The Walking Dead 711 recap: Hostiles and Calamities

This week on The Walking Dead we check in with the Sanctuary. Here’s a complete recap of The Walking Dead 711 “Hostiles and Calamities.”

Fat Joseph’s sandwich is on the ground beside his body. Dwight and the other Saviors look on at his body as Dwight notices the missing bike and hears the roar of Negan’s trucks in the distance. He runs to Daryl’s cell and finds him missing.

Eugene is carried out of the truck.

Dwight goes to his room and sees his stuff on the ground. He knows Daryl has been there.

Eugene sobs and begs for his life as he’s guided through the dark halls. They come to a room and he is escorted inside a nice apartment. He looks around in wonder as his restraints are removed. “Welcome home, haircut,” the woman Savior says. He sees the books on the shelf and the Savior says that they have more books in the library, which catches his attention. She asks if he knows where Daryl is but he swears he doesn’t. She offers him something to eat and he starts with lobster, but she says they don’t have any. He opts for pasta and pickles, but they’re out of pickles. She leaves him alone and he locks the door. His fridge is fully stocked, and the stereo has “Easy Street” queued up and ready to go. Eugene likes it.

Dwight is in his room when there’s a knock on the door. Negan’s men rush in and start beating him to a pulp while Negan stands and watches.

Dwight is in the cell that Daryl once inhabited. Negan knocks on the door and asks if he likes the room. It has been a while since he’s been in there, after his trip with Sherry and Tina. Negan says that they went looking for Daryl and he realized that when they got back Sherry was gone. That’s one big coincidence. Negan wonders if Sherry let him out, because someone left his door opened. Dwight says it wasn’t her, so Negan wants to know if it was Dwight. He wonders who Dwight is, after all this time and everything he has been through. “I’m Negan,” Dwight says. Negan opens the door and Dwight gets to his feet. Negan leans in the doorway and tells Dwight that Daryl is emotional. He’s either on his way back home or he’s going to kill people at the Sanctuary. Negan wants to know if Daryl knows where Sherry went. He sends Dwight on a mission to bring her back. Negan tells the Doctor to stitch the cut on his forehead.

The Doctor asks if Dwight thinks Sherry did it. He thinks she was soft, with a big heart. He says that Dwight could have his own outpost some day. He sees Sherry as the tender soul who married Negan to save her husband’s life. Dwight goes back to his room and gathers his stuff. He pauses for a moment and looks at the fish on the wall. Inside the fish’s mouth are cigarettes with Sherry’s lipstick on them. He goes to the bikes and rides past the bloody puddle that is all that remains of Fat Joseph.

The female Savior takes Eugene on a tour of the Sanctuary and offers a barber for “that thing on your head.” She explains that they’re in a different group than the Sanctuary workers. They find a jar of pickles and she gives him the jar. “If you want something, you take it,” she tells him.

Outside, Negan welcomes Eugene as the Man of the Hour. When Eugene says nothing, Negan tells him not to be rude. Negan asks the people around them who they are, and they say they’re Negan. He shows Eugene the bullet hole in Lucille. Normally, he says, he’d be giving Eugene a look at it up close. But if Eugene knows things, it might be different. “I am indeed a smarty pants,” Eugene stammers. “I read a lot.” He rambles on and Negan laughs that’s he’s really just some asshole. Eugene continues that he holds two PhDs. Negan asks “Doctor Smarty Pants” how they can keep the Walkers at the fences together (after they watch one fall apart before their eyes). Eugene proposes that they pour liquid metal over the Walkers, which is a throwback to the one he found with Abraham. Negan is impressed, a lot. He loves the idea. He wants to know if Rick had him doing stuff like that for him. “His loss, our gain.” Negan feels like Eugene needs a signing bonus, but Eugene says he got the pickles already. He’s going to send some of his wives over for a good time. No sex, but dinner and drinks are on the menu. Negan considers himself to be Eugene’s best friend in the world now. Eugene thanks him and wanders off.

Eugene spends his time with Negan’s wives by playing video games. Amber and Frankie seem to be at odds with each other. Amber is distracted, but Frankie and Tanya are very attentive to him. Eugene wants to make sure he is a good host. They want to hear him talk about the Human Genome Project, but he thinks that the conversation might be over their heads. They tease that he’s the guy to make a bomb out of bleach, but he’s affronted and lists the ingredients he’d use. They want to see him build a bomb, so the next thing we know Eugene is outside with the women and some rubber gloves that are floating thanks to the homemade helium. They’re eager to see what he can do, so he lights a candle and starts humming the 1812 Overture as he ignites the compound, which sends a plume of foam into the air.

Dwight rides down the road and goes to a house. It looks like the house once belonged to them. He finds a picture of them and Sherry’s voiceover says that they had a plan if they got separated they’d meet there with beer and pretzels, like old times. She notes his bad memory as he finds notes all over the house, like “feed goldfish.” She says he’s lucky he doesn’t remember things. He finds her wedding rings and a note. She says she did what she did so he would live, but now he’d part of that world. She let Daryl go because Daryl is who Dwight used to be and she wanted to help him forget who he was. She says she doesn’t think she’ll make it out in the world, but being at the Sanctuary is worse than being dead. She apologizes for making him into the man he is. She ends the note with “Goodbye, honey.” He puts his wedding ring with hers in the pack of cigarettes, and then he leaves pretzels and beer behind.

Eugene is back in his room the next day playing video games. Tanya and Frankie come over and tell Eugene that Amber is not doing well. She drinks all the time and she was only doing things to help her mom. They want to know if he can make something so she’d go to sleep and not wake up. Eugene doesn’t think that’s wise because she’d die in her sleep and turn. Frankie says that they’d take care of it. They think he’s a good man who could help them. He says he’s not that kind of man, and that lack of ability is not the problem. They say she’s going to do it with or without their help, but this way she won’t suffer. Eventually he asks how much she weighs. If they can get him that information, he could put something together.

Eugene goes down to the factory floor and goes to the front of the line and asks for cold pills. The woman tells him to wait in line, but he stops and asks for her number. He tells her that she reports to him, and he reports to Negan. She immediately acquiesces and gives them to him. He takes a bedpan and fly swatter for good measure, and a stuffed toy, and then he empties a basket of stuff into his bedpan. Then he goes to work.

Dwight tells the Doctor that he killed Sherry. The Doctor says Dwight should forget about her but he probably won’t.

The Savior takes Eugene to the factory floor and he watches as Negan approaches. Everyone kneels so Eugene kneels, too. Dwight has the iron in the furnace. Negan hits the Doctor in the arm. He found a note saying “Goodbye, Honey” in the Doctor’s desk. Negan thinks the Doctor let Daryl out. Dwight told Negan a story about the Doctor helping Sherry. If Dwight is lying then he’ll have the other side of his face burned. Negan believes Dwight. The Doctor begs Negan not to burn him. Eugene tries to look away but Tanya forces him to watch. The Doctor confesses to all of it, which is all he had to do. He drops the iron. Instead of burning his face, Negan throws the Doctor into the furnace. He pats Dwight and laughs that they have a spare Dr. Carson. Dwight says he’s not sorry about the Doctor. “Ice cold. I love it,” Negan laughs.

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Frankie and Tanya go to Eugene to see if he made the pills. He’s playing video games. Eugene knows that they want the pills for Negan and he refuses to give them to him. They call him a coward and he says that’s a “correct assessment.” He settles in to eat a pickle when there’s a knock on the door. It’s Negan. He’s scowling and he walks in with Lucille on his shoulder. Negan asks how things are going, and that Frankie and Tanya say very good things about him. Negan wants Eugene to know that he doesn’t make this invitation to just anyone. Negan tells Eugene that he doesn’t need to be scared anymore. He just has to answer one question. “Who are-“ he starts to ask. “I’m Negan,” Eugene says. He says he has always been Negan, even before he met Negan.

The next thing you know, Eugene supervises the work being done when Dwight walks up. They introduce themselves to each other before agreeing that they’re both Negan.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9pm on AMC.

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