Remember how Rick and Daryl’s day during “The Next World” turned into a comedy of errors once they ran into Jesus?  Well, now Rick and Michonne have some light-hearted moments as they stumble upon a carnival full of fun, guns, and plenty of walkers to boot. This is “Say Yes.”

The episode begins with a montage as Rick and Michonne break into various homes and raid them for any food or weapons, all while finding time to bone in-between.  One day, Rick tells Michonne tells that he likes keeping watch at night, but she can have a go this evening.  They’ll need batteries for the walkie since it’s not working at the moment.  As the search continues, they scavenge whatever items they can.

Rick asks Michonne why she’s smiling when they only have a few guns and some clothes to show for it.  Michonne isn’t concerned because she knows they’ll still win this fight.  The two happen upon an open field where two Saviors are playing golf.  Later, they manage to secure some pretzels and batteries.

Rick wants a day and a half more to scavenge instead of going back to Alexandria, though Michonne insists that they don’t need to find them right now.  True, but Rick wants to stay out a little more.

Over at the Alexandria Safe Zone, Rosita stitches herself up before Tara can offer her assistance.  Tara is confident that fighting the Saviors can work because they have the numbers, but Rosita is skeptical about them finding guns.  She’s tired of waiting.  Tara admits that this won’t be easy, but she’d much prefer if Rosita saves her anger for the Saviors.  Rosita then leaves to go find some guns.

Back in the woods, Michonne hears a noise that she tells Rick was just a deer, but they go exploring anyway.  They arrive at a rundown theme park and take some guns from walkers while Rick also picks up some bullet casings.  They go around to get a better look.

At the same time, Rosita also goes on the hunt and spots a gun at a home when a walker stumbles out.  She grabs the gun, but it ends up just being fake gun that you’ll see cosplayers use.

Since most of the walkers in the area still have their guns, Rick and Michonne realize that this may be their opportunity to load up.  Michonne takes aim at one of the carnival games and her aim has improved, but then the ground collapses beneath the two of them.  This is what happens when you stand on a literal plot hole.  Michonne figures this for a sign, and it is: the room they’re in has tons of food.

Now Rosita gets to vent.  She returns to Alexandria and tells Gabriel that she didn’t find any guns, in case he was wondering.  But she had a gun that she was going to use to kill Negan.  Had she done so, Negan would be dead, and maybe she’d be dead too, but she doesn’t care because Olivia and Spencer would be alive, plus Eugene would still be here. Hey, Spencer brought his death on himself.

But anyway, Rosita was stupid enough to listen to Gabriel.  To that, Gabriel agrees.  Oh, but Rosita isn’t done yet.  She chastises Gabriel for telling people about their lives, but he only does that when they come to him.  He doesn’t know certain things, yes.

He said that Rosita wasn’t supposed to die and shouldn’t have tried to kill Negan because the people still need her.  Gabriel decided to meddle because he thought it was right and he knew the stakes were right.  He tells Rosita that everything is possible until her heart stops beating.

Rick and Michonne pack up the food, but take some time to enjoy some of it as well.  As for tomorrow, Michonne wants to get the weapons so Jadis will join them, then Negan die, but then what?  Rick says that they just keep going.  But Michonne wants to reorder the world after what Negan has done.  Rick is confident that they can do this with the other communities.  Still, Michonne feels that Rick should be the one leading the charge.

But Rick doesn’t want that responsibility, even though Michonne feels that he’d be good at it.  However, Rick isn’t sure he wants that.  But the two of them reordering things together, that’s much more preferable.  Michonne likes that at least.  Rick then says that the two of them can take their time with gathering the weapons since the place is clear and locked up tight.  And they’ve found the only way in.

If they get the guns, it shouldn’t matter that it might take longer.  Besides, Rick and Michonne still need to try some of these dinners.

Tara tells Judith all about her time at Oceanside.  She believes that if Rick and others go there, bullets will be exchanged.  She thinks that Oceanside should join them in retaliation for what the Saviors did.

Back at the carnival that time forgot, Rick and Michonne find parts of the field that aren’t closed in, so they’ll have to take care of the walkers slowly.  They devise a plan to split up the walkers and close off the open spots, but also keep quiet so as to not alert the other walkers.  There’s tons of walkers, so not sure why they don’t consider covering themselves in walker remains, but whatever.

They jump into action.  When Rick manages to pry a walker from the hood of a car, he and Michonne push it towards the gap.  However, after being surprised by a gun going off from a nearby walker, the two end up overshooting the gap.

Walkers soon surround the car, but the two climb out and cut down as many walkers as they can until the walker pack tears through the fence.  Rick and Michonne retreat note that they could just leave, but this can work.  Besides, they cut through the walkers with ease.

After spotting a terrible CGI deer, Rick climbs the Ferris wheel and prepares to fire, but he falls.  He shoots as many walkers as possible, but they soon devour him?

Nah, Rick has his dumpster moment and emerges from hiding and snaps Michonne out of her temporary funk.  The two hack through the remaining walkers and soon pack up all the weapons that they can grab.

Later, on the drive back, Rick stops and tells Michonne that he hasn’t been sleeping.  He’s been thinking about what they’ve lost and how Glenn saved him right at the start, but he couldn’t save him in return.  They went through something and this fight won’t cure it.  What happens next is they fight the Saviors, and people will die in the process, but even then, it will be worth it.

Michonne breaks down and admits that she can’t lose Rick, but Rick is certain that what they’re doing is creating a better future for Carl, Judith, and anyone who comes long after Rick and Michonne are gone.  Michonne helped him realize that.  They can lose their friends or each other, but it’s not about them.  It’s about their future.  And if Rick doesn’t make it, he’s confident that Michonne can lead.  He knows this because she led him here.

At the junk yard, Rick delivers the guns to Jadis, who wonders if the weapons are operational.  Jadis doesn’t consider this enough.  She wants nearly twice the numbers.  Plus, these are now their guns as part of the deal.  Rick wants to keep 10, but after some bartering, he bumps it up to 20.  And he wants Jadis to say ‘Yes.’  Roll credits.  As for what happens next, they’ll find more weapons in a few more days.

Oh, and Jadis knows that the cat was stolen.  Of course she does.  She’s not getting it back, though.

Back in Alexandria, Rick asks Tara where Rosita is, as she didn’t show up for her guard shift, but Tara has something important to tell Rick.

Turns out that Rosita went to the Hilltop.  She’s come for Sasha’s help.  Sasha agrees, but under one condition: she gets to take the shot.  Rosita didn’t bring any explosives from the bridge.  Instead, she brought a sniper rifle.  Based on information Carl, Daryl, and Jesus provided, Sasha and Rosita have a pretty good idea of the Sanctuary’s layout, so now the time has come for what could be a one-way ticket for both of them.

Similar to “The Next World,” “Say Yes” felt like a breather episode and allowed things to slow down for a bit while we spent more time with Rick and Michonne.  It might be the most time we’ve spent with them as a couple and it was welcoming to see them laugh and bond, even in the face of incoming walkers.

And just like how Rick and Daryl had their banter when they first encountered Jesus, it was fun to see Rick and Michonne on the move while stopping to laugh at things like falling through the ceiling or yelling to each other how many walkers they have left to kill.  It didn’t feel forced for the sake of humor and to be fair, Rick has become more relaxed since connecting with Michonne, so all of their moments felt natural.

This episode continued the talk they’ve had about what kind of lives they want to live while dealing with the Saviors, but the episode went deeper than that as the two discussed the future, whether for themselves or children who come after them.  Whether Rick or Michonne die in battle or naturally, dealing with the Saviors is just a temporary fix.  They’ll need to think beyond this speed bump and consider what comes next.

One thing’s for sure, Michonne doesn’t even want to consider living in a world if Rick’s not in it.  Yes, the Rick being eaten by walkers fake-out was ridiculous and telegraphed because there’s no way The Walking Dead would even think about having Rick go out like that, but we already know this.

It was more about how this would impact Michonne.  And seeing the horror on her face at the thought of Rick dying showed that losing him would kill her, as if the next thing she’d do is die just so she could be with Rick again in death.  She wants him to be part of their future, and while there’s no way Rick and Michonne are dying anytime soon, it was great to see just how crushing Rick’s death could be for Michonne.

Now as for everything else, it looks like Tara could go back on her word and tell Rick about Oceanside.  This could go two ways: they could try and negotiate so Oceanside will join them in the fight against the Saviors or both sides will start shooting.  Even though the women of Oceanside have shitty aim, the first thing they did was try to kill Tara.  If Tara brings others the community, chances are the women will try- and fail- and kill her again.

But they at least have more of a reason than the junkyard gang.  These folks are difficult to work with, no doubt, and you have to wonder whether they’ll turn up for the war. There’s no reason to think Jadis won’t just change the terms in her favor to be a dick  Sure, maybe this ragtag group could be the best allies yet, but it’s hard to tell right now.

And then we have Rosita’s second assassination plan.  This has the potential to go wrong, but that may be the point.  Between Abraham’s death and her missing Negan from two feet away, she’s become very stubborn.  She’s lashing out at Gabriel even though it’s not his fault that her aim sucks.  And she goes to Sasha for help after saying that they aren’t friends just because they both had sex with Abraham.

Fast forward to now and she’s recruited Sasha into what could be a suicide mission since she acknowledges that this could be a one-way trip.  Hell, there’s not even a could to this. Shit is going to go down and someone is going to die if this is Rosita’s plan.  Sure, Sasha’s a better shot, but like before, Rosita hasn’t filled anyone else in on this and she’s acting on impulse.

Plus, despite secondhand intel from others, neither of them has been to the Sanctuary, so they wouldn’t know how to approach it compared to Daryl, Jesus, and Carl.  Rosita’s actions are going to have consequences, and I get that’s the point of her making a rash decision.  Even though everyone wants Negan dead, her approach could spell disaster for either her or Sasha- maybe even both of them.

But that comes later.  In the meantime, “Say Yes” was a fun, light episode that gave us plenty of time to spend with Rick and Michonne.  While the two still had their fun, they did succeed in getting more guns, so the episode isn’t completely filler, as I’m sure some would believe, because it does progress the story.

Meanwhile, with Tara possibly set to tell Rick about Oceanside and Rosita seeking Sasha’s help for another shot at killing Negan, things are ramping up as the lead-up to war with the Saviors continues.