'The Walking Dead' mid-season finale recap: War is coming

Spoiler alert! The following contains spoilers for the The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 8, "Hearts Still Beating." To read our recap of Episode 7, click here.

Don't give up.

It's the plea that keeps the our survivors going in The Walking Dead's Season 7 mid-season finale, "Hearts Still Beating." After death, torture, theft, humiliation and heartbreak at the hands of the Saviors, the residents of Alexandria pick themselves up off the ground and move forward. It's what Michonne begs of Rick, the unspoken agreement between Maggie and her friends, and the weary ask of the man in the Kingdom.

It's also what The Walking Dead seems to be asking of its own fans.

Season 7 has been a downward slide for the show, in quality and in ratings. As I've opined before, many of the problems stem from Negan's exhausting form of villainy, but he is not the only problem. "Hearts Still Beating" simultaneously gave us brief glimpses of what made the show work before this season and reminded us of the season's greatest flaws. A brief appearance from Carol and Morgan is enough to know that sidelining them for all but one episode was a mistake. Michonne's emotional speech made her season of sulking so much more tiresome. The energy of our group of survivors together at the Hilltop only highlighted the slog that kept these people apart.

When the show returns in February, it needs a renewed sense of energy to sustain the momentum it began building Sunday night. Walkers, violence and literal guts are not enough to keep the narrative moving. The show needs to find its purpose again. But hopefully "Hearts Still Beating" doesn't just refer to the characters, but to the show itself.

AMC's zombie hit 'The Walking Dead' is showing signs of mere mortality

A series of unfortunate events

How did we get to that moment on the Hilltop, with all our favorite characters reunited with a renewed energy to fight for their families and take down the tyrannical Negan? With, as is routine on this show, a lot of pain and death. Let's take this location by location.

At the Hilltop, Maggie, Sasha and Enid are still living in what I really hope is a backdoor pilot for a Full House-style sitcom about the whacky family they have formed. Maggie's still watching the surrounding area and Sasha is hatching a plan to take on Negan, but it's their new status and influence that will likely be what matters from their field trip to the settlement. Enid jokes that Maggie should run for "Hilltop president," but when you're about to fight a war, that's not a bad idea.

Over at Negan's compound, Daryl makes use of the key he was passed (we assume by Sherry but maybe Dwight was struck by a sense of decency) and flees his cell. After getting some real food and clothes, he runs into one of the more passive Saviors. He offers Daryl a way out and insists he was just trying to get by, but Daryl kills him anyways (the man has gone through quite a bit of torture, both physical and psychological). Jesus, who snuck into the compound last week, finds Daryl and the pair head back to the Hilltop together.

Alexandria is where everything really goes wrong. Negan is still camping out in Rick's house, making pasta and terrorizing Carl and Olivia while Rick and Aaron are still after the houseboat full of goodies. Spencer's big haul earns him a few pats on the head from the Saviors, which stokes his ego enough to convince him he can fix the entire situation with a bottle of booze, a well-groomed appearance and his own inherent charm. He introduces himself to Negan, and things go well at first with the drinking and the pool playing and the flattery. That is until Spencer's grand plan backfires and Negan just decides to kill him (more graphic than Glenn's death, maybe) instead of listening to him prattle on about Rick. Rosita, who has her bullet and her gun and had dinner plans with Spencer, shoots at Negan. And, just like Carl, she misses.

Negan is, shall we say, a little angry about this turn of events. Somehow he figures out the bullet was homemade and demands to know who did it. Rosita doesn't give Eugene up, and so Negan tells one of his Saviors to "shoot somebody." And that's how poor Olivia dies, the show's most ill-treated character since Noah. Eugene eventually claims responsibility for the bullet, just as Rick finally shows up. Negan tells Rick he's on thin-ice, and decides to take Eugene. Rosita, like Carl, gets to live because Negan is for some reason amused by his would-be murderers rather than angry at them. Well, as long as they're main characters, that is.

Oh, and don't forget (like the show seemingly did) that Carol and Morgan are at the Kingdom. One of Ezekiel's lieutenants isn't down with the arrangement with the Saviors, and goes to Carol and Morgan to ask for help convincing Ezekiel and carrying out an attack. Our former Alexandrians are emphatically uninterested. Carol just wants to be left alone, saying, "If you somehow see anyone we know, tell them I'm gone." We're sure that will go well.

There's something happening here

Oh, Michonne, you wonderful, smart, plot-fixing, sword-wielding savior. All this season the show has given you little to do but glower and fight with Rick over giving in to the Saviors, but now, now you are here to remind Rick and the audience about what's good in this world, and indeed, this show.

After her ill-advised mission to kill Negan, Michonne returns to Alexandria with the knowledge of where the Saviors are and how many there are, the first useful thing any of the Alexandrians have done all season. She turns the anger and rage she has into something productive, inspiring Rick to take the fight back up, but to do it properly this time. And so we're treated to one of the show's genuinely heart-warming scenes, where Rick, Michonne and more of the Alexandrians reunited with Maggie, Sasha, Daryl and Enid at the Hilltop. There's happy music playing. Rick and Daryl hug. Sasha and Rosita share a meaningful look. Did we mention Rick and Daryl hug?

No one says anything, they just stride towards the main house, clearly ready to do whatever it takes.

Don't forget the boots

If you happened to think that the preview of what's coming when the show returns in February meant it was OK for you to turn off the TV, you would normally be right. However, on this episode, AMC tacked on a post-credits scene. In it, we see a sleepy Alexandria by night, except that it's being watched by someone nearby. That someone jumps out of a tree and we see those same boots we saw near the houseboat Rick and Aaron scavenged earlier in the episode. Is it the person who left the rather rude note on the boat? Or is it someone else entirely? And could he or she be worse than Negan? Probably not.

Thanks for watching this half-season with us. We'll see you in February.

Scroll through more photos from the season below.