The Walking Dead S7E03: The Cell

This episode was all about revealing to the audience some of the inner workings of the sanctuary (Negan’s home base), and giving us an opportunity to have more feelings about Dwight through a series of close-ups between him and Daryl, and interpreting the mind games and nuance in gestures or phrasing from Negan. Did it accomplish that task? Yeah. Was it a good episode? Not really. Spoilers ahead.

This feels like an episode where reading the comics puts you at a major advantage. Things were made so subtle and so mysterious in this episode that you leave with as many questions unanswered as you have questions answered. One of the major ones being what a character whom Dwight was chasing after voiced himself; why are we letting Negan do this? It would seem the sole source of Negan’s power over this community rests in how intimidating he is. That he has a barbed-wire bat and will do anything is more powerful than the fact that he’s woefully outnumbered. But this is the arrangement in the sanctuary. Negan offers limited power to some like Dwight. They can take what they want from others. They can run things in Negan’s stead. They are his lieutenants. For most others, they have to work on a system of earning points. This is accomplished by producing goods or services, which are then taken by those in power. For those that reject this arrangement, they’re put on the wall to guard the facility. As a walker. As I said in a previous review, the hospital in season five was in many ways an image of what the sanctuary is. Except with the sanctuary we have a leader in Negan who is believably powerful, constantly scheming, and scary violent. But hey, he has respect for the sanctity of marriage, so he can’t be all bad right?

A lot of time is spent on Negan using torture and mind tricks to bring Daryl into submission. He is forced into solitude, naked in a cell. He is fed dog food sandwiches. He’s made to believe he might be able to escape. All this to drive home the belief that Negan is everywhere. He is unavoidable and resistance is vanity. In a crucial scene where Daryl is shown everything he could have if he submits, Daryl continues to resist. Negan asks, “who are you?”, to which Daryl is supposed to say, “Negan” as all of the other men had done. He replies, “Daryl”, and we see that this fan favorite character still has a spark of what makes us love him. He is standing up for himself, but most importantly he’s standing up for his belief in what’s right. Negan could beat him to death, but submitting to him, calling himself Negan, would mean Daryl is abandoning what he’s fought for so far and what Negan threatens. He’s refusing the one who could take his life and planting himself in his path. It’s a somewhat shallow comparison because we aren’t talking about spiritual things, but Jesus said “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul…”. The message there is don’t fear those who have no eternal power over you. That this life and its wealth, its pleasure, and even its torment are temporary. That is a stand on spiritual principle. Daryl is taking a stand on moral principle. Resisting Negan is a resistance to his enslavement of everyone around him at the threat of their lives.

We learn that Dwight and his wife, Sherry, have been forced into a quasi-marriage arrangement where Negan gets to marry Sherry and have his way with her, and Dwight gets to shutup about it or get an iron to the face. Which he already has. Daryl learns exactly what Dwight and Sherry were running from when he ran into them in the forest in season six. And incredibly, he has some compassion for Dwight. For all the showboating of power and musical torture in this episode, I felt this was the key to it. Daryl understood why Dwight was doing what he’s doing. It was for someone else. That’s not to say this completely mends their relationship, but they’ve reached an understanding. Daryl can’t submit for the very reasons Dwight did submit; he has others in mind. Think about this contrast now. Daryl acted selfishly and punched Negan. The results was Glenn died. Now he’s given the chance to act selfishly again, but he refuses. Some may see it as hard-headed in not submitting to Negan, but his small act of protest means Negan has one less person to leverage and use to bring others under his thumb. Look for this spark of rebellion to provide some inspiration for Dwight and others in the sanctuary to resist Negan in some way.

My Rating: C-

While there is a lot to chew on with Dwight and Daryl, I’m finding a lot of problems in the execution of these last couple episodes. This show has expanded to now four primary locations (Sanctuary, Alexandria, Kingdom, Hilltop), yet it’s neglecting three of those to spend an entire episode in one location with one group of people. We’re left to wonder where all this fits in the timeline, what’s happening in other places. All the while putting in a lot of filler in and episode like this. Mysterious allusions to how things work in the sanctuary, but a clear explanation of Dwight’s face and Sherry’s arrangement with Negan. Five scenes of Daryl being tortured with music and dog food. We get it. This is all time that would be better spent elsewhere, taking advantage of the vastness of this world now rather than excluding all other locations. I’m told next week will be a 90-minute episode. Why? It’s not the mid-season break. It’s not an opener or finale. It’s clear they have a lot of stories to tell, so let’s trim the fat and tell those stories.