The Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 3: Comic vs. Show

We’re here to break down the major similarities and differences between The Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 3 and the comics. Let’s jump in.

In both the comics and show, Gregory, who had just betrayed his own community, returns to The Hilltop and yells for help. (Backstory: When Gregory went to the Sanctuary in the COMICS he was successful in recruiting eight of his people to The Saviors, but when more didn’t show up Negan kicked him out and Gregory was forced to walk back to The Hilltop. In the SHOW, he recruited NO ONE to join The Saviors, was also kicked out, and stole Father Gabriel’s car to return to The Hilltop).

Back to the differences! In the show, Gregory begs Maggie to let him into The Hilltop and after a lot of pleading, she finally relents. In the comics, he’s immediately allowed in but the two of them get in a huge fight. Gregory tells Maggie he saved The Hilltop people’s lives while in the show he says he TRIED to save their lives. He’s also more desperate for forgiveness in the show, where in the comics he’s more stubborn.

The two go back and forth until Gregory calls Negan reasonable. (Triggered). Maggie swiftly punches Gregory in the face, and when he calls her ma’am she asserts her name is Maggie GREENE. Sound familiar? This happened in the show, too, but it was back in Season 7 when Gregory defended Negan before All Out War (Also, she demands her name is Maggie RHEE). As you see below, it had the same result:

Ouch. After Maggie does this in the comics, she turns to her own people and encourages them to fight against Negan. (Also at this time in the show she tells Gregory to “Shut your damn mouth” while in the comics she says “Shut the fuck up.”) Maggie also tells her people, “I believe in Rick Grimes.”

This didn’t happen in the show, and here’s where we really deviate from the comics. In the show, Jesus and Tara show up with a massive group of Savior prisoners to hold at The Hilltop. Although Gregory resists the idea, Maggie allows them to stay. None of this occurred AT ALL in the comics, so all storylines stemming from that belong purely to the show.

We covered this in last week’s comic/show comparison, but we can now finish it here. As we mentioned, in the comics Eric was shot in the head and died immediately. In the show, Eric was hit in the stomach and although he still died, was afforded time to say goodbye to his boyfriend Aaron. Also unique to the show was Eric turning into a walker and Aaron having to watch him wander away. Poor Aaron…

In the final moments of the episode Ezekiel and his Kingdom fighters get ambushed in a bloody attack from The Saviors. Ezekiel is tackled by his own people for protection but are shot in the process. This scene IS from the comics (as seen below) but since the show scene was so brief, we’ll save the major comparisons for a future episode.

Similar to last week, the majority of the scenes from the show didn’t derive from the comics. Scenes involving Morales, Ezekiel and Carol’s attack on the Saviors, the Jesus and Morgan drama, the captured Savior prisoners, baby Grace, and Rick and Daryl’s journey were all exclusive to the show.

That wraps it up for this episode! Tell us what YOUR favorite moments were from the show and comics and tune in for next week’s comparisons!