The Walking Dead: Hits and misses from Episode 3

What we learned from Episode 3: Dwight will be all right, Daryl’s dog meat and where does Negan keep his armies? Not up those leather sleevies ...

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EPISODE three told us a great deal about Negan and the way he rules — but it also raised more questions than it answered.

It set the scene perfectly and showed that not all of Negan’s “people” are gun-toting murderers. It was the archetypical fascist state, with one brutal dictator, thugs to enforce his rule and a brutal punishment waiting for anyone who stepped out of line or simply forgot to kneel in his presence.

In this case, it was particularly nasty — do something wrong and you not only get killed but then get used as a zombie gate guard, for your friends and family to watch for the rest of their days. Nice.

Of course there was the upside, if you are one of Negan’s men, then you get to take what you want, when you want. Well, sort of. No women unless you have won enough “points”.

Our mate Dwight, who has killed Denise and wounded Daryl, gets offered “happy hour at the pussy bar”. How charming. Negan was obviously channelling his inner Donald Trump with that line. Or is it the other way around …?

But I digress. Seeing as Dwight’s wife is now Negan’s wife (the price of his survival), it’s not much of a temptation for the scarred one.

We also found out that Negan burned Dwight’s face. With an iron. Now, hang on a minute. An iron wouldn’t make that scar. That’s a fire scar, one looking suspiciously like the one sported by Sandor “The Hound” Clegane in Game Of Thrones. Same make-up artist? A two-for-one deal? Who knows!

Sandor "The Hound" Clegane sports a similar-looking scar to Dwight. A two-for-one deal?

Austin Amelio plays Dwight, who might be sort-of a good guy after all.

Negan was everything you expect a mad dictator to be. Charming, charismatic, terrifying, logical and unhinged. He even talks to his bat Lucille and attributes decision-making to “her”. Suggests he might have some issues in the trouser department. He mocked Dwight for letting Eugene chomp on his pecker but maybe Negan’s obsession with fondling a bat reveals something deeper. Dwight’s wife was seen getting a pregnancy test (and it was negative). Is Negan firing blanks?

This episode gave us a glimpse into the life of Negan but also focused on Dwight. It is beyond obvious that he hates Negan and wants somehow to defeat him, yet sees no other way and so is forced to do a variety of horrible things for him. He’s just looking for an opening to kill Negan and get his wife back. Hello, it’s called Rick Grimes!

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Apart from stealing mustard from a dead man, Dwight showed himself to be a master of sandwiches, both gourmet and with dog food. I watched the episode eating lunch with my dog and it was hard to tell which of us was salivating more.

Anyway, ostensibly the episode was showing us the punishment and breaking of Daryl. Negan likes his spirit and wants him on Team Negan, not Team Rick. So they tortured him with horrible music and fake escapes and tempted him with drinks and straws. Although, if they really wanted to break him, they would have forced him to watch old episodes of Who’s The Boss? Dwight was pictured doing just that for apparent enjoyment but surely that is far greater torture than anything you can get in Camp Guantanamo Negan. I would have agreed my name was Negan before the end credits of the first episode.

But anyhoo …

Daryl refused to break, no matter how many times they played episodes of Who’s The Boss? to him.

Daryl didn’t break, although they threatened him with zombification, no sleep and even gave him a Polaroid of Glenn with his head beaten in. That made him cry, to the tune of Roy Orbison, although it may have just been that country music-loving Daryl was so relieved that they weren’t using children’s songs on him any more.

So, we didn’t see much achieved. Daryl is not broken and Dwight has not turned good, although the groundwork has been laid for both.

However, it raised a huuuge question. There were few of Negan’s thugs around and everyone else seemed to be hungry. We know he has an army and we know he is getting vast amounts of food from The Hilltop and The Kingdom. So, even though this was Negan’s “camp”, it appears he keeps his army elsewhere. I can’t believe it’s because they didn’t have the budget for all those extras, so it has to be significant. He must have an army base somewhere else. But where?

We also know that his men follow him out of fear and hope for some time at Negan’s revoltingly-named “pussy bar”, not for love or loyalty. Without Negan they will fall apart.

I’m sure you can see where this line is going …

So, plot-wise we have been fluffing around for the past two episodes with things basically going nowhere faster than one of Negan’s zombie gate guards that has been impaled on a steel pole but now it’s time to get back to the serious business of what’s going on with Rick.

It can’t come soon enough.