The Walking Dead: 10 best episodes by new showrunner Angela Kang

10. “Big Scary U” (Co-writer with Scott Gimple and David Leslie Johnson)

Season 8, episode 5

“Big Scary U”  was the first episode where fans learned a little about Negan’s backstory. While trapped in a trailer with Father Gabriel Negan talks about his wife briefly and says that he regrets not being strong enough to put her down after she turned. Negan and Father Gabriel have some tense moments in the trailer while Negan decides whether he wants to work with Father Gabriel to get out of the situation they’re in or just kill him.

Because Negan is ultimately a practical person the two work together to escape the trailer by covering themselves in walker guts. Negan mentions that in the past when they’ve used that trick some of The Saviors were made ill by the guts, which is something that hasn’t happened before to the other survivors.

The two do end up escaping and making it inside The Sanctuary. But Father Gabriel becomes ill with a fever from the guts. Later on, fans learn that Father Gabriel is desperately ill and heading for organ failure as a result of the illness from the guts.

Also in this episode, there is a flashback to Gregory going to Negan and his lieutenants to ask to oust Maggie. And fans see the top Saviors arguing about who will lead if Negan ends up getting killed. There is almost a revolt among the workers in The Sanctuary who are ready to rise up against the remaining Saviors. But Negan shows up just in time to re-establish control.

This episode, like many that Angela Kang has written, is a really good balance of action and character development. It’s one of the fans’ favorite episodes so far in season 8.