The Walking Dead S7E14: The Other Side
The Other Side is an episode about preparation leading to reconciliation. As the events of the last couple of episodes transpired, Maggie and Sasha are getting Hilltop ready to take part in the fight against the Saviors, and Sasha is making plans to take matters into her own hands. When Rosita arrives to deliver Sasha’s rifle to her we know where we are in the timeline.
Most of the moments of preparation took place before the first commercial break. We did get a bit more of Sasha speaking with Jesus and Enid about her plans to leave with Rosita. But for the most part, the rest of this episode was about mending, or creating relationships.
Maggie and Daryl
Who can forget the events that transpired in the season opener? Negan picked Abraham to kill and in a moment of rage Daryl lashes out at Negan unsuccessfully. This results in one more life for Negan to claim; Glenn’s. Daryl’s reaction cost Glenn his life, and Daryl has been carrying the weight of that guilt around with him since. Save for one brief reunion at the midseason finale, Maggie and Daryl haven’t seen each other since then. They certainly haven’t had the time to talk. This episode gives that time, and shows us the connection between individuals in this group that we may not think otherwise share a bond. Daryl is grief-stricken, but Maggie is full of forgiveness. She doesn’t blame Daryl or hold any ill will toward him. In fact, she initiates the forgiveness when Daryl doesn’t feel worthy to even look at her. We see in these two a friendship that has been forged with the fire, but we see also a forgiveness that requires nothing in return. Maggie embodies a terrific picture of grace that we scarcely get to see on the show.
Gregory and Simon
In a series of downright strange scenes as Simon brings his group of Saviors to hilltop, he and Gregory appear to strike up a friendly agreement. Simon arrives at Hilltop presumably looking for Daryl, but little is actually shown of them looking for him. Instead, Gregory reveals to Simon that he’s having trouble keeping Hilltop under his control. While he doesn’t reveal the details of how he may be losing control, or to whom, he does confide in Simon to make things a little easier on him. Simon appears strangely agreeable to this request. Even inviting him to the Sanctuary to discuss it. I say this is all strange because it seems out of character for Simon to be so agreeable with Gregory, and also because there appears to have been no effort to search for Daryl after all. Instead, the Saviors took the doctor back with them and that was that. It seems that Simon and Gregory have reached a new level of trust and cooperation, if Simon can be trusted. Or Gregory, for that matter.
Rosita and Sasha
The forgiveness Maggie shows Daryl is probably the most heartfelt of the episode, but the reconciling between Rosita and Sasha might have been the hardest for either of these women to come to. The dynamic between them is an interesting one. They both share a common hatred for Abraham’s killer and it is this hatred that brings them together. But Rosita also despises Sasha and still feels betrayed by her. Sasha clearly wants to mend things between them, but she also isn’t going to make herself a doormat of guilt for Rosita to step all over. When they argue, you can 
see Sasha dancing that line between guilt over Rosita’s circumstances and a refusal to be mistreated. Eventually they both realize that to accomplish their goal of killing Negan, they would have to work together. This meant more than cooperation. They had to learn to trust one another. In a scene I felt was refreshingly honest, Rosita reveals some of her past to Sasha, and how she would use men to learn survival skills, then dump them once she could handle herself. This is more about Rosita’s past than we’ve learned elsewhere on the show, and it’s interesting that you can see her expressing both shame and pride in revealing this. She is self-made, but she doesn’t necessarily like the way she made herself. Her relationship with Abraham was an end to that cycle for Rosita. He made her happy, but she didn’t bring him the same happiness. Sasha did. In the end Rosita explains her deepest regret, that she never got to tell Abraham that she was happy that he was happy.” Sharing that with Sasha signified an end to the beef between them and the beginning of trust.
The show closes with Sasha making a sacrifice of sorts for Rosita, though Rosita certainly won’t see it that way. Sasha goes into the Sanctuary to seek out Negan while locking Rosita out, telling her “it’s not your time”. The episode closes with Rosita running away and running into Daryl. We haven’t seen the last of Rosita attempting to take out Negan.
My Rating: C+
I had to check myself a bit after this episode. At first I was upset. “Nothing happened again”, I said. “We didn’t get any closer to the war, I didn’t learn anything more about these people…”. But, that’s not entirely true. While I don’t think we’re much closer to the war, we did have some interesting character moments on this episode in the form of Maggie and Rosita both extending forgiveness. And Gregory takes another step toward betraying everyone to stay in the good graces of the saviors. Even if it is the 3rd or 4th time that’s happened so far. That’s my main complaint with this season, and may be what makes this one of the worst seasons thus far. Things have been driven to a snail’s pace while we revisit the same scenes and decisions multiple times. At this point it’s not reinforcing internal struggles, it’s dragging the show down. So sure, it’s great to see Maggie forgive Daryl, but couldn’t that have happened 6-7 episodes after Glenn’s death instead of 13? Same with Rosita and Sasha. And why does it take 5 times of the Kingdom meeting hostility at a drop off before Ezekiel finally has enough? These are things I’m growing tired of wading through when the same things can be said/shown in half the time and the story can move along at a more reasonable pace.
