The Walking Dead, Mercy: Things To Note
By Liam O'Leary
![Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, Seth Gilliam as Father Gabriel Stokes - The Walking Dead _ Season 8, Episode 1 - Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, Seth Gilliam as Father Gabriel Stokes - The Walking Dead _ Season 8, Episode 1 - Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/55296aed4304e1bb4d4da82f6c319207cf464f7ed4d113c6761214d8e64b8d0a.jpg)
1) “Weird” Al Yankovic’s “Another One Rides The Bus” can be faintly heard in the background as we see the shot of the cane.
2) Are the shots we see throughout the episode of an older Rick and a six-year old Judith a flash forward or a daydream by Rick, similar to the feast he saw in “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be”?
3) As we cut to Rick at The Hilltop, he’s standing over Glenn and Abraham’s graves. This is the first time we’ve seen Rick visit their graves, despite him being at Hilltop several times since their deaths.
4) The scene of Rick waking in his bed, next to some flowers, is a clear callback to the scene of him waking in the hospital in the very first episode, “Days Gone Bye”.
5) Seth Gilliam (Father Gabriel) and Ross Marquand (Aaron) have now been added to the credits in the title sequence.
6) The scene of Carl looking for gas is another obvious callback to the first episode, right down to the tipped over truck cab, looking at the woman’s corpse inside the car, taking off his hat to look under another car, even the blonde female walker that attacks.
7) Speaking of which, that female walker is, in fact, portrayed by Addy Miller, who played the little girl walker Rick encountered at the beginning of the first episode.
Next: The March To War