It would have been hard to imagine TWD topping last week's spectacular show of sorrow, but they may have done it with "The Lost and The Plunderers." Even with Carl's death we were given some hope, but this episode is one of despair, of personal loss, and of isolation. Deceit, in its smaller and its more egregious forms, is braided into almost every interaction. An inherent mistrust hangs over everyone, a mistrust aggravated by grief and exhaustion. Even the infamous Negan himself seems weary and oddly humorless. Jadis and her community are destroyed and then abandoned. Rick is still whirling toward his grief, and Simon apparently has gone mental. Things seem chaotic at the moment, but there may be a unifying theme, some sin, so to speak, they are all committing: the sin of isolationism.
Simon Says
Some psychotic wire has been tripped within Simon. Negan would be incapable of committing the crime that Simon committed against Jadis and her people. He makes Negan seem reasonable and even merciful in comparison. In fact, Negan may have flashed a slight glance of apprehension at Simon right after he commanded him to follow his orders. We don't often see Negan afraid, so when we do -- its disconcerting. Despite the threat of Negan's infamous wrath, Simon has the most evil of meltdowns when he goes to the scavengers. The joy he finds in terrorizing Jadis is one of the more unexpectedly chilling moments of the show. I personally found this scene to be one of the hardest to watch out of the entire series. So, why the brutality?
Yes, we now know that Simon is a truly malevolent force in this world, but he may have exacted a punishment to Jadis that was deserved. It was a greatly exaggerated and needlessly brutal punishment, but maybe he was onto something that Rick also understands but responded to much more appropriately. Jadis may have had purity of vision in creating her own living world of art, unsoiled (ironically) by the outside world, and more importantly, other people. She refused, though, to acknowledge that part of the role of a leader is to be a diplomat as well as a dreamer, and so her community collapsed (with some heavy handed help). This motif, the warning not to turn others away, is one that is ever present in the series, and it has been realized most viscerally in this scene.