The Walking Dead Season 8, Episode 7 recap: ‘Time for After’

With one episode remaining before what producers call a “shocking moment” in the upcoming midseason finale, The Walking Dead takes time to look in on the Saviors

While the episode heavily focuses on Eugene and his sense of loyalty versus survival, Daryl and Tara are trying to convince Rosita and Michonne to help them speed up the end of the All Out War while Rick is trying to gather more allies. Here is a look at the Season 8, Episode 7 of The Walking Dead, “Time for After.”

Eugene and his Conflict of Faith

Eugene is stuck between a rock and a hard place and has been since he joined the Saviors. The original reason that Eugene joined forces with Negan was to save his own butt but he has walked a tight line between being a Savior and just trying to stay alive.

However, along the way, Eugene knew that he might be on the wrong side of this war. This episode changed that.

Three things happened to Eugene on this episode of The Walking Dead that finally convinced him that he was on the right side of the war, siding with Negan. The first involved Dwight, the second involved Father Gabriel and the third was his one-on-one conversations with Negan.

R. Keith Harris as Dr. Carson, Josh McDermitt as Dr. Eugene Porter – The Walking Dead _ Season 8, Episode 7 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Eugene and Dwight

When it came to Eugene and Dwight, the two had a confrontation at the start where Eugene lets him know that he won’t tell Negan that Dwight is the mole if he will “cease and desist” in his efforts. Dwight refuses and said he wants to save the Saviors and that means getting rid of Negan.

Eugene wants nothing to do with it and says “I am Negan” before telling Dwight that they are the good guys because they save people.

Later in the episode, Eugene has a plan to use Sasha’s walkman and a remote-controlled flier to lead the walkers away from the Sanctuary to save everyone in there. However, Dwight shows up again, this time with a gun and tells Eugene to stop because this is the only way to end Negan.

When Eugene refuses and launches the flier so he can save everyone there, Dwight shoots it down. That causes the start of a Eugene breakdown but, for some reason at the end, even when given a chance to tell Negan that Dwight is the mole, he keeps their secret.

Traci Dinwiddie as Regina – The Walking Dead _ Season 8, Episode 7 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Daryl’s Plan

Meanwhile, outside the Sanctuary, Daryl, Rosita, Michonne and Tara show up and are planning on ignoring Rick’s plan in order to drive a truck through the wall of the Sanctuary. This would let in the Walkers and while many Saviors would die, it would also kill many innocent workers that Negan has saved over the years.

After Morgan shows up and says he is with them and has some snipers who can help, Rosita decides she wants no part of this. Rosita then says “I trust Rick Grimes” and she wants to wait. She even said the last time she decided to rush into things instead of wait for the plan, it cost Sasha her life.

After they get into position, Michonne tells Daryl she can’t do this so he tells her not to and she leaves. Despite looking like he is having second thoughts, Tara is gung-ho about killing as many people as she can and they decide to go through with it.

Right after Dwight interferes with Eugene sending off the remote-controlled flier, Daryl sends his truck into the wall of the Sanctuary and the Walkers get in.

Just as Rick feared when Daryl mentioned the plan, The Walkers don’t just kill Saviors but also take out many of the innocent workers in the building. The Saviors gun down as many Walkers as they can while people try to escape from the carnage.

Eugene stands and watches this all in horror.

Josh McDermitt as Dr. Eugene Porter, Seth Gilliam as Father Gabriel Stokes – The Walking Dead _ Season 8, Episode 7 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Eugene and Father Gabriel

Early in the episode, Eugene is asked to watch in on Father Gabriel while the doctor goes to storage to get some natural medicine to try to help him. While in there, Gabriel wakes up and asks Eugene again to help get the doctor out of there and to the Hilltop to help the people there.

Gabriel then goes into a long spiel about trusting God and having faith and after Eugene tells him that it is ludicrous, Gabriel tries one last pitch. He tells Eugene that he will know when it is time to do the right thing.

After watching Dwight stop him from saving people and then seeing the truck crash into the building (and possibly believing it was Rick who did it), he realizes the right thing for him to do.

Eugene goes back to Father Gabriel and tells him that he will never help him. He said the doctor will stay there in case Eugene ever needs him. He also says that he only cares about his own survival and after what he just witnesses, he will never help Father Gabriel and is on Negan’s side.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan, Josh McDermitt as Dr. Eugene Porter – The Walking Dead _ Season 8, Episode 7 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Eugene and Negan

Negan did an amazing thing in this episode. He brought in Eugene and the two had a strong conversation that included Negan saying he needed Eugene to help save people. Negan said he won’t die but he doesn’t want his people to die either and needs Eugene to help him.

He even shakes Eugene’s hand. Sure, it sounds like Negan is just softening up Eugene to get him to work harder but he came across very genuine. When watching Tara and Daryl want to kill everyone, including saying they will betray and kill Dwight despite him helping them, Negan seems more and more like the level-headed good guy in this war.

It worked. By the end, and after Eugene sees the carnage left by his former “traveling companions,” he comes up with a plan and tells Negan that he can save everyone in the Sanctuary and make him even more bullets. As Negan says, Eugene is the second most important person in the Saviors now.

Pollyanna McIntosh as Jadis – The Walking Dead _ Season 8, Episode 7 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Rick Grimes and the Scavengers

More from Show Snob

• The Santa Clauses season 2, episode 6 recap “Wanga Banga Langa!”
• Lawmen: Bass Reeves season 1, episode 7 preview: Non-spoiler thoughts for Part VII
• Goosebumps season 1, episode 6 recap: “Night of the Living Dummy”
• Beacon 23 season 1, episode 3 recap: “Why Can’t We Go on as Three?”
• Upload season 3, episode 2 recap: “Strawberry”

It didn’t happen until the end, but Jadis had Rick bound and brought out. She decided it was time to kill him because he is so annoying. They bring out a spiked walker and then Rick becomes Rick, beats up three Scavengers while his hands are bound, takes control of the walker, RIPS its head off, takes down Jadis and then threatens to feed her to the still biting head of the walker.

It was a great moment but then Rick did what he has done the last two weeks. He tells the Scavengers that if they don’t join the war against Negan, his people will kill them all. Rick said they needed to fight with him or die – and compared to Negan in this episode, Rick comes off as the villain here.

Rick and the Scavengers head to the Sanctuary to wait for their backups to fight. However, the snipers are gone and Rick climbs to the top of one of the towers and sees the truck crashed through the building and realizes that Daryl just screwed up his carefully made plan.

Next: 25 Most Brutal Deaths on The Walking Dead

Advertising for next week’s midseason finale indicates that a huge shocking moment will happen and a lot of speculation indicates the midseason finale will include a shocking death. If that is caused by Daryl’s actions in this episode, it might splinter his relationship with Rick to no return.