The Walking Dead: Josh McDermitt recaps season 7, episode 6

Every week, The Walking Dead’s very own Josh McDermitt, who plays Dr. Eugene Porter, is taking EW behind the scenes of the hit AMC horror series. For each episode, McDermitt will share his thoughts on what went down and what’s coming up, plus walk us through the ins and outs of the show. This week, McDermitt dives into the sixth episode of season 7, “Swear.”

We have a new community! A community of women near the beach. These ladies seem reasonable, right? RIGHT? They tried to kill Tara when she found her way to their home. They then invited Tara to live with them. Then they tried to kill her again… Totally reasonable!

It’s been a while, but we finally get to check in with Tara (Alanna Masterson) and Heath (Corey Hawkins) while they’re toward the end of a two-week supply run. The last time we saw them was in Season 6 when Rick’s group killed a bunch of Negan’s men at the Satellite Station. Hey! I’ve got an idea! Let’s kill a bunch of people and then go camping immediately after! Not sure this was the best way to cope with such a heavy situation, but to each his own, I guess.

The episode starts with Heath and Tara sitting in a camper nearly exhausted and beat down from finding virtually nothing on their supply run. Heath says, “Eight rusty cans of okra and a bottle of aspirin. That’s what we got to show for the time out here.” Tara’s response is great. “Rule No. 1 of scavenging: There’s nothing left in this world that isn’t hidden. We just have to find it.”

That’s sweet. That’s advice Glenn gave to Tara on a supply run not so long agOH MY GOD TARA DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT GLENN!!! OR ABRAHAM!!! OR HER GIRLFRIEND DENISE!!! ALL DEAD!!!

After Tara and Heath get separated during a walker attack, Tara falls off a bridge and gets swept out to sea. She’s discovered by a couple members of the new community and some interesting things are set into motion.

Tara follows them back to their community. This place seems like a summer camp to me. Kids are playing, doing arts & crafts, and although it wasn’t shown on screen, I’m sure there was a group of kids rehearsing for their weekly talent show. But what stood out to me was how prepared and almost militarized they were. That’s scary. Almost immediately upon Tara’s arrival, a bell rings and the kids start grabbing guns. There’s an intruder on the property and the kids are ready to fight.

Tara gets captured and the dialogue begins with their leader, Natania, played by Deborah May. A chess match starts and Tara lies about who she is. Smart girl. Later she’s caught in the lie, but somehow talks her way out of it and gets them to agree to let her go back to Alexandria. One of the things we find out about this community is that Negan killed all of the men and boys over 10 years old. This is so sad. But this community was left with a lot of guns to protect themselves. You can’t blame them for wanting to kill Tara. They don’t trust outsiders!

What you might’ve missed: A brief, but fully captivating performance by Eugene (Josh McDermitt, and again, my favorite character by far). Eugene is at the gate doing his best depressed Walmart greeter impression while Tara strolls up to the gate happy to be alive. Poor Eugene has to be the bearer of bad news. Quick, pass the buck to Rosita!

Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Tara have a conversation about everything that has happened in the time she’s been gone. Rosita needs leads on anything. They need guns. Tara doesn’t give up any info on the new community she’s discovered. Anytime someone keeps a secret it can turn out to be a bad thing. And you can hardly blame Tara for not telling Rosita about this new community. If anything, we’ve learned that Tara is very loyal. “Yeah, but she just met these people!” you might say. True, but she made a promise. Plus, we have to remember that she’s in the middle of processing everything that’s happened to her on top of the fact she’s just been told about Denise, Glenn, and Abraham’s deaths at the hands of Negan, On top of that, they don’t have any mattresses to sleep on!

Only two episodes left for the first half of this season! I want more; I NEED MORE!!!

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