SPOILERS

With food supplies dwindling, Maggie leads a team back to her settlement to oust the Reapers who killer her people and take back the resources. Meanwhile in the Commonwealth, Eugene, Ezekiel, Yumiko and Princess make some very surprising discoveries.

This is the last ever season opener the show will have and it swings, silently, for the fences. The opening scene is shot unlike anything we’ve seen before on the show; nervous and edgy and soaked with adrenalin-laced grace as Daryl, Carol and the others risk everything to raid a military base for food. It’s a great scene, shot through with inventive action and establishes the stakes for the first run of episodes. It’s bad news too: Alexandria is still a disaster and with no food, there’s precious little ability to repair it. And, of course, the weather is closing in.

Maggie’s plan isn’t good, but it’s the only one they have and the episode sensibly parks with this edgy, nervy group for most of its run time. Making their way through the subway tunnels towards her old settlement, it soon becomes clear that she’s not planning on letting Negan come back and no one but Negan has a real issue with that.

This plot is currently an excuse for Lauren Cohan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Norman Reedus to act like it’s going out of style and they do. Cohan’s Maggie is desolate and hollowed out and knows it and the episode’s best scene sees Negan confront her, accuse her and Maggie admit she’s planning on killing him. He beat her husband to death in front of her, why would she lie? The horrific thing is that she knows it won’t bring Glen back, she can see the good Negan’s done and it just doesn’t matter enough. That leads to the tropey closing, with Maggie apparently left to die by Darkest Timeline Daddy Winchester, actually landing far harder than it should. Cohan works with darkness beautifully and Morgan works with panic even better and this plot is just getting started.

Meanwhile over in the B plot we get lovely character beats galore. There’s some good Eugene stuff and some even more fun Ezekiel stuff as he figures out who the boss really is and has a brief conversation with Michael James Shaw’s Mercer that sets up a confrontation further down the line. We even get a ‘steal the armour and run!’ plot which is always a good time.

But the episode’s best moments land with Princess and Yumiko. Princess because she pays attention and sees the personalities behind the armour and Yumiko because as the episode ends, Princess notices a photo of Yumiko on the wall of the lost. She has family here. She has to stay. Another cliffhanger and one which lands just as hard as Maggie’s apparent death and promises much more to come.

Verdict: Clever, driven, bleak and assured this is the show at its best and surprisingly accessible for new viewers. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart