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The Savior Conflict is the second major conflict of the series and occurred during the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth seasons of AMC's The Walking Dead.
History
Beginning Conflicts
While driving a truck full of supplies, Daryl, Sasha and Abraham are suddenly accosted by gun wielding Saviors. Although they successfully repel their attackers, the three flee into the forest when they hear reinforcements arriving. While escaping, Daryl is taken by Dwight, Sherry and Tina, three Saviors who have fled the Sanctuary after stealing insulin to treat Tina's diabetes. After convincing the three he is not a Savior looking for them, Dwight, Sherry and Tina apologize. Daryl helps them avoid approaching Saviors, who are looking for the trio. While escaping, Tina comes across the bodies of Delly and Carla, two girls she used to babysit before the apocalypse. As she lays flowers on their bodies, they suddenly awaken, having been walkers and bite Tina in the throat, killing her. A grieving Dwight and Sherry decide to return to the Sanctuary, thanking Daryl for helping them.
Two months later, Rick forms an uneasy alliance with Gregory, leader of the Hilltop Colony, a small farming community that has been subjugated by the Saviors and forced to deliver weekly tributes under threat of death. Rick and his group agree to eliminate the Saviors, who they find out to be based in a nearby satellite outpost. Rick and his group infiltrate the outpost and kill all Saviors inside in a violent skirmish. Rick believes he has killed the Saviors completely, but quickly learns that they just killed an outpost, as they encounter more Saviors on the road. Carol is shot by a Savior, but is rescued by Morgan and a small group of soldiers. The group offer to take Carol back to their community called the Kingdom. Daryl, Rosita and Denise encounter more Saviors on the road, with Denise accidentally being killed with a crossbow arrow to the head by Dwight, who was aiming at Daryl.
Rick and his group are later abducted by a larger group of Saviors led by their leader, Negan. Negan states that Rick and his group now answer to him and must undertake weekly tributes just like Hilltop. As punishment for wiping out the satellite outpost, Negan picks a random subject in Rick's group to kill using his bat, Lucille. Abraham is chosen and so is repeatedly bludgeoned to death by Negan. After Daryl angrily punches Negan in retaliation, Negan chooses another person in the group to kill. This time, he kills Glenn. After the group reel from the loss, Rick is forced to agree to Negan's terms. As the Saviors leave, they take Daryl with them as their prisoner.
Life Under Negan
Negan and a small group of Saviors arrive at Alexandria for their weekly tribute. As the Saviors search houses for supplies, Carl threatens one with a gun. Seeing this, Negan decides to confiscate all of Alexandria’s weapons from them. They also confiscate the mattresses of every house, burning them in a pyre outside of town.
At the Kingdom, Morgan accompanies their leader, Ezekiel and a small group of Kingdommers to an abandoned car park. There, he learns that the Saviors exact tribute from the Kingdom. After a tense moment where Jared provokes Richard into a fight, the leader of the small group of Saviors, Gavin breaks them up. Gavin warns Ezekiel that Richard will be the first to die if another fight happens or if the next weekly tribute comes up short.
While imprisoned in the Sanctuary, Daryl is mentally tortured by Dwight, who deprives him of sleep and feeds him dog food sandwiches. After attempting to escape, Negan confronts Daryl and is impressed with him. He offers Daryl a place in the Saviors, but Daryl refuses, to which he is placed back in his cell by Dwight. After a few days of mental torture, Daryl is slipped a note from under the door by Sherry, who tells him to escape now. Finding his door unlocked, Daryl is able to flee the Sanctuary on a motorbike, killing a Savior who discovers him.
During the weekly tribute for Hilltop, Carl sneaks into one of the Saviors' trucks and upon arrival at the Sanctuary, he guns down two Saviors demanding for Negan. Impressed with Carl's moxie, Negan shows leniency on Carl, showing him around the Sanctuary and how he leads the Saviors. He also shows Carl his harem of "wives" which include Sherry. After discovering one of his wives, Amber has secretly gotten back with her ex, Mark, Negan decides to punish Mark by burning half of his face with a hot iron. Negan and a small group of Saviors then take Carl back to Alexandria, where they remain so Negan can talk to Rick who has left to scour for supplies.
While waiting, Spencer talks with Negan and plays a game of pool with him in the streets of Alexandria. Spencer explains how he supports Negan's idea of uniting communities and that Rick is an unsuitable leader for Alexandria. Spencer suggests to Negan that he places him as leader of the community. In response, Negan says he has no guts, to which he then disembowels Spencer with a knife in front of everyone. Angered, Rosita fires her gun at Negan, using a bullet she had Eugene make for her. The bullet instead hits Negan's bat, Lucille. Enraged, Negan demands to know who made the bullet for Rosita. Despite Rosita saying she made it, Negan does not believe her and orders Arat to kill somebody as a consequence. Arat shoots Olivia In the head. Rick returns, where Negan reveals Spencer's treachery and how he was doing him a favor. Negan refuses to leave until he finds out who made the bullet. He orders Arat to kill somebody else, but before she can, Eugene reveals himself to be the bullet maker. Believing him, Negan and the Saviors leave Alexandria, taking Eugene with him.
Rick and his group march to Hilltop, desperate to get them to join a rebellion against the Saviors. He encounters Daryl who had fled to Hilltop as well.
March to War
Gregory refuses to allow the Hilltop to fight the Saviors, but as Rick's group leave, feeling dejected, Jesus guides them to the Kingdom where he thinks Ezekiel may join the rebellion. However, Ezekiel declines to fight the Saviors, fearing for his people's safety. Ezekiel does offer Daryl asylum in the Kingdom, as the Saviors do not enter their walls. Daryl accepts the asylum offer, hoping to convince Ezekiel if he remains.
At the Sanctuary, Eugene is treated fairly by the Saviors, who want Eugene in their group as his bullet making skills would be helpful. After a few days of hospitality, Eugene formally defects and joins the Saviors.
Rick and his group later encounter a large group of survivors who live in a junkyard. Desperate for their numbers, Rick attempts to convince their leader, Jadis to join the fight against the Saviors. Convinced Rick can help them after he is able to defeat a spiked walker, Jadis agrees to help Rick fight if he can procure many guns for the Scavengers to use. Rick accepts the deal.
After being unable to find enough guns for the Scavengers, Tara tells the group about a community she found called Oceanside, a community of primarily women that the Saviors used to subjugate, and how they are heavily armed with a large number of guns. Upon arriving at the community, their leader, Natania refuses to join the fight, claiming they narrowly escaped the Saviors and encountering them again would destroy them. However, some residents of Oceanside seem willing to join the fight, After defending the community against a small herd of walkers, Natalia angrily concedes and allows the group to take their guns. She refuses to let Oceanside join the fight however.
At the Kingdom, a weekly tribute goes awry when the tribute comes up short. Rather than killing Richard as promised, Jared instead kills Benjamin. Richard is devastated, revealing to Morgan that he deliberately sabotaged the tribute so Jared kills him, hoping that Ezekiel will martyr his death and fight back against the Saviors. An angered Morgan strangles Richard to death. After this, Ezekiel decides to fight back against the Saviors.
Having grown disillusioned by the Saviors after Sherry fled the Sanctuary and is nowhere to be found, Dwight defects and joins Alexandria, warning them that Negan and a group of Saviors are arriving the next day to quell the brewing rebellion.
Sasha later launches a solo attack on the Sanctuary, but is defeated and imprisoned in a cell. Negan talks to Sasha and suggests that she helps him stop Rick from launching a rebellion, as a secret source has informed him of Rick's plans. Sasha agrees to help Negan, but later she begs Eugene to help her kill herself as she doesn't want to hurt her friends. Eugene slips her a bag of suicide pills.
The next day, Negan and a group of Saviors place Sasha in a coffin and drives her to Alexandria. Rick and the Scavengers fortify Alexandria but the Scavengers hold Rick at gun point, revealing to be working with Negan all along. Negan tells Rick to stop the rebellion, demanding he surrender all the guns he found, give back Daryl as well as choose a random person for Negan to kill. Negan reveals that he has Sasha in the coffin and threatens to kill her if Rick doesn't comply. Rick asks to see Sasha so Negan opens the casket. However, Sasha, now a walker, lunges out of the coffin and attacks Negan, having killed herself using the suicide pills Eugene gave her. Rick and the group use this distraction to fight back and kill several Saviors but the fight is quickly ended by the Saviors.
Negan has Carl and Rick line up. He states that he is going to kill Carl and then amputate Rick's hands as punishment. An undefeated Rick allows Negan to do this, saying he promised to kill Negan and nothing will change that. Just as Negan is about to kill Carl however, the soldiers of the Kingdom arrive, gunning down several Saviors. As the Saviors gather themselves, they are attacked by the arriving forces of Hilltop, engaging in a huge firefight that erupts all across Alexandria. Outnumbered, the Saviors and the Scavengers promptly flee Alexandria.
Back at the Sanctuary, Negan rallied the Saviors together, informing them they are going to war. The united communities of Alexandria, Hilltop and the Kingdom group together as a Militia and address their people, ready to fight in the upcoming war with the Saviors.
All Out War
The Militia arrive at the Sanctuary, and order Negan to surrender. Negan refuses, saying the Militia started this fight. Gregory appears on the balcony with the Saviors, telling the Hilltoppers to leave and that the Hilltop stands with the Saviors. He threatens to evict any resident out of Hilltop if they remain with the Militia. Jesus defiantly declares that Hilltop stands with Maggie. As Gregory now has no use to try and sway the Hilltop, Simon kicks Gregory down the stairs.
Daryl lures a large group of walkers towards the Sanctuary. The Militia fire their weapons at the windows of the Sanctuary in order to create enough noise to lure the herd towards the Sanctuary. This succeeds, and the Militia flee just as the herd arrive. Gabriel tries to save Gregory but he cowardly escapes in Gabriel's car and leaves him in the herd. Gabriel finds shelter in a small building, but discovers Negan is sheltering there as well.
The Militia begin wiping out several Savior outposts in the vicinity. The Militia are able to overwhelm a few outposts by killing a few Saviors outside and allowing their bodies to reanimate into walkers so they can attack and kill the remaining Saviors. Eric bravely defends his group from the Saviors during an attack on an outpost but is fatally shot in the abdomen and later dies after begging his boyfriend, Aaron to go back and wipe out the outpost. The Militia proceed to take several prisoners as POWs, amongst them, Jared, much to Morgan's fury who wants him to pay for killing Benjamin. While leading the POWs back to Hilltop, a small herd of walkers appears, killing a few POWs. Jared and several other POWs, still tied up, escape but is quickly found by Morgan who shoots one of them dead, but Jesus convinced Morgan to not kill Jared. The POWs are safely guided back to the Hilltop and placed in a makeshift cell.
Most of the success in the outposts goes to the Kingdom who are able to successfully wipe out several Savior outposts without the loss of any soldiers. However, when attacking the Chemical Outpost, the Kingdom army are ambushed by machine gun fire, leaving only Ezekiel, Carol, Jerry and Alvaro as the survivors. Alvaro is killed by a Savior called Gunther, who takes Ezekiel hostage so he can deliver him to Negan at the Sanctuary, but Jerry arrived and kills Gunther, saving Ezekiel. They later find Carol and while making their way back to the Kingdom, they are cornered by a small herd of walkers. Too weak to fight them, they attempt to outrun them but are unable to. Shiva suddenly arrives and begins killing the walkers but is overwhelmed by the herd and devoured. This sacrifice allows Ezekiel, Jerry and Carol to make it back to the Kingdom.
Back at the Sanctuary, Gabriel and Negan are able to blend in with the herd by using the walker guts trick and make their way into the Sanctuary building where Negan places Gabriel in a cell. Negan concocts a plan to lure away the herd outside the Sanctuary using loud music and then kill any stragglers. Despite Dwight trying to discreetly sabotage this plan, the Saviors successfully defeat the herd outside the Sanctuary, allowing them to escape.
Rick goes back to the Heaps to try and renegotiate another plan with the Scavengers. Jadis initially refuses and attempts to execute Rick using another walker but Rick is able to kill the walker and subdue several Scavengers. Jadis reluctantly allows Rick to lead them to the Sanctuary so they can inspect the herd, but discover the herd to be missing. The Saviors open fire on Rick, while the Scavengers flee, leaving Rick alone.
Negan leads a convoy of Saviors to Alexandria, ordering them to surrender or be firebombed. Carl distracts Negan while several Alexandrians escape by hiding in the sewers. Carl begs Negan to kill him as a sacrifice and states they can work together to build a new world. Negan appears to be moved by Carl's words but when he discovers it to be a trick, Negan angrily orders the Saviors to destroy Alexandria by fire bombing it with grenades. Rick makes his way back to Alexandria and gets into the sewers, where he finds Carl helping the Alexandrians in the sewer. To his horror, he discovers that Carl has been bitten on the side by a walker; having been bitten while saving Siddiq from before. As he says his goodbyes to friends and family, he begs Rick to find a way to negotiate with Negan. Growing weak from the bite, Carl decides to kill himself so Rick or Michonne won't have to.
Maggie leads a convoy back to Hilltop but is accosted by Simon and several Saviors. Simon tells Maggie that the Saviors have decided to spare Maggie and Hilltop due to their advantage, but as punishment, he executes Neil. Upon arrival at Hilltop, Maggie decides to execute one of the POWs at Hilltop in retaliation. She picks Dean due to his unforgiving attitude and so executes him with a gunshot to the head. She then has Dean's zombified body delivered to the Sanctuary with a message telling Negan they have more POWs.
Gavin leads a Savior convoy to the Kingdom where they hold the residents hostage. Ezekiel saves them by creating distractions across the community and then using a school bus to place the residents in to escape. Ezekiel surrenders to the Saviors but he is rescued by Carol and Morgan. Morgan, who had ruthlessly killed all the Saviors across the Kingdom is begged by Ezekiel to spare Gavin, but this does not work as Benjamin's younger brother, Henry sneaks up behinds Gavin and kills him by stabbing him in the back of the neck, believing him to be the one who killed Benjamin.
Aaron and Enid make their way to Oceanside with supplies to give to them as gifts, hoping they can sway them to join the war against the Saviors. However, Natania attacks Aaron and before she can kill him, Enid opens fire and kills Natania. Aaron and Enid are taken prisoner by Oceanside where they are able to take their way out of being executed. Cyndie, now the leader of Oceanside, orders the two to leave. Enid complies but Aaron remains at Oceanside, hoping he can convince them still.
As the only functional community left, Hilltop takes on refugees from Alexandria and the Kingdom, which begins to stretch their resources. When Gregory returns to the Hilltop, Maggie places him in the cell with the POWs. A small convoy of vehicles arrive outside Hilltop. Believing them to be Saviors, Maggie investigates but learns they belong to a group led by a woman called Georgie. Georgie tells Maggie she has been observing Hilltop for a while and is aware of the war between them and the Saviors. She offers to give Maggie a large amount of resources so she can feed the residents of Hilltop with enough food. Georgie tells Maggie that this trade is barter and that she will return in a few years to check up on Hilltop, as she believes Hilltop has potential to grow into a flourishing community. She gives Maggie a book with instructions on how to build things such as windmills and more farms. Georgie and her group then parts ways with Hilltop.
Negan is ambushed by Rick while out on the road. Upon learning Carl's death, Negan is saddened but tells Rick it is his fault Carl died as he was too busy fighting the Saviors to protect his own son. Although he is able to escape from Rick, he is soon taken hostage by Jadis, as the Saviors had gone to the Heaps and killed every single Scavenger. Jadis believes Negan ordered this but he convinces her he didn't, and that it was Simon who did it. She lets him go with the promise that he will punish Simon for wiping out the Scavengers.
During Negan's absence, Simon takes control of the Saviors and launches a night attack on Hilltop, using weapons tainted with walker guts to create more damage. Maggie orders Simon to stand down, revealing to him they have several Saviors kept as POWs and will execute them if he does not stand down; Simon refuses to stand down, saying the POWs are now expendable. The Saviors then attack Hilltop, but the attack is quickly quelled by the Militia who ambush the Saviors and kill them, forcing Simon and the remaining Saviors to retreat. The attack saw several residents of Hilltop die due to the use of the walker guts as weapons. Their reanimation as walkers caused more chaos in the community but the Militia are able to put them down. Henry, now knowing the real killer of his brother is amongst the Hilltop's POWs, enters the cell with the POWs and demands to know who killed his brother. Unbeknownst to them, a POW who was injured by a tainted weapon has died and subsequently reanimates, killing another POW. Jared uses this opportunity to push Henry aside and lead several POWs out of their cell and out of Hilltop. However, the remainder of the POWs, led by Alden, choose to remain, having decided to formally change sides to the Militia having overheard Simon consider them expendable, and they prove their allegiance by killing off walkers that the other absconded POWs let into the community by leaving the doors open.
Rick and Morgan find the remainder of the POWs in an abandoned bar and promises them that they will treat them fairly if they come back to the Hilltop. The POWs agree to go back, but when defending the bar against a herd of walkers, Rick decides to go back on his plan, killing the POWs as punishment for fleeing Hilltop. Jared is able to flee but soon finds himself cornered by a group of walkers. As he attempts to leave through the gated door, Morgan keeps the door shut, trapping Jared with the walkers who proceed to devour him. Rick later discovers that Carl had written several letters before his death addressed for his family and friends. In Rick's letter, Carl wrote that he imagines the Saviors and the Militia co-existing peacefully and begs Rick to find a way to end the war so this imagination becomes reality. Rick also discovers that Carl has a letter addressed for Negan. Using a stolen Savior walkie-talkie, Rick and Michonne read Carl's letter to Negan which tells him to end the war. Although moved by Carl's letter, Negan refuses to end the war, saying he is finishing what the Militia started which to him, will only end once Rick and all other active rebels is executed.
Eugene is placed in charge of an outpost making bullets for the Saviors, but after encountering Rosita who attempted to abduct Eugene, he decides to sabotage the bullets after being swayed to rejoin the Militia.
Negan punishes Simon by publicly humiliating him in front of the Saviors. An angered Simon attempts to launch a coup against Negan but fails. Negan decides to host a death match between him and Simon where the victor becomes the new leader of Sanctuary. Despite initially having the upper hand, Simon is overpowered by Negan and throttled to death. His zombified body is then placed on the fence surrounding the Sanctuary. Negan discovers Dwight to be a spy for the Militia and so holds him prisoner.
The Saviors launch a final ambush on the Militia in a field, where they order them to surrender. The Militia remain defiant, to which the Saviors proceed to then open fire on the Militia. But due to Eugene sabotaging the bullets, their guns backfire or explode, killing and injuring many Saviors. The Militia use this distraction to attack the Saviors in a final battle. The remaining Saviors surrender after realizing there is no point in continuing the fight. Negan remains defiant and resumes fighting Rick. Rick is able to distract Negan by telling him about Carl and that in the letter addressed for Negan, Carl states how he wanted peace between the Militia and the Saviors. Rick takes this opportunity to slash Negan's throat with a shard of glass. However, realizing that Carl would want Negan alive, he orders Siddiq to save Negan, much to Maggie's fury who wants Negan to die in order to avenge Glenn and all those who died in the war.
Negan recovers in Alexandria which is slowly being rebuilt by the Militia where he is informed by Rick and Michonne that although they will not execute him for his crimes, he will be imprisoned for the rest of his life in a prison cell underneath Alexandria. The remaining Saviors clean up the Sanctuary with the help of several members of the Militia, now allied together. The residents of the Kingdom return to their community in order to rebuild there. Back at Hilltop, Maggie is declared the new leader of Hilltop, deposing Gregory. She secretly announces a plan to kill Negan once they have enough time to do it. Daryl supports this plan as he wants Negan dead too.
Post-War Conflicts
18 months after the end of the war, the relations with the Saviors and the Militia are stable, but still fraught. The Sanctuary is now led by Daryl, but due to the failure of several crops growing at the Sanctuary and feeling disenfranchised by the Militia, a few Saviors begin to protest their treatment, with some even saying they wish to go back to the old ways with Negan in charge.
After several Saviors quit working on the construction of a bridge in protest of their treatment, one of the Saviors, Justin, is killed by several members of Oceanside. Justin's death causes fury amongst the Saviors who believe the Militia killed him due to his defiance. Maggie and Daryl discover Oceanside’s involvement in the death of Justin, and finds that they have captured Arat, one of the Saviors who took part in the massacre of all the males aged 10 and above in Oceanside, and that Justin was another Savior who took part in that massacre. After hearing Cyndie's story of how Arat personally killed Cyndie's sister in cold glee, Maggie and Daryl decide to allow Oceanside to continue killing Saviors who took part in the original massacre of Oceanside's males, leaving a pleading Arat to be stabbed in the back of the head by Cyndie.
Tensions on the bridge construction site soon lead to a skirmish amongst a few Saviors and the Militia, leaving several people dead. Their bodies are found by Rick, who led a herd of walkers to the bridge so that he can detonate the bridge and destroy the herd, however Rick was presumed to have been killed in the explosion.
Six years after Rick's apparent death, the Sanctuary has fallen due to several failures of crops and general neglect. The remaining Saviors resettle in the communities they previously were in conflict with, or joined Jed's group of marauders. While taking Henry to Hilltop so he can work there as Earl's apprentice, Carol is accosted by Regina, who summons Jed and the marauders. They steal Carol's wedding ring and other supplies, but Jed decides to spare the two and allows them to leave. Later that night, Carol locates the marauders' hideout, and despite Jed pleading they will leave and never return, Carol proceeds to douse them in gasoline and set them on fire, killing Jed and his marauders; and formally ending the Savior conflict once and for all.
Participants
The Saviors |
The Militia
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Casualties
The Saviors
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Alexandria
Hilltop
The KingdomThe Heaps
Oceanside |
Results
- The Saviors are disbanded
- Negan is imprisoned
- Daryl Dixon takes control of the Sanctuary
- All former communities under the Saviors' rule have been freed
- The surviving Saviors either scatter or join the other communities while the remaining antagonistic members are eventually killed by Carol
Appearances
Trivia
- In "People Are a Resource" of The Walking Dead: Dead City, Negan tells Amaia, Tommaso and Luther about the war without mentioning that it was against himself. Negan openly acknowledges that "hell yeah it worked" when asked if the uprising against the man from his story succeeded. Negan uses his defeat by the Militia as an example of how the Manhattan Tribespeople should stand up to the Croat.
- In "Everybody Wins a Prize", the Croat mentions that he had learned about the events of the war from a surviving former Savior named Jerome. The Croat states that he can only imagine how much damage Simon had caused and that Simon never really listened to Negan. Despite having parted with Negan on bad terms, the Croat expresses regret that he wasn't there to help his former friend fight against the other communities.