Preview For 'The Walking Dead' Episode 8x12 Released

AMC has released the preview for The Walking Dead 8x12, "The Key."

Per the official synopsis:

Hilltop's leadership faces a difficult dilemma after the arrival of unexpected visitors; Rick comes face to face with an adversary.

The preview or 8x12 teases Rick's return to the Hilltop while the Saviors prepare to "scare" the defiant communities back into submission through the use of weapons tainted with walker guts. As All Out War continues to unfold, Rick and Negan look to square off in a one-on-one and face-to-face confrontation.

8x11, "Dead or Alive Or," sees Daryl lead a charge of fleeing Alexandrians to the relative safety of Maggie's Hilltop community following the devastating attacks on Alexandria and the Kingdom.

The Alexandrians are forced to navigate a dangerous swamp in their trek, lead that direction by a trying Dwight who is still on the outs with an distrusting Daryl and Tara. The Saviors will avoid searching the swamp because of the dangers, Dwight says, pissing off an already frustrated Tara.

"It's too dangerous for the Saviors so you're gonna send us?" she asks.

The Alexandrians, wary of Dwight, agree.

"I chose my side," Dwight says. "This is it. I'm here to help you beat Negan. After that... well, I know how it ends."

Fine, Daryl grunts. They'll try the swamps.

Daryl and Siddiq clear walkers while Tara, hanging back with a left alone Dwight, aims to wreak vengeance on the man who killed her girlfriend.

"I'm sorry about Denise," he says. "I truly am. I don't expect you to forgive me, I don't deserve it. Just wanted you to know, that's all."

Tara trains her gun on Dwight and fires — a near miss.

Dwight accepts his situation as Tara sticks her gun into the back of his head. "Just wanted to help you win first," he says.

Their quarrel is halted by a search party of Saviors, dangerously close to discovering the weary group of Alexandrians just out of sight.

Out of options, Dwight steps out of the bushes. Laura — the Savior with the barcode neck tattoo, and who could finger him as the Savior mole — has yet to show up.

He bullshits an explanation for being in the woods alone. They buy it.

Dwight leads the Saviors away, and he's back where he started: trapped back at the Sanctuary, just another unwitting pawn of Negan's.

Elsewhere, Dr. Carson and a sickly Father Gabriel escaped the Sanctuary, finding refuge in an abandoned cabin. Salvation.

They were lead there by God, Gabriel believes, with mounting evidence starting to sway a disbelieving Carson: meds, antibiotics even, lay in wait for a needful Gabriel. A near-blind Gabriel knocks over a piggy bank conveniently containing car keys and a map, paying off the priest's unshakable faith.

Despite his situation — his illness could either leave him dead or permanently blinded — Gabriel is confident and more dutiful in his faith than ever, until their capture at the hands of the Saviors leaves Carson dead and Gabriel carted back to the Sanctuary as a prisoner.

"I thought I found it... what I was meant to do," says Gabriel, turned over to a freshly promoted Eugene, who now oversees his own outpost as a bullet maker. He sits, shattered, at a table where he'll tirelessly sort bullet casings.

"You have. So have I," Eugene says. "Get sorting."

At the Sanctuary, Dwight is present as Negan lays out his plans for gruesome warfare: the Saviors are going to use weapons tainted with walker guts in hopes of infecting Rick Grimes and his "merry band of pricks."

The Walking Dead 8x12, "The Key," airs Sunday, March 18 at 9/8c on AMC.

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