The Walking Dead season 7: Michonne and Rosita actors discuss episode 4

'Service' was a pivotal episode for the show's strongest female characters

The Walking Dead has aired the fourth episode of season 7 and it showed Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his Saviours take over Alexandria.

In a refreshing twist from most modern TV shows, it's the female characters who are refusing to sit back and let Negan terrorise them - namely Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Rosita (Christian Serratos).

In the episode, we see Michonne head outside the walls of the Safe-Zone to indulge in target practice in preparation for the eventual war she's convinced Rick will soon begin planning; he has other ideas. So broken by the deaths of Glenn and Abraham, he's letting Negan take full reign.

Meanwhile, Rosita steals a gun from a walker and asks Eugene to help her make a bullet - this is the lat remaining firearm with Alexandria's entire stash of guns taken by the Saviours.

Speaking about the episode, Serratos told The Hollywood Reporter: "The only logical explanation is that she wants to go after Negan. Right now, she needs and wants to eliminate the person who is causing such risk in their lives that they worked so hard for.

Elaborating, she said: "Rosita is now in military mode; she's about survival, revenge and she is on a warpath right now. It'll be fascinating to see during the rest of the season who inverts and who wants revenge and who goes into warrior mode."

Gurira told Variety about how Rick's inertia has seemingly caused he and Michonne to drift apart.

"They haven’t had a conversation since this happened. The shot with both of them in bed at the beginning of the episode, it’s very different from the first time we saw them in bed together. Then, they were disrobed, intertwined. Now they’re back-to-back and clothed.

"Michonne finding Negan there is very, very frustrating for her. They have been caught with their pants down. Rick has been shut down about it; they haven’t strategised. No one knows if there is a strategy.

She continued: "Michonne has been garnering a very real reaction to Rick’s inertia. It is really a very frustrating disconnect and lack of communication, which they’ve never had. It causes her to retreat. She goes back to being a loner and being by herself, figuring out how to handle this in a solo way."

These are the five major talking points from 'Service', an episode that was heavy on disturbing Negan quotes.

The Walking Dead continues in the US next Sunday with an episode that'll catch up with Maggie (Lauren Cohan) at the Hilltop Colony. Episodes air in the UK at 9pm Mondays on FOX.