The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 9 "Rock in the Road"

 If you're asked to be the hero. Be the hero.

Alexandria at night. Gabriel stands on guard duty by the entrance. He reads from the Bible. He walks down the deserted streets of Alexandria. He goes to the food pantry. A clatter of fallen cans can be heard. He puts several cans into a plastic bin then looks down at a notebook with a checklist and says, "Just checking." He grabs several weapons and places them in another plastic bin. He drops his Bible on the floor. He loads everything in a car and opens the gates. He drives away.

Gregory will not make a deal with Rick's group to attack the Saviors. He says they owe him for allowing Maggie and Sasha to stay. Rick says they already started it. This is no way to live. Maggie asks Gregory how many people they can spare. Gregory says his people are just farmers. Tara replies, "When people have the chance to do the right thing they usually step up." Rick gets Gregory to say they would be better off without the Saviors but he will not discuss this any further. Daryl gets upset and says, "You're either with us or you ain't." Gregory kicks them out. Rick says they don't need Gregory because they have Maggie, Sasha, and Jesus there. Enid interrupts them and tells them to look outside. A group of Hilltoppers wait outside. A woman, Bertie, says they are ready to fight the Saviors if Maggie will show them how. Jesus tells Rick he doesn't have to hurry back to Alexandria since he has one of the Saviors' long range walkies. So they can track them. Jesus tells them it is time for them to meet King Ezekiel.

A car drives up to some abandoned buildings. Jesus and Rick get out of the car. They have arrived to the outer edge of the Kingdom. Two knights come out. Richard recognizes Jesus. He wants to know who Rick and the gang are. Jesus introduces Rick and requests to see Ezekiel. Richard orders everyone out of the car. He wants to know why Jesus considers them a "like-minded" community. Jesus responds, "We live. We trade. We fight the dead. Sometimes others." Richard asks the gang to line up. Daryl wants to leave. Richard says they don't usually let a pack of strangers in. Michonne says they just want to make the world a safer place. Richard allows them to enter but takes their guns. Richard tells Jesus that nothing they will try to start here today will matter if they don't deal with the Saviors. Jesus says he has never seen Richard smile and that is going to change today. Michonne mentions that Kingdom has the numbers. Rosita wonders if they can they fight. Jesus says then can fight. Tara sees Morgan. They hug. Richard wants to know how Morgan and the gang know each other. Rick replies, "We go back to the start." Rick asks Morgan if he found Carol. He says yes. She was here but she left. He found her injured, took her to Kingdom, and let her go. He mentions how he killed the Savior that hurt Carol. Carol was here but now she is gone. He doesn't tell them where she went.

Ezekiel wants to know if Jesus brought him allies. As he goes to introduce Rick he realizes he forgot to mention Shiva. Rick tells Ezekiel that all three of their communities all serve the Saviors. Alexandria fought them once and won, but they only beat one outpost. Ezekiel gets mad that Jesus told Alexandria about their deal with the Saviors. Even his own people don't know about it. Jesus only told Rick because he wants Ezekiel to listen to Rick's plan. Rick came to ask them to join the fight. Freedom for everyone from the Saviors. Michonne mentions that the Saviors killed several people. Morgan asks who was killed. Rosita tells him. Jesus says, "So lets change the world, your majesty." Rick tells Ezekiel they don't have a lot of weapons. Richard says they have people and weapons. He doesn't want to wait any longer. If they attack first they will win. "The time is now." Ezekiel asks Morgan for his opinion. Morgan says a lot of people will die. They have to find another way. Rick tells Ezekiel a story his mother used to tell him as a child. There was a road to a kingdom with a rock in the road. The rock stopped people from getting there safely. A girl started digging around the rock to pull it out after losing all her family had left. When she pulled the rock out inside was a bag of gold. The king put the rock on the road because he knew whoever dug it up would deserve a reward. Ezekiel invites them to stay the night. He will give them his answer in the morning.

Benjamin walks through the woods alone. He sees someone approach and raises his gun. It is Carol. He puts his gun down when he realizes it's her. She tells him to put the safety back on. She tells him it will be dark soon and he needs to go home. He tells her that Ezekiel will keep looking after her because he cares about her. He offers her food and water. He carries extra to give to anyone he meets. She asks him why. He responds, "There's not a lot of us left. Have to help each other." She tells him how to walk quietly through the woods.

Ezekiel tells Benjamin's brother Martin Luther King, Jr. "I have a dream" speech as a bed time story.  Ezekiel asks Benjamin where he was. Benjamin tells him he went alone for a walk in the woods and killed two walkers on the way back. He also mentions that he saw Carol. Ezekiel wants to know how she is. Benjamin tells him he told Carol why he carries extra food and water to help others in need. That is the reason they should help Rick. Like his dad used to say, "If you're asked to be the hero. Be the hero." Ezekiel says he is very proud of Benjamin.

The next morning Ezekiel shows the gang around Kingdom. Several kids are being taught how to shoot bows and arrows. Some of them are missing limbs. Ezekiel tells Rick and the gang how he wanted to create more places like Kingdom. He lost many people fighting zombies to expand. Rick tells him there are good people out there but many don't have anything like Kingdom. Ezekiel has to try to hold onto the peace he has with the Saviors. He offers Daryl asylum in Kingdom since the Saviors don't enter it. Daryl asks how long he thinks that is going to last. The group heads out of Kingdom. Sasha tells Rosita she knew Ezekiel would say no. Rosita says she is not friends with Sasha just because they both slept with Abraham. Richard volunteers to go with Rick. He mentions every day they give something to the Saviors they make them stronger and harder to beat. Rick tells Daryl he has to stay. It is the safest place for him. He asks Daryl to try to talk to Ezekiel or stare him into submission (ha, love that).

Negan is heard over the walkie giving a sort of eulogy to Fat Joey. Rick drives up to a barricade of cars. Jesus points out it has to be the Saviors. Carl mentions that the Savior compound is nearby. Rick has the group move the cars. They will move them back later. Michonne looks through her binoculars and tells Rick to look. There are several explosives on a steel cable meant to stop a herd of zombies. Rosita tries to disarm the main switch. They hear over the walkie that Daryl is missing and they are sending out a search party. Rosita pulls out the trigger and the group goes to carefully remove the explosives before beating the Saviors to Alexandria. Carl points out to Rick that a herd is on its way. Rick tells everyone to put the cars back so they can stop the herd. Rosita, Carl, and Tara start to move the cars back while the rest of them keep removing explosives. As the herd gets closer he asks Jesus and Sasha to go back to Hilltop on foot. They run off. Michonne notices the herd is really close. She gets into one of the cars and Rick gets in another. Tara, Carl, and Rosita barely make it into their car before they are surrounded. Rick and Michonne have hot wired their cars and use the cable connecting them to knock down the herd as they drive. They kill about half of the herd. Michonne gets out of her car and runs towards the group's SUV. Rick fights off zombies as he makes his way to the car. They both make it in. As Rick looks out of the rear window an explosion goes off. Michonne tells Rick, "We're here. You can smile. We made it. We can make it. We can. We're the ones that live."

Rick and the gang make it back home safely. The Saviors pull up to the gate. Simon says they are not here for a tribute. They are here for Daryl. Simon says that Daryl went missing after Carl showed up at Sanctuary. He tells each Savior to go with an Alexandrian while they search for Daryl. The Saviors trash Alexandria. The food pantry is empty. Rick looks surprised. Aaron explains to the Saviors that they have been spending so much time looking for things for Negan they haven't had time to scavenge for food. The Saviors are not here for a pick up. Simon apologizes for leaving the place a mess. He tells Rick if Daryl shows up there is no statute of limitations on Daryl's escape. He alludes to Rick having to cut Daryl's arm off with his hatchet. Rick wants to know what happened to the pantry. No one knows but Gabriel is missing. Rick says Gabriel wouldn't do that to them.

Rick picks up a Bible from the floor. Tara doesn't believe that Gabriel would do this. Rick wonders why Gabriel left his Bible on the floor. Rick looks through Gabriel's notebook. In it is written "boat." Aaron wants to know how Gabriel knew about it. Rick doesn't know. Eric wants to know if the others are going out to fight the Saviors again. He asks Aaron not to go. Aaron says that he has to go because Gabriel is one of them. "If Rick is taking on the Saviors that is everything. I want us alive. Both of us." Rick and the others make their way to the boathouse. Rick finds footprints on the ground. They follow them to some abandoned buildings. They hear a noise and find themselves surrounded by a large group of armed people in black hoodies. Rick smiles.

Final Thoughts

- Great Gregory lines from this episode from this episode: "What are you going to do? Start a platoon of sorghum fighters?" I also liked the fact that they mentioned sorghum once again on the show. "Let me stop you before you break out into song."
- I like how it sounds like Rick is saying "Kang" when he says King.
- How does everyone forget to mention that Ezekiel has a tiger?
- Jerry's commentary was a much appreciated note of levity in this episode.
- I think it's a good thing that Ezekiel takes his time to think about their proposition but he will eventually lose out to the Saviors. One day they will step into the Kingdom and kill someone.
- I wish Morgan wasn't so quick to say they needed to find another solution to the Savior problem. I think if he had been there when Glenn and Abraham were killed he would be of a different opinion. He is stubbornly holding on to this ideal of a non-violent solution in a violent, death-filled world.
- I am not sure why Gabriel took their food and weapons. Is he in league with someone? If so, who? I don't think he did it with a malicious intent. How does he know about the boat?
- Did Gabriel leave his Bible behind as a message for Rick? Could there be a message written in the Bible? Or specific passages of scripture that leave a clue about his intentions?
- Rick smiles at the end of the episode because he has found a group of well-armed fighters to join his fight against the Saviors.
- How long before Tara mentions the heavily armed Amazon community?
- It appears that the group that surrounds our gang at the end of the episode is where the booted figure that was following Rick belongs to.
- I like Benjamin. Lets hope he survives the season.