The Key (TV Series)

This article is about the TV Series episode. You may be looking for the Fear episode.

The Key
Season 8, Episode 12
Air Date	March 18, 2018
Written By	Corey Reed Channing Powell
Directed By	Greg Nicotero
U.S. Viewers	6.66 million
Episode Guide
← previous	"Dead or Alive Or"
next →	"Do Not Send Us Astray"
Cast Guide
Starring Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee Danai Gurira as Michonne Hawthorne Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier* Lennie James as Morgan Jones* Alanna Masterson as Tara Chambler* Josh McDermitt as Eugene Porter* Christian Serratos as Rosita Espinosa Seth Gilliam as Gabriel Stokes* Ross Marquand as Aaron* Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan Smith
Also Starring Austin Amelio as Dwight Tom Payne as Paul Rovia* Xander Berkeley as Gregory* Khary Payton as Ezekiel Sutton* Steven Ogg as Simon Katelyn Nacon as Enid Pollyanna McIntosh as Anne Jayne Atkinson as Georgie Cooper Andrews as Jerry * does not appear in this episode

"The Key" is the twelfth episode of the eighth season of AMC's The Walking Dead. It is the one-hundred and eleventh episode of the series overall. It premiered on March 18, 2018. It was written by Corey Reed & Channing Powell and directed by Greg Nicotero.

Plot

Hilltop's leadership faces a difficult dilemma after the arrival of unexpected visitors; Rick comes face to face with an adversary.

Synopsis

Negan stops by Dwight's apartment and welcomes him back to the Sanctuary. Dwight explains that he was heading towards Hilltop in hopes of running into Saviors. Negan orders Dwight back to work.

Simon directs his crew as they gut yard walkers and collect entrails into which they immerse their weapons for their attack against Hilltop. Negan predicts Rick's group will surrender once they comprehend his new strategy.

Dwight joins the Saviors as they mobilize. Simon instructs his crew to wound a few Hilltoppers with their tainted weapons and let them turn instead of killing them.

Dwight mounts his motorcycle and informs Simon that he plans to scout their route. Simon says they already have scouts and that Negan wants them to ride together for a debriefing. They drive off with a convoy of Saviors.

Negan dips Lucille in a bucket of walker guts and takes the open bucket with him in the car.

Rick and Michonne arrive at Hilltop and reunite with Judith.

Daryl apologizes to Rick for attacking the Sanctuary behind Rick's back. Rick forgives him and assures him that he's ready to fight Negan despite Carl's death. They decide to join a team of lookouts scattered around Hilltop.

Maggie and Rosita stand guard at the gate. Maggie peers through binoculars and spots a mysterious crate in the distance.

While en route to Hilltop, Simon asks Dwight what he thinks of Negan's plan. Dwight is hesitant to answer. Simon reveals his own doubts that Negan's strategy will work given that Rick, Maggie and Ezekiel "don't scare".

Rosita retrieves the crate and gives Maggie the attached note, which offers them a "key to your future" in exchange for food and records. The note includes coordinates for a meeting point. Maggie worries that it's a trap, but Michonne suggests they investigate.

Rick watches the road from a parked car. He spots Negan's convoy and reaches for the horn to alert the others, but decides at the last second to go after Negan on his own.

While driving through a city, Rick rams his car into the side of Negan's car, then pursues him down city streets.

Simon instructs the rest of the Saviors to stay behind and set up a perimeter while he and Dwight search for Negan.

Negan awakens in his overturned car, covered in walker guts. Rick stumbles out of his smashed vehicle, approaches and shoots at Negan, who uses the car for cover.

Negan escapes into an nearby abandoned building with Rick hot on his heels.

Inside, Rick continues firing at Negan but quickly runs out of bullets. On a staircase, he throws his hatchet at Negan and narrowly misses. Negan breaks through the railing on the stair landing and dangles from the edge by his fingers.

Rick grabs his hatchet and chops at Negan's hands, but Negan releases his grip and plummets into the basement.

Michonne, Maggie and Enid drive to the designated meeting spot and find two women waiting by a van. A third woman wearing a suit steps out and introduces herself as Georgie. Her bodyguards are Hilda and Midge. Georgie explains that she can give Maggie valuable knowledge in exchange for food and records. Maggie takes them prisoner instead.

Rick hunts for Negan in the basement. He discovers a barricaded storage room full of walkers. Negan makes Rick an offer: If Alexandria, Hilltop and the Kingdom fall in line, they'll only be required to send the Saviors a quarter of their supplies as long as Rick works at the Sanctuary as a janitor. Rick retorts that Negan lost his credibility after the Saviors killed all the Scavengers. Negan reels at the news of the massacre. Rick finds Lucille on the ground.

Simon and Dwight search for Negan. Simon presses Dwight into admitting his resentment of Negan. Dwight sarcastically says that he never thought about killing Negan even after he took his wife and burned his face. Simon expresses a desire to move on from Rick's group and find new communities.

Simon and Dwight find Negan's wrecked car. They decide to abandon their search and return to the Saviors. Dwight lights the car on fire.

At Hilltop, Rosita and Enid guard Georgie, Hilda and Midge.

Michonne confers with Maggie. Maggie refuses to release Georgie after discovering a significant supply of food in her van. Enid agrees that taking the food to feed their starving people is the right move, but Michonne argues that Carl wanted them to be better people. Maggie reflects on this.

Rick tells Negan he has Lucille. Negan forbids Rick from touching her. Rick sets Lucille on fire and bashes the barricade to the storage room, busting it open. Negan charges at him.

Rick swings at Negan. Meanwhile, walkers flood out of the storage room and attack. Negan tackles Rick, grabs his beloved bat and escapes. Rick chases him through a window. He runs outside and finds his car gone.

Maggie gives Georgie a crate of food and record albums, and Georgie reciprocates with a sizable portion of the food in her van, having seen the desperate state of Hilltop and knowing that it needs the supplies more than she does. She gives Maggie a binder full of plans for windmills, water mills and other schematics to help create a community, the key to a future that she had been talking about. "Build this place up," she urges Maggie.

After Georgie leaves, Enid talks with Michonne, expressing her skepticism of Georgie's vision. Michonne believes that Carl was telling them that there's more to building a future than simply fighting.

Simon and Dwight inform the Saviors that Negan is gone. Simon reminds them that with or without their leader, the plan goes on. They're all Negan. He proposes they attack Hilltop — and kill everyone. The Saviors raise their guns in solidarity as Dwight looks on in horror, having not realized that Simon intended to "move on" by killing everyone.

Negan wakes up in a driving car and finds Jadis behind the steering wheel, holding him at gunpoint. He chuckles and Jadis knocks him unconscious.

Other Cast

Co-Stars

• Elizabeth Ludlow as Arat
• Mike Seal as Gary
• Mandi Christine Kerr as Barbara
• Kim Ormiston as Hilda
• Misty Ormiston as Midge

Uncredited

Chloe & Sophia Garcia-Frizzi as Judith Grimes Scarlett & Sophia as Gracie Matthew Czarnowsky as Hilltop Blacksmith David Marshall as Hilltop Resident Jessica Marshall as Hilltop Resident Dalton Baxter as Hilltop Resident Laura Kelly as Hilltop Resident Natasha Reeves as Hilltop Resident Andrew Jay W as Alexandria Resident Jason Phillips as Alexandria Resident Jon Arthur as Alexandria Resident Landon Brooks as Alexandria Resident Mara Marowski Lockard as Alexandria Resident Steven Crook as Alexandria Resident Marie Dixon as Kingdom Resident Perry Johnson as Kingdom Resident Susan Boone as Kingdom Resident W.F. Bell as Savior

Deaths

• None

Trivia

• Only appearance of Georgie. (Unknown)
• Only appearance of Hilda. (Unknown)
• Only appearance of Midge. (Unknown)
• The title of the episode, "The Key", refers to Georgie's "A Key to a Future", which is "a book of medieval human achievement so that we may have a future from our past."
  • This episode's title is shared with the fourth episode of Season 6 of Fear the Walking Dead, marking the second time that an episode of the original TV Series and an episode of Fear the Walking Dead have shared the same title.
• This episode is 68 minutes long, with commercials, according to AMC's schedule.
  • It is the ninth extended episode this season and the twenty-seventh overall.
• This episode marks Katelyn Nacon's 25th appearance on the TV Series.
• This is the only episode in Season 8 to not feature any deaths.
  • Furthermore, this is the first episode since "Rock in the Road" to not feature any deaths.
  • This is also the first episode this season in which no named characters are killed.
• Rick uses the radio he took off of a dead Savior in "The Lost and the Plunderers" to see the Saviors coming.
• Negan finds out about Simon killing the Scavengers back in "The Lost and the Plunderers".
• This episode continues this Season's tradition of referencing previous events:
  • Michonne telling Enid "The last time we took a chance like this, it changed everything." is a callback to the episode "The Distance" when Rick ultimately decided to enter the Alexandria Safe Zone.
  • When Rick is talking to Negan while looking for him, he lightens a door locked with planks on which the word "EATERS" is painted, eventually containing walkers that can be heard from inside. This is a reference to the doors Rick saw in the pilot episode where the words "DON'T OPEN/DEAD INSIDE" were painted, containing walkers inside.
  • Jerry is still sporting visible injuries from the Saviors attack on him in "How It's Gotta Be".
• The lighter that Rick uses to set Lucille on fire belonged to Glenn Rhee. This is an indirect reference to Glenn's demise.
• This episode featured the first fully nude walker.

Episode Highlights

TBA

Goofs/Errors

• When Rick enters his car after seeing the vehicles of Saviors, a license plate can be seen in the front of his car. When he is about to hit Negan's car, the license plate is nowhere to be seen.