It’s confession time!

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I was never a regular Walking Dead viewer in the past.  And, after Carl Grimes died, I actually stopped watching the show all together.  It was not until this current season started that I once started to regularly watch The Walking Dead.  So, I have to admit that I had actually forgotten that Hillside and Alexandria were separate locations, with separate leaders and separate governing philosophies.  I guess I just assumed that Hillside was a particularly trashy party of Alexandria.  But, no …. I was wrong!  It turns out that Alexandria, Hillside, and Oceanside are three separate communities.

Go ahead.  Take a moment to laugh at me and then we’ll move on.

Done?

Well, we’re moving on anyways!

This week’s episode found Governor Milton and Lance Hornsby visiting each of the three communities and trying to bring them into the Commonwealth.  Milton offered security and access to better goods.  Alexandria saw that this was a good idea and signed up.  Oceanside, on the other hand, said, “We’ll do whatever Hillside does.”  Well, why don’t you just become a part of Hillside then!?

Not surprisingly, Maggie didn’t want to join up with the Commonwealth.  Maggie was indeed tempted but, when she saw the difference between how the leaders of the Commonwealth lived as opposed to how the community’s workers and soldiers lived, Maggie said no deal.  Or, at least, that’s what Maggie claims happened.  Personally, I think it has more to do with Maggie not wanting to surrender any of her power.  For all of her concerns about the way the Commonwealth treats its citizens, it’s not exactly as if Maggie is running a democracy herself.  After Maggie refused to enter into an alliance with the Commonwealth, a few members of Hillside left the community and, quite frankly, I don’t blame them.  Hillside’s a dump!  Not even Negan is willing to live there.

Anyway, at the end of the episode, we learned that Gov. Milton isn’t as bad as everyone tends to assume.  She was okay with not being able to bring Hillside and Oceanside into the Commonwealth, even saying that she expected that Maggie would ultimately refuse.  Not okay with Maggie’s decision was Lance Hornsby, who not only takes a disturbingly sadistic glee in shooting walkers but who also is apparently obsessed with controlling everyone.  Honestly, I don’t think anyone was really shocked to discover that Lance was not to be trusted. Josh Hamilton hasn’t exactly been giving a subtle performance in the role.  Actually, just the fact that Lance was being played by Josh Hamilton should have been our first clue about not trusting him.

Meanwhile, Ezekiel was operated on and Eugene and Max got to know each other.  Needless to say, Eugene was not happy to discover that Stephanie didn’t actually exist and he was also a bit freaked out to to discover that Max is Mercer’s sister.  By the end of the episode, though, Eugene and Max seemed to be growing close.  Max offered Eugene some advice on his novel.  Eugene admitted that he had destroyed his only copy.  WHY DID YOU DO THAT, EUGENE!?  Eugene is never going to succeed as an author with that attitude.

This episode felt like the calm before the storm.  While I don’t know if we needed to spend as much time on Gov. Milton’s travel as we did, at least the show managed to get to all three communities in one episode as opposed to stretching it out over six episodes, like they used to do back in the Rick Grimes era.  It seems obvious that there’s an invasion coming, it’s just a question of who is going to strike the first blow.