The Walking Dead recap, Season 8, Episode 9, “Honor,” Aired February 25, 2018
We are officially back with the second half of season 8 of The Walking Dead and boy was this a doozy. So many emotions, so many feelings, and the final episode of Carl. Here are the best moments of the episode (and one I didn’t like so much) for this week’s mid-season premiere, “Honor”.
4 best moments
#1 Carl is a badass. Damn dude. Even with whatever you might think about Carl and his history on The Walking Dead, (and I have been very critical of him in the past), he was pretty tough in his final episode. He got bit, still helped that guy, put on a clean shirt, started writing some goodbye notes and just generally got shit done. The way he just went about his business after getting bit is really impressive. We have seen a lot of people go out with a whimper, but not this guy. Even once the fever took hold he was still dropping wisdom on everyone. Well done, buddy.
#2 Morgan/Carol team up! Holy smokes, these two are just plain ridiculous. They just ran through the Saviors at the kingdom and saved Ezekiel all on their own. These two were my favorite part of the entire episode and now I kinda want Carol to go with him to Fear the Walking Dead. They are great together. Also, what has gotten into Morgan? Wow. There is just no mercy in him whatsoever and I freaking love it. There is zero reason to go easy on the Saviors at this point. Good for him for recognizing it and giving as many ‘sticks to the face’ as he could. And when he gutted that dude with his bare hands? Yikes.
#3 The Death of Carl. Anyone who know me knows that I am not one for a drawn out death and all the emotion that comes with it. But in this case it worked. Yes, it did stretch out to an entire episode, but it was broken up nicely and didn’t feel like it was getting in the way of advancing the plot of the show. And honestly, maybe a character as major as Carl deserves this kind of send off. Over the course of the episode there were so many emotional goodbyes, but the one that really stands out is one to Judith. Giving her the hat? Man. That was rough.
#4 The time jump. Whoa. So this whole time jump from the season premier wasn’t real at all. It was just a dream of Carl. I did not see that coming at all. In an episode that was filled with punches to the gut, this one might have been the biggest. The vision of the future gave us hope that things would get better for them. That they could have some kind of a life and that there could even be redemption for characters like Eugene. Now? Who knows what the future holds for our group, but with Alexandria burned to the ground it certainly won’t be as rosy as Carl envisioned.
The Worst Moment
Where the F was Negan? It was an extra long episode and all we got was a fake vision of him from Carl’s dream? Yeah, yeah – there was other stuff going on with Carl, but come on. This arc is so limited at this point and I need all the Negan I can get before it is too late!
Despite that one glaring omission from the episode, I think this was a decent start to the second half of this season. It had emotion, it had twists, and it even had Morgan go full on nuts. I will call this episode a win.
The Walking Dead airs Sundays on AMC at 9/8c.
