop and asks Sasha for her help.
Jesus reveals to Maggie a little about his past, having been in group homes, and how he has always found it hard to get close to anyone, including boyfriends. While Maggie goes to talk to the blacksmith, Sasha grabs some bullets hidden in a hollowed out book. Jesus and Enid walk in just then, and Jesus tells her she can have the bullets, but he begs her not to go after Negan with just her and Rosita. Maggie doesn’t know about Rosita being there, and Enid says Sasha should tell Maggie about everything, but Sasha refuses. Jesus and Enid say they want to go with her and Rosita, but Sasha tells them that Maggie needs them at Hilltop for whatever happens after. Enid says that in 10 minutes she’ll tell Maggie what’s going on.
Just then, there’s word from the lookout that the Saviors are coming. Sasha and Rosita use the distraction to go through a secret tunnel that goes to the other side of the fence. Meanwhile, Maggie and Daryl go hide in a cellar.
Gregory warmly greets Simon, who brings the Saviors inside. Simon says the Hilltop has a certain somebody that Negan needs – Dr. Carson. Gregory points the way, and Simon goes to get him. We also learn that the doctor that Negan killed is Dr. Carson’s brother. Simon leaves behind a crate of aspirin for Hilltop’s medical solutions. Gregory pulls Simon aside and insinuates that someone else might try to take over Hilltop. Simon tells Gregory that if he has any of those sorts of problems, to come see him, and gives Gregory a slip of paper that he has written something on.
Enid brings a basket of vegetables to a Savior who is approaching the cellar doors, but her distraction doesn’t work very well, and he goes inside the cellar after taking her knife. The man looks around, takes a basket of food, and leaves without seeing Maggie and Daryl. Maggie comments to Daryl how ever since he got there, he won’t look at her or speak to her. She asks him to look at her. He does, and breaks down crying, apologizing for what happened to Glenn. But she says it wasn’t his fault. They cry together and hug, and Maggie asks Daryl to help her to win.
The Saviors load up Dr. Carson in their truck and head back to Negan’s compound.
Later, Gregory calls Jesus into his office and hands him assignments for the newcomers. Jesus sees that Gregory is trying to split everyone up. Gregory then threatens Jesus, saying that they are not friends. After Gregory dismisses Jesus, Daryl comes to Jesus asking where Sasha and Rosita are.
Sasha and Rosita’s Mission
Sasha and Rosita make it out the other side of the tunnel safely, and begin heading over to Negan’s place. Along the way, Rosita tries to hot wire a car, but it doesn’t work. She sees that Sasha is wearing the necklace that she made for Abraham. They continue to another car, and Sasha tries to ask Rosita about how she knows how to disarm bombs. However, Rosita isn’t interested in talking about anything but the mission. Sasha has an idea: to shoot from a nearby building. But Rosita wants to go inside to take care of business so she can make sure Negan’s dead.
Sasha and Rosita find a small parking lot with a few cars. They light a car on fire to distract walkers, while Rosita goes to another car to hot wire. It works, and they drive away safely.
The two go into a building near Negan’s compound, and Sasha looks through the scope on the rifle to see what’s going on. Sasha reports to Rosita that Negan hasn’t come out yet, but that Eugene is out there ordering people around. Rosita assumes that Eugene is playing some angle. Rosita is working on tying knots, and Sasha asks her to teach her. She reluctantly agrees. Rosita decides to take a look through the rifle’s scope as well. Then she explains how she learned all she knows — from the various guys that she had been with. They eventually get around to talking about Abraham and have a heart to heart. Rosita regrets not having been able to tell Abraham that she was happy that he was happy. Sasha confirms that she was happy. They both think Abraham should have been able to go out fighting, and tell each other that they’ve got each other’s backs.
They see the trucks return from Hilltop with Dr. Carson. Negan comes out to greet him. Sasha has Negan in her sights, but isn’t able to get a clean shot with Dr. Carson and then Eugene getting in the way. Then Negan goes back inside without Sasha being able to take a shot. They hear Eugene on the radio saying that Negan will be indisposed in the boudoir all night, so they change their plans and plan to go in.
That night, Eugene and another man are walking outside. Sasha shoots the guy in the head, and Rosita tells Eugene that they’re breaking him out. However, he doesn’t want to go with them, and goes back inside. Rosita says she’s going inside. While Rosita opens her bag to get a gun out, Sasha works on breaking open the gate. However, while Rosita’s back is turned, Sasha slips through the fence and locks it back up, leaving Rosita on the other side. Then Sasha tells Rosita that the others need her, and Sasha runs inside the compound, shooting a guy coming out on her way in. More Saviors begin to come outside, so Rosita picks up her bag and runs before she can be caught. When she stops and looks up, there’s a dark figure staring at her.
Her Thoughts on The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 14: The Other Side
This episode was mostly slow, and I was kind of bored for most of it. We did get traction on Rosita and Sasha’s plan to try to take out Negan on their own, but as suspected, that plan didn’t work out so great. Of course two people aren’t going to easily be able to take down Negan on their own, because that would ruin the whole point of all these other episodes building toward getting the various factions to unite and fight against Negan together. It does seem the most logical though. Why did they have to go in after Negan right then? Why couldn’t they have waited for him to come out to where they could get a clean shot? Again, this is all so that we can have the big fight against Negan. Whenever that will be. There’s only 2 episodes left this season, so things either have to come together very quickly, or we may have to wait until next season, which would be annoying, considering how this season has been dragging. But I suppose next episode could be getting the Oceanside people on their side, and then everyone comes together in the season finale. Seems plausible.
The scene between Maggie and Daryl was very touching, though. You know that Daryl feels terrible about what happened, like it’s his fault. He and Glenn go way back, since almost the beginning, so that emotion was genuine. I am so glad that Maggie was so understanding and forgiving. I didn’t really expect otherwise, but Daryl did, because he felt so guilty about it, so it’s a good thing for the group that they were able to address the elephant in the room and move past this.
We also learned this episode that Jesus is gay. Though I kind of felt like it was kind of in response to the way it looked like Maggie and Jesus were hanging out together a lot, and was the show’s way of telling us not to think that anything’s going on between the two, since Jesus is gay. I’ve heard rumors and speculation in the past that Daryl might be gay, so maybe this could be leading the way for those two to get together at some point? Could be totally wrong though.
Anyway, so it looks like Gregory has something up his sleeve to turn on Jesus and go running to the Saviors. We’ll see what happens there.
In the meantime, hopefully things pick up as we near the end of the season.
His Thoughts on The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 14: The Other Side
It looks like Gregory is going to be making an attempt on Maggie based on the previews from next week. He alluded to that this episode with speaking to Simon, and with any luck his (failed) attempt on Maggie will get Gregory out of power. But since Maggie and the Alexandria residents of Hilltop are hiding out, I am not sure who would step up yet. Either way, we could do with a little less Gregory leadership.
Based on the pacing of the episodes, I am wondering if Negan is going to be wrapped up this season. From the feeling of it, I do not think it will be wrapped up. It seems like there is still a lot to do to get this going. I have a feeling the final episode of the season will be Rick declaring war on Negan and the Saviors, and that war will carry over into next season. For some reason, AMC assumes we will like waiting another season to see this play out.
As for Sasha and Rosita, their mission was a suicide mission from the start. It seems that Sasha knew this, based on her actions of locking Rosita out. It looks like she was basically wanting to die. As for Rosita, it is hard to say for certain. She may have accepted dying too, but given her running away, it could be chalked up to not wanting to die, or at the very least, not wanting to die with no purpose. Either way, I was not a big fan of how their story played out.
As for Eugene, I am a bit disappointed there too. This was a great opportunity to have Eugene become someone people can actually appreciate in the show, but it seems the writers are content with letting him turncoat. It is a bit of a letdown.
Finally, I think the best part of this episode was Maggie and Daryl’s talk about Glenn’s death. Daryl clearly feels guilty about what had happened. His emotional breakdown with Maggie was actually really heartbreaking. It was very tough to watch because to a certain extent, I can see why Maggie could blame him.
Overall I think the episode was pretty mediocre, with a few ridiculous parts, and a few glimmers of what I would hope the show would be. Let’s see what happens on the next episode.
Scenes from The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 15: Something They Need
Preview of Season 7 Episode 15 of The Walking Dead
