We see Simon and Negan confront the Croat about his brutality, even by Savior standards, in a flashback. In the present, Maggie and Negan lead an attack on Madison Square Garden but the Croat sees them coming…

This is an odd episode. From a pacing point of view it’s positively leisurely, with the prep for the plan and the plan itself both unfolding with foreboding rather than urgency. The slow pace is used surprisingly well, with director Kevin Dowling soaking MSG in sickly neon green and giving the vast space an eerie sense of calm. There’s also a smart piece of staging with the closing fight. While it takes place on the floor of the arena, it doesn’t take place in the actual octagon until they choose to step into it. Even here, as they’re all but wiped out, the Manhattan survivors refuse to play the Croat’s game. Also Maggie’s plan of using the turnbuckle pads as an improvised shield wall is flat out inspired.

The Croat himself is arguably the only person this entire episode who has a good time. Drawing the herd in with Croatian folk music played through the speakers gives the whole closing a jubilantly nightmarish feel and his reunion with Negan seethes with tension and feral joy. The Croat’s way is so, so easy and Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays Negan with exhausted, knife-edge resolve. The fact he doesn’t hesitate to save Perlie when the Croat tries to kill him tells him and us how far he’s come. The fact Perlie immediately arrests him tells us Negan will never be free of his past. A man eternally haunted by himself, a Banquo’s Ghost of terrible choices, whistling as it circles back yet again.

Verdict: Perhaps a deliberate episode rather than a slow one then, focusing in on the real human cost of the conflict and the choices people make to get through it. 7/10

Alasdair Stuart