‘The Walking Dead’ Season 8, Episode 3 Recap: More Waiting For “All Out War”

The Walking Dead season 8 is getting dangerously close to scaring all its fans away, and not because of the walkers – because it’s become repetitive and boring.

THE WALKING DEAD RECAP

Each episode this season has began and ended with a rousing speech to motivate the troops, but they are all essentially the same. The theme of “all out war” that was promised to fans is certainly at a slow start, and this war is less explosions and excitement than speeches and sneaky moves. The season is also stuck on the idea of morality having a gray area, an idea that has been intertwined throughout the entire series and seems to have run dry.

We start again with Ezekiel giving a motivational speech. He and the troops wander into the woods where a group of Saviors is waiting to ambush them, but Carol and her squad pop out at the last second and gun down the bad guys.

Then we return to Rick, who has just run into Morales from season 1. Rick has his gun drawn on Morales, a past enemy. “We’re not the same guys we used to be,” Morales tells Rick. “You’re a monster.” Morales tries to explain that the pair were cut from the same cloth, and says if Rick had no one there when he lost Laurie, he would have become a Savior too. He talks up Negan and Rick can’t say anything to change his mind. So Daryl comes out of nowhere and shoots an arrow through Morales’ neck, killing him.

Elsewhere, Jesus is walking a group of captured Saviors back to the Hilltop as prisoners, and hopes that Maggie will side with him and not kill them. But the logistics of the situation call for them to be killed. On of them, Jared, goads Morgan on the walk back, and Morgan wants to kill him but Jesus won’t allow it. Even worse is the fact that Jared wears the armor of Benjamin, Ezekiel’s former protégé that Jared killed.

When a group of walkers ascend on the group, Jared and his fellow people who are tied up attempt to escape. Morgan chases them and kills on, but when he turns the gun on Jared, Jesus knocks it away. Morgan and Jesus fight and Jesus is able to fend him off. Morgan admits he’s “not right,” and declares he can no longer be a part of this mission, and walks off into the woods.

Back at the Hilltop, Gregory finds his way to the gate, but no one will let him in. Maggie confronts him about trying to sell them out to the Saviors, but she allows him to enter after he pleads. She tells Enid that he is “not worth killing,” something which many would disagree with. Then Jesus arrives with his hostages, and Maggie does not side with him as he expected. She knows she can’t allow them entry because there are families staying there for safety. But Jesus won’t let them be killed. So now, unable to free them or kill them, Maggie and the Hilltop will have to figure out what to do with their new prisoners.

Aaron and Eric, out on their own fighting Savior camps, have a casualty. Eric is hit by a bullet and Aaron wants to stay and care for him, but Eric forces him to continue fighting. He reluctantly does, and when he returns, Eric is dead and turned. Meanwhile, Rick and Daryl have to fight through the outpost after the Saviors that Morales signaled for returned. The guns they were searching for aren’t there, and Rick grabs the baby Gracie, whom Aaron volunteers to take back to the Hilltop.

As Rick and Daryl prepare to leave, gunshots are fired in their direction. They take cover and Rick convinces a young boy they had seen bullied by the Saviors to come out from behind a tree. Rick promises to not kill him if he gives them information about the guns. The boy agrees and tells them that all the guns were moved to Gavin’s outpost the day before. Daryl promptly shoots the boy in the head, and Rick looks angry and disgusted, just as he did when Daryl killed Morales. But there is no time to linger, and they head off to the next outpost.

The final scene brings us back to Ezekiel and Carol, who are celebrating the fact that no one died in their raid, which can only mean one thing – bloodshed. A lone gunman moves from behind a building vent and rains bullets over Ezekiel’s troops. The episode ends with the Kingdom soldiers throwing themselves atop Ezekiel to protect him.