'The Walking Dead' Recap: 'Not Tomorrow Yet'
— -- (SPOILERS AHEAD)
Sunday night's episode of "The Walking Dead" begins with Carol handing out her famous cookies to her neighbors in Alexandria, including Tobin; the chemistry has apparently grown between the pair.
Brimming with supplies, Rick and the gang return from last week's visit to the Hilltop compound, and he briefly informs Carol of the deal they made with Gregory's folks by telling her to gather the townspeople. "We need to fight," he says plainly.
Meanwhile, Morgan sidles up to her, and we learn not only haven't they spoken in the weeks since the incident, but that neither Carol nor anyone else in that basement revealed that Morgan let the Wolf live. She tells him to get over it.
At the church, Rick tells the townsfolk of his deal to kill Negan's Saviors for the Hilltop folks in exchange for supplies. "It's how we feed this place. It's how we keep this place."
Rick assures the townsfolk of victory, while Morgan, no surprise, urges diplomacy; a chance to warn the Saviors instead of wiping them out. The townsfolk disagree. "We know what this is. We kill them all," Rick says.
Later, Carol can't sleep. She takes pen to paper to run how many townsfolk will be there to fight, before leaving her room for a late-night smoke. Along the way, she runs into Tobin, who also can't sleep. He admits he can't see how she can do the, "hard stuff, the scary stuff" of their new world. Especially considering to most else in Alexandria, she's a mother. "You're something else to me," he says and they kiss.
Meanwhile, Abraham abruptly walks out on a tearful Sarita, leaving Eugene to contemplate what a challenge Carol's cookies are. Heartbroken, Sarita slams the door in his face.
Rick quizzes Hilltop Andy about the layout of Negan's compound, and they formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Dr. Denise urges Tara to go with her on a supply run and not the raid, but she disagrees. Tara can't bring herself to admit she nearly got Tara killed by letting Morgan let the Wolf live, so instead she blurts out, "I love you." They kiss and part ways.
Rick and the gang hatch a plan to get Negan's Saviors to open their gates for them by giving them what they want, Gregory's head. To that effect, they look for a walker whose noggin could pass for that of the Hilltop leader.
The next day, Rick and the gang roll out and fan out with a plan to take the compound in teams.
Glenn and Heath kill some walkers with the intention of using one of their heads to "play" Gregory's. They both admit they're nervous about killing living people, which the raid will most certainly demand.
Carol takes issue with Maggie coming along; she tells Rick she wants to hang back to protect the mom-to-be.
Rick reluctantly agrees, then uses his fists to remodel the nose of one walker's faces to match Gregory's better. "The Saviors are scary," Andy from Hilltop tells him. "But those pricks got nothing on you."
Andy rolls up to the Savior's compound and the guards take their time before approving the Gregory melon double, promising to return to retrieve their captured friend. Daryl strikes first, killing a guard and Michonne follows, killing the other guard when he returns with their Hilltop hostage as promised.
The rest fan out quietly into the compound, dispatching people silently as they go. Glenn hesitates, but kills two men in the same way he'd kill a walker: with a knife into the eye socket -- but killing the living is clearly different.
In one of the backup vehicles outside, Tara gets confession of sorts about not telling Denise the truth from Fr. Gabriel, and from Jesus himself.
Inside the base, Abraham and Tasha are surprised by one Savior on a bathroom break and they stab him to death -- but not before he trips an alarm.
Outside the gates, Carol urges Maggie not to join the fray.
With the alarm tripped, stealth no longer necessary, and multiple gunfights are playing out in room-to-room battles. Outside, even Fr. Gabriel kills one of Negan's wounded men with a prayer and an "Amen."
With the new day, the compound appears taken. The group breaks up with some returning home.
Just then, a straggler tries to escape on a motorcycle. Rick's gang fires on him and Daryl tackles him, but in attempting to interrogate him, they hear a voice of a female member of Negan's gang over the walkie talkie telling them to lower their guns, because the Saviors have captured Maggie and Carol.
"The Walking Dead" returns Sunday, March 13, at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.
