Chandler Riggs returns as Carl Grimes in this episode in a voice-over performance. His character had been killed off in the ninth episode of the season, "Honor", which was his last on-screen appearance. Steven Ogg, who portrayed Simon, had been told by showrunner Scott M. Gimple that Simon was going to be killed off at the live season eight premiere event on October 22, 2017. Ogg asked Gimple to have Simon to go down in a "big cannonball". Both he and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Negan's portrayer, acted out their roles in the final fight, despite neither having fight training. "Worth" received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an 85% with an average rating of 6.66 out of 10, based on 26 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "Worth" briskly cleans house to varying degrees of satisfaction, setting the stage for what could be one of the series' most explosive finales—assuming the show finally follows through on its promise of All Out War. Most critics commented positively on Steven Ogg's performance, with Joe Otterson of "Variety" saying "Once again, Steven Ogg proves himself to be one of the best villains in the game in this week's episode of "The Walking Dead". Ogg's Simon makes his move to take over the Sanctuary, but his timing proves to be a little off." Noel Murray of "Rolling Stone" commented the episode "All signs right now point to next week's finale being especially violent and deadly...Which is good. Because frankly, it's starting to seem like The Walking Dead's writers are as eager for this storyline to be over as so many of the rest of us have been." Nick Romano of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the episode an original score of "B+" and said "Last week left us with a few lingering questions, and now we have some answers." Luke Holland of "The Guardian" said of the episode "It was a dialogue-heavy episode, but because there was so much going on it felt brisk, tense and urgent, and left behind the promise of a finale with all the extraneous gristle removed." Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode a score of 7.3 out of 10 and commented ""Worth," Season 8's penultimate episode, wrapped up the current Savior game o' thrones storyline involving Simon's attempt to take over as the lead Negan of the Negans, but it seemed like a lot (and a lot of time spent with some uninteresting Saviors) just to get Negan to a place where he could line up with Rick's bloodlust."