Aaron and Enid try to convince Oceanside to help, Negan orders Simon to bring Jadis’ people in line, Rick and Michonne visit the Junkyard to warn her but get there too late.

Individually all three of this episode’s writers – Angela Kang, Channing Powell and Corey Reed – have turned in some of the show’s finest hours. This is not one of those episodes.

Let’s just rip the Band-Aid off. Rick’s a moron. There is a moment this episode where he sincerely asks Michonne what Carl meant by asking him to stop. It’s meant to be a moment that illustrates how closed off Rick is from the possibility of peace and it does. But it also shows the largest problem The Walking Dead always has: its leading man has two narrative arcs and they swap between them every single season.

Now in fairness, ‘Ricktator’ has been largely replaced by ‘Rick’s an idealist!’ to go alongside ‘Rick is a dead eyed doombringer’. But there’s no nuance for the character and that, this week, is just maddening, In show time, minutes ago, Rick promised his dying son that he’d make his dreams come true in his name.

This episode he reads the letter begging him to stop, calls Negan and tells him Carl wanted them to stop and… nah he’s good. He’s going to kill Negan anyway.

This is just nonsense. I’m sincerely mystified as to how three writers this good were able to break this character’s motivation this fast. It makes no sense and it’s massively frustrating and it is not alone.

Witness the broken time frame of the episode. There’s no reason for it beyond making viewers go ‘Oooo, what?’ a lot. The chapters for specific characters are a nice touch though.

Rick is not the only problem though. Yet more, tedious alpha male headbutting between Negan and Simon is the last thing I wanted to see but, here it is. Likewise, an intensely overlong scene where Simon does the one thing every Savior is seemingly trained in; give a vastly smug, overlong monologue and then kill people.

There is some good news. Ross Marquand and Katelyn Nacon get some excellent stuff this week and both blossom in the spotlight. Likewise Sydney Park as Cyndie, their contact and captor at Oceanside. All three are probably heading for the main cast of the show and, honestly, an episode following them would not be a bad thing at this point.

But the breakout star this week is Pollyanna McIntosh. Jadis, the leader of the Scavengers gets development and backstory this week! And she’s great! And we’d love to see more of her.

Know why we don’t? Because Rick, who earlier the same day cradled his dying son who begged him to find peace, leaves her to die.

Good Lord.

Verdict: This is one of those episodes The Walking Dead does every now and then that you can basically skip. There’s no major developments being the Junkyard being taken off the map and the low key character beats the show normally excels at almost all faceplant. Everyone does what they can but this is an absolute stinker. Better luck next week, everyone. 3/10

Alasdair Stuart