‘Walking Dead’ Season 7 Spoilers: Negan Kills Two More Members Of Alexandria; Midseason Finale Recap

We can’t believe it’s the midseason finale of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” already! The show won’t be airing new episodes until February, but Sunday night’s Season 7, episode 8 was a big one and has everyone excited for the second half.

In episode 8 — titled “Hearts Still Beating” — Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) killed two more Alexandrians, but the group finally may be banning together to try and figure out a way to take him down.

Negan is still at Alexandria waiting for Rick (Andrew Lincoln) to return. Rick is out on a mission with Aaron (Ross Marquand) looking for supplies. While waiting for Rick’s return, Negan does something shocking: he shaves his beard! Instead of having his typical thick beard, Negan is now completely clean-shaven. He then heads to the kitchen to make pasta sauce for dinner. Tara (Alanna Masterson) meets Olivia (Anne Mahoney) on the front porch and gives her the lemonade Negan wanted. Olivia is crying and Tara offers to take over, but Olivia tells her no.

Meanwhile, Rick and Aaron decide to use an old boat full of holes to cross a zombie-infested lake in order to reach a boat house on the other side. They each grab wooden planks to use as paddles and weapons to help them reach the other side. About halfway through, the boat fills up with too much water and zombies start trying to climb in, but they are able to make it to another boat.

As Aaron gets ready to climb into the new boat, a walker pops up from inside trying to grab him. Rick kills it but a walker in the water manages to grab Aaron causing him to fall in the water. The walkers start to surround Daryl, but he manages to duck under them and swim to safety. Rick and Aaron then find a boat house loaded with supplies and ammunition.

Elsewhere, Carole (Melissa McBride) is still living alone in a house not too far from The Kingdom. She spots Morgan (Lennie James) in her yard and invites him inside. Morgan is there to bring her fresh fruit, but Carol reveals that Ezekiel (Khary Payton) has also been coming by with fresh fruit for her. Carol still wants to be left alone and tells Morgan to leave. As he opens the door to leave, Richard (Karl Makinen) is standing at the door and tells them that he wants to talk to them.

Richard explains to Carol and Morgan that The Kingdom has a good deal with Negan and The Saviors — they bring the Saviors food, and Negan won’t kill them — but Richard doesn’t trust The Saviors. He is worried that things will go wrong and the deal will fall apart sooner or later. Richard wants Carol and Morgan to convince Ezekiel to attack The Saviors, but Carol doesn’t want to be a part of it. Morgan says that if they do attack The Saviors, a lot of the people at The Kingdom will die. Richard is mad they won’t help.

Back at Alexandria, Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) sees Rosita (Christian Serratos) sitting inside the church holding a bullet. He wants to know who the bullet is for, and she tells him that she’s going to shoot Negan. Gabriel tells her that her killing Negan could also mean she will die, and it doesn’t have to end that way for her. Gabriel doesn’t want Rosita to try and kill Negan, telling her that they need to wait for the right moment.

As all of this is happening, Daryl (Norman Reedus) is still trying to figure out a way to get out of the The Sanctuary. He manages to change clothes and sneaks past a group of Saviors and makes it outside where he spots his motorcycle. Suddenly, Fat Joey (Joshua Hoover) walks by and sees Daryl trying to get away on the bike. Fat Joey begs Daryl to let him live and says he’ll let Daryl escape, but Daryl kills him bashing him over the head with the stick he was carrying. As Daryl is beating Fat Joey, Jesus (Paul Rovia) shows up.

Once again, things switch back to Alexandria. Spencer (Austin Nichols) is looking around at the mess Rick made in his home when he was looking for the gun Spencer had hidden. Spencer cleans himself up, changes his clothes and practices saying “hi” in the mirror before leaving his home. He’s going to see Negan.

When Rick and Aaron finally returned from their mission, Rick is told that Negan is at his home waiting for him. The Saviors start to unload Rick and Aaron’s note and get angry when they see a note that says, “Congrats on winning, but you still lose,” hidden in a crate. They think Aaron was trying to be funny and start beating him up. Rick can’t do anything and has to stand there and watch.

At the same time Aaron is getting beat up, Spencer is telling Negan how Rick is an awful leader. Spencer says that Rick doesn’t work well with others and will find a way to screw their deal with Negan up. Spencer tells Negan that his mom used to be the leader of Alexandria but she died soon after Rick showed up. Spencer wants to become the new leader.

Negan says that it takes a lot of guts for Rick to hate him so much but still go out and gather supplies so Negan doesn’t kill the people at Alexandria. “And then there’s you,” Negan says walking towards Spencer. Negan tells Spencer that he doesn’t like that he waited until Rick was gone to try and become leader. He says Spencer doesn’t have any guts. Negan then pulls out a knife and cuts Spencer’s stomach opening causing his insides to spill out onto the ground. Rosita and other Alexandria people watch in horror, and you can see that Rosita is getting angry.

Negan says that he wants someone to come and clean the mess up, and when no one walks forward he points his barbed-wire bat Lucille at the crowd. Rosita pulls out her gun, shoots and … misses! Instead of the bullet hitting its intended target Negan, the bullet hits Lucille taking a chunk out of the bat. Negan is angry that Rosita messed up his bat but doesn’t kill Rosita. He wants to know who made the bullet and when she doesn’t tell him, he tells one of The Saviors to kill someone. The Savior points the gun and fires a shot at Olivia killing her. Negan asks again who made the bullet and Tara yells that she made it, but Eugene (Josh McDermitt) says it was him. Instead of killing Eugene, he takes him with them.

During most of the episode, Michonne (Danai Gurira) was out with The Savior lady looking for Negan. The Savior tells Michonne that they are Negan and tells her that her plan won’t work. She advises Michonne go home. Michonne does and tells Rick that they are outnumbered by The Saviors but they need to fight. She says it will only work if she and him are working together, and he says he understands.

The midseason finale ends with Rick, Michonne, Tara, Rosita and Carl (Chandler Riggs) going to Alexandria, where Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Enid (Katelyn Nacon) are. Daryl and Jesus are there already. Everyone greets each other with hugs, and Daryl hands Rick a gun.