Walking Dead spoilers: Tonight’s episode sets up a new Big Bad
By Shawn Lealos
Tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead will feature the continued battles in the All-Out War, but a new big bad guy might be stepping up.
The following article contains spoilers for tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead, so don’t read on unless you have already seen the episode or don’t mind being spoiled by the events occurring on it.
Tonight, the episode is titled “The Key,” and as we previously discussed, that title is in reference to newcomers to the show — not villains but new characters that could set up a storyline from the comic books. However, that is not the most prominent part of tonight’s episode.
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With only five episodes left in The Walking Dead season 8, expect the All-Out War to really heat up over the next few weeks, as it is expected to end this season. With that said, tonight’s episode contains two significant moments that will escalate the war in the coming weeks.
The first moment takes place when Negan and the Saviors taint their weapons and head out for war at the Hilltop. Rick, still in possession of the Saviors walkie-talkie, heads them off and causes Negan to crash his vehicle.
The two then have an epic battle. The two have possibly the biggest fight of Negan’s life so far, and it ends with a Walker almost eating Negan, Lucille almost getting destroyed, but the leader of the Saviors escaping to fight another day.
Dwight almost died in the last episode when Tara betrayed him after he helped the people of Alexandria escape Negan’s attacks. Dwight ran back and ended up with Simon and the Saviors once again. Simon is where the problems lie.
Simon already disobeyed Negan when he slaughtered the Scavengers, despite Negan telling him that they were assets to the Saviors. In this episode, Simon and Dwight find Negan’s vehicle and the blood and Simon decides that Negan is dead and he is the new leader.
While everyone knows that Negan is bad — he kills someone in every group he meets — he is also someone who does not kill without necessary provocation in other cases. Negan does, in his mind, save people. Simon, on the other hand, just wants to kill everyone who crosses him.
With Negan out of commission, for now, Simon has decided that he wants to ignore Negan’s commands and just slaughter everyone at the Hilltop — taking out another asset that Negan used to keep his people alive.
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Negan is a bad man. Simon is pure evil. This might be where Rick Grimes, and the people of Alexandria and The Hilltop learn that there are worse things out there than Negan.
The Walking Dead airs on Sunday night at 9 p.m. EST on AMC.