The Walking Dead
Episode 8.4 “Some Guy”
Written by Dan Liu
Directed by David Leslie Johnson
Starring Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lauren Cohan, Chandler Riggs, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Lennie James, Christian Serratos, Tom Payne, Khary Payton, Austin Amelio, Alanna Masterson, Katelyn Nacon, Steven Ogg, Pollyanna McIntosh
AMC
Air Date: Sunday, November 12, 2017

Warning – SPOILERS for AMC’s The Walking Dead…

On last week’s The Walking Dead, the All Out War theme of Season 8 dragged on, as the united armies of Alexandria, Hilltop, and The Kingdom continued their assault on Negan and the Saviors. During the fight, Eric was shot and eventually died of his wounds, leaving his love Aaron to mourn. Rick came face to face with Morales, a survivor he knew from Season 1 who is now a Savior; Morales was ready to waste Rick, but Daryl put him down before he could do anything. There was a lot of indiscriminate killing going on, although Jesus seemed to want to keep all the highly dangerous Saviors — the ones who really deserve to die — alive for some bizarre reason, and brings them as prisoners to the Hilltop to go before Maggie. At Hilltop, Maggie takes in Gregory, even though he repeatedly has betrayed them — and unbeknownst to her, has left Father Gabriel for dead. The episode ended with King Ezekiel’s group being ambushed.

On this week’s episode, 8.4 “Some Guy,” we see that most of the soldiers of The Kingdom were killed in the ambush, but first a flashback to right before they headed out for the fight with King Ezekiel giving another one of his motivational speeches, which ended with a chant of “We are one!” Honestly, and I think I said this last week, I’m getting really tired of his speeches, especially since they are so cocky. Any time someone is cocky on this show, they ended up getting theirs and that’s what happens here, because when we see Ezekiel for the first time in the present, he’s crawling out from under the now-dead bodies of his subjects, who had shielded him during the ambush.

Ezekiel’s been shot in the leg, so he has to crawl to get away from his people after they start turning and coming after him. But then a low-level Savior named Gunther comes along and grabs Ezekiel, and we learn that the Saviors were ordered to bring in Ezekiel, Rick, and Maggie (who the refer to as “The Widow”) to Negan alive. Gunther is a creepy type of guy, kind of a dweeb, and he spends his time with the King mocking the leader. “Let’s move, “˜Your Highness'”, Gunther sarcastically commands his captive. And tells him if they take away his tiger, he’s a meaningless con man in a costume.

“Does Negan know your name?” Ezekiel asks, deducing right away that Gunther is a nobody. “I’m Negan,” Gunther the tool responds angrily. Gunther might be a nobody, but he uses his time with the weakened Ezekiel to berate him for making his people think he’s a king and then getting them all killed. Behind them, the zombiefied Kingdom soldiers are coming for them, so Gunther jokes, “You got them all killed, yet they’re still following you.” This definitely takes a toll on Ezekiel, who’s obviously riddled with guilt. Ezekiel eventually tries to overtake Gunther, but fails and is knocked to the ground, where he stays because he refuses to go along with his captor, who wants to use him to help move the guns for the Saviors. Gunther eventually gets Ezekiel up and moving, but when they get to the gate, it’s padlocked. Gunther plans to try to climb over the fence, but realizing there’s no way the injured Ezekiel can make it over, he reveals that Negan had planned to chain Ezekiel, Maggie, and Rick to the fence at the Sanctuary. Just as Gunther is about to behead Ezekiel to bring that back to Negan, Jerry from the Kingdom arrives and hacks Gunther in half with his battle axe! Ezekiel tells Jerry he doesn’t have to call him “Your Majesty,” but Jerry says “Yes, I do.” Ezekiel is clearly in shock by what happened and has let Gunther’s taunting get to him, but Jerry’s reaction confirms that Ezekiel’s leadership is what kept his people going. They needed someone to believe in; they needed a king.

Jerry and Ezekiel are trapped with no way beyond the locked gate, but in the distance they hear gunfire. We see that it’s coming from Carol, who is in a one-woman battle with some Saviors. Throughout the episode, we see Carol infiltrate the Savior outpost on her own and she does plenty of damage, and even manages to take one of the men hostage in an effort to escape. But the Saviors aren’t loyal like that, and they shoot their guy while trying to gun her down. These are the guys who were transporting the guns, but Carol realizes that there’s no way to stop them on her own. That’s when she spots Ezekiel and Jerry behind the gate and runs to save them.

In a flashback, we see Ezekiel and Carol at the Kingdom getting ready for the fight. Ezekiel tells her that he willed himself to be the man he is today. Before, he was just a zookeeper, but now he’s a king. He talks about when he saved Shiva the tiger at the zoo: he hadn’t just leapt into the enclosure when the animal needed saving; instead, he wavered for a minute thinking of what the outcomes would be. In the end, he decided to save the tiger, who then became loyal to him and is part of the reason why the people of the Kingdom follow and respect him. Ezekiel asks Carol if she’s always been the brave and strong person she is today, or did she decide to became that. “I decided just like,” she responds, “but life decided some things too.” “It does,” he replies, “It will.”

And it sure did for him, we know! In the present, Ezekiel, Jerry, and Carol see the Saviors make their getaway with the guns, but Carol also sees that they won’t make it back to the Sanctuary with them….

… because, bam!, Rick in a jeep and Daryl on a motorcycle are in hot pursuit of those Saviors. It was touch and go there for a while, with Daryl skidding off the road, but he makes a comeback. Rick comes up alongside the truck and jumps into it, tossing the driver out before crashing. Daryl runs to him, and thankfully, Rick is fine. Now they have the guns and it’s time for them to go check on the driver. “Let’s go see if this asshole’s alive,” Rick tells Daryl.

When we see Carol, Ezekiel, and Jerry again, they’ve reached a ravine in an area crawling with walkers. Ezekiel wants them to leave him behind, because his injury is slowing them down; plus, he plans to hold off the walkers to buy them time, but they’re not leaving him. Jerry once again professes his loyalty and says he’s not living his King, but Ezekiel’s faith in himself is shaken at this point. “I’m not your majesty. I ain’t your king, I ain’t nobody,” Ezekiel shouts, dropping his usual Shakespearean tone. “I’m just some guy”¦” he continues, but is cut off as Shiva the tiger appears to save the day!!! The tiger attacks the walkers, giving the humans time to escape, but Ezekiel doesn’t want to leave the animal and calls to her to RUN! But poor Shiva is eventually overcome by the undead and doesn’t make it out alive, much to everyone in the world’s dismay. That’s because not only was this tiger so awesome, but we’ve gotten to the point in this series where we care more about a FAKE CGI tiger than we do the annoying humans. Ezekiel is understandably devastated (as are we!!!!!).

The episode ends with Ezekiel, Carol, and Jerry making it back to The Kingdom. As they come through the gates, the residents run out to greet them, obviously relieved to see their King alive. But Ezekiel is not returning as the same man who left these people. He’s devastated, his confidence is shaken, and at this point, he might not even be able to effectively lead anymore. As Ezekiel limps into the community, the same little boy we saw during the send-off in the flashback scene runs up to him, obviously wanting some reassurance. But Ezekiel can’t give it. The man of many motivational speeches is speechless now, as he limps away from his people without a word.

This episode was a little better than its predecessor, but like all the episodes in this season so far, there was just too much loud machine gun fire taking up a lot of the scenes. Surprisingly, the slimy Gunther was a refreshing addition to the story, because as much as we love Ezekiel, I think we were all thinking the same thing about how he does kind of have delusions of grandeur and it was just a matter of time before he got knocked down a few pegs. It was also time to see him, like Rick before him, get shaken to his core. Will he rebound like Rick did? Otherwise, I think we’re going to see Queen Carol next.

Video

‘Carol on Her Own’ Sneak Peek Ep. 804 | The Walking Dead

Tensions rise for Carol as she moves in on a group of saviors alone who seem to be moving out.

‘Some Guy’ Next on Ep. 804 | The Walking Dead

[Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC. Courtesy of AMC. Used with permission.]

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