Review of The Walking Dead episode 812: The Key

What were the good, bad, and interesting things from season 8 episode 12 of AMC’s The Walking Dead titled ‘The Key’ which aired on Sunday, March 18, 2018.

The Walking Dead continues to tell the story of Rick Grimes and the survivors from Alexandria, The Hilltop, and The Kingdom during season 8 as the forces of Negan and The Saviors attempt to control the area.

During the episode 812 titled ‘The Key’, the story continued to move forward as the survivors from the united communities gathered at The Hilltop to prepare for an attack by The Saviors without knowing the plans Negan had in store for them.

There was plenty of action, drama, and intrigue during this episode of the popular zombie survival drama series, but the big question to talk away from ‘The Key’ is whether or not the episode as a whole was any good.

Let’s take a look at the good, bad, and interesting things from season 8 episode 12 of The Walking Dead starting with the things that we enjoyed during ‘The Key’!

The good stuff from TWD 812

1. Mystery survivors? Trying to figure out who was behind the milk crates is a fun process. While it sounded like Eugene, it very well could have been Jadis, Oceanside, or even another group of people. it’s always fun not knowing what is going to happen next!
2. Simon is not on board with sending more messages. He’s going along with Negan’s plans, or at least telling him he is, but Simon obviously wants to bring the fight to Rick’s group instead of kill. Steven Ogg is an excellent actor who can tell stories with just his expressions. But his talk with Dwight was one of the highlights from the episode.
3. Trading knowledge for records. This is an interesting concept. A stranger named Georgie asks for a trade for knowledge in exchange for human goods. Just how valuable is this information and what can it do for a community? That’s a gamble, but Maggie isn’t willing to find out on a friendly basis.
4. Rick and Negan playing cat and mouse games. It’s dark in that boarded up building, and it gave the two leaders a chance to talk about their situation while attempting to win the battle. Negan isn’t trying to kill Rick…but Rick will kill Negan. It was fun to watch!
5. Michonne is showing some humanity. She doesn’t see people as means to get resources. Instead, she sees them as humans, despite everything that has been going on with The Saviors and what she’s seen in the past. She understand’s Carl’s vision, even if others don’t.
6. Maggie coming to her senses. She finally put some trust in people and got a handbook to create everything that can bring them prosperity in the future. It is what she needed to do for her future and the groups she aligns herself with.

The bad things from TWD 812

1. Daryl’s bad apology. Sure, he and Rick are brothers, but he still has to admit when he’s wrong instead of trying to justify his actions. Rick should be upset that Daryl went against the orders, opening the door for more vigilantes in his ranks.
2. Going rogue again. Rick and Michonne are adjusting the plans with the help of Enid and Maggie. For these characters not to be able to follow simple orders is kind of crazy, considering how long some of these characters have known each other.
3. Hammering home the death. Negan continues to use Carl as a pawn to get in Rick’s head during the war and a bargaining chip to get the communities to fall into line. Using that grief to win the war is a dirty tactic, but one that can be interesting.
4. Negan finding out about The Scavengers from Rick. That’s right. Simon’s disobedience to Negan came from the mouth of one of the last people fans should have expected: Rick Grimes. This news seemed to shake Negan, knowing that his people may not be as loyal as he thought.
5. Disappointing action scenes. The close-ups during the car chase, the timing of the attacks on Negan, and even the dialogue during the fights were corny and cliché. While I’m too much a fan of action in the first place, I know that AMC can do better.
6. Jadis has Negan. We know what Rick or Maggie would do with Negan, but it’s hard to know what Jadis has planned for the leader of The Saviors. And with Simon in control of Negan’s men, they are going to be more dangerous than ever!
7. Where is Laura? Laura was the only survivor from the ambush that Dwight led The Saviors into, yet she’s been MIA since the incident. Is she lost? Dead? Or just forgotten as far as the story goes? It’s a shock Dwight hasn’t been found out yet considering everything he’s done.

The interesting stuff from TWD 812

1. Riding shotgun. Putting Lucille in a bucket full of disgusting walker guts as he transports them to The Hilltop was fun…but I kept waiting for Negan to fasten the seatbelt around the pail for extra security and a bit of comedy in a dark show.
2. The Terror. Premiering after next week’s episode of The Walking Dead, this show could be something fans might be interested in. While it may not be something all fans of AMC’s zombie survival dramas enjoy, it could be worth at least checking out.
3. The Red Machete. The series keeps holding my interest, as the history of the weapon is told, but this installment didn’t do much for me. I get that time is passing and people come and go around it, but that’s something that could have been told in a short clip instead of a montage.
4. Negan dropping Lucille. He called out to his barbed wire baseball bat just like it was a person despite hanging above a hole in the floor with Rick ready to chop his hand off. This is another step in establishing why the weapon is so important to him on the show, and comic readers likely enjoyed that scene more than others.
5. TWD Rewards! Once again, TWD Rewards offered up to 300 points to viewers who entered the code word that aired during the AMC broadcast of the episode. This week, it was the code ‘BITERS’ that earns members 300 points and can inch them closer to an awesome free TWD prize! You can sign up HERE!

Overall impression of TWD 812

As a whole, this was a strange episode of The Walking Dead. Basically, this episode was intended to include a lot of action, including a car chase and a big one-on-one fight between Rick and Negan that involved a lot of Lucille.

While many viewers of the show hate the slower paced episodes that are character-driven, action-driven episodes where not much happens and dialogue could have served the same purpose are hard to understand.

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Still, there will be many fans who loved watching the fight between Rick and Negan that resulted in a draw between the two, but it does somehow strangely put the leader of The Saviors into the hands of Jadis.

A takeaway from this episode is Georgie and her new group. She essentially traded a handbook to Maggie (with some food) for records. This is an interesting situation since trading necessities for luxury items may mean their community is much better off than any other we’ve seen in the past.

This episode basically was more about Carl’s death than anything else. His impact has left many characters not knowing what to do. Some are blinded by bloodlust while others want to try to keep moving toward the kind of world he wanted.

As a whole, I felt like this wasn’t a great episode since the action that should have been coming in this episode won’t happen until next week, but we did get some new survivors and Negan got put in a bad spot, so maybe some good will come from the events of ‘The Key’. Episode grade: 7.1/10.

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What did you think were the best and worst moments from season 8 episode 12 of The Walking Dead? Was ‘The Key’ good, or did it fail to meet your expectations? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.