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This review contains spoilers for The homo eroticism in science fiction comicsWalking Dead Season 7, episode 10, titled "New Best Friends." To refresh your memory of where we left off, check out our recap of episode 9.

At last: Daryl and Carol are reunited, and it feels so good. Even if "New Best Friends" had been a terrible episode (which it wasn't -- it was arguably one of the season's strongest to date), it still would've scored bonus points for bringing our two favorite lone wolves back together after way too many episodes apart.

And what made their reunion even better was how Daryl found out about Carol's safehouse in the first place -- as part of Richard's plot to incite a war between the Kingdom and the Saviors by framing Carol for killing some of Negan's scouts. It was an ingenious plan to get Ezekiel angry enough to take action, but boy, did Richard choose exactly the wrong accomplice for that particular scheme. Even if Daryl hadn't known that it was Carol that Richard intended to use as a scapegoat, there's no way he would've condemned an innocent person to die as a pawn in the soldier's game.

SEE ALSO: Can we take a minute to talk about female friendships in 'The Walking Dead?'

As for the reunion itself... Whether you "ship it" or just appreciate the enduring friendship between these deeply damaged but achingly altruistic heroes, you can't deny that the show comes alive any time they share the screen. Melissa McBride can do so much with so little dialogue, and it's hard to decide what was more heartbreaking -- watching the fear and anxiety play across Carol's face as she waited for Daryl to tell her whether the Saviors had killed any of her loved ones back in Alexandria, or watching Daryl lie to her and reassure her that "everyone's alright," because he doesn't want to drag her back into a fight that could cost Carol her humanity. Greater love hath no man than this.

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Sadly, it looks as though Daryl got his fill of The Kingdom's complicated web of politics after just a day behind its walls, and after getting into a moralistic debate with Morgan (the guy just brings it out in people, I guess) and getting some quality time with Shiva, he packed his bags and set off for Hilltop.

Now it's up to Morgan to convince Ezekiel to join the fight -- apparently getting his staff stolen by the Saviors wasn't incentive enough to start a war, but it feels like it's only a matter of time before something will push him into the fight again. Probably the brutal murder of Benjamin at the hands of that dickish Savior, right? The kid is way too wide-eyed and optimistic to survive in The Walking Dead's world -- he might as well be wearing a red shirt.

Elsewhere, Rick and the gang got to know the group of strangers (emphasis on strange), who nabbed Father Gabriel last week -- apparently they live in a garbage dump and had been watching the boat that Rick and Aaron ransacked for supplies for quite some time, waiting for someone with enough skill to do the hard work for them.

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The strangers had a pretty smart survival strategy: robbing the boat's robbers without having to risk a zombie-infested lake themselves. And they would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for Father Gabriel's pesky ability to leave notes during a kidnapping!

The whole setup seemed very Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome meetsReturn of the Jedi, especially once the oddly-spoken leader Jadis tossed Rick into a pit to fight against an armored walker with swords and spikes shoved through it to prove his mettle. Lacking the Force, Rick (with an assist from Michonne on the sidelines) settled for pulling a bunch of trash down on top of the walker and braining it with a shard of glass -- but not before he injured his hand on one of the walker's spikes.

SEE ALSO: 'Walking Dead' producer explains Rick's new attitude: 'He's not gonna take it anymore'

The show previously had a lot of fun foreshadowing Glenn's demise courtesy of Lucille with a number of other baseball bats and head injuries over the years, and it seems like the producers are doing something similar with Rick's right hand -- the guy sure does seem to find that particular appendage in peril on a disturbingly regular basis.

Could we be heading towards an amputation via infection? Probably not, but the writers are most likely going to have fun teasing us with tetanus for a while anyway.

Since Rick proved himself in one-on-one gladatorial walker combat, he earned the chance for his group to prove themselves to the strangers (they're apparently hard to impress), promising to find them guns in exchange for their help in the fight against Negan.

And unlike the Saviors, the garbage dwellers even gave back Father Gabriel as a show of good faith. Now Rick and the gang just have to figure out where to acquire a bunch of guns without running afoul of the Saviors. Tara's probably not going to be in any hurry to take them to Oceanside, but maybe someone could tip them off about the weapons cache Richard left in the shed near Carol's place, preferably before he has time to spring his trap on the Saviors and get Carol caught in the crossfire.

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

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Topics The Walking Dead