I agree it was one plot thread too many, but honestly, it was such a breath of fresh air to see it structured this way. They probably should have done the Eugene/Rosita stuff last week (and remixed the final scene in episode 6), but that would require AMC budgeting enough to structure it like this regularly.

At least the writers are making an effort to turn her into an actual character this season.

Zach mentioned the scene where he was taken down by Dwight should have been planned/choreographed better. I agree with that. Once that happened, though, his resolve was pretty much completely gone (him telling Negan to jump out of a window aside).

Because he's like 15 in the show, and like a lot of teenagers, he talked a big game but lost his nerve.

Whoever directed this episode needs to follow Chandler Riggs around for every scene he's in. Probably his best performance since he hit puberty.

Was rereading it the other day — that scene actually came on Negan's second visit to Alexandria. So it was consistent.

Maybe they can hire Damon Lindleof and pair him with Gimple and other new writers. I always felt Gimple could be a valuable part of a "power writing" staff, and Gimple himself jokingly said maybe Damon should write the Negan backstory episode in an interview I read today.

Thanks.

Where are you seeing these numbers? I can't find 7:06's ratings anywhere.

AMC was definitely strategic in its 7:06 "promo."

I actually prefer GoT's format, for two reasons. One, doing it that way allows there to be less time between character appearances. For example, we haven't seen Carol, Morgan or Ezekiel in three episodes, and after the first episode, we didn't get to see how Maggie and Sasha were coping with Glenn and Abraham's deaths…

Something like dedicating an entire episode to Tara? ;-)

Yep. For instance, both of Morgan's bottle episodes in S3 and S6 were good, as was Carol's "The Grove" in S4. I also liked the Carol and Maggie episode from the back eight of last season a lot. They should be done sparingly, though, and make it worthwhile, like it was those times.

I do think things would flow much more smoothly if it was done in that way.

I think they need to surround Gimple with some writers who, as the OP said, know how to "write a true ensemble narrative." The stories they're telling this season are worth telling, but the format is just giving it the wrong "feel." If this were a Netflix show you could just binge it'd probably be better, but for a…

I've gotten the impression AMC told the writers no more gimmickry this season after the backlash from last year, and so far they've avoided doing that. I suspect AMC will tell them to stop doing so many island episodes for Season 8 judging by ratings decline/online backlash I've observed on social media.

I'm honestly not sure, as the info I provided is stuff I've gleaned from elsewhere.

From what I understand: Everyone who's listed as a main cast member gets paid for all 16 episodes regardless of appearance. They do this in order to contractually obligate them to be on set anytime the showrunners want them to be there. Supporting cast/guest stars have a little more leeway in that regard. The tradeoff…

OK, by "watched," I mean I turned the TV off when Talking Dead began, turned it back on at the end to catch the preview for next week then kept the rerun of the episode on while I did other stuff.

Keeping Corey Hawkins around was always going to be a tall task unless they made him a main cast member and gave him a much bigger role than his comic book counterpart. It's a shame, because he's a good actor, but at least they didn't just kill him off in some contrived way and actually left the door slightly open to…