【Kelly the Coed 1 (1999)】

This post contains spoilers for The Kelly the Coed 1 (1999)Walking Dead Season 7, episode 4, titled "Service." To refresh your memory of where we left off, check out our recap of episode 3.

If it's true that misery loves company, I guess we should take solace in the fact that Rick Grimes and company are having a pretty rough week, too.

But after a long and brutal political ride in the real world, it's harder than ever to find pleasure in the violence and cynicism of The Walking Dead this season.

Yes, we all know that there will be a reckoning for Negan's cruel and callous behavior at some stage down the road -- Rick's simmering rage was palpable long before he cast a meaningful look up at the sign outside Alexandria that read "Mercy for the lost, vengeance for the plunderers" -- but it looks like we'll still have to stomach countless episodes full of tension and torment before we get to that point.

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Maybe the emotional battery of this week's installment would've felt more palatable if this year's political events hadn't been so unrelentingly intense, but considering how torturous and unsatisfying the Season 7 premiere was, and how frustrating much of Season 6 was, The Walking Dead'sdescent into nihilismwas a tough slog alongside reality, even for longtime viewers.

We don't need an extended, 85-minute installment to prove to us how awful Negan and his Saviors are -- the premiere made that point abundantly clear, as did last week's prolonged attempt to torture Daryl into submission. (Further proof that Carol remains the show's one bright spot, since episode 2 was a welcome break from the despair.)

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There's no satisfaction in seeing Rick shake with impotent fury as Negan humiliates him, threatens his son, traumatizes his best friend and takes all of Alexandria's weaponry. Even if we know that retribution will eventually come, will Rick (or we, as viewers) have enough spirit left to revel in that victory, or will it have been ground to dust under Negan's boot by then?

The Walking Deadhas always been skilled at creating characters we can empathize with and grow attached to -- a talent that's both a blessing and a curse, considering how gleefully the show dispatches them whenever the narrative calls for a gut-wrenching twist -- but there's a limit to how much tolerance we should have for watching people we love being abused.

Aside from being reminded just how sucky Negan and his gang are, what did we learn this week?

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• Dwight's conversion therapy is apparently having its desired effect on Daryl -- he knows better than to plead with Negan for his freedom when Rick tries to bargain for him, obviously predicting (wisely) that it will probably end in bloodshed or further humiliation.

• Carl is definitely drawing too much attention to himself, with his rebellious stunt resulting in the confiscation of Alexandria's entire gun supply, as well as Negan's disturbing admiration of his "giant, man-sized balls." As the last few episodes have taught us, being on Negan's radar is never a good idea.

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• Spencer has usurped Father Gabriel as Alexandria's most useless inhabitant: Gabriel at least has the presence of mind to pretend that Maggie is dead to account for her absence when Negan asks about her, whereas Spencer just spends the episode continuing to undermine Rick, with his hidden gun stash putting everyone (especially poor Olivia) in danger.

• Rick knows that Judith is Shane's daughter (because duh), and loves her anyway, since he's an inherently good guy, and he wants us all to get through the five stages of grief together by accepting the things we cannot change. "This is how we live now. I had to accept that too, so I can keep everyone else alive," he tells Michonne. "You have to accept this -- all of us do, or it won’t work."

• Rosita and Michonne, on the other hand, are still in the anger stage, especially after Michonne discovers that the Saviors didn't even take Alexandria's mattresses for themselves, they just burned them out of spite. The men might be feeling sorry for themselves, but as Maggie and Sasha demonstrated in the premiere, the ladies are ready to go to war. As Michonne tells Rick, "Everything we have, we got from fighting."

The Walking Deadairs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.

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