Episode 14 is the best episode in the season and keeps the season 11 B momentum going forwards the finale. I was glued to the screen from the beginning to the end. If you want a Negan filled episode with a ton of call backs when he was the “big bad” Negan with the Saviors, do not miss this episode. I give “The Rotten Core” a 5 out of 5 stars. I am completely in love with this episode and it did not disappoint. We finally got an interaction between Negan and Hershel Jr., which stole the whole episode. All you needed in a Walking Dead episode was in here. We even got a soft side to Negan, more reasons why to adore the character and why fans have him as their favorite character in the series, which I do right now…
Negan & Hershel Jr.
Hats off to Jeffery Dean Morgan throughout this whole episode. His acting performance in this episode alone should give him an Emmy for this show. Negan had a lot of great scenes with every character in the episode. Negan had a great reunion with Lydia and told her why he had to leave in the first place. We found out he was the defacto leader of Riverbend, the community that was searched for the missing guns, with a girl named Annie. We learn later Negan even got married to Annie, which is a complete 180 from his Saviors days, having multiple wives, and obviously his first wife, Lucille. The scene that stole the episode was Negan and Hershel Jr. Hats off the the young actor of Hershel Jr. too. He is the perfect mix of Maggie and Glenn. Hershel was there in the first place because he hid in the truck that Maggie, Elijah, and Lydia came in. After the Commonwealth searched the car, they found Hershel but Negan was there to save the day and keep him safe. Negan is the reason why Hershel doesn’t have his father, Glenn and he figured it out. Hershel was told by Maggie to never go near Negan and that a bad man killed his father. Hershel figured it out and held Negan at gunpoint for the death of Glenn. Walking Dead fans expected this to happen but I thought we would have gotten this when he was older or after Maggie would have told him directly. Negan visibly feels resentment towards the child and feels bad for his prior actions, as leader of the Saviors. He obviously has a soft spot for kids, with the strong relationships with Carl, Lydia, Judith, and now Hershel. Negan told him to shoot him if he wanted to but that would attract the rest of the Commonwealth soldiers by knowing where they are hiding. Instead, he told Hershel to wait and to settle it when he is much older. Like Maggie, Hershel will never forgive Negan for killing Glenn, but it is a start in the right direction. I am very interested in the conversation between Negan and Maggie in episode 15 or 16 when Maggie finds out that Negan told him about killing Glenn. If you didn’t think that Negan pulled a full 180 in his redemption arc between season 8 and 11, this is the perfect episode to close it. Negan is the most transformed character in the show and overtook Daryl as my favorite character in the show after episode 14.
Maggie & Annie
A character that knew the terrible stuff Negan did versus the character that knew Negan for a short amount of time. This was an interesting dynamic between Maggie and Annie. We find out that Annie is the other leader of Riverbend but ends up being Negan’s wife. We even find out that she is pregnant with Negan’s baby. Maggie is dumbfounded by this, since all of the history between her, Glenn, and Negan. Maggie tells her all of the bad stuff he did to them during season 7 and 8 but Annie doesn’t care. Annie forgives him because no person is perfect. Every person to survive this long in the apocalypse had to do unforgiveable things to stay alive. Maybe Maggie turned a corner because she thought about all of her actions throughout the show and especially in season 11. Maybe this is what it is going to take for Maggie to amend fences with Negan and them leading to their relationship in their spinoff show. I’ll tell you this right now, either Annie will have the baby and end up dying or she will end up dying before that because I do not see Annie sticking around for their spinoff show. I do believe that if she has the baby, Negan will leave for New York with Maggie and Hershel Jr.
Daryl, Rosita, Carol, and Mercer
Daryl and Rosita were put in a sticky situation. They were ordered by Sebastian to get money out of a house because Pamela cut Sebastian’s money supply. The mission was against Commonwealth’s rules but they ended up going anyways. The mission went smooth until they met a lady stuck inside. They found the money and tried to save the girl but she ended up dying using the “guts trick”. AMC wanted you to worry about Daryl’s and Rosita’s survival throughout the scene but Mercer and Carol saved the day and got them out safely. Mercer is still upset about how Commonwealth is running things and ends up killing the two soldiers that instructed them to go on Sebastian’s mission. Mercer is finally starting to figure things about and I do believe that he is going to be the one that either kills Pamela, overthrows her, kills Lance, or overthrows Lance. Carol told Lance about Sebastian’s mission and Lance did not seemed too bothered by it. He was worrying about the other mission with Carlson, which failed. Carol is putting her fake face on and knows what Lance is truly up to, based on her expression on the second to the last scene. The last scene surprised me and I’ll get into it on my preview and predictions for next episode but a familiar face is returning for episode 15. She kills a few Commonwealth soldiers before we get to see her face. For a split second I thought it was going to be Michhone, but that wouldn’t make too much sense. But it ended up being Leah, a face that I thought would return by episode 16. This is going to make things interesting between Maggie, Daryl, and Leah, setting up for the time skip scene that we got in episode 9, that is going to appear in episode 15…