‘The Walking Dead’ Recap: ‘I’m Not in Charge Anymore, Negan Is’

Warning: This recap for the “Service” episode of The Walking Dead contains spoilers.

Negan brought his villainy to Alexandria in the special 90-minute “Service,” which gave us our first glimpse at Rick Grimes’s group since the brutal events of the Season 7 premiere. Unsurprisingly, Negan took the visit as another chance to taunt Rick and his people, threaten more death and destruction, torment Daryl with a heartbreaking reunion, and, in general, attempt to further break the Alexandrians down.

But he wasn’t the only villain in town … literally. Hapless Spencer proved himself to be not as harmless as he might have seemed but infinitely more selfish. Rosita hinted that she might become the heroine her friends need (especially with Carol MIA), and Rick dropped a truth bomb about Judith that answered a question viewers had been wondering about for seasons. Here’s how it all unfolded:

They’re Heeeeeeere
Rick and Michonne are still together, as she wakes up in their bed before him, slips downstairs with her katana, and retrieves a hidden rifle from the fireplace in their house. She thinks she’s stealthily leaving, but Rick has quietly come downstairs and watches her go. Michonne heads off to a giant field, where she climbs on top of a rusted-out truck and waits. When she spots a walker coming out of the woods, she takes aim and shoots at it several times. She misses it every time, and eventually slices its head in half — vertically — and goes off into the woods, where she finds she did hit a deer during her target practice.

Meanwhile, back inside Alexandria, Rick is getting Judith out of her crib and starting her day, while Eugene is sitting at a makeshift desk near the front gate. Rosita and Spencer pull up in a car and ask him to open the gate, so they can go off on a mission to find some supplies to give Negan when he comes knocking. Spencer invites Eugene along. “I don’t believe I’d be up to that,” Eugene tells him. “Yep, that sounds about right,” Rosita says, but Eugene tells her he’s trying to repair a portable audio system to give the Saviors. “I’m dealing in certainties, and I’m doing my part to give them what they want,” he defends himself.

It’s about to become a moot point, though, because the sound of several vehicles arriving at the gate interrupts their conversation. The outline of Negan, carrying Lucille, appears, as he whistles and gets to the gate humming Beethoven’s ”Symphony No. 5.” He knocks on the gate with Lucille.

“Little pig, little pig… Let. Me. In,” he yells, announcing his arrival earlier than he had warned them he would be there.

Spencer opens the gate and asks who he is. “Oh, you better be joking,” he says. “I know I had to make a pretty strong first impression.”

Rick arrives at the gate just then, shooting invisible rays of hate at Negan, as he points out that he’s come early.

“I missed ya,” Negan says, before whomping a walker with Lucille. “Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.”

But he hasn’t forgotten that Spencer dared to question who he is. “Do I get mad, do I throw a fit, do I bash some ginger’s head in? Nope, I just take care of one of these pricks that could have killed one of y’all,” he says, taking a little bow for himself. “Service!”

As Negan’s people begin to stroll in through the gate, Daryl, still wearing his gray sweatsuit with the giant “A,” is among them. He’s silent, shaking, and looking toward the ground, but he and Rick make eye contact. Negan hands Lucille to Rick and makes him hold the weapon that took out Glenn and Abe. He remarks about the “embarrassment of riches” at Alexandria, as Rick tries to talk to Daryl.

Negan stops him short, telling him Daryl is the “help.”

“You don’t look at him, you don’t talk to him, and I don’t make you chop anything off of him,” he warns Rick. “Same goes for everyone, riiiight?” he adds, getting right in Rosita’s face. She stares straight ahead, but then meets his eyes, turns, and walks away.

Negan says it’s time to see what goodies they have in the cupboards, and Rick reminds him he said he’d take just half their supplies. Negan starts to make clear that his early arrival is just the beginning of the surprises in store for Rick and friends. He decides what he takes, he says, and by the end of the sneak visit, Rick and his friends will be even further shaken by Negan’s demands, and the realization that even though Negan insists he operates by a set of rules, those rules can, and will, change at any time.

Father Gabriel (?!) to the Rescue
As Dwight focuses his attention on Rosita, taking all her guns from her car — he even swipes her hat, which might be a flirtation, Dwight’s equivalent of a second grader pulling a girl’s hair at recess — and ordering her to go retrieve Daryl’s other motorcycle, the rest of the Saviors invade the townsfolk’s houses, taking their furniture and loading it into trucks.

Negan, with his trademark fluctuation between moments of bravado and menacing threats, is thrilled that he can take some of the group’s comforts away. “This is the kind of thing that just tickles my balls … a little cooperation, everything is pleasant as punch,” he says. “See, we really are reasonable people once you get to know us, honest.”

One of his men brings him a video camera. “I got my fingers crossed for a little freaky-deaky,” Negan says, but instead he sees footage of Rick being interviewed by Deanna.

“Is that you, Rick, underneath all that man bush? S—! I would not have messed with that guy. But that’s not you anymore, is it?”

Negan’s attention quickly shifts to Maggie, or “that sick girl,” as he puts it. He wants to know where she is. “That seemed like a helluva stressful night for her, the way she was carrying on… She was married to number two, right?” he asks, now having reduced Abraham and Glenn to “a ginger” and “number two.” Rick’s invisible hate laser rays are at their strongest and they’re aimed right at Negan. “Careful … careful of how you’re looking at me, Rick. Widows, especially ones that look like that … they’re special. I love ’em. Right after their husbands go, they are just empty inside… But usually not for long,” he says in a singsongy voice. “Where is she? I would love to see her.”

Suddenly, Father Gabriel appears out of nowhere. “Holy crap! You are creepy as s—, sneaking up on me, wearing that collar with that freaky-ass smile,” Negan says. Gabriel apologizes, and then takes Negan, Rick, and Daryl to the town graveyard. He sees a freshly dug grave — thanks to Gabriel’s quick thinking — and assumes it’s Maggie.

“This must really suck for you guys,” Negan says. “Number one was on me, no choice there. The lesson had to be learned. But number two… That didn’t need to happen. Daryl there, he forced my hand … probably put her right on her back, huh? Damn! I was gonna ask her to come back with me.”

Negan bloviates on, until he’s interrupted by the sound of a gunshot. He and Rick take off toward the noise.

“Put some back, or the next one goes in you,” Carl, aiming a gun at two of the Saviors in the infirmary, is saying. Rick runs in, looks terrified at the sight, and tells Carl to put the gun down.

Negan comes in and is ticked off, but also amused.

“You should go, before you find out how dangerous we all are,” Carl says.

Negan: “Well, pardon me, young man, excuse the s— out of my goddamn French, but did you just threaten me? I get threatening Davey here, but I can’t have it. Not him, not me.”

Rick, looking more frightened, tries again to get Carl to give him the gun.

“Don’t be rude, Rick. We are havin’ a conversation here,” Negan continues. “Now boy, where were we? Oh, yeah, your giant, man-sized balls. No threatening us. Listen, I like you, so I don’t wanna go hard proving a point here… you don’t want that. I said half your s—, and half is what I say it is. I’m serious. Do you want me to prove how serious? Again?”

Rick is trembling with fear now, and Carl finally gives the gun to his dad. Negan immediately takes it from him and tells Rick he bets there’s an “assload of guns” to be found, between the ones Rick had and the ones his group took when they attacked the Saviors’ compound.

“As this little emotional outburst has made crystal clear, I can’t allow that,” Negan says.

Pantry Problems
Rick, Negan, and a group of Saviors head to the pantry, where Olivia also keeps track of the guns. Negan sends his people off with Olivia to take the weapons, and tells Rick (who’s still being made to carry Lucille around) that he wants to point out he’s not going to take anything from their dwindling food supply, this time. “And I can’t be the only one who noticed you got a fat lady in charge of keeping track of rations, can I?” he asks. “Either way, you starve to death, I don’t get s—, so for now, you get to keep all the food.” He expects Rick to say, “Thank you.” Rick does not.

They go outside and watch the Saviors — and Daryl — carry armloads of guns into the vans. Negan spots one Rick’s group took from the Saviors’ compound and decides to test it to make sure Rick has taken care of it. He aims it right at Daryl, but then turns and shoots through a window.

Another Savior comes out carrying a bazooka. “It was you guys who took out little Timmy and the d— brigade?” Negan asks, referring to that instant classic scene from “No Way Out,” in which Daryl saved Sasha and Abraham with Abe’s RPG launcher and character actor Christopher Berry nearly stole the whole episode in just six minutes.

But Negan’s joy is interrupted when his associate Arat comes out of the pantry, pulling Olivia by the arm. Arat tells the boss that according to Olivia’s inventory checklist, two handguns are missing. Rick’s face has a panicked look, and he tells Negan they’ve had some people leave town recently, and maybe they took the guns.

But Negan’s not trying to hear that. “So Olivia sucks at her job?” he asks. “Is that what you’re saying?” Rick says no, but Negan continues. “I thought we had an understanding, but this shows that someone’s not onboard, and I can’t have that… I don’t enjoy killing women,” he tells Olivia. “Men, I can waste all the live long, but at the end of the day, Olivia, my dear, this was your responsibility.”

“We can work this out,” Rick pleads.

“Oh, yes, we can, and I’m going to, right now! This was your job, and you screwed up,” Negan tells a crying Olivia. “Keeping track of guns? That s— is life and death!”

Rick gathers the rest of the Alexandrians in the church and tells them whoever has the guns has to turn them over, or Negan will kill Olivia. They balk, but he tells them there’s no way out but to turn over the guns. These people finally got to the point where they trusted in Rick’s leadership, but now he has to tell them, “Let me put this to you all as clearly as I can: I’m not in charge anymore. Negan is.” He asks again who took the guns, and when no one ’fesses up, Eugene looks around and points out that not everyone in town is present.

Spencer and Rosita.

Rick, Aaron, and Father Gabriel search Spencer and Rosita’s homes, tearing them apart, flipping furniture (what the Saviors haven’t stolen), wiping books off shelves, to search for the guns that are the only way to save Olivia from Lucille. They find nothing, and Rick doesn’t think there’s any way this is going to work out well.

“Yes, there is, somehow,” Gabriel tells him. “I have faith in us. I have faith in you. Things change. You’re my friend. It wasn’t always that way.”

Aaron reports Rosita’s house is clear, and Rick points out Spencer has done this sort of thing before. He tells Gabriel maybe this day will work out and walks around the living room, thinking about where the guns could be hidden. He steps on a register on the floor, and when it shifts under his foot, he takes the cover off. Reaching into the hole, he pulls out cans of food and a bottle of liquor Spencer had stolen, from his friends. Rick reaches into the opening again and comes up with a bag, which, of course, contains both the missing guns.

“Funny how a little, ‘Holy s—, somebody’s gonna die!’ lights a fire under everybody’s ass,” Negan says when Rick presents him with the found weapons. “Tell me, Rick, which one of your fine folks almost cost Olivia the rest of her days?”

Rick says it doesn’t matter, and doesn’t name names. Negan says it does matter: “See, you need to get everybody onboard. Everybody. Or we just go right back to square one.”

Deer, Michonne
Just as the Saviors are about to leave, Rosita and Spencer return, with Daryl’s bike. It was just where they had left it, near the railroad tracks where Dwight killed Denise, Eugene chomped down on Dwight’s junk, and Daryl, Rosita, and Abe fought and killed many Saviors. Clever Rosita, assuming Negan was going to take all the town’s guns, had risked her life at the site to get another gun. She knew the Saviors they’d killed there would be walker-fied by now, so she tracked a few, killed them, and took a weapon one of them was still carrying. She didn’t hand her new prize over to Dwight when he took Daryl’s bike.

It’s also here that Rick spots a returning Michonne, in a shack just outside the Alexandria gate. He asks Negan to give him a minute, and he goes to her. He tells her he knows what she’s been doing every morning: going out for target practice. He also tells her he needs her to let him give her rifle to Negan. “If you keep it, and they find it, someone dies… I’m not losing you, Carl, or anyone else,” he tells her. “I’m not losing anyone else!”

She reluctantly gives in, and walks back into town carrying the dead deer across her shoulders. Rick gives Negan the rifle.

“Look at this! This is something to build a relationship on,” Negan says. “I said it before, and I’m gonna say it again: You, sir, are special.”

Rick takes the opportunity to ask if Daryl can stay. Negan says no, but then looks at Daryl, and says maybe he can sway him. Daryl just hangs his head, looking downward.

“Well, you tried,” Negan says. “Now what you gotta do is get over that tall wall of yours and earn for me.” The Saviors will be back soon, he says. “If you don’t have something interesting for us, somebody’s gonna die. And no more magic guns.”

Negan tells one of his people to grab the deer, which Michonne dumps onto the ground, and walks away. “I love a gal who buys me dinner and doesn’t expect me to put out,” Negan tells Rick.

Dwight gives Rosita her hat back and rides Daryl’s bike up to Daryl. He tells Daryl he can have the bike back. “Just say the word,” he tells him, but Daryl continues to stare at the ground.

Negan points out that no one died, and that he thinks they have refined their understanding. He asks Rick if he wants him to leave, and Rick says he thinks it would be best.

“Then just say those two magical words,” Negan says.

“Thank you,” Rick musters, after much swallowing of pride.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Negan laughs, “thank you!”

He kills another walker using a candlestick from one of the homes, and tells his men to move out. He goes to Rick, who’s been holding on to Lucille, and asks for her back. After all, Negan reminds him, why would Rick want her after what she did?

And he whispers this, into Rick’s ear: “In case you haven’t caught on, I just slid my d— down your throat, and you thanked me for it.”

The trucks and vans roll out of town, and as Rick watches them go, he locks eyes with sad Daryl one more time, and the camera pans in on the sign that hangs on the Alexandria gate, offering a tiny bit of something to look forward to: “Mercy for the lost… Vengeance for the plunderers.”

Rick closes the gate on the Saviors, for now, and confronts the other local villain. He tells Spencer they found the guns in his house. He tells him they had to search his home, because Olivia would have been killed without them.

Spencer’s only reaction is to be offended that Rick went into his house.

Rick tells him he understands taking weapons. But not hoarding food from his own people.

“You’re small, you’re weak,” Rick tells him. “You got lucky with the walls. You got lucky with us.”

“Oh, yeah, we’re so lucky! You led us all to the promised land,” Spencer says. “Isn’t that right, Rick? Here we are. I guess Glenn and Abraham were lucky, too?”

Rick stops in his tracks but doesn’t turn around, as he tells Spencer, “You say anything like that again to me, I’ll break your jaw, knock your teeth out. You understand? Say yes.”

“Yes,” Spencer says. And after Rick walks away, it’s Rosita’s turn. She yells at Spencer for watching her risk her life with the Savior walkers to get just one gun, knowing he had two stashed away at home. He says he’s had them for a while, because he doesn’t trust Rick.

Rosita tucks her Savior walker gun in her waistband, and later finds the empty bullet casing from where Negan shot out one of the pantry building’s windows. She picks it up and walks over to knock on Eugene’s door. When he answers, she tells him, “Make me a bullet.” Bullet, not bullets… Might that bullet be meant for the cowardly cohort with whom she recently shared a bed?

Lil’ Asskicker
In the Richonne household, Rick is spreading out a pile of blankets, trying to form a cushy sleep spot to replace the mattress the Saviors took from the bedroom. Michonne comes in, angry, to talk about why they gave the rifle away. Negan didn’t know about it, so they didn’t have to give it up. She says she could have hidden more, but tells Rick she didn’t. She reminds him they have fought for everything they have, but he tells her they’re outnumbered. Even if the Hilltop citizens partnered with them, the Saviors still have the numbers, he says.

“We play by their rules, and we get some kind of life,” Rick tells her.

“What kind of a life?” Michonne asks.

Rick tells her about Shane, how he got Lori and Carl to safety when everything started, because Rick couldn’t, was in a hospital, unaware of what was happening.

“Him and Lori … they were together,” Rick says. “They thought I was dead. I know Judith isn’t mine. I know it. I love her, she’s my daughter, but she isn’t mine. I had to accept that. I did … so I could keep her alive. I’ll die before she dies, and I hope that’s a long time from now, so I can raise her and protect her and teach her how to survive… This is how we live, now. I had to accept that, too, so I could keep everyone else alive.”

“It’s not your fault people die,” she says.

“Not always, but sometimes, sometimes it is,” Rick says. “You have to accept this. All of us do, or it won’t work.”

Michonne helps him make their bed, and she tells him, “I’m gonna try.”

The next day, Michonne is back out in her practice field, sans gun, when she spots something. She takes off toward it, and along the road, she sees a big pile of smoking material. She gets closer, and tears run down her cheek. It’s the mattresses the Saviors took. They didn’t take them to use themselves. They just didn’t want the Alexandrians to have them, and they want the Alexandrians to know that.

Zombie Bites:

— Daryl not only was tormented with seeing his loved ones and not being able to talk to or stay with them, but he now thinks he’s responsible for Glenn’s death, and the death of Maggie and unborn baby Gleggy. Just in case, you know, you weren’t sufficiently crushed by our Daryl’s current state of being.

— Rick is, understandably, worried about what Negan would do if he found out Rick’s group had hidden weapons. But how is Negan going to react if he finds out they lied to him about Maggie being dead? And that’s not unlikely, since we know the Saviors terrorize the Hilltop, too.

— Creepy (OK, extra creepy) Savior Davey raised Carl’s dander when he taunted Enid, holding onto something of Enid’s and making her say please several times before he’d give it back. The possession she so desperately wanted back: a handful of green balloons, like the ones she and Glenn used in “Heads Up.”

— Possible spoiler: in the comics, it’s during this visit to Alexandria that Carl sneaks back to the Saviors’ compound, hidden on one of the Saviors’ vehicles. Anyone think he might have been on one of those trucks when Negan and company pulled away from the gates?

O.K., Dead-heads, let’s hear your reactions to “Service”: Was this the very last time and circumstance when you expected to hear Rick talk about Judith and Shane? Who are you hatin’ on more right now: Negan or Spencer? Do you think Rick is really caving to Negan as a long-term survival plan, or is this just part of a big-picture scheme, until he sees an opportunity to get back at Negan? Do you think Michonne will start to lose faith in Rick if he doesn’t fight back against Negan soon? Who does Rosita plan to use that bullet on? And how much is your Daryl Dixon-loving heart hurting for the man in the gray sweatsuit right now?

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.

While you’re waiting for this week’s character power rankings, revisit last episode’s: