The Walking Dead 904: Time doesn’t heal all wounds

Rick and Daryl exchanged some pretty heated words in The Walking Dead 904, proving that time might not heal all wounds in the apocalypse.

In the world of The Walking Dead the old adage that time heals all wounds has no place despite all of the horrible things that seem to happen on an ongoing basis. Keeping Negan alive has only kept some of these old wounds open, leaving the memories festering with resentment as anger builds. In The Walking Dead “The Obliged” Daryl brings out the skeletons in the closet during his heated confrontation with Rick.

Tension hit a boiling point when Rick and Daryl took a ride together. Rick thinks they’re going back to Alexandria to stop Maggie but Daryl has no intention of making it there. They ended up fighting, which landed them in a big hole together. Because good things always happen when these two men fight. Daryl uses this moment to remind Rick that leaving Negan alive is hurting a lot of people, especially Maggie. He reminds Rick that it was Glenn who saved him back in Atlanta when all this started, and if not for him Rick never would have reunited with Lori and Carl.

It’s a pretty heavy accusation to level on Rick after Rick lost his wife and son in the very same fight to survive.

(And it must be said that it was Daryl getting out of line that led to Glenn’s death, so Pot, meet Kettle)

Daryl’s accusation is interesting because like the festering wound it suggests that the feelings have been there for a while now. What’s even more concerning is that Daryl throws Maggie’s pain out there like a weapon. It’s a taunt, a threat and an attempt to spur Rick into action by making him see things their way – namely, that Negan must die.

Unfortunately, the time to kill Negan may have passed. Rick had a chance as All Out War came to an end. It would be difficult to kill Negan almost two years later after keeping him alive this whole time, and it would send a very mixed message to the Saviors and potentially cause more problems. The bigger issue, though, is that once these grievances are aired it’s hard to forget them.

However given where Rick ends up at the end of the episode, it might not matter.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9pm on AMC.