The Key to the Future

I have been a faithful watcher of "The Walking Dead" since it premiered. While I've soured on the show in recent seasons (as have many others, based on season eight ratings), I'll be recapping each of the episodes of the back half of Season 8 as the show moves into a new chapter.

"I look around and ... I think about the people that are gone. And the people that are still here. It ain't right, and it ain't fair." - Daryl, "The Walking Dead"

When I was in college, my roomate had a computer game called Civilization. We'd all play it, for hours at a time, when we weren't in class or out doing college things. There were two ways to win the game. The first, and most time consuming, was building a great society. That meant spending time and resources on food, infrastructure, and government. You had to keep the people happy, and give them hope, while keeping them safe.

The second, and the way I most often played, was to advance technology on a single track toward weapons development. Every city was purely a place to build a garrison and build the weapons technology so you could go out and conquer everything. For me, that often ended in a scorched earth campaign that left the world in ruins. Not unlike the world of "The Walking Dead." It was fun, for me, but not so much for my roomate.

He would carefully craft and build a society only for me to come in, conquer it and steal the resources as I looked to rule the world. Not unlike The Saviors in "The Walking Dead." I didn't watch the TV show at that time, in fact it wasn't on yet, but that was my first time thinking about what the world could be like absent the traditional rule of order.

So what, you might be asking, does that have to do with "The Walking Dead?" Well, if The Saviors represent my version of playing Civilization, last night's episode, "The Key," gave us a glimpse at that other way of building (or in this case re-building) the world. If we'll only open ourselves up to it.

A lot happened last night. Simon (Steven Ogg) made his power play, dragging Dwight (Austin Amelio) along with him. And the look on Dwight's face at the end suggested his internal monologue had taken a Bluthian turn toward, "I've made a huge mistake."

About the same time, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) was discovering that Simon wasn't the ally he thought courtesy of an enraged Rick (Andrew Lincoln), who tried, and failed, to end Negan yet again. In the process he seems to have forgotten his duty to Carl, who asked him to make peace, and the people in the Hilltop, who are counting on him to hold it together and put the group above himself. But all that will surely be the fodder for another day. (So, too, will be the turn at the end where Negan ended up captured by Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh)).

But the main focus was the Hilltop itself, where Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Michonne (Danai Gurira), Rosita (Christian Serratos), and Enid (Katelyn Nacon) were confronted by new guests. Namely Georgie ( Jayne Atkinson) who offered an interesting trade-- records for knowledge. And not just knowledge, but the key to the future.

Prior to that, Maggie and Rosita mused about what life would be like after. After the war. After they've made peace. After they've reclaimed the world. And they had spent so long fighting that it was both hard to imagine a conflict-free world, but also what they'd do with themselves. But there was a wistful hopefulness in both of them regarding that future.

It's a future that seems brighter, too, after Maggie got over her fear of outsiders and anger at the misfortune of the world long enough to make a trade. Instead of making an enemy, or making the world a little dimmer, Maggie made a friend in Georgie, who returned that act of friendship with food stores and a book of plans to help rebuild the world. The kind of food production and infrastructure development that's needed to build a world ready for the next generation and a lasting peace. It's yet another nod to a hopeful future, one we've seen in glimpses at times this season.

And it was largely thanks to Michonne that it happened. She, moreso than anyone else, has shared Carl's hopeful vision of the future. It's not a future that comes without struggle, as she pointed out to Enid, but one that has to be focused as much on what comes after as the struggle of the present.

"I don't think Carl wanted us to stop fighting for our future, but I think he was telling us that to get to our future it was going to take more than just fighting... there's gotta be something after," she told Enid.

This season is about the all out war, and it has to come. People like Simon don't seem interested in peace or a future. And our heroes will have to fight for their survival. But, it can't all be about the fight. There has to be a future. There's "gotta be something after." And it's those glimpses of hope, and that future that are worth fighting for and, for me, worth watching the show to see how, or if, they come to pass.