Elsewhere, Aaron and Enid decide to try to make up with the Oceanside community, whose guns they took to fight the Saviors, by bringing them a truck full of alcohol from a nearby brewery.
Back at Alexandria, Carl prepares to deliver more food to Siddiq, but is unexpectedly interrupted by Negan, who orders the community to surrender over a loudspeaker outside the walls.
Acting as decoys, Daryl, Michonne, Tara, and Rosita drive and smash trucks in the walls at the back of the safe-zone and through a roadblock of Savior vehicles, purposely arranged ineffectively by Dwight; a chase ensues.
Meanwhile, Maggie, Jesus, and a large convoy of Hilltop residents head presumably toward the Sanctuary to meet up with the Alexandrians in the hopes that the Saviors will surrender.
However, a group of Saviors overtake the convoy, revealing that they have captured Jerry en route to the Hilltop; Simon appears and approaches Maggie's car.
Infuriated by Carl's ruse, Negan orders his men to launch grenades into Alexandria; several buildings and houses are razed.
Negan's troops smash their way through the front gate and pour into the community while Carl provides cover through smoke bombs before he escapes to the sewers.
In the aftermath of the firefight, Dwight joins Daryl and company, who then descend into the sewers as Alexandria burns; Michonne remains above ground; at the sanctuary, Eugene helps the ill Gabriel and Dr. Harlan Carson escape to the Hilltop Colony, though Eugene fears Gabriel may not make it; at the Kingdom, Carol encounters the residents and finds Ezekiel, who locks himself in the Kingdom to face the Saviors alone, with Morgan observing this from a distance.
"How It's Gotta Be" features the revelation that the character of Carl Grimes was apparently bitten by a walker in the sixth episode, "The King, the Widow, and Rick".
Riggs said that Gimple felt they needed to make Carl appear as a humanitarian figure in death as to give something for Rick to aspire towards, as to overcome this characterization gap in the comics.
[8] Saavedra also believed that Carl's death was genuinely shocking, having criticized the show in his review for "The King, the Widow, and Rick" for playing it safe and putting main characters into situations that the audience knows they'll survive.
[9] Jeff Stone of IndieWire gave the episode a C−, writing: "Since it's the mid-season finale, basically every named character gets at least one line of dialogue, but the biggest focus is poor ol' optimistic Carl, who grew a pesky conscience between seasons.