Negan and Carl's confrontation has been one of the most long-awaited moments of this season for The Walking Dead fans, thanks both to their complex dynamic in the comics and to Carl having been generally sidelined for so long. The payoff does not disappoint—though "Sing Me A Song" still ends up being fairly light on actual plot, with a lot of pieces being moved around the board as setup for next week's mid-season finale. Still, this is by far the most satisfying episode of Season 7 yet. Here are its eight standout moments:
1) Carl takes off his bandage.
And his emotional defences come down with it. This was the standout moment in what was a consistently fascinating series of interactions between Negan and Carl, beginning as the latter came in guns blazing, vowing to kill Negan in vengeance for Glenn. Carl isn't stupid, and he must have known that he'd probably end up captured – but what he probably didn't count on was this kind of weirdly tender emotional manipulation from Negan.
"It's like talking to a birthday present," Negan complains, demanding that Carl take off the bandage covering his gutted eye, and reacting to what's underneath just as sensitively as you'd expect: "Christ, that is disgusting, no wonder you cover that up!" When poor Carl starts to cry, Negan seems chagrined and apologizes for hurting his feelings. It's all a psychological power play, but we're left to wonder whether he actually does feel bad—for a violent sociopath, he has an unusually specific moral code.
The terrifying paternal bonding experience doesn't end there: Negan orders Carl to sing him a song, and Carl obliges with a rendition of "You Are My Sunshine" while Negan merrily swings Lucille around in the background like a demented conductor. Later, Negan gets Carl to tell the story of Lori's death, and upon hearing that he shot his own mother, calls him "a little serial killer in the making." I spent basically this entire episode wanting to give Carl a hug.
2) Negan's wives unveiled.
We've known for a while that Negan is polygamous, but to see the harem of wives assembled for the first time was both interesting and deeply unsettling. After telling a creeped out Carl to "knock yourself out… they won't mind," Negan lays down the law with his newest wife, Amber, who's been fooling around with a Savior named Mark. It's not clear whether Amber and Mark were together before, like Sherry and Dwight, or whether this is a new relationship, but either way Negan is quietly furious at her for breaking the cardinal rule of marriage. His wives can leave him if they want to (though we know how grim the Sanctuary's alternative "job openings" are), but what they can't do is cheat on him.
Negan doesn't hit his wives, but "there's worse," says Sherry, and it's not long before we understand what that "worse" looks like. Rather than punishing Amber directly, Negan makes an example out of Mark, branding him with a hot iron in a grisly, skin-peeling sequence—but not before he's forced Amber to meekly say "I love you, Negan" and all but beg for his forgiveness. It's all very, very uncomfortable to watch. There's also a moment where Negan wants to know whether Fat Joseph has treated Lucille "like a lady," because Negan is weird, you guys.
3) Father Gabriel defends Rick to Spencer.
"What you're saying doesn't make you a sinner, but it does make you a tremendous shit." I think I might love Father Gabriel? When did this happen? Spencer has a point, but he needs to stop with the endless whining about Rick's leadership, and at least he's making himself useful by the end of this episode.
4) Rosita's fierce monologue.
Eugene is not loving the "make me a bullet" plan, trying to talk Rosita out of it by pointing out that even if she succeeds in killing Negan, there'll be a price to pay—and it might not be her who pays it. But she's laser-focused on avenging Abraham, because he saved both of their lives, and lashes out at Eugene for what she considers his cowardice, snapping: "For once, do something useful." It's incredibly harsh, and Eugene's not wrong, but this is a great example of a conflict where both characters have a completely justified point of view, and Christian Serratos delivers the monologue beautifully. Rosita gets her bullet, but Eugene's not interested in her apology.
5) Daryl's window of opportunity.
Daryl is still a prisoner, and hasn't had his tongue cut out as some viewers have speculated—as Negan drives off with Carl, Daryl mutters "If you do anything to him…" But when he returns to his cell (where, mercifully, "Easy Street" no longer seems to be playing) he's slipped a key along with a note that says "Go now." Dwight was wavering earlier in the season, so maybe his interaction with Sherry on the stairs, coupled with seeing what Negan did to Mark, finally tipped him over the edge.
Speaking of Daryl, whose name rhymes with Carol... WHERE THE HELL IS CAROL?! I know that in the show timeline, only a few days have passed since the season premiere, but in real life it feels like she's been hanging out in the woods with Ezekiel and his tiger forever.
6) Michonne's mission finally becomes clear.
So this is what Michonne's being doing. After luring one of the Saviors to her using a pile-up of walker corpses (hey, you work with the tools you're given), Michonne pulled a gun and demanded to be taken to Negan. So what with Daryl on the loose, Michonne coming for blood, Jesus still doing his thing and Rosita toting her brand-new bullet, it looks like we—and Negan—are in for a pretty climactic showdown at the Sanctuary come next week's mid-season finale.
7) Negan moves in on Rick's territory.
Having already subjugated Rick and stripped him of his power as a leader, it feels distinctly in this episode as though Negan is trying to usurp him as a father, too. He's not being cruel to Carl, he says, but busting his balls, which is "the shit your dad's supposed to be teaching you." Later at Alexandria, he holds Judith on his knee and cheerfully mulls over whether to bury her and Carl in one of the backyard's ample flower beds, but what's much creepier than the threat is the sense that he's settling in far too comfortably in the suburbs.
Negan seems to get off not just on taking power, but specifically on taking power away from other men—most of his "wives" were someone else's wife first, most of his supplies are essentially stolen—and the one thing Negan doesn't have at the Sanctuary is a family. Is Rick too broken to fight for his?
