The Siege of the Sanctuary is a major event that occurred during the first half of the eighth season of AMC's The Walking Dead.
History[]
Opening Skirmish[]
As the first step in their overall plan to defeat the Saviors, the Militia moves to lay siege to the Sanctuary, the Saviors' primary base of operations. To this end, the Militia eliminates the Sanctuary's various lookouts using a list provided by Dwight and Daryl leads a massive herd to the Sanctuary.
After eliminating the snipers guarding the rooftop, the Militia drives up in their reinforced vehicles and fire their guns into the air, drawing out Negan and his council. After Negan's initial posturing, Rick identifies Dwight, Simon and Gavin by name, although Regina has to introduce herself and Rick ignores Eugene's interruption. Rick offers the council and the Saviors inside the chance to survive if they surrender, something that he can't guarantee at any time but now. However, Rick makes it clear that the deal isn't for Negan whom he still intends to kill.
Stating that Rick doesn't have the numbers to win this fight, Negan has Simon bring out Gregory who had turned himself over to the Saviors and was offering his help with getting the Hilltop under control when the Militia arrived. Gregory declares that the Hilltop stands with the Saviors and that any resident who takes up arms or supports this ultimatum against the Sanctuary or any of the Saviors will no longer be welcome in the colony with their families also thrown out and left to fend for themselves. Gregory orders the Hilltop residents to go home now, warning that they won't have a home to go back to if they don't. Maggie tells her people to do what they need to do, but no one leaves and Jesus declares that "the Hilltop stands with Maggie." Furious at Gregory's failure, Simon shoves him down the stairs.
Seeing the smoke from the trap that took out the team of Saviors sent to investigate the disappearances of their lookouts, Rick orders the Savior lieutenants to make a decision now. When no one answers, Rick mockingly begins counting before opening fire, sending Negan running for cover and his lieutenants back into the Sanctuary. Following Rick's lead, the Militia proceeds to shoot out the Sanctuary's windows. On Maggie's command, the Militia retreats to their vehicles blaring the horns as Daryl leads the herd towards the Sanctuary using explosions. Rick tries to shoot Negan as he crawls to safety, but misses. Climbing into the armored RV, Gabriel drives it at the fence and leaps out. On Gabriel's signal, Rick detonates the explosives in the RV, destroying the Sanctuary's fences and the walkers set up to guard those fences. Rick continues to shoot at Negan who finds safe cover until Gabriel convinces Rick to leave.
With the herd closing in, Rick takes a picture of the destruction and drives off. Before Gabriel can follow suit, he spots an injured Gregory begging for help. Under fire from the Saviors, Gabriel reluctantly goes to help Gregory. Pinned down by gunfire and with walkers approaching, Gregory panics and abandons Gabriel to die, stealing Gabriel's car and driving back to the Hilltop. With the fences down, the Sanctuary courtyard is flooded with walkers. Unable to get into the Sanctuary itself, Gabriel manages to get into a trailer, only to discover that Negan has also taken cover inside. Hundreds of walkers overrun the Sanctuary grounds, leaving it under siege.
Under Siege[]
Taking advantage of the siege, the Militia strikes against the other Savior outposts who are left vulnerable without the Sanctuary to support them. They also leave a number of snipers to keep guard and watch around the Sanctuary. The Saviors at the Chemical Plant Outpost, after slaughtering the Kingdom's army, attempt to get the Saviors' heavy weapons to the Sanctuary which will allow them to break the siege. However, they are intercepted and stopped by Rick and Daryl. Although Daryl considers using the weapons to break the walls of the Sanctuary and let the herd in, the weapons are ultimately all destroyed. A pair of Saviors at a warehouse attempt to use a stereo system and opera music to lure the herd away, but they are stopped and killed by Michonne, Rosita and Daryl.
Trapped in the Sanctuary, the situation becomes dire with Dwight secretly working behind the scenes to stir up resentment while Eugene tries to find a solution. The Savior lieutenants struggle to find an answer for their problems with Regina being forced to kill a Sanctuary worker that Dwight had secretly passed a gun to.
Stuck together in the trailer, Negan and Gabriel's situation also grows increasingly worse as the herd begins to break in. Negan attempts to get Gabriel to see his point of view while Gabriel attempts to get Negan to open up to him about his greatest sin. As the walkers begin to break in, the two enemies realize that no one is coming for them, and they must work together to escape. After Negan opens up to Gabriel about his wife, Gabriel agrees. Negan proposes that they cover themselves in walker guts so as to pose as walkers and sneak through the herd to the Sanctuary door which Gabriel agrees to. The two men cover themselves in the guts of a walker that Negan puts down with Lucille and successfully escape from the trailer, but Gabriel trips over a walker lying on the ground, breaking their cover. Despite the odds being against them, Gabriel and Negan manage to use Gabriel's gun and Lucille to fight through the herd and back into the Sanctuary where Negan restores order to the Saviors and has Gabriel locked up. However, Gabriel becomes deathly ill from the walker guts, a possible risk that Negan had noted while they were preparing to try it.
As the siege continues, Eugene devises a plan to use a makeshift glider and the iPod that he'd given to Sasha Williams to draw the herd away from the Sanctuary. Discovering Eugene's plan, Dwight destroys the glider, preventing the plan from working.
At the same time, going against Rick's general plan for the siege, Daryl, Michonne, Tara, Morgan and the Militia's snipers launch an attack using one of the Scavengers' garbage trucks to break open a hole in the Sanctuary wall to let the herd in and finish the Saviors off, forcing the survivors to surrender. However, Rosita refuses to take part in the plan and Michonne backs out at the last minute. As Tara, Morgan and the snipers exchange fire with the Saviors in the windows, Daryl drives the truck with a brick on the gas pedal through the herd and into the Sanctuary wall, creating an opening.
As Daryl and Tara retreat, the walkers swarm into the Sanctuary through the hole, devouring several people as the Saviors retreat to the upper levels. Seeing this causes Eugene to lose his faltering loyalty to the Saviors and commit himself to their cause completely in order to ensure his own survival.
Breaking the Siege[]
With the Saviors having managed to contain the herd to the Sanctuary's lower level, Eugene proposes a plan to clear a path to Negan for the Saviors to escape from the Sanctuary, one which will take a lot of ammo. However, Eugene reassures Negan that if he can get Eugene to his machines, he can create new bullets for the Saviors. However, Eugene decides against revealing Dwight's betrayal to Negan.
As per Eugene's plan, Saviors move to the upper windows of the Sanctuary and open fire on the walkers still in the courtyard below. Although the Militia snipers believe that the Saviors will run out of ammo long before the walkers are gone, Morgan deduces that the Saviors are creating a path from the main door out of walker bodies, creating a blockade against the other walkers so that the Saviors can get out. Once the path is cleared, the Saviors emerge from the Sanctuary and open fire on both the walkers and the snipers, forcing Morgan to call for a retreat. The escaped Saviors begin using opera music to draw the herd away from the Sanctuary. With the Saviors closing in on him, Morgan manages to draw some of the walkers towards him, forcing the Saviors to deal with them while Morgan gets away.
When Rick arrives at the Sanctuary with the Scavengers, he finds all of his snipers aside from Morgan dead and the herd gone, the Saviors having successfully broken the siege and retaken the Sanctuary. As the Scavengers flee, Rick is forced to make his own escape while under attack from the Saviors with the help of Carol and Jerry.
With the siege broken, the Saviors strike back at the communities and the Scavengers due to their presence at the Sanctuary at the end of the siege. While ambushing the Hilltop's convoy, Simon draws Maggie's attention to opera music in the distance and tells her that it's Simon's men leading the rest of the herd away.
Casualties[]
The Saviors[]
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The Militia[]
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