'The Walking Dead': Tensions Mount Heading Into Midseason Finale

— -- The penultimate episode of "The Walking Dead" before next week's midseason finale opens with Michonne whistling on a road, deliberately drawing out walkers. She dispatches a pair before dragging one off.

Meanwhile, Rick and Aaron wake up at a box truck at dawn during their supply run. A different box truck carrying two Saviors has stopped, awaiting a highway of walkers to shamble by before they start rolling again.

Jesus and Carl are inside that truck. Jesus proposes jumping out as the truck nears Negan's compound, the Sanctuary. Carl suggests Jesus goes first. He does; Carl waves as the truck pulls away.

At the Saviors' compound, Carl wastes no time. He shoots one Savior and demands at gunpoint to see Negan. As other Saviors rush Carl, he shoots another of Negan's henchmen accidentally before he is taken captive. Negan shows Carl around the compound, stopping to show off both the respect the others show to him and his harem of wives. He also deals with one of his wives who cheated on him.

Back at Alexandria, Rosita refuses to go on a supply run with Spencer and instead takes Eugene to the bullet workshop.

Close to Alexandria, Spencer is driving with Father Gabriel in car and tells him he blames Rick for all that's happened. "There's no future with him in charge," Spencer sulks.

Back at Negan's headquarters, he makes Carl remove his bandage to show the scars from his missing eye. Carl is devastated. Negan apologizes for insulting him, then demands that Carl sing to him. Carl picks "You Are My Sunshine," which his mom used to sing to him. Negan practices swinging Lucille in the background.

Carl wonders why Negan hasn't killed him. Despite it all, he remains defiant: "You haven't killed us because you can't kill us," he says. Negan drives off with Carl. "We're taking him home," he tells Daryl, who threatens Negan not to hurt him. For that, Negan tells Dwight to give Daryl a "time out."

In his cell, Daryl gets a note that someone has slipped under his door, reading "Go now." Meanwhile, a redheaded female Savior drives on a country road until her truck is blocked by a pile of walker bodies.

She gets out to investigate, only to find Michonne's katana at her head. Michonne disarms the Savior and demands to be taken to Negan. The Savior fails in an attempt to overpower Michonne, who maintains the upper hand. At the workshop, Rosita flames Eugene, calling him useless unless he does what he promised earlier that he would do -- make a single bullet.

Negan has now taken Carl to Alexandria where he questions Olivia about Rick's whereabouts, noting that he'll pass the time until Rick's return by having Carl give him a tour. Negan enjoys the amenities of Alexandria, from running water to shag carpeting, before entering another room where he finds baby Judith. He picks her up and cradles the "little angel."

Rick and Aaron meanwhile continue their supply run where they find a compound protected by walkers.

Meanwhile, Eugene has made Rosita's single bullet, while Spencer shows up back at Alexandria with a cache of supplies he's dug up, intending to give them all to Negan. Later, Negan cradles Judith on a porch, telling Carl maybe he should kill him and Rick after all and move "to the suburbs."

The midseason finale of "The Walking Dead" airs next Sunday, Dec. 11 at 9 p.m. EST on AMC.