SEASON 10; EPISODE 7

Siddiq's psychological breakdown has been an ongoing thread in the narrative of season 10 of The Walking Dead. Last week saw his mental state worsen to the point where he was posing a risk to his own daughter. This week, his nightmares got even worse and with tragic consequences...

The Siddiq storyline was the main focus of the episode so I'll get onto that in a bit but first of all let's take a look at everything else that happened.

Aaron and Gamma have obviously met up a few more times since their first exchange and although they aren't exactly friends at this point, the fact that they are civil and not ripping each others faces off is something. Aaron appears to be trying to connect with her and tells her that he knows she's been put up to the task of sourcing info from him. He suggests that instead they just talk about non-important things. Gamma is indeed quite receptive to this until her sister is mentioned and when caught out in a lie, she hastily exits. As she heads off back into Whisperer territory, clearly feeling conflicted, Alpha appears and reminds her of who's side she is on by simultaneously making her feel valued and harming her at the same time. Hey, she is a cult leader after all. When Gamma and Aaron next meet it seems that she is back in line and she pulls a knife of him and tells him to answer her questions. Carol luckily shows up with Lydia in tow and the appearance of the latter shatters Gamma's beliefs in her 'leader'. A leader who told the group that her daughter was dead and who is actually a giant fucking hypocrite. The scene ended with a sobbing Gamma running off into the woods, closely followed by Lydia who had just thwacked Carol around the face with a wooden stick. I'm not sure if she's headed off to rejoin her old clan or if she has decided to fend for herself, although the latter seems more likely.

Elsewhere, Carol and Daryl brought back the whisperer they had captured and tried a couple of ways to get some useful info from him regarding the location of the super horde. Carol tried offering him jam sandwiches, Daryl threatened to cut his fingers and ears off. The old good cop, bad cop routine. The captive was having none of it though and after spitting a load of jam into Carol's face, he proceeded to tell them that they were weak and that he was willing to sacrifice himself for Alpha, because she loves him and protects him. She even killed her own daughter for the good of the group. This last revelation – that the whisperers think that Alpha killed her own daughter gives Carol and idea but before she can present Lydia, the captive has died. Apparently due to a monumental cock-up by Siddiq. Or so Dante would have us believe...

Which brings us back to the central plot of tonight's episode. For a while now we have been watching Siddiq's guilt and trauma get the better of him. A talk with Rosita seemed to offer some semblance of hope for him though. However the discovery that he had been feeding his patients undrinkable water – and therefore responsible for the infection that had ravaged the colony – was a huge setback. Watching his friends being executed is one thing but knowing that you are responsible for the deaths of your own patients is another. The final scene saw him a hollow shell of a man and when Dante entered his room to talk to him, it felt like the right thing to do. Unfortunately, Dante's speech set off a string of visceral memories which culminated in Siddiq realising that Dante was in fact the man who had made him watch his friends being slaughtered. Dante is a whisperer, a spy. And he's probably been responsible for poisoning the water supply and killing the whisperer captive (another thing that was blamed on Siddiq). Sure, Siddiq has been suffering with PTSD but Dante has been screwing with him this entire time. As the scene played out, I was at first worried that Siddiq was going to mistakenly attack (and kill) Dante – falsely imagining him to have been present during the deaths of his friends. However it quickly becomes apparent that he is not hallucinating, he is spot on. The fight is short and Dante strangles him to death. Dante's mutterings infer that this isn't how he intended things to go down. Is there a chance that he was a spy but has since come to like and enjoy living within Alexandria? Undoubtedly he has killed Siddiq in such a way that he can claim that it was a tragic suicide but questions still remain as to how on earth he was able to infiltrate the group. He's a character that effectively just showed up between series but are we led to believe he just turned up one day out of the blue and was welcomed into the community without an ounce of suspicion? Hmmm. Seems a bit odd if you ask me. Regarding Siddiq, it's a shock to lose him. As Carl Grimes was the one helped him join the group I naively thought he was an almost untouchable character on the show. He was the living breathing example of Carl's altruism. He's the first major loss of the series so far but I have a feeling we may see another big character depart in next week's mid-season finale...