“What Happened and What’s Going On”

(All images used are screen caps from AMC’s “The Walking Dead” unless otherwise specified.)

Prologue

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Well, people, dally as I might, it’s time to face the beast.

It’s been 24 hours since Sunday night’s airing of The Walking Dead’s Season 5 mid-season premiere episode, “What Happened and What’s Going On,” and I am finally ready to start writing.

If you’re new here, welcome aboard the crazy train. These posts take a while, because I am a mom, wife, and working stiff, and the writing happens in the hours between the million things I have to do, all the time.

My WD buddy, who is ever-so-wise, says that she likes reading my posts sometime on Sunday, before watching that night’s WD episode. Great idea, and it buys me some valuable time! 🙂

My posts are ever evolving into something I cannot even begin to define, and my Season 5 writing schedule has come to include a Friday All-Nighter, or as close to one as I can manage.  This long stretch of writing in the lonely hours begins when I get home, around 8pm, from my day job (the paycheck one, not the mom one).

Once I get home, and make sure everyone is taken care of, tucked in, kissed and cuddled, I begin the process of getting myself set up for a full night of rewatching and writing.  The set up, of course, covers all angles, from cozy pj’s and slippers to a full-spectrum beverage selection, including water, green tea, and whatever else I select to kill the pain and keep myself going, for long, long hours until I click on “Publish,” usually sometime right before dawn.  If I have the energy, I will then have one more celebratory beverage and watch an episode of Archer before collapsing into bed.

So, the posts are usually up by Saturday morning, available for readers to recap and reimmerse into the previous week’s WD episode.

Sorry if that feels late, but it comes when it comes, and until I can quit my day job and devote full time to this kind of thing for my daily doubloons, it will just have to be something we all look forward to. Especially me.

And, on the bright side, once a post is published, it will be available online for the rest of our natural lives, and beyond. 🙂

The only reason I am able to do any of this is because my husband is awesome, and he supports my crazy endeavors, as I support his.  We have grown together so much over the years of being friends, sweethearts, then married sweethearts, fellow artists, and lifetime compadres who are raising two spirited young boys together, and these fine days, we are knocking it out of the ballpark as far as putting in a righteous effort in the name of love and family (blood, marriage, and extended…you know who you are!).

It’s not always easy, but it’s worth it.  It’s everything.

So, as today is Valentine’s Day, I would like to show my sweetie an extra nugget of love, and brag on him to the world.  I do not normally post personal pictures on this blog, but this is just too beautiful not to share.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce my husband:

Sorry to be so sappy, but it’s Valentine’s Day, for chrissakes, and sometimes you gotta shout it from the rooftops, even if it’s cheesy.

Sometimes, you gotta be like:

And, I am happy to report, this post is really turning out to be about LOVE ❤

As harrowing as this episode was, it was deeply beautiful, a work of pure artistry and mastery, and is an amazing tribute to Tyreese, and Chad Coleman.

Our man, Greg Nicotero, is evolving into a true visionary as a director. And Scott M. Gimple…within that calm, serene exterior beats the heart of a crazy genius and a beautiful madman.

Gimple and Nicotero are the top generals of Kirkman’s Army, the on-point, forever family team of cast and crew, the TWD Family. 

Nicotero, Gimple, and Kirkman’s Army will enforce, all day, every day, The Law of Kirkman.

For those of you who know the Law of Kirkman, say it with me:

Kirkman does as Kirkman wants, and Kirkman can, and will, play with our emotions. It’s nothing personal; it’s how he do!

Speaking of…my friend Mona told me that she read that the unexplained Gareth line in the Season 5 trailer, the one I based a whole Evil Terminal Twin Conspiracy Theory on, was put in there just to throw everyone off the Season 5 plot trail.

Is that true, Robert Kirkman?  Would you really do us like that?

<Mentally insert image of Kirkman here, smiling and pointing upward ^^^ towards aforementioned Law of Kirkman, “Um, think you just answered your own question!”>

Kirkman, Kirkman, Kirkman…I know it’s not personal…it’s just how you do. But, once again, I do know why Chris Hardwick yells, “Kirkman!”

Pretty tricksy, Precious, but I’m not 100% giving up on the ETTCT,  yet…

However, many in The Comic Set are buzzing these days about many clues, references, and “Easter Eggs” in Episode 509 that may suggest the imminent arrival of new, darker, meaner characters from the comic series into the WD Season 5 storyline.

On this, I will say no more, but the information is of course out there for those who want to find it.  I will point out what I see, in this post, but not elaborate in a spoilerish fashion.  Who knows what will happen? All will be revealed in due time, and as my WD buddy says, “The show is different!”

So, perhaps we are done with the Terminan chapter, for now, and we’re moving on to bigger, badder, and meaner villains. It certainly appears that way.  

It is safe to say that after watching Episode 509, “What Happened and What’s Going On,” that our gang certainly has more immediate, pressing issues at hand than worrying about Potential Future Terminans.

What the gang finds upon their arrival at Shirewilt Estates completely snuffs any promise of community, and shelter, or respite of any kind to be had there. The meaner characters have already paid a visit, and they left their calling card of unprecedented carnage and cruelty, lying among the wreckage and devastation of the once surviving walled community.

So sad, scary, and not good. So not good.

My WD buddy posted on my barnfullawalkers FB page: I’m thinking of starting a Walking Dead support group. 

https://www.facebook.com/barnfullawalkers

Brilliant, right?  I was in complete awe and agreement with this visionary plan.

I posted in reply: I am Joe’s complete lack of serotonin.

Greg Nicotero said on Talking Dead that Episode 509 was a very “manipulative episode.” 

It certainly was, and the shock of it made it all the more effective, and affecting, for the viewers. After losing two key, beloved characters within the first part of Season 5, we TWD fans were certainly not expecting to lose another beloved member of our sweet gang so quickly, and in such devastating fashion.

Tyreese! <sob!> ❤

Earlier that week, when we TWD fans were all watching the First Two Minutes trailer that AMC released for Episode 509 online, we all thought the funeral and burial we were seeing was for Beth, right?

Right…

Personally, I was feeling pretty certain this episode was going to focus on the different members’ grief and process over Beth’s death, and the group’s deciding of what the next step(s) would be, and of course, the challenge of “surviving together” in the open, without shelter or ready food/water supply, vulnerable to both walkers and living predators.

In my Season 5 2.0 prepost, “Surviving Together,” I thought I was being all cute and clever, talking about romantic hookups and stuff like that.

Being the Prime Time Pollyanna that I am, I thought that we TWD fans were going to be eased in to the mayhem that was soon to come in Season 5 2.0.  I know, I know. Mock away. Laugh.

I’m feeling pretty dumb about a whole bunch of things right about now, especially since, apparently, Tyreese’s name has two “e’s” in the middle, and I’ve been spelling our man’s name wrong, with only one “e” in the middle, THIS WHOLE TIME.

<Mentally insert here the peals of laughter and mockery from The Comic Book Set, who of course know how to properly spell Tyreese’s name, and who clued in to the many references from the comic series that were hidden within Episode 509…we know, we know, you guys are so much smarter than us Prime Time Pollyannas!>

I realized the distressing Tyreese Misspelling Debacle as I, emotionally shattered and tipsy from too many 420 tall boys ($1.59 each, 2/$3.00 at the neighborhood bodega, so of course that shit’s my new tech), began watching Talking Dead (finally!) after 75 minutes of Better Call Saul being wedged in between TWD and TD.  

And. speaking of, while I do love Bob Odenkirk as much as anyone (being a devotee of Mr. Show, back in the day, and of all things that are Bob Odenkirk), and I do want his new show to literally bathe in critical praise and mad success, I’m thinking a better name for that manuever would be Better Never Do That Again, AMC. 

Seriously, dude.  It wasn’t good.

I was teetering on the brink of a nervous episode by the time TD came on, and judging from the two or more times Chris Hardwick came on air during the commercial breaks, reassuring the viewers that the Better Call Saul “cuts, butts, and coconuts” situation was a one-time thing only, I can only guess I wasn’t the only TWD fan who was drinking too many tall boys and quietly freaking the fuck out (quietly, you know, as not to wake the children).

And then, when TD finally came on, and Chad Coleman and Greg Nicotero were being introduced as the featured guests, there it was, towards the bottom of the screen: the name, “Tyreese,” with two “e’s” in the middle, not one, as I had always written, had always thought I had seen when reading Tyreese’s name in social media, regular media, etc.

For the upteenth time that night, I was sitting on the edge of the couch, mouth slack, drunk, staring in disbelief at the tv screen, like:

That was it. I was done. Talking Dead was recording on DVR, so I, feeling like a total amateur, threw in the fake-blood soaked towel and went to bed, tossing and turning through a harrowing night of about 3 1/2 hours’ total sleep, filled with horrific zombie dreams, sour stomach, and parched throat (courtesy of way too many 420 tall boys and not enough water, or sense).

The next morning, jolted awake at 6:30 am by the phone alarm, and feeling like the complete opposite of a total champion, I somehow managed to pull it together and get the kids off to school. Then, I came back home to pound coffee and watch Talking Dead, along with my WD buddy, texting back and forth with her all the while.

Seeing Chad Coleman, happy, healthy, and laughing, and hearing Greg Nicotero talk about some of the finer points and details about the making, and storyline, of Episode 509 helped me feel a little better.

And, before I end this long-ass preamble and get to it, I know that I have been spelling Lizzie’s name wrong the whole time as well. While I caught that mistake back in Season 4, and tried to spell it the correct way, Lizzie, instead of Lizzy, I just couldn’t make the switch in my head.

Every time I tried to type out, “Lizzie,” it threw me off. So, I stuck with my dyslexia and my incorrect spelling, and Lizzie stayed Lizzy in my world.

I guess when you grow up listening to a lot of Thin Lizzy, it makes a deep impression in your psyche.

To honor Tyreese, and the other fallen members of our sweet gang, I will do my best to spell everyone’s name correctly in this post.

Thank you for your patience.

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“What Happened and What’s Going On”

The opening images for Episode 509 show, first, a shovel being speared into the earth, again and again, suggesting a fresh grave being dug.

Next, we see a framed drawing of a cozy house nestled in the woods,with an inviting front porch. The framed drawing is set on a dresser or desk of what looks like a child’s room…we will see images of this drawing, this house, again in the episode.  It is one of the key images used to show passage of time, and turn of events, as Episode 509 progresses:

The next shot is from inside a moving car, the sun flickering through the trees as the car speeds past. We hear the sound of a woman crying softly, layered over the images of the sun, and the trees, and the car’s movement.

We then see a shot of Maggie sitting on the side of the road, shot from the perspective of inside a stopped car, doors open, crying. She is alone, crouched over a small fire, her knees drawn up to her chest protectively, sobbing.

A brief, flickering image of a white house, from the perspective through an open doorway. We can see a smear of blood on the door frame, and we then see a close up of Noah, crying, a bleeding scratch on his forehead:

We hear Gabriel’s voice, eulogizing, as the shot pans over what is obviously a funeral service, and burial, in a field.  We see the figures of Gabriel, and Rick, and others from some distance back, through the fan of a weeping willow’s branches. It is hard to make out individual figures, and it is easy to assume that this service is for Beth, who was killed in the Season 5 midseason finale, “Coda.”

Gabriel’s voice intones, “We look not at what can be seen, but we look at what cannot be seen, for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal…”

We see images of the gang, running with guns towards parked cars, peering inside them, clearing them before yanking the doors open, as the haunting and beautiful strings of the Bear McCreary music weave in and out with Gabriel’s voice, as he continues his eulogy:

“…for we know if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.”

As the strings of the music, and Gabriel’s voice, intertwine, we see flashes of three photographs of identical twin boys, Noah’s little brothers (aka the Lil Bros <3):

Next, a lone image of the prison watchtower, with fences still intact…and then we see Noah and Rick, sitting in the back of a parked van with its back doors opened to a campfire.

Noah is talking about Beth, telling Rick, “She was gonna to come with me.”

Rick looks at the fire, then down, then at Noah, asks, “How far?”

Noah replies, “Outside of Richmond…Virginia.” Rick, processing this, looks straight ahead towards the fire, gives a shake of his head as he calculates the distance, and the risk, of such an endeavor.

We hear a baby’s wail, then see the image of a bullet hole in a wall, then a shot of what looks like a street in Woodbury, still intact, with a solar panel, and a garden box filled with growing cabbages, a shovel propped against it.

We hear Rick’s voice, first, then see him standing beside the white van, surrounded by Glenn, Noah, Eugene. “It was secure,” Rick is telling the group, “It has a wall, homes, twenty people. Beth wanted to go with him…she wanted to get him there.“

Rick continues, pitching this, “It’s a long trip, but if it works out, it’s the last long trip we’ll have to make.” As Rick talks, Glenn is looking down, not looking convinced.

Next, we see our first glimpse of another key, recurring image of Episode 509, the skeleton, long dead, half buried in the ground:

This image is followed by another recurring image, a painting in yellow of a happy sun on concrete, as one might see on a playground.

The scene shifts, and we see the white van, driving past mile marker 221 in South Carolina, suggesting that the gang is indeed heading to Richmond area, to Noah’s home.

We see a shot of Baby Judith, lying in a makeshift crib, self-soothing, chewing on her finger…

…we then see another image we will see again in Episode 509, of a walker woman trapped in a crashed station wagon, which appears to have slammed t-bone style into a red pickup truck.  The walker paws at the driver’s side window, and we see the driver’s side door is riddled with bullet holes.

We see another image of someone digging a grave…he is wearing black jeans, and boots, like Rick’s.

And, then:

The final image of the opening montage, before the iconic Bear McCreary title sequence begins, is of the framed drawing of the cozy house, which appears to have been knocked to the floor.  We see spots of blood on the floor around where the picture lay, and then, drops of dark blood begin to fall, and pool, onto the image of the house, obscuring it, covering it…

After the opening title sequence/commercials, we see a shot of an open road, flanked by trees, like a state road, rather than a major highway.  It would make sense to take these lesser used roads on this journey, as the highways are sure to be choked with backed up cars of once terrified people trying to escape the hell that was happening all around them… cars would have run dry of gas, or been abandoned long ago, and many would contain the long-deceased remains of decaying corpses…and certainly, trapped within the cars, or roaming in “herds” along the highway, would be walkers. Many, many walkers.

(Remember back in Season 2, that burly scene when the gang is on the highway, and must hide from their first-ever walker horde, and Andrea, later, refers to it as a “herd?” And when the second walker herd passes, Sophia spooks, and bolts out from under the car, and Rick goes after her, only to lose her when he must deal with two tenacious walkers? So much has happened since then…that season feels like forever ago!)

Rick asks Noah how far out, at this point. Noah checks the odometer, looks back towards Rick, guesses, “Five miles.”

Rick radios Carol, lets her know that they are halfway there. He is checking the radio’s range, and checking in with Carol’s group, who are travelling some ways behind Rick’s group.  Carol reports that “everyone’s holding tight”, and that they just reached the 500 mile point.  

“Maybe this can be the easy part, “ says Carol.

“God, I think we’re due,” Rick replies. He then tells Carol to give them 20 minutes to check in.

New Carol, solid as ever, replies, “If we don’t hear from you, we’ll come looking.”

“Copy that,” Rick replies, signing off.  Noah turns to Tyreese, tells Tyreese that he, Noah, has been wanting to tell him something.

“What’s that?” Tyreese asks, looking ahead, not at Noah.

Tyreese keeps his gaze focused forward, grips the steering wheel.  “It went the way it had to…the way it was always going to.” After a moment’s silence, Noah muses, “Never wanted to kill anybody before.”

Tyreese finally turns to look at the young man beside him. “I’ve wanted that,” he tells Noah. “But, it made it so I didn’t see anything except what I wanted…I wasn’t facing it.”

Noah looks at Tyreese. “Facing what?” he asks.

Tyreese answers, “What happened…what’s going on.“ 

Tyreese continues, telling Noah, as the others listen, that his father used to tell him, and Sasha, that it was their duty as “citizens of the world” to keep up with the news. Even as a little boy, when Tyreese rode in his father’s car, he would hear reports of atrocities worldwide that his young mind couldn’t “wrap my head around.”

But, no matter how disturbing the new story, Tyreese and Sasha’s father would not change the channel, forcing himself, and whomever was riding in the car with him, to “face it. Keeping your eyes open.“

Tyreese adds that his father used to call that, “Paying the high cost of living.”

Noah tells Tyreese that he lost his dad in Atlanta, then wryly adds that he thinks his dad “would have liked yours.”  Tyreese nods, with a little smile, and Noah nods too, adding that he still has a mom, and two younger twin brothers…as he says this, Noah’s mouth, and voice, is tight with his anxiety and worry.

Noah takes a deep breath, and turns to look out the side window. He adds, “I hope.”

Tyreese, looking back at the road, tells Noah, gently, “I hope so too.”

Noah looks at the odometer again, back at Rick. “Two miles,” he says.

Tyreese parks the van in the woods, right next to a red pickup truck which has been t-boned by a station wagon. The station wagon’s driver’s side door is riddled with bullet holes, and trapped inside is the woman walker we saw our first glimpse of in the opening sequence. The walker hisses and paws at the driver’s side window.

As the gang steps out of the van and looks around, Rick remarks that it is a good spot, that the van will look from a distance like it was part of the accident.  Rick then turns and regards Lemme Outta Here Walker, watches her a moment, his eyes narrowing in contempt, disgust…

As they walk away, Tyreese is the last to follow, turning to look at Lemme Outta Here Walker once more before continuing on after the others. As they walk through the woods, the gang passes the long-dead skeleton in the ground.  This is the second time we have seen this key image of Episode 509:

Limping quickly, Noah leads the gang uphill to a road that leads up to the gates of the walled community.  They pass the torn up remains of what looks like a dog, with flies buzzing around it. Noah hurries along, refusing to look down at the carnage, but Tyreese once again does not turn away, and looks down at the buzzing remains a moment.  Just beyond the dog, a simple wooden grandfather-style clock is lying in the middle of the road, and once again, Tyreese is the one member of the gang to pause a moment, taking in this bizarre and symbolic image.

Noah, stricken, sobs and scrambles up the fence and jumps down to the other side. Rick and the others follow.  Noah limps quickly ahead, the shock, horror, and anguish on his face growing as he looks around frantically, taking in one awful sight after another:

Glenn, Michonne and Rick go to take a quick sweep, while Tyreese offers to stay back with Noah.

Michonne looks sideways at him, then bends down and yanks the shirt out of the broken glass. “Clean shirt,” she says, turning to walk away.  “We’ll figure it out,” Rick says to her.  Michonne’s voice is tightly controlled as she echoes, “We will,” and then goes to the garage to collect some garbage bags.

Rick approaches Glenn.  “You didn’t think it (the Shirewilt community) would still be here?” he asks Glenn.

Glenn looks back at Rick. “Did you?” he asks, incredulously.

Rick tells Glenn that he saw, right after Beth was killed, the shock on Dawn Lerner’s face right after she shot Beth…she didn’t mean to do it, and Rick saw that, but he still wanted to kill Dawn. Right or wrong, meant to or not, Rick wanted to kill her.

Rick continues, tells Glenn that he didn’t know if Noah’s community would still be here, but Beth wanted to get Noah here. Beth wanted to get Noah back home.

From behind Noah, Tyreese begins to talk about how he wanted to die after all the things, the people, he lost…he was blinded by his anger, and grief, putting himself in front of a whole group of “those things,” ready to mete out his anger on them, until they took him.

He kept going, despite his pain and grief, and then, he ended up being there for Judith when she needed him.

Tyreese makes his way into another room, a child’s room, and sees a dead body lying still on a twin bed.  Tyreese’s face registers his pain at seeing this, and then his attention is caught by four photographs taped to the wall. The first three pictures are the snapshots we saw of Noah’s little brothers in the opening sequence of Episode 509, and the last photograph is of Noah and his little brothers together, at a movie theater, it appears.

Tyreese hears, too late, the hissing noise behind him, and he whirls around to see Lil Bro Walker, who has come right up behind him.

Tyreese screams in pain, and shoves Lil Bro Walker back, hard, with his foot.  The child walker flies backwards, taking a bloody chunk of poor Tyreese’s arm with it, in its teeth. Tyreese, in shock and pain, faces the child walker, who bares its teeth and hisses savagely at Tyreese, about to attack again.

As Lil Bro Walker is about to lunge for Tyreese again, Noah runs forward and plunges a knife into his reanimated little brother’s skull, rekilling the child walker.

After rewatching the Tyreese/Lil Bro Walker bite scene, I texted my WD buddy: I am Joe’s complete and total devastation.

We hear a newscaster’s voice, in melodious British accent (Andrew Lincoln’s voice, with his natural accent, was used as the voice of the newscaster) on the radio:

“At least 68 citizens of the republic have been killed in four deadly attacks along the main coastal district. The group has continued their campaign of random violence, moving across the countryside unfettered, the republic’s military forces in disarray…”

(While some have speculated that this newscast was from the first days of the walker apocalypse, I read that it was actually a reference to the Rwandan genocide campaign from a couple of decades ago…this would certainly mirror the timeline of Tyreese having a flashback moment, in this moment, in his feverish, near-death delirium, of a NPR or BBC newscast he may have heard back as a child, riding in his father’s car, all those years ago.)

Martin continues, “If I hadn’t told Gareth you were there, maybe he wouldn’t have gone after you, or maybe they wouldn’t be dead. Maybe Bob wouldn’t be dead.  Maybe him being alive, maybe something about that would have changed things with Beth…domino shit.”

Martin’s Ghost continues his mindfuck on Tyreese, musing, “Maybe you wouldn’t be bit right now.” Tyreese leans forward, feverish and sweating, and then we hear a familiar, beloved voice interrupt Martin’s mental manipulations with, “Man, that’s bullshit.“

Tyreese looks up to see:

Bob faces right to the camera, telling Tyreese, straight up, “I got bit at the food bank. It went the way it had it, the way it was always going to. Just like this.”

Just then, we hear the crackle of the radio, and the newscaster is reporting about the militants “terrorizing the villages at night, carrying out revenge attacks involving hacking up innocents with machetes, and in some cases, setting them on fire.”

Super burly stuff for a young child to hear, the reality, brutality, and horrors of the world.

And then, we hear another familiar voice, with a telltale huskiness and accent. “The bill has to be paid,” the voice asserts.

Tyreese looks up and is shocked to see…

The crackle of the radio, and we see the moving shadows, under the door, and hear the hiss and slaver of Lil Bro Walker #2, still trapped in the room across the hall.

Then, we hear a young girl’s voice speak, with quiet confidence and conviction, “It’s better now, Tyreese.”

And we, and Tyreese, see:

“It is,“ Mika echoes her sister’s words. “It’s better now.”

“It’s not better now, “ the Gov interrupts, loudly, striding towards Tyreese. “You know goddamn well that…” And as the Gov’s face comes closer and closer to Tyreese’s, it becomes:

Apparently not, and Second Act Walker brings it with everything its got.  It is one of the most terrifying walker attack scenes yet in TWD, as we see close-up, and hear so clearly, the snapping, relentless, deadliest weapon the walkers have: their teeth.

So, Tyreese goes with the only option left to him, and offers Second Act Walker his bitten arm. Second Act Walker sinks its teeth into Tyreese’s arm, making Tyreese howl in pain. With Second Act Walker still clamped onto his arm, Tyreese finds a geode and bashes Second Act Walker in the skull, finally rekilling it.

Meanwhile, Michonne has an idea: Why don’t they use the garage doors to barricade the opening in the wall, park cars to reinforce, until they brick the wall back up?

Rick adds that this development is surrounded by forest, and there’s no clear line of sight.  Whoever, or whatever, would be coming would be on their community before they, the gang, even knew the enemy was there.  Michonne is having a hard time letting go of the Shirewilt setup as their future home, and she suggests they cut down the trees around them, use the wood to build up the walls.

As Rick and Glenn exchange questioning looks, Michonne urges, “Come on…look!” They follow her out, through the opening in the wall, and see…

Michonne gestures to the devastation around them.  “This is what ‘making it’ looks like.”

The sound of cries interrupt Richonne’s sweet moment, and they work together to kill the walkers that have descended upon Noah, who is holding them off with a length of garden fencing.  Noah tells the others that Tyreese has been bitten, and they rush after him towards the house.

Beth’s voice adds, “You don’t have to be a part of it.” Then we hear laughter, and the shot pans over, once again, to The Ghost of Shitty Martin.

Lizzie, I think, chimes in, tells Tyreese that he doesn’t have to be a part of it. “You don’t,” says Mika. We see a pair of boots stride over, and the Gov crouches down to get more on Tyreese’s level.

Bob chimes in, says, “That is all there is.” The Gov says, “This is all there is. This is it.” Tyreese struggles mightily to stand, pulling himself up using the desk, standing on shaky feet.  Tyreese faces the Gov.

The following scenes depict the mayhem of getting out of Shirewilt and getting Tyreese to a safer place, to cauterize his wound and tend to him. It is not an easy task.

…the gang manages to get through the barbed wire fencing, and to the car.

The gang speeds down the road, and Tyreese can hear another news report…cannibalism, fires, mutilation of children.  The list of horrors goes on and on, mirroring the events and hells that Tyreese and the others have faced.

Enjoy the playlist, gang, the biggest yet in the history of barnfullawalkers: 10 songs of love, and loss, lament, and laughter for Tyreese, TWD’s Tower of Power…

Tyreese was the biggest man, with the biggest heart, carrying the biggest love inside. RIP Tyreese.  Sorry I spelled your name wrong all those times before, but I was talking the whole time about how awesome you are 🙂 One Love, Tyreese ❤

Tower of Power Playlist:

Wax Tailor, “How I Feel”

Stevie Wonder, “I Wish”

Nas, “One Love” (One Love, for Tyreese, and for our sweet gang, living and departed:  “I even got a mask and gloves, to bust slug for one love” <3)

Moby, “One Of These Mornings” (feat. Patti LaBelle) (For Noah’s poor mom, and Lil Bros 😦  I am so sorry, Noah!)

Panda Bear, Boys Latin

Boards of Canada, “Dayvan Cowboy”

Mos Def, “Love”

TV On The Radio, “I Was a Lover” (U sure were, Tyreese <3)

Jeff Buckley, “Hallelujah” (RIP Tyreese…you’ve got some good souls escorting you, and waiting for you, on the other side. <3)

Florence and the Machine, “You’ve Got the Love” (to #TWDFamily, all around the world…you’ve got the love I need <3)