3 Days until that moment, the moment we in TWD fandom have been dreading, and anticipating…and dreading.
3 Days until we must bear witness to Negan savagely beating one (or more) members of our sweet gang to death with Lucille, a bat wrapped in barbed wire, a weapon created for the very specific purpose of shattering the skulls of certain, chosen members of a group, a community, while the others must kneel, and watch, and sob, and grieve, and accept the horror that is their lives now…a life of constant work, of constant worry, and of constant fear, a life of indentured servitude to a tyrant who seems devoid of compassion, of kindness, of reason.
As Robert Kirkman, said, so eloquently during AMC’sTWD retrospective special, “TWD: The Journey So Far,” the moment when Negan brings the bat down upon his victim is a moment that “changes absolutely everything, moving forward.”
3 Days, people, until that fateful moment.
We’ve been waiting.
But are we ready?
I don’t know, gang. I thought I was ready.
And then, this happened:
And then, it was like…whoa, whoa, whoa….wait. What? What?
What. The. Fuck. Is. That. Shit?
Like, in one moment in my life, I was completely and blissfully unaware of that shit. And then, my TWD buddies sent it to me, via group text (a.k.a. our lifeline. Daryl Partners forevs! ❤ ❤ ).
I watched it, and I watched it again, and as I watched, my world started to come down hard, and fast, all around me, with a deafening roar, until my ears were ringing and my mind was racing and I didn’t know what was happening, or where I was, any more.
The streak of blood across Rick’s cheek. Negan’s talk about the right hand, the right handman. And Simon handing Negan Rick’s hatchet, and Negan looking at Rick, that long look, before he drags Rick to the RV, holding Rick’s hatchet…what the fuck is he going to do with that hatchet? Is he going to cut our man Rick Grimes’ hand off with Rick’s own hatchet?
And then the slam of the RV door, behind Negan, dragging Rick, throwing him into the RV, and the horrible moment of silence, the horrible moment of not knowing what just happened, not knowing what is about to happen, inside that RV, that silence broken only by the soft sobbing in the background, male, and female.
And, as the camera pans down, we see, first, Daryl’s bloodied blanket on the ground, and as the camera continues down, the shot rests, just for a moment, on the bloody remains of what once was a living, breathing, beautiful, brilliant, beloved member of our sweet, sweet gang.
I cannot. I cannot. But, I must. We must.
As Glenn Rhee told Daryl Dixon, in TWD Episode 510, “We can make it together. But we can only make it together.”
(Long, ragged breath, here. Glenn.Glenn…I cannot. I cannot. But, I must. We must.)
Because we must, darlings, in the spirit of a much-needed rallying cry, and in the spirit of the Law of the7 P’s, I am going to take us through The 7 P’s of Surviving TWD Season 7, barnfullawalkers-style.
For those of you who haven’t learned the Law of the 7 P’s, it goes like this:
Now, this saying may sound old-timey and lame AF to some, while others of you may be rolling your eyes to the back of your head and beyond at this point, because you’ve heard your parents, and your grandparents, say it forlikeyour whole freaking life, but I am telling you, kids, it wasn’t until I was in my mid-thirties until I first heard the Law of the 7 P’s, and frankly, I wish someone had told it to me sooner.
It may have saved me a lot of trouble over the years.
So, in the spirit of paying it forward to young humanity, I offer you my personal patented system of The 7 P’s Of Surviving TWD Season 7 (additional “P” words may, and will, be added as addendums, i.e. add-ons, because we all know I can be loquacious AF when I get on a roll…)
Partner(s) … (as in, Daryl Partner(s) ❤ Now, darlings, back in the day, just before the TWD Season 4 mid-season premiere, I penned my first prepost, thus starting a time-honored tradition at barnfullawalkers(along with some of the best playlists I have made, yet…I don’t know why, but the prepost playlists are always extra awesome. Maybe because we’re all so stoked for the upcoming TWD season.) :
In this post, I came up with the idea of securing a “Daryl Partner,” a ride-or-die-fellow-TWD-fan-friend (s) who will be there to support you in these dire times, when a favorite TWD character meets his or her untimely, and tragic, demise.
We predicted this time long ago, my friends, this time when we are looking at the imminent death of one or more major, beloved character(s). And here we are, only days away, crying at stoplights when sentimental songs come on the radio, or when we see a certain post, or rewatch a certain TWD episode.
I know you all know what I am talking about, because we are all in it, people. We signed up for this crazy ride, and shit’s about to get real (even though, you know, it is only a show, but we TWD fans know it’s so much more than that. It kind of reminds me of that Harley-Davidson saying from back in the day, “If you have to ask, then you wouldn’t understand.”)
Whether in the IRL or online, your Daryl Partners are a vital lifeline for you right now. Keep the lines of communication open. Reach out, check in with each other. Give, and receive, the love. These are trying times.
Remember, we can make it together. But, we can only make it together.
(Blinking back tears, trying to compose myself, again.)
As Andy Lincoln said so eloquently during the TWD retrospective special, “I think the audience needs to not watch the returning episode alone. Be with your loved ones, and hold hands, and make a nice meal. Really say nice things to each other, and tell them you love them, before embarking on this returning episode.”
Listen to the beautiful, wise man, loves. He knows.
2. Personal Coping Methodology/Pharmaecopia: We all have our own ways of dealing with stress, loves, some more advisable than others. Nobody is here to judge, and if you are, well, then, you need to know that around these parts, we are all about love and acceptance.
Some years ago, I came up with a saying, “For every vice, adopt a virtue, and vice-versa.” And, in my life, I have held true to that, and it in the process, I have had lots of fun and have managed to keep it relatively tight and tidy over the years.
I highly recommend it.
Personally, I like dabbling in a rock-n-roll lifestyle, and I also like taking care of body, mind, and spirit. It’s like having your cake and your kombucha, too.
So, my personal coping methodology may include a pot of green tea earlier, with a shot of whiskey later. I may do my yoga to death metal. I may stay up way too late blogging, and need two or three strong cups of coffee with that CoffeeMate Sweet Italian cream creamer stuff to get the kids to school on time (barely) and me to work by 8 am (again, barely). Or, on my off-day-weekdays, I may drop the kids off at school, come back home, and go back to bed, and ignore the piles of dirty dishes to be washed or piles of clean laundry to be folded. (I really, really love those days.)
So, darlings, it’s time to stock your larder with lovely things to eat, maybe some chocolate for when those seratonin levels start dipping. Green tea, Sleepy Time tea, Bach’s Rescue Remedy, perhaps something a little stronger. Drink plenty of water. Take your supplements. Make your bed extra cozy, take a mental health day from work, and hide under the covers. Bingewatch Gilmore Girls. Hug your loved ones, cuddle your pets.
Keep in touch with your Daryl Partner(s).
Do what you gotta do, gang, whatever works for you to get through the day, as long as it doesn’t do undue harm to self or others.
3. Physical Exercise: Even if you are an avowed geek who reviles exercise, it would do your body good to step away from the screen and go for a walk, outside, with or without earbuds, for thirty minutes a day whenever possible. Physical exercise staves off depression, it keeps your heart and bones strong, and it keeps your lymphatic system moving, which bolsters your body’s immune system. If you break a sweat, that’s even better, as sweating helps the body to rid itself of toxins. Just remember to drink plenty of water. And wear your sunscreen.
Whatever exercise you like to do, it’s a great time, and great weather, to do it.
Biking. Treadmill. Gardening. Yoga. Dancing. Swimming. Stationary bike. Running. Laser tag. Pilates. A spirited bout of air hockey, pinball, or foosball, even. Go bowling with your Daryl Partners. Take your dog for a walk.
But, whatever you do, darlings, if you are out and about, please do not, I repeat, DO NOT, take any money, candy, or puppies from any shady clown, or clowns, you may see loitering about.
And please, do NOT ever follow said shady clowns into the woods, even if they say there’s a really awesome clown kegger going down there.
Nothing good can come from that, darlings. Not a damn thing.
Unless, of course, you happen to be Norman Reedus. ❤ 😀
4. Pampering/Panacea/Parasympathetic Nervous System: You might not even know what some these words even mean, but the basic message here is that you’ve got to let your body, mind, and spirit rest, relax, and recover whenever possible, especially now that TWD Season 7 is upon us.
See, kids, the parasympathetic nervous system is the involuntary part of the central nervous system that recharges, repairs, and rebuilds our body’s structures, organs, and systems when we are resting, sleeping, or deeply relaxed. It works in conjunction with the sympathetic nervous system, the voluntary aspect of the central nervous system which is on high alert when we are in “fight or flight mode,” or in modern society-speak, the “multitasking” or “getting it done” parts of our daily lives.
To be able to tackle the challenges that we face throughout our days, and soon, throughout our Sunday nights, we need to pamper ourselves with relaxing activities like soothing baths, yoga, meditation, massage. Even putting your feet up with a cuppa something lovely and watching a favorite feel-good movie, or show, can help your body’s parasympathetic nervous system take over for a spell, and recharge your batteries.
5. Posts, Pictures, Playlists, Procrastination, Prayer/Ritual, Predictions, Prognoses, Promises, and (Shameless Self) Promotions & Plugs: As always, dear readers, I will continue to show my endless love and devotion to our favorite show with blog posts, which may include some, or all, of the following:
Pictures, playlists, prose, poetry, links to other pop-culture sites and media, and other forms of parody (as long as it’s hilarious).
I cannot promise week after week of 10,000+ word epic recaps and deconstructions, a la my Season 5-style blog posts, because my life is too full, and too busy, these days. If an endeavor doesn’t contribute to raising my kids, making a paycheck, or keeping a home furnished, fed, and functioning, then any additional activity or hobby pretty much takes a back seat to what needs to be done in the moment. (And, as nobody has offered me a job yet doing this, then this blog is, out of necessity, filed under “hobby.”)
I do, however, promise you this: Any and all offerings from barnfullawalkers will be 100% all about the love for TWD, our sweet gang, and my TWD family worldwide.
And, now, comes the Shameless Self-Promoting & Plugs part of the P’s: If you like reading my blog, follow my @barnfullawalkers Instagram account, and you will be treated to my many postings about TWD, and my obsession with pop-culture in general.
Sometimes, I even post cool pictures of my garden, or the world around me, or even an occasional selfie. It’s like getting little morsels of the blog around the clock.
Show the love, people, not only to my IG account, but to any of the IG accounts featured in this post, if you’re not already. You’ll be glad you did!
In my own personal coping methodology, prayer and ritual are a big part of me getting in the zone. Building small shrines to Rick and the sweet gang, burning fires in the fire pit, working in my garden, burning candles, incense, and making cut flower arrangements, whimsical art, etch. are all rituals that I do to get myself focused to write, to post, to create. It is also my way of showing my undying love and devotion to TWD.
I am almost always listening to the barnfullawalkers musical playlists that are in varying stages of creation, or completion, as I am doing these rituals of mine, that help me stay connected to TWD and my personal creative offerings and edits.
Whatever your spiritual beliefs, or non-beliefs, may be, I highly recommend all TWD fans to engage in their own personal ritual when times get tough, to send out the love.
So, go ahead, light a candle, create a shrine, or find some creative way to show Rick and the sweet gang, and TWD, the love. I know, from many of the amazing offshoot projects that have blossomed from The Walking Dead comic and television series, that many TWD fans are already doing just that.
Prognoses and Predictions: Ok, here goes, gang. I know I originally predicted that Glenn Rhee, and/or maybe Aaron to be my top guesses as to who Negan picked to get the bat.
I am amending this guess, after many compelling hours discussing, reviewing, and theorizing with my TWD b’s and online TWD family. I am now, along with many, many TWD fans, predicting that both Glenn Rhee and Abraham Ford are the unlucky victims who get beaten by Negan’s prized weapon, Lucille.
It is hard to say it, let alone imagine it, but I can only pray that if that is indeed the case, then hopefully both Steven Yeun and Michael Cudlitz are kept on in a directing/writing/production capacity, especially since any actors who were around for Season 6 had to, to some degree, continue to show up for work at TWD productions until the airing of the TWD S7 premiere episode, so as to not give anything away.
Whoever gets the bat, may TWD, Inc. make it worth their while in the end. I am sure that the airing of this premiere episode will be difficult and emotional for the cast and crew on many levels (as it certainly will be for the fans), but I do imagine it will also bring a great deal of relief, especially to the actors that have had to keep this secret for many months, even from their closest family and friends.
I was going to go into other predictions, and theories, with this prepost, but I am thinking that maybe I will get into those thoughts later, and address them in future posts. I have many thoughts about Rick, about Daryl, and about Dwight, whom I predict will play a major role in continuing to teach us about the inner workings of Negan, and the Saviors, and who will, I feel, play a key, probably tragic role in the uprising against Negan.
¡Viva La Ricksistance!
6. Pacing, Prioritizing, Perserverance, Processing, and Purity of the Art Form: As difficult as it may be to process the intensity, the plot twists, and the losses of beloved characters as the TWD story continues to unfold, we as fans must respect the purity of the art form and roll with what Kirkman, Gimple, Nicotero and Co. are dishing out. They have a plan, they are super inspired, and we must have faith in that.
The fact that millions of people are feeling real grief over the anticipated death of one or more beloved fictional characters, and the potential maiming, trauma, heartbreak for other beloved fictional characters, proves that Kirkman, Gimple, Nicotero and Co. are doing, well, a smash-up, bash-up job.
Pace yourselves, darlings. Power off if you need to, go outside and be in nature. Make taking care of yourself, and the ones you love, the priority. We are in this for the long haul.
I dedicate this post to my sister, Peg, who has been a diehard fan of the TWD television series since the beginning, and whose birthday is on Sunday, 10/23. I love you sweetie. Stay strong. I am with you, always. ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤
And to all the TWD fans out there, I love you guys. Stay strong, and remember:
“We can make it together. But, we can only make it together.”
Until Sunday, gang. Be well, and enjoy the playlist. ❤
Before webegin our 2016 TWDSeason 6Halftime Report, we at barnfullawalkers would like to come out swinging our trusty bats (wrapped in barbed-wire, of course) and show our dear readers the lovewith this humble offering, theMy Bloody Valentine’s DayPlaylist, featuring18 songs celebrating the many phases, stages, and rages of love.
Happy Valentines Day, and Happy TWD Season 6 Mid-Season Premiere Day, #TWDFamily! You, and our post ZA family of Rick and the sweet gang, well, you all complete me.
So, thanks for that, and for that, I offer this:
❤ ❤ MyBloody Valentine’s DayPlaylist ❤ ❤
Now that we’ve gotten our groove on, there are a few key points I’d like to address before we take a few last deep breaths before diving once again into The First FourMinutes of TWD’sEpisode 609,“No Way Out.”
First off, I’d like to raise a cheers to the news that barnfullawalkershas officially upgraded and is now on the new, swanky “Premium plan,” which basically means, pictures are back! Yes!
<whistles, cheers, catcalls, guitar solos, lighters held high in the air, stage-diving>
Also, I have been going back and editing previous posts, not so much for content (although there has been a little tidying up in that direction), but more for fixing errors, typos, and adjusting font and punctuation where, and when, indicated.
Editing is truly a humbling endeavor, and I am finding that it must happen on many levels if one is going to strive to make their work as seamless as possible. What I try for when I write, and edit, is to make what I am saying sound as natural, organic, conversational as possible.
So, for those frequent readers who like to revisit past posts, and playlists, you may see some slight changes in the way the posts look, and hopefully, much improvement. In addition, due to the swanky new premium plan, there are many more formats and options available to play with, so www.barnfullawalkers.com will most likely be getting a bit of a makeover in the writing interim.
At barnfullawalkers, we strive always for upward momentum, evolution, and maximum awesomeness as we ship our favorite show. ❤
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And now, dear readers, without further ado, let us revisit The First Four Minutes of TWD’sEpisode609, “No Way Out”:
(All images used in this post are screen caps from AMC’s The Walking Dead unless otherwise specified.)
At first, it all seemed to be going pretty well…
After managing to survive the ambush that separated them, and their respective adventures, Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham reunited, armed with a full fuel truck, a new grenade launcher, and some new duds for Abraham to go a’ courting in…
I am not sure exactly what Daryl is looking at in this opening shot, but it is not the first time I have wondered what he is thinking about…it looks like he is checking the side view mirror, maybelooking for a glimpse of his stolen motorcycle and crossbow?(Man, and he had just gotten that bike finished and tweaked out just the way he wanted it…poor guy!) Fate and fortune can be treacherously fickle, Daryl Dixon…one minute they smile upon you, the next minute, they are crushing you under their stiletto heels and laughing.
Abraham and Sasha, riding shotgun, spot something up ahead on the road…
Shit. This is probably in the top ten worst possible scenarios to roll up on…
…biker dicks armed to the teeth with guns and attitude, parked and waiting in formation, blocking the road. Daryl slows, stops the fuel truck about ten yards away from the gang. What else can he do? One well-aimed shot from one of their guns can blow up a fuel truck full of flammable gas. The front dick (who I nicknamed Snidely untila real name is assigned tohim) beckons with his hand, calls, “Whyontcha come on out? Join us in the road?”
As Abraham, Sasha, and Daryl slowly file out of the truck, regarding the men warily, Snidely taunts them, “That’s great…goin’ well right out of the gate.“
“Step 2,” Snidely instructs, beckoning again with his hand, “Hand over your weapons.”
Shot of Daryl, looking majorly fine vibing Snidely and all his asshole flunkies.
“Why should we?” Daryl growls softly. (Man, I seriously love when Daryl gets all soft and growly like that. You tell ’em, Daryl Dixon!) ❤
“Well, they’re not yours,” replies Snidely, snidely.
“Whose are they?” asks Sasha Fierce, soft and growly, with full wildcatready 2 pounce attitude. ❤
Snidely cuts a look at Sasha Fierce...it seems he, and his ilk, do not enjoy uppity females as much as I do.
Snidely takes a step closer towards Sasha, informs her, Abraham, and Daryl that, “Your property now belongs to Negan.“
After a terse silence, Snidely adds, “If you can get your hands on a tanker, you’re people our person wants to know.”
Snidely then steps over to Daryl. “So, let’s get those side arms, shall we?” while we TWD fans get a super beautiful shot of Daryl’s side arms and triceps.
Daryl’s look says it all.
Snidely beckons with his fingers, again, prompts, “Right now.” As Daryl reaches back for his sidearms, we can see Snidely checking him out, Dirty Joe-style. Man, these greasy bad guys really are super duper gay for Daryl!
Daryl does not break his gaze from Snidely as he hands him his gun…
Snidely quickly takes the handgun.
“Thank you,” says Snidely, brightly, a twinkle in his eye and a #DarylBoner in his dirty trousers.
Next, it’s Sasha’s turn. Tapping Daryl’s handgun, Snidely steps up to Sasha Fierce, and she silently hands him her firearm. “Thank you,” he whispers, and Sasha lets out a small laugh, like, “Motherfucker, if I only could, your brains would be all over this asphalt right about now.”
Next, Snidely steps up to Abraham, who continues to look away, not acknowledging Snidely at first…
After a significant sigh from Snidely, Abraham finally slides his gaze down, regards the man with a look that silently mirrors Daryl’s unspoken sentiment: Fuck you.
“If you have to eat shit, best not to nibble. Bite, chew, swallow, repeat.Goes quicker.” Sounds like this advice is coming straight from a man who knows.
Abraham says nothing to this…
…and after a moment, reaches his hand down for his pistol…
…slowly slides it out of the holster…
…and silently hands his weapon over to Snidely.
Snidely’s lips curl as he mouths, “Thank you,” to Abraham.
As Snidely saunters back to his bike with their weapons, Sasha Fierce crosses her arms and asks, “Who are you people?”
“I get the curiosity,” Snidely replies, striding back to his bike and handing the weapons to one of his goons, “but we have questions ourselves…”
“…and we’ll be the ones asking them, while we drive you back to wherever it is you call home…take a gander at where you hang your hats.“
Snidely raises his finger, as if remembering something. “First, through,” he says…
“…your shit.” Snidely looks at Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham, his hand outstretched, waiting. “What have you got for us?”
“Yeah, you just took it,” Daryl replies.
Snidely looks at his man-crush a moment…
…before looking down, with a regretful smile, and shaking his head. He looks back at Daryl with a pained look. “C’mon, I mean, can we not? Ok?”
“There’s more,“ continues Snidely.
“There is always more.”
At the trio’s refusal to budge, Snidely gives one more mock-regretful sigh and turns to one of his goons.
“T, take my man to the back of the truck, start inside of the back bumper, work your way to the front.” Snidely straddles his bike as the goon shoves Daryl towards the back of the truck.
Abraham’s gaze follows Daryl and the goon back as Sasha stretches her neck, trying to tamp down her rage at what is happening.
In reply, Abraham demands, loudly, “Who’s Negan?” (Ha ha,yes,how I love you, Abraham.You rule so hard.)
And, in reply to that, Snidely cocks the handgun he is holding and points it at Abraham. “Ding, dong, hell’s bells,” he sings out. “You see, usually, we introduce ourselves by just popping one of you right off the bat, but you seem like reasonable people.”
Snidely turns to Abraham, laughs, “I mean, you’re sportin’ dress blues, for chrissake.” (Ugh, I knew those bad guy dicks were going to mock Abraham’s outfit! Assholes!)
Snidely continues, “And like I said, we’re gonna drive you back to where you were, and do you know how awkward it is carpooling back with someone whose friend, or friends, you’ve just killed?”
Snidely then rolls his eyes in a mock-grimace, as if remembering all those awkward carpools he had to suffer through in his shady past of being a murdering flunky.
“But,”Snidely continues, narrowing his eyes and pointing the gun at Abraham, “I told you not to ask any questions.”
“And what does this ginger do?”
“So,” concludes Snidely, “that’s that.” Snidely puts his hand to his chest and widens his eyes in mock-earnestness. “I don’t want you to get the wrong impression of me,” and with that, Snidely releases the safety and points the handgun, about to pull the trigger…
“Wait!” calls Sasha, hurriedly, fearfully.
Abraham turns to look at her. (Wow, maybe she does like you after all, bud!)
With all eyes on her, Sasha Fierce takes some deep breaths, composes herself. “Wait,” she says again, slowly, more forcefully.
Snidely waits.
“You don’t have to do this,” Sasha begins, and in response, Snidely narrows his eyes, reaches in his jacket, and pulls out another pistol, points it at Sasha.
Keeping his eyes on Snidely, Abraham says, out of the side of his mouth, “Shut up.”
Sasha Fierce looks back at Abraham, completely annoyed, and whispers, “I am talking to the man.”
“No,” Snidely disagrees…
“…you’re not.“
And with those words, Snidely releases the safety on the second pistol…
…and Sasha and Abraham stand, bracing themselves…
…as the Bear McCreary music swarms and builds.
Damn, only the first four minutes of Episode 609, and I am already majorly stressed out! I am seriously hoping Daryl Dixon is back there, choking ol’ T out behind the back bumper or some shit…Baby Jesus, send us a miracle!
And now, because we could all really use a laugh right about now, ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy the Halftime Report Halftime Show, brought to you by Bad Lip Reading:
Meanwhile, back at Alexandria, things aren’t going much better inside the breached walls…
Beslimed in walker blood and guts, Rick leads the way, holding Carl’s hand as he leads the group through the sea of walkers who keep streaming through the walls’ opening, swarming around the streets of Alexandria.
The group surveys the swarm of walkers they must walk through.
We hear Rick’s voice as he begins to move through the walkers, from back inside the house when he was outlining the plan, coaching the others, “Stay calm.“
We see a close up of Michonne, looking like a badass as she moves her way through the walkers.
Close up shot of Sam, looking frightened, as Rick’s voice continues, “We can move right through ’em.”
We see a close up of Jessie, making her way past fearsome looking walkers as we hear Sam’s voice call to her, “Mom!” We hear one of the walkers begin to snarl, agitated at the sound of the little boy’s voice.
VDay Walker be like, “Dude, I thought they said this was gonna be a kegger.”
We hear Rick’s voice-over, again,“We don’t draw attention,”as Sam’s face shows his growing panic as the group makes their way through the walkers. “Mom!”Sam calls again, more loudly.
Rick looks back, like, “What the shit?“
Ugh, gang…I’ve got a bad feeling about this!
Gear up, people…if the interviews and the buzz surrounding the second half of TWD’sSeason 6 are any indication, we are going to get our asses handed to us by Kirkman, Gimple, Nicotero and Co. on a tarnished silver platter, piled high with fake blood and guts, with a smile and a few words of friendly advice:
“Bite, chew, swallow, repeat.”
Until Sunday, loves. Stock your coping larder, and get ready for a wild ride when The Walking Dead Season 6 mid-season premiere airs on Sunday night, February 14th at 9 p.m. Eastern.
Happy Bloody Valentine’s Day, and because we are all in this together, I leave you with some lovely pictures from the Entertainment WeeklyTWD spread.
But first, A Message of Love for our sweet gang, and for TWD fans worldwide, from David Bowie and Lemmy Kilmister:
(All images used in this post are screen caps from AMC’s The Walking Dead unless otherwise specified.)
Well, dear readers, once again, the joke’s on me…as I was frantically plugging away to get this epic post finished, my bare-bones, bottom-of-the-line WordPress blog theme finally buckled, and cannot hold any more images until my broke ass can afford an upgrade.
It’s something I have been wanting, and needing, to do for a while, and it will happen, loves, but not right away.
I was going to end this post with a thoughtfully crafted message to you all, letting you know that, out of necessity, I was going to have to dial way back on the level of posting I have been doing, which we can probably all agree is pretty insane. We do love it, no one more than me, but it’s become pretty hard to justify, time-and-energy-wise, and almost impossible to sustain.
I had hinted at this inner quandry in my TWDSeason 6 prepost, “The Night Before The Walking Dead Season 6 Premiere.” The reality of these times is that my family, my world needs my full, focused attention right now. Making these posts happen takes a lot of time, energy, and attention, and while I am already blown away by TWD Season6, and am inspired on so many levels, I need to simplify things, give myself, my family my full time, love, and attention right now.
Honestly, people, I’m a little fried, and I am needing to “relax the posting standards,ease into civilian life”for a while, as Abraham Ford would say. It’s time to find a new balance.
When I am able to upgrade my blogsite, I will start loading pictures, text again, at some point, along with playlists, which I will still post, weekly, on this site. The playlists are on Spotify, and I think they are easily accessible to all, even if you are on a free plan and have to deal with ads. It’s worth it. The playlists have been really fun and inspiring for me to create, with each week’s new episode in my mind, and in my heart. I stand by each and every one.
I have written 47 posts over the span of two years on www.barnfullawalkers.com, covering The Walking Dead episodes through the entirety of Seasons 4 and 5. I have left a sizable body of work for peeps to read, enjoy, and I certainly plan on posting more actively on my social media accounts. I will provide links to these accounts, along with my email address.
I would consider it the most amazing job in the world if I could do what I do here for a living, celebrating, promoting pop culture, sharing thoughts and feelings, and turning peeps on to great music. In the moment, I am but a working stiff who tries to squeeze out the droplets of time to do this…this latest obstacle seems like a sign for me to honor what I need to do, open my mind, and my perspective, and get creative with how to work around all this.
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I am sorry if this sounds lame, or is disappointing. It’s just the way life happens. I have been working hard on this project for two years, a fairly solitary endeavor on one hand, but it connects me to TWD fans, and readers, all over the world. This crazy blog is far from over, dear ones, and while I get my shit together, and tend to my nearest and dearest, there is so much fun buzz, art, and conversation about this already amazing sixth season of TWD.
Much love, dear readers, and enjoy this humble, almost-complete homage to The Walking Dead’s Season 6 premiere episode, “First Time Again.”
“Rick?”
“I know this sounds insane…this is an insane world.We have to come for them, before they come for us…it’s that simple.”
“You see that!?”
“It’s open! We gotta do this now! We’re doing this NOW!”
(Dude, already, the hotness…the Rick Grimes hotness…it’s all-consuming. I love it so.) ❤
Rick-In-Charge delegating, peeps scrambling…getting it done, son.
Carter looks like he’s about to cry. “Rick, we’re not ready!” Too bad, so sad, Carter. Fucking get ready, do this shit, and you can cry about it later. (Even though Carter is a weenie, the actor who plays him, Ethan Embry, is completely awesome, total TWD fan who auditioned for various roles on the show 5 or 6 times before getting cast as Carter. He had to keep this news a secret from the group of friends he gets together with to watch TWD. How cute is that? They must have been totally shitting when they found out he was going to be on it!)
Rick bellows, “Abraham, Sasha!” “Damn straight,” replies Abraham, “We’re doing this live!”
Nicholas: “I’m here, let me help.” Glenn: “No.” Nicholas: “I’m HERE!”
Glenn: “Do everything I say.” Nicholas: “I will.”
Daryl yells, “They’re coming!”
At Rick’s command, “Get ready to hit the flares!”one, two, three flares go up, diverting the walker horde’s attention towards them…
…and here come the Plan B Walkers.
As the walker gets shoved through the narrow opening between the trucks, we see how its skin and soft tissues tear away easily from the bones. Greg Nicotero, you beautiful madman!
Taken down by Daryl’s arrow. ❤
As one of the trucks pulls away, according to plan, the Plan B Walkers spill out of the opening.
“You were wrong.”
Wordlessly, Gabriel nods.
Abraham takes a drink…
…and then pours one…
…for the dead. RIP Reg. 😦 ❤
Meanwhile…
As he gets up and rushes off, Jessie calls after her eldest son, “Ron!” (Watching this, I turned to my WD buddy. “Ron??” I asked her. Not Rowan, like I had always thought?“Ron,” she agreed, nodding. I turned back to the tv, thinking, ‘Damn, I really do need to get my hearing checked!’)
This poor family has been through such hell.
Glenn and Nicholas come stumbling in…this was right after Nicholas shot Glenn, they fought, Glenn almost killed-then-forgave Nicholas scene in the woods.
“You guys look like shit,” Tara jokes, weakly.
Glenn sees Tara, beams at her.
Maggie comes rushing in, sees Tara awake, then Glenn. As she tends to him, Glenn puts his injuries off on “walkers,” calling Maggie’s attention back to as she turns and glares at Nicholas.
Eugene comes in, then, and his face breaks into the sweetest little smile when he sees Tara awake, sitting up, “Holy shit!” he exclaims, running over to her.
Tara blinks up at Eugene. “Thank God, nothing happened to your hair,” she deadpans.
As Eugene keeps looking down, smiling at her, Tara says, “Ok, Eugene…”
She turns to the others. “Eugene’s freaking me out. Somebody needs to send Noah in here to save me.”
(Oooo, Nicholas, you are in so much trouble…)
This is the worst night in Ron’s young life, and that’s saying something, considering the poor guy is growing up in the zombie apocaplypse.
“You were right,” Morgan says to Rick. “It wasn’t over.”
“We should talk tomorrow,” Rick says, in a polite, veiled manner. He then walks over to Morgan, leans in towards the seated man.
“Listen…I don’t take chances, anymore,” Rick tells him.
Daryl pauses eating, watching the exchange, Morgan looks down, registering Rick’s meaning. He looks back up at Rick. “And you shouldn’t,” he agrees, easily.
We see the Newbies running, pacing themselves but looking scared as shit while Rick-In-Charge’s voice instructs over the radio, “You all have your assignments…you know where to rendevous.” (I’d be all like, “Yessir, General Smash! I know where to rendevous, Sir!” Good thing the Newbies were regulars at Aaron’s cardio kickboxing class, back in the day in ol’ Alexandria.)
Two other Newbies fire flares up into the air to keep the walkers coming towards their lead as Rick-In-Charge reviews the plan, “Daryl leads them out…Sasha and Abraham join him at the bottom of the hill.”
“Glenn,” Rick’s voice continues over the radio…
“You hit us when you take care of the walkers at the tractor place. That’s the one thing we gotta get ahead of…”
“Everybody, keep your heads. Just keep up.“
(Yessir, General Smash!Keeping up, Sir!) Rick stops, looks back to check on…
…Daryl, who coasts slowly on his motorcycle, coming up over the hill. We do not see the massive horde of walkers just a few feet behind him, yet, but we hear their savage cacophony grow louder and louder as Daryl rolls closer. Always putting himself at the greatest risk for the good of all.How we love thee, Daryl Dixon! ❤
Daryl does not look up as he asks Rick, “So, was he ok with it?”
“It was pretty much his idea,…he gets it.”
“It’s got a bed and a bath, but it’s still a cage, you know?” Daryl replies, quietly.
Rick looks down at Daryl. “He gets it,” he says, again. Rick then tells Daryl that Morgan told him what happened at the cannery, how Morgan found and rescued Daryl and Aaron.
“Did he tell you about those guys he met?” Daryl motions to his forehead. “W’s?”
Rick nods. “Like that walker we saw…yeah.“
“We need more watch points,” Rick continues, “and I’m gonna tell Deanna…”
“…we don’t need to go looking for people any more.”
Daryl takes this in, silently, before giving a nod, turning away. Rick can see this doesn’t sit easy with Daryl.
“You feel different about it?” Rick asks him.
Daryl turns back, looks at Rick, nods. “Yeah…I do,” he says. ❤
“People out there, they need to take care of themselves, just like we do,” Rick asserts.
Daryl says nothing, but his look seems to say: But we were people out there, not that long ago, and we’d still be out there if Aaron and Eric hadn’t found us. Rick tells Daryl that he will let Morgan out soon, that they shouldn’t keep him “in there” any longer than they have to, and turns, walks away, leaving Daryl to process all this.
As the car speeds down the road, Abraham looks out the window, asks Sasha, casually, “You good?”
Keeping her eyes on the road, Sasha nods. “Yeah,” and she does sound like she might actually mean it.
“I’m trying,” Sasha amends. Abraham suggests something about “Because if you were gonna go buckwild,”implying that maybe Sasha was still hellbent on her deathwish.
Sasha, annoyed, retorts, “If you were so worried, why did you get in the car with me?”
“Listen,” Sasha says, “Doing something as big as this, that’s living.”
Sasha sees the marker. “There it is,” she says, pulling up and stopping at the red helium balloons tied at a tree. “We’re at red,” she radios in, “Bottom of the hill.”“Alright,” Rick radios back, “Here comes the parade.”
“Where’d you learn that?” “Friend,”Morgan replies.
“Before, or after?” asks Rick. Morgan looks up and regards the man in front of him.
And says nothing.
This makes Rick snarky. “I ask, you answer, it’s common courtesy…right” Rick smiles tightly, and Morgan gives a little laugh, looks down, remembering. (Now, darlings, I know that Snarky Rick is not the hottest incarnation of our man, Rick Grimes, but remember, it’s been a rough couple of days, and thankfully, this snarky period does not last too much longer…we seem to be moving through it pretty well by the end of Episode 601, when many, many more pressing matters present themselves in front of Alexandria’s hallowed steel walls…but,more on that, later!)
“After…it was after, everything.”(Ok, I cannot wait to see that backstory episode, but if I have to watch little Dwayne get chomped by his undead mom, Jenny Walker, I may lose it…just saying.)
This softens Rick a bit, and his hotness meter immediately starts to climb as he apologizes, “Look, I’m sorry for this, for having to do this,” and he gestures around the detention mansion that Morgan has been detained in. “That’s alright,” Morgan says, quickly, then adds:
“The way I look at it, sometimes you’re safer when there’s no way out.” (Great line, and I find myself hoping this is true, because I think there’s a bit of foreshadowing happening with this statement…like, Alexandria’s going to be surrounded by thousands of walkers, and there will be no way out…)
“Gotta get to know each other again,” Morgan says, easily.
“For the first time, again.” (I really do love how Scott M. Gimple inserts the episodes’ titles into the dialogue, somewhere…a consistent favorite moment for me, in each episode!) ❤
Meanwhile, manning the gate, Eugene hears the sound of a vehicle pulling up, then a voice on the other side of the fence, “Hey, it’s us, you gonna let us in, or what?”
In response, Heath is greeted by a mulltastic stranger who replies, “I technically am not authorized, so I will not be doing so.”
“Who the hell are you?” “You first,”replies Eugene.
“I’m Heath. I live here. My team’s been on a run these past couple weeks.”
“I’m Eugene…I brought myself and my group directly within that window…
”
Heath cuts in, “Open the gate.”
“If I do, how do I know you will not attempt to kill me?”
Heath gives a little laugh at this. “Look, I’m not going to kill you…”
“…but the longer you make me wait, the more you’ll motivate me to want to beat your ass.”
Eugene looks at Heath a moment, then at Carter, and another woman, the driver, waiting behind Heath in the car…and after another brief moment, the gates roll open to allow Heath and his team inside. Eugene meets others, Scott and Holly, and as Heath closes the gates, he asks Eugene, “Anything big happen while we were gone?” Eugene thinks a moment. “We had a meetin’ last night…”
“Oh, yeah?” Heath asks. “About what?” Eugene pauses. “You might want to talk to Deanna, get it from the horse, her mouth, you know.” he replies. As Heath turns to go, presumably to find Deanna and find out what the hell’s going on, Eugene calls after him, “It’s nice to meet somebody like me…I fully respect the hair game.” This leaves Heath more confused than ever…was he just complimented, or insulted? Fully rattled, Heath turns and walks off…not realizing yet, of course, that he hasn’t heard the half of it.
In the next scene, we see Rick and Morgan, walking up to a section of the wall. Morgan asks who put it up, and Rick tells him that there was a man, Reg, an architect, who put up the wall early on. He explains to Morgan that the Alexandrians had food, energy, not many walkers…they had been just living, for much of this time, and haven’t really had to survive. Rick tells Morgan they figured this out, and found Rick and his gang, brought them in as ones who could show them, teach them.
Rick tells Morgan, “It still may be too late.”
“Too late, how?” Morgan asks. “For them to come around…we’ll see,” Rick replies. He begins to tell Morgan that he’ll have to talk to Deanna, the woman in charge…she was married to Reg. “Was?” asks Morgan. Rick is about to explain when he sees Gabriel’s head through the bushes, and walks ahead quickly to investigate.
Snarky Rick comes up on Gabriel and Tobin, digging the graves for Reg’s and Pete’s bodies…and of course, Snarky Rick ain’t having it. No murderers get to rest underground within the precious real estate within Alexandria’s walls.
Tobin diplomatically tells Rick that he understands how Rick feels, but says, “It’s not your decision.” Rick looks down at this with a little laugh…
…when Deanna Monroe walks up, just at that moment, and sides with Rick. “Tobin,” she says, “Rick’s right.” She looks down at Pete’s body. “Take it away.”
Poor young Ron looks on from behind the bushes as Deanna instructs, “Go west, down Branton Road a few miles.” (I do feel bad for Ron, but if he’s the one honking that damn horn in the end, I am going to want to get in the long, long line of peeps waiting to kick his angst-ridden little ass…just sayin’!)
As Ron looks on, Deanna continues, telling the men to take Pete’s body “past the bridge…we don’t go that way. Let the trees have him.” (Brrrr...that’s cold, Deanna Monroe!)
Later, as they load Pete’s body into the car trunk, Rick looks over at Morgan. “I shot him, because he killed Reg. That was it. We didn’t have a choice,” Rick explains. Morgan looks down at the body in the bag. “You do have a cell,” he says, mildly. “Not for killers,” replies Rick.
Morgan looks over at Rick. “I’m a killer, Rick. I am, and you are, too.” Rick gives Morgan a long look before shutting the car trunk.
In the next scene, we see Rick, Michonne, and Morgan running ahead of the dreaded walker parade. Rick radios Glenn, checks in. Glenn tells Rick that they’re almost at the tractor store, and will have a handle on things before “they” get there.. As Rick, Michonne, and Morgan regard the barricade they set up, before, RV and car parked in front of metal gates, Rick says, “It’ll hold.” Michonne replies that’s good, considering where they’re standing. It seems the barricade will soon be the only thing standing between them and the massive walker horde.
As they stand there, Michonne looks over at Morgan, as if waiting for him to say something, and he does. “Michonne?” he asks. “Yeah?” Morgan waits a moment before asking, “Back when you were in that place…where I lived…did you take one of my protein bars?”
Michonne looks over at Morgan, her face softening with inner mirth, and she answers quietly, with a smile in her voice, “No.”
Morgan processes this a moment. He doesn’t seem convinced. “See, I could have sworn that there was one more peanut butter left.”
Michonne shakes her head, says, comically, “That’s how it is, isn’t it…you always think there’s one more peanut butter left.” This sweet, comical moment stands a second more before the roar of walkers approaching begins to swell over the barricade.
In the next shot, time shifts back, again, and we see Ron, coming out from under a bridge, alone.
He looks up, and a moment later, the trusty old “Astoundingly Ugly Car” drives over the bridge.
Ron springs up, over the rocky hillside, after it.
As they step their way through the woods, Morgan leading the way, trusty staff in hand, RIck prompts, “Morgan…maybe we just leave him here.” If it were up to Rick Smash!, they would have heaved the body just off the road and taken off. Later, McBeaty. However, the Bear McCreary music in the background is all soft and dreamy, so we know that somebody is going to have a human moment in life and love coming to them, and Snarky Rick is def due for one of those…
And, here it comes…
Morgan smiles at Rick, taps the shovel in his right hand a few times into the ground, says, “That’s not who you are…I know.” Morgan turns and continues down the path. Rick follows quickly, catches up with Morgan. “Hey,” Rick says, and Morgan turns around to face him.
“You don’t,“ Rick says quietly.
Morgan looks at Rick a moment, says nothing, shrugs off his bag, and begins spearing the shovel into the ground. In the background, there is a quiet roar, the telltale noise of…
“You hear that?” Rick asks, listening.
The men approach the edge before a steep drop into a deep quarry, where thousands of walkers are, below, snarling and milling about, trapped in all sides by steep embankments, piles of rock, and serendipitously placed tractor trailers. It is a fearsome sight, with staggering implications.
The men are startled out of their shock by a noise from behind…
…of young Ron, running for his life from a band of…
…boythirsty Cougar Walkers!
The impetuous young dummy is speeding right for the cliff’s edge…
…before being tackled in pimp linebacker-style by his newdad, Rick Fucking Grimes.
And so the Cougar Walkers charge, one by one, over the cliff’s edge, as so often happens in the troll for tender young boyflesh…better luck next time, Cougar Walkers!
Watching this scene, I found myself wondering what Daryl would be thinking about, riding for all that time with thousands of walkers snarling on his tail, just a few yards behind him. I imagined that he would be thinking of Beth, either reliving those sweet, stolen moments with her, or perhaps creating a fantasy world inside his mind of the two of them, together, in his quiet moments, to help him escape the hellish world all around him.
Sasha and Abraham meet up with Daryl in the Astoundingly Ugly Car.
And, here comes the parade that nobody loves, the Parade of Walkers.
As Rick and Morgan look down at the steep quarry filled with walkers…
…Ron comes up quietly to stand beside them, looking down. Rick looks over at the boy. “What are you doing out here, Ron?” he asks gruffly.
Not looking at Rick, the teen answers, “I wanted to know where my dad was buried.”
“This is how…” Rick realizes aloud. “How what?” Morgan asks.
“This is how the community is still here,” Rick replies. “They’ve had walkers at their walls…”
“…but a lot of them, most of them, ended up here.”
Ron flexes his teen rebellion once again and turns to leave, only to be stopped by Rick. “You shouldn’t be out here,” Rick says, grabbing the boy by the arm.
“I don’t care what you think,”Ron says (of course). “It’s not what I think, it’s what I know,” Rick tells him.
Rick tells the young man that he has no idea how to protect himself out here, and while Rick can show him how, right now, as he is, if he comes out here, “You’re gonna die.” Rick lays it out for Ron…the death won’t be quick, and it won’t be over, because he’ll be “one of them.” So, basically, NewDad Rick gets the last word on young Ron, tells him he’s going to come back with him and Morgan, now. Rick looks at Ron significantly. “Don’t make it hard,” he tells the young man, before walking back over to Morgan.
My WD buddies and I were so happy, watching this scene, to see Rick step up and do the right thing. ❤
Glenn, Nicholas, and Heath have reached the tractor store, without a moment to spare. If they are too late, the noise of the tractor store walkers could distract the walker parade off the road. They must act fast.
Glenn comes up with a plan, for Nicholas to man the door, let out a couple of walkers from inside the store at a time, so Glenn and Heath can take them as they come out. Heath is unsure of this…what if Nicholas can’t shut the door, hold them off? Glenn tells him then, they take them on. “Take them on?” asks Heath, incredulously. Glenn tells him if too many come out at once, they lead them around the building, towards the woods.
Nicholas tells Heath, “You’ve been on runs this whole time…he knows what he’s doing.” (Nicholas was def scoring some redemption points with me at this point in the episode.) Nicholas looks at Heath, admits, “Me and Aiden…we didn’t.” Heath shakes his head at all of this. “This was supposed to be a dress rehearsal,” he gripes. Glenn shakes his head at Heath in disbelief. “I was supposed to be delivering pizzas, man,” he says. Ha! Zinger!
Glenn counts down, and Nicholas pulls the door open to reveal…metal security door! “Shit!” Glenn must improvise now, and quickly.
At the meeting, Heath clears up the mystery of the quarry walkers…he says early on, in some of the first scouting trips around the area, he and his “team” spotted the quarry…
It had once been a camp, and he surmised that the people down there must have tried to seal off the entrances into it with the trucks. It didn’t work, however, for all the reasons Rick and Morgan saw before, with the walkers sliding down the embankment, right into the lower levels.
Heath says that the last time he saw it, there were about 12 “roamers” down there. When Maggie asks him if anyone’s checked on it since, he replies that nothing on goods runs was in that direction, and that he didn’t exactly want to have a “picnic next to the camp that ate itself.”
Michonne, being brilliant as well as beautiful, and a badass, points out that the sound of the walkers draws more walkers, who fall in, making more sound, drawing more walkers…it’s like one, big, horrible equation of undead exponentiation!
As Rick begins to outline his plan, which, he admits, sounds “risky,” Carter stands there, looking like the poster child for the word “lugubrious.”
Rick points out that one of the trucks holding the walkers back could fall over the edge any day now, like after one more hard rain, and that would send the walkers east, right towards Alexandria.
“Marshall and Redding…we’ll force them west, here.” “How?” “Block it off, so they can only go one way, west, away from the community.”
“Block it off with what?” “Cars…we’ll use the RV, some of the bigger trucks, park ’em in the end.”(It’s actually a great plan. It should have worked, Rick Grimes…it almost did!)
Michonne reminds them that they’ll be drawing the walkers away, that the horde will keep moving.
Carter, however, is not convinced that the barricade will hold against the walkers, and questions the plan. What if the barricade doesn’t hold, and the walkers start slipping through the cracks, and that noise catches the other walkers’ attention…what then?
Heath looks over to Rick, tells him that “The man’s got a point.” Michonne shoots Carter a look like, “You really are a whiner, and kind of a pussy, you know that?”
A voice, bearing the familiar Texas drawl we love so well, speaks up from behind. “We got plates,” says Eugene, standing tall and bearing the mullet we love so well. “Big-ass metal ones from the construction site. We could use them to fortify the whipwall, disperse the force of impact and help direct the walkers clean…like a pool table, 8-ball, corner pocket.” (Yes, Eugene! I loved seeing him step up in this moment, as it really felt like Eugene was starting to find his role in this community: Professor Mullet.)
Carter objects, of course, but that’s just because he’s mad that Eugene is showing himself to be more of a man than Carter is, and everyone knows it.
Rick Grimes shuts down Carter’s whining by telling him that he, Carter, a.k.a. ConstructionDick, better help make sure that barrier holds against the walkers.
Morgan chimes in, “That wall, you built it. So, you’ve already done the impossible,” with incredible deadpan delivery, referring, of course, to Alexandria’s hallowed steel wall barrier (featuring Reg’s patented “outside-the-wall” supports which thoughtfully provide easy climbing access for any live enemy forces to invade, and defile, the VanillaDream…hey, now that I think of it, Carter, was that your idea? If so, thanks for nothing, asshole.)#letsblamecarter
The scene shifts, and we see it’s the moment of truth…Daryl is leading the horde to the corner pocket…will the barrier they built hold?
As the mass approaches, Rick, Morgan, and MIchonne begin firing well-timed, well-placed flares to distract the walkers’ attention from charging full-forward into the wall, and lead them around the bend.
The flares begin to capture some walkers’ attention…
Michonne fires a flare, then edges closer, bracing herself, peering through the corner…
More and more walkers notice, are drawn towards the flares…
Putty Face Walker is like, “Oooo, pretty!”
The indignity just doesn’t ever end for the Trampled Underfoot Walkers…they fall into a quarry, get stuck there for like a year, and when they finally get out, now this! They’re like, “Goddamn it!”
So far, the plan seems to be working…
Go West, Walkers!
Time shifts back again, and we see the beginning of the construction of the barrier.
Jessie looks up from her digging to see…
…Rick looking at her. He seems to be thinking, “Do they make a Hallmark card for ‘Sorry I Killed Your Husband (But He Was A Dick)’?”
Rick nods at Jessie, goes back to his task, when Daryl comes up, pushing a wheelbarrow. “What you said before, about us needing to take care of ourselves?” he begins, as he dumps the contents of the wheelbarrow…
“Going out, and finding more people, that is taking care of ourselves.”
Daryl finished dumping his load, and Rick looks up at him. “Your call, though,” Daryl says, turning and heading for another load.
Carol brings Rick a drink, and they confer quietly. Rick tells Carol she should stay back, get a feel for how the citizens are taking all this, how they feel now. “We still have a long way to go with them,” says Rick.
Carol looks over the assembled workers, all busy, sweating. “We’ll get there,” she says. “She’s in charge, but you’re in charge, now.” Carol walks away, leaving Rick to ponder this.
Time shifts again, and the tractor store walkers are banging against the glass in a fury to get out and chomp Glenn, Heath, and Nicholas, who stand outside in the parking lot.
“This is a bad idea,” moans Heath. “This is the only idea,” retorts Glenn. Nicholas peers in the window, estimates there to be about 12 walkers inside.
Glenn outlines the plan…they stand back, he and Heath standing at opposite ends, splitting up the walkers when they come out, taking them on.
Nicholas offers to help, cutting the walkers to four each, but Glenn is having none of it. He hands Nicholas the radio, instructs him to radio Rick if this goes south, and lead the tractor store walkers away.
Nicholas starts to protest, only to be shut down by Glenn, who orders him to stay back.
Time shifts back, to the barrier construction, as Glenn and NIcholas work, side by side.
Tara watches them, vibing Nicholas as says to Maggie, “He got Noah killed.”
“He did,” agrees Maggie, calmly, like her father would.
“He did more than that,” Maggie continues, telling a shellshocked Tara that Nicholas lured Glenn into the woods and tried to kill him. Maggie tells Tara that Glenn asked her not to tell anyone, as this would get Nicholas exiled, and surely killed, out in the feral open. Tara is angry, and pretty hellbent on blowing the horn on Nicholas.
“Glenn saves people, even people like that,” Maggie replies.
Watching Tara struggle with this information, Maggie tells her, “I couldn’t accept it either…but then, I thought about you.” Tara turns to look at Maggie. Maggie continues, “I thought about how we were on different sides of that fence, on the worst day of my life…and now, you’re one of the most important people in the world to me.”
Maggie tells Tara that things can get better, that they can make them better…she tells Tara it’s her decision, whatever she wants to do, now that Tara knows the truth.
“I’m just gonna follow your lead,” Tara tells Maggie.
The girls hug, and Tara seems to be thinking, “But I am gonna trip his ass when nobody’s looking.”
“…but since you’re doing this thing, anyway…” Glenn points his gun, readies himself.
Back in time, back at the construction site, Carol offers Morgan a cup of water, which he accepts with a thanks.
As she turns away, Morgan looks at her. “It’s Carol, right?”
Carol beams a sunny Junior League smile at Morgan. “Yeah,” she replies. Just lil ol’ me, the water girl. Carol tries, once again, to turn away, and Morgan asks, “You been with Rick long?”
Carol turns back to Morgan, her forced smile even bigger. “Since Atlanta,” she says, brightly.
Morgan regards Carol. “Were you a cop, too?”
Carol, nonplussed, plays dumb, asks, “Why would you say that?”
“You’re always watching…”
“You always, ah, seem ready.”
JL Carol wrinkles her nose. “For what?” she asks.
Morgan looks Carol over with a deferential nod, looks away, “To handle things.”
Carol, unsettled, tries to mask this, fixes Morgan with one more coquettish smile. “Aren’t you sweet,” she says, before walking off. Ha! #Corgan
Back to the present, in the Astoundingly Ugly Car, some of the the Rearview Walkers seem to be wandering off the beaten path, and into the woods.
“We got some looky-loos taking a constitutional off the shoulder,” Abraham reports.
Abraham cranes his neck around for a better look. “They’re starting a walkout.” “Should we get Daryl to circle back?” Sasha asks.
“Naw,” Abraham says, opening the door and jumping out. He tells Sasha to keep moving, he’ll catch up…and proceeds to run in front of the wayward walkers, yelling and grabbing a shiny piece of plastic hanging from a tree branch (probably the thing thatdistracted them in the first place), waving it around, recapturing their undead attention.
“Idiot,” Sasha mutters, in the car, watching.
Abraham jumps back in the car, checks his appearance in the rearview mirror, chuckles. “Look at me,” he remarks.
He then says, conversationally, that Sasha “Didn’t see Reg…that was a mess…and Pete…his face blowing up like Pompeii.” It seems even a seasoned soldier like Abraham is having a hard time shaking the horrible images from that fateful night.
“Right when we were cheek to cheek,” Abraham continues, then laughs it off, jokes, “I still feel like I got some of his brains in my ear.”(That’s right, Abraham was the one who wrestled Pete down after he slit Reg’s throat…he was right there when Rick blew Pete’s brains out. Totally gnarly.)
Abraham checks the rearview, notes with a satisfied smile that the walkers are back on track. “Everything is aces again,” he announces. Sasha is looking majorly disturbed by this lowgrade wack-attack. “What the hell are you doing?” she asks him. “I’m just grabbin’ the bull by the nut sac…I’m living, darling, just like you.” he replies, in inimitable Abraham-style, before laughing at some private joke.
Back in time, at the construction site, Rick tells Deanna, “I’m sorry I haven’t had the chance to say it yet, but I’m sorry about Reg. He was smart, and kind.” Deanna nods silently.
“He was a good man,” Rick says.
Rick gestures to the crew, setting the walls and barriers, commends Deanna on going with the plan to lead the walkers away from the quarry, and route them away from Alexandria. “We need this,” Rick tells her. Deanna is astute, and she asks Rick what else he needs to say to her. Rick looks at her.
“People need to be armed inside the walls,” Rick tells her. “They need to be trained…everyone.“
And, case in point, the Perfect Timing Walkers make their appearance through the woods, coming towards Carter and others.
Rick tells them to use their shovels, that guns will draw too much attention from other nearby walkers. “You can do this,” he coaches. “You need to.”
Carter, I think, puts down his shovel (dude, seriously…you’re killing me, here…didn’t you go onruns, before?Like, WTF?) as another Alexandrian shoves a walker away.
The newbies are basically useless, cringing, stumbling backwards, and crapping their pants. Amateurs!
It quickly becomes apparent that these Alexandrians don’t know shit about killing walkers.
Rick calls Morgan and Daryl in, and soon, the seasoned gang is making quick work of the walkers.
Ow, My Head Hurts Walker takes an arrow to the mulligan. Soon, all the walkers are rekilled, no thanks to any Alexandrian.
Morgan looks at Rick, rebukes sharply, “You said you don’t take chances anymore.” Rick looks at him, at Carter, nods. It was risky, and Rick probably doesn’t feel great about his call, but it does make a clear point to Carter, Deanna, and all the other Alexandrians: Time to get battle-ready, chumps.
Well, apparently, Carter had a different take on the earlier day’s events, because as Eugene stocks up in the commissary, he overhears the hushed whispers and scheming of Carter and others…
…shit-talking Rick and basically planning on overthrowing the Ricktatorship, killing Rick. Ungrateful assholes.
“Plain and simple,” Carter is saying, “we kill him, before he kills us.”
Poor Eugene is so shocked, he drops one of the cans in his armload, and it crashes to the floor, loudly.
Et tu, Tobin?Olivia?Spencer?Francine?? Tsk, tsk, tsk…
Eugene is so scared now, he falls back, sending an entire shelving unit crashing down. Carter comes around and gapes at the poor mulleted man on the floor.
In true Josh McDermitt comedic timing and delivery, Eugene looks up at Carter, says, “Hello…”
Carter says slowly, “He heard.”
And as the others protest, try to dissuade him, Carter raises his pistol and points it at Eugene.
Just then, the door opens, and there stands Rick Grimes, flanked by Daryl and Morgan.
Ooooo, Carter, you are so busted, son.
“What the hell’s going on?”Rick Grimes asks softly, dangerously, and Carter’s bowels look like they are about to unleash into his, well, his Carters…
“What are you doing?” Rick Smash! growls, and Carter manages to reply, “I’m taking this place back from you.”
Rick Smash! looks over at Tobin and the others. “That’s what you were talking about in here?” Spencer is quick to reply, “That’s what he was talking about.”
Rick Smash!nods, taking this in. “Shit, I would have set up some lookouts…”
“…that would have been the smart thing, if I had -…” and then Rick Smash! lunges at Carter, disarming him in one swift, pimp deputy manuever. Whew, the hotness…!
“You really think you’re going to take this community from us?” Rick Smash!grinds out, holding the gun at Carter’s head.
Carter says, in a shaking voice, “It was just me…just me. Just kill me.”
Daryl looks up at Rick. “Rick,” he says softly, holding out his hand for the gun.
Rick looks up at Daryl. “I’m good,”he says, and his voice, manner, are very calm, clear.
Rick looks down at Carter, who seems like he can’t believe he’s still alive. “You can try to work with us,” Rick tells the shaken man. “You can try to survive.Will you do that?”
The scene shifts back to the present, with the grisly walker parade shuffling down the road, led by Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham.
As they hide behind the trees, surveying the walkers, Carter says, “It’s working.” He turns to Rick. “You were right.”
Carter holds out a hand, and Rick takes it. The men shake, making peace.
Rick then turns to the others, tells them that “we need to finish this.” Basically, they need to flank the horde on both sides of the road, monitoring the “parade’s” progress, firing shots if it seems like the horde is wandering off the path, and directing their flow back along the road.
Carter says he’ll take the front, and Rick goes after him, after making sure everyone knows their places, one after the other. The team splits up.
Unfortunately for Carter, who leads the way to the front, alone, some bad luck is hiding behind a tree…
Oh, shit, Carter!
I was def obsessed with this tree walker, couldn’t stop taking pictures of him…so scary!
Nicotero, you crazy beautiful genius, you’ve outdone yourself once again with this episode!
Poor Carter gets face-chomped so hardcore, it’s like you can feel it when you watch this scene. Ouch!
Damn!
So gnarly! (On a funnier note, Greg Nicotero said later on Talking Dead that the effects crew guy in charge of pumping the blood from actor Ethan Embry’s fake facial wound had to stomp on the pedal pump to try to dislodge a clog in the line, sending a spray of fake blood gushing out full-on horizontal, like a fake blood super-soaker…this sight-gag take was sent around, to much hilarity, among the TWD cast and crew.)
Ethan Embry did such a great job as Carter, who started out as major tool, and a whiner, but who finally started coming around, and then got face-chomped just as he was becoming tolerable. That really sucks, dude. Sorry about that. I would like to award Ethan Embry, the TWD fan who finally landed a role on the show, with a very special Deadie: The Red Shirt Guy Deadie, for a standout single-episode performance, and for being so fun, and funny, and for being such a good sport. Kudos, bud. You’re awesome!
Carter, of course, cannot stop screaming, and honestly, I cannot blame the poor guy. I mean, Jesus.
The horde of walkers begins to follow the sound of the screams…
Rick can see the walkers are veering off from the road, but doesn’t yet know why…he radios Tobin, then rushes to see what is happening…
This scene shifts to the past, where Morgan sits outside on Rick’s porch, polishing his staff.
Rick comes out, carrying Judith, and he and Morgan remark about the lovely evening.
Morgan apologizes for invading Rick’s porch, but says he wanted to enjoy the evening, and his place doesn’t have a porch, so…
Rick reaches in his pocket, tosses Morgan a key, tells Morgan he should go get his stuff. “You should stay with us,” Rick offers.
Michonne comes forward, overhears this conversation. Morgan asks Rick if they have room, and Rick tells him they’ll make room. He gestures to Morgan’s quarters across the street, “We don’t need to do that anymore,” i.e. keeping Morgan separated, confined.
“I know you, Morgan,” Rick says, “even if this is the first time.”
Morgan looks at Rick, pleased. He then looks at Judith, which Rick notices. “Do you want to hold her?” Rick asks him.
Morgan laughs, looks down, shyly, then accepts the offer.
It’s so sweet to watch.
I sent my WD buddy this pic from my phone, texted her, This is the stuff. ❤ ❤
Morgan turns to Rick and tells him that when he saw Rick with that man, Carter, in the armory, “That’s you. You’re still the same man I met in King County, the one who told me it wasn’t over.”
Morgan looks at Rick, nods. “That was you, same you that’s right in front of me, right now.”
Rick looks at Morgan a moment…
…then looks away.
“I wanted to kill him,” Rick confesses, “so it would be easier, so I wouldn’t have to worry about how he would screw up, what stupid thing he would do next, because that’s who he is…”
“Somebody who shouldn’t be alive, now…I wanted to kill him….it hit me, I realized I didn’t have to do it… “
“He doesn’t get it.”
“Somebody like that…they’re gonna die, no matter what.”
Rick reaches poor Carter, and manages to pry him off the tree walker.
It’s horrifying to see a big piece of Carter’s flesh in the walker’s mouth as Rick throws the suffering man off the undead ghoul.
With thousands of walkers just feet away, and Carter screaming in his shock, pain, and anguish…
…Rick quickly dispatches the tree walker with his knife.;
By this time, I was really feeling pretty awful for poor Carter.
Rick tries to shush the screaming man…
…looking up towards where the walkers will surely be coming, soon.
Carter’s eyes are wild, and he keeps screaming in his panic and agony…
To his credit, Rick Grimes tries to calm him, but to no avail, of course.
Honestly, by the time Rick put the knife into the base of Carter’s skull, I was relieved. He made it quick, humane.
Rick Grimes, once again, doing what must be done, tireless against these grim, horrible, unrelenting times. I love that man so hard, sometimes I tear up with emotion when I think about him. I really do. Rick Fucking Grimes, for fucking ever and ever, Amen. ❤
Once again, Rick looks up from killing a man, to see Morgan there, looking all judgy and horrified. It’s like, What? He was fucking bitten, and he was fucking screaming, and there are like a million fucking walkers out there. Sue me.
Tobin, as instructed by Rick, peppers the silence with faraway gunfire, drawing the wave of walkers away once again, redirecting them onto the road course.
Michonne comes up, sees Carter’s dead, bloodied body on the ground…like seriously, just five minutes ago, they were all standing around, daring to think, “Hey, this might actually work!” And five minutes later, this guy is dead. Shit’s crazy.
Rick radios Tobin, tells him he got them, the walkers are heading back out to the road. Tobin copies, then asks what that screaming was. Rick, crouched over Carter’s dead form, matter-of-factly tells Tobin that Carter got bit, right in the face, and he, Rick, stopped him.
Rick comes to Morgan, and it’s basically back to business, because it has to be. They need to make sure those walkers make it to the point where Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham continue on with the herd, draw them out 20 miles. Rick tells Morgan to go and tell the others, that they need to know about Carter. Morgan tries to tell Rick something, but Rick shuts it down. He doesn’t want to talk about feelings right now.
Rick asks Morgan if he can do as he asks, and Morgan quietly agrees. Rick leaves, onto the next. There’s a walker ambling through the woods, and he needs to go kill it before moving on to the next order of business.
Michonne steps forward. They look down at the dead young man who lay at their feet. “I know it’s how it is,” Morgan says. “I do.”
And this, dear readers, is where the media storage buckled under the sheer weight of my tweakerness, and we are currently on media blackout. Before I turn you over to the music, Deadies to Scott M. Gimple, for leading us deeper and deeper into the beautiful, crazy world where television and comic series meet; Greg Nicotero, who thinks and directs 3-dimensionally; and the entire TWD cast and crew, for another outstanding job.
The trucks fell into the quarry in my world, loves, the walkers are out, and we’re doing this live. Let’s see what happens, and it’s all good. Check out the playlists, posted here, and follow barnfullawalkers’ social media sites. We’ll keep this party going, people.
Cheers, to you, dearest ones. One love, peace, respect. ❤
And, enjoy the playlist! Many more to come.
Playlist:
Jane’s Addiction, “Mountain Song”
Death Cab For Cutie, “The Ghosts Of Beverly Drive”
(All images used in this post are screen caps from AMC’s “The Walking Dead” unless otherwise specified.)
Hello, loves…it has been far too long. While I have been immersed in the rich layers of life in the IRL, my thoughts have been, quite often, with my fave show, and my #TWDFamily, all over the world.
This is the moment I have been waiting for, when I finally get to sit, focus, and endeavor to conquer “Conquer.”
We have much to discuss with The Walking Dead’s Season 5 finale, Episode 516, but before we do, dear readers, let us take a moment to look back on TWD’s Season 5, and honor those we have lost...family, friends, foes, both living and undead (and even an inanimate object or two), while we raise our glasses, our bottles, our mugs, and serenade our dearly departed with a classic by Neutral Milk Hotel, “In The Aeroplane Over the Sea”:
(At this point, before, I would have inserted this classic song, via the beloved Grooveshark widget embed, into this post; but alas, loves, Grooveshark is no more… I grieve, as we had some good jams, and Grooveshark made the music available to many, for free. I did know that Grooveshark was embroiled in some legal trouble, as free music sharing does raise the issue of compensation for the artists… I knew that one day, Grooveshark may be gone. And, like so many of our beloved TWD characters, gone it is.
R.I.P. Grooveshark…we had some good jams.
And now, (drum solo, please), dearest readers, may I present: Neutral Milk Hotel’s, “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea,” via the new tunes tech: Spotify ❤
So pimp, right? At this point, I am not sure if playlists will be available for immediate listen if the reader doesn’t have an account with Spotify. If not, hopefully you can create a free account, and access the playlists, perhaps with some advertisements thrown in. If you are on the Spotify premium plan, you can listen to my shit uninterrupted. I do apologize for any inconvenience this change of events may cause. Change happens, and once I recovered from my shock at having my existing playlists be wiped from existence…
… I realized the opportunity was there for a serious upgrade. And so, upgrade I did.
One of the many perks of “said upgrade” is that my playlists will now be available on mobile devices for those who have the Spotify app, so now, those readers may enjoy the playlists on their phones, tablets, etc., which they could not do before, with the previous tunes tech. ❤
And so, dear readers, if you will, cue the music, and raise a beverage for:
The WD Season 5 Hall of Fame Neutral Milk Memorial ❤R.I.P. and cheers, and much love to:
Grooveshark ❤
Beth Greene ❤
Tyreese ❤
Bob Stookey ❤
Noah ❤
Noah’s mom ❤
Noah’s Lil Bros ❤
Lil Bro Walker ❤
Aiden 😦
Rick’s Beard ❤
Bob’s Leg 😦
Gareth
Mary
Alex (Technically a Season 4 casualty, but Alex did enjoy a brief posthumous cameo in Season 5, so we include him here.)
Shitty Martin
Terminus
Sam ❤
Friends With Benefits Walker ❤
Joan Walker ❤
Dawn Lerner
Gorman
Mr./Dr. Trevitt
Sgt. Lamson
Officer O’Donnell
The Van
The Bus ❤
The Mission to D.C. 😦
Ragin’ Face
Walkers Interruptus ❤
Hey, Where’s The Party At? Walker ❤
I Died In A Barn Walker
Rick’s Little Bit Of Flare Walker ❤
Buttons ❤
Wild Dog Pack 😦
The Owl Sculpture
Grabby Walker
I Wanna Eat Francine Walkers
White Walker ❤
Poor Girl Tied To A Tree Walker ❤
Hostage Walker ❤
Reg ❤
McBeaty
Leonard Nimoy ❤
The Walking Dead’s Episode 516 opens with a shot of a car, hood smashed in, abandoned in the woods. The sun is low on the trees, suggesting either the dawning, or the darkening, of another day.
Inside the car, we see Morgan sleeping.
Morganawakes…
.. sits up, smiles…
…as he looks up, sees his rabbit’s foot, hanging from the rearview mirror…it seems to have kept him safe for another night. I am assuming that this rabbit’s foot belonged to Morgan’s son, Duane,who was bitten by his mother-turned-walker, Jenny Walker. While watching this scene, I imagined that Morgan started every day by taking a moment to remember his son, his wife, his family. The rabbit’s foot was an item that Morgan lay on the altar back at Gabriel’s church (right before finding the map to D.C. with Abraham’s note to Rick written on it) as he knelt in prayer at the altar. It seems here, from Morgan’s serene countenance, that he has found some peace within himself since Rick, Carl, and Michonne last encountered him in Season 3’s “Clear.”
In the next shot, we see a small campfire, surrounded by rocks, with a small metal grate placed over the flame, and a metal cup placed on top, presumably to heat water.
Morgan takes the cup from the fire, rips open a packet of instant soup or something, and pours the contents in the cup. As he stirs his breakfast, the shot pans out…
…and we see another figure approach, a young man with dark hair, who steps forward upon a rock, across from where Morgan sits. The young man balances playfully on the rock a moment before stepping down. He appears to be pointing a handgun at Morgan. Morgan says nothing, does not acknowledge the young man’s presence.
The young man leans forward slightly towards Morgan. “Looks good,” he says, sitting on the rock across from Morgan, still pointing the pistol at him.
“Hi,” says the young man. He peers closely at Morgan, waiting for a reaction.
Morgan does not respond right away, looks over his shoulder, casually, in both directions, checking to see if anyone else is there. He looks back at the young man.
“Hello,” Morgan says. He motions to the gun the young man points at him. “You may want to lower that,” he suggests, mildly. The young man does not respond, nor does he lower the gun. The two men regard each other in silence over the campfire.
“What’s the “W” for?” Morgan asks the young man, who bears a “W” mark on his forehead.
In response, the young man narrows his eyes at Morgan. His mouth sets to the side, somewhere between a smile and a grimace. He cocks the pistol he is pointing at Morgan, who does not seem afraid of the young man or his gun.
“You know the first settlers here? They put bounties on wolves’ heads,” the young man begins.
(Editor’s note: Putting a bounty on wolves’ heads is a practice that has actually resurfaced, in the United States, in recent years. In the U.S., federal protections for wolves are being systematically stripped away, state by state, across the country, leaving hunters and poachers free to kill wolves and wolf pups on sight alone, without provocation, with the intention to decimate the species. Congress is considering passing a bill, at the time of this writing, to delist the gray wolf as an endangered species. Google this issue, visit the Defenders of Wildlife online site http://www.defenders.org/the-war-on-wolves/delisting-disaster, and write to your elected officials if you want to protect the future of this iconic species, and tell them in reinstate federal protections for wolves.) #SaveTheWolf
The young man continues, telling Morgan, “(The settlers) brought the natives into it, made them hunt (the wolves)…didn’t take them too long to kill them all.”
The young man then taps the “W” on his forehead. “They’re back, now,” he informs Morgan.
Morgan regards the young man, and all his posturing, with amusement.
He looks down, biting back his laughter…
…and as Morgan looks away, composing himself (and rechecking his periphery), the young man prompts, “Thoughts?”
In reply, Morgan turns his attention back to the young man, looks at him a moment before answering.
“Every thing gets a return,” Morgan replies.
The young man sits back and processes this a moment, then smiles, uncertainly.“Are you shittin’ me?” he asks Morgan.
Morgan shakes his head earnestly. “No, I shit younot,” he assures the young man. The two men share a laugh at this.
Still laughing, the young man sits back, regards Morgan. “I like this…just talkin’,” he says. Then his face becomes somber again. “I don’t get to meet new people very often,” he tells Morgan, figuring, “Maybe, once every two weeks.”
“That’s a lot,” Morgan exclaims softly. The young man nods. “I work at it,” he says, amends, “We do…sometimes we find camps, run through them. We have traps,too.” The young man pauses, muses, “It’s different…it’s not like meeting like this…as equals.”
As he tells Morgan this, the young man’s manner is very matter-of-fact, conversational, reporting the information simply and truthfully, like a child would. The young man seems like he is no older than a post-teen, early twenties tops.
In response, Morgan looks casually over his other shoulder, checking again to see if anyone else is coming up on him. He looks back at the young man, regards him.
The young man continues, musing, “Little chats in front of the fire, with a stranger…that’s the closest thing to movies, now.” Morgan keeps his eyes on the young man, nods warily.
“I miss movies,” the young man muses. “I used to–put that down,” he orders Morgan, who has lifted his mug to take a drink of his soup.
Morgan’s hand pauses, the mug stops mid-sip. He lowers the mug. “Why?” he asks the young man, puzzled, free hand turned up in question.
“Because I want it,” the young man replies, frowning. He blinks slowly, then says to Morgan:
“I want everything you have…every last drop.”
“Can I keep a little of it?” Morgan asks, testing the young man. “Just to get me through a day or two, you know, just to keep me alive?” I feel like Morgan is testing the young man, to see how much of a danger he really is, testing if the young man has any empathy or compassion left inside him at this point.
The young man looks at Morgan. His eyes are devoid of any feeling or compassion. “I’m taking you, too…” the young man says, slowly.
“…and you won’t exactly be alive,”
Morgan looks at the young man, says nothing, and slowly, deliberately puts his mug down. When he returns his attention to the young man across from him, Morgan’s look has changed…his smile, and friendly manner of before, are gone.
The young man resumes talking, “Some of the tribes, around here, they thought that the first people were wolves, transformed into men…and, now, well, you know…‘Everything gets a return,’right?”
(The implication here, I think, is that the men, the people, once they die and reanimate (as walkers), are then transformed back into an incarnation of wolves…savage, wild, predatory creatures who hunt the living in packs.)
Morgan smiles, slightly, and nods, slightly, at the young man, looks at him a moment.
“You can have my supplies. You can have everything,” Morgan offers the young man.
“There doesn’t need to be any ugliness,” Morgan continues, “but I can’t allow you to take me away.”
“I will not allow that,” Morgan says, gently, firmly.
Morgan reaches down for his wooden staff, only to be stopped by the sound of the safety being released on the young man’s gun.
“Don’t move,” the young man commands, and Morgan’s hand freezes mid-air, above the staff.
Morgan turns back towards the young man, his hands raised in a gesture of surrender.
The young man motions Morgan back, still pointing the gun at Morgan.
“Just…be still,” the young man says to Morgan. Then the young man’s eyes harden a bit, and a small smile returns to his face. He says it again…
“Just…be…still.”
Morgan knows the attack from behind is coming, and he is quick to evade the young blond man who leaps at Morgan from the bushes behind him, swinging a curved scythe down at the spot where Morgan was sitting. The pointy end of the scythe strikes only rock as Morgan whirls aside, grabbing his staff in one deft motion…and with that, the #MorganStyle kung fu beatdown begins…
After Morgan leaps away from the young assailant’s first strike, he grabs his staff and whirls around, delivering a swift blow to the dark haired young man, knocking him to the ground.
Morgan ducks low to evade another wild swing from the blond wolfboy’s scythe, and the young man’s balance is thrown off again…
A swift strike from Morgan’s staff into the young man’s lower spine sends him toppling forward into the dirt.
Morgan then brings his staff end down, so it rests in one hand, standing tall beside him, like a shepherd’s staff. It is a posture of peace, and power, an unspoken message of, “Run along now, wolfboys, and don’t make me kick your ass again.”
As the young men come to a shaky stand, the dark-haired one regards Morgan with a new respect, and fear.
The blond one menaces forward, glaring at Morgan. “You should just go,” Morgan warns them. “Now.” The blond young man growls, “No,” and lunges for Morgan again.
Morgan sidesteps the young man’s attack, and brings his staff down, blocking the scythe’s blade, then delivers a series of quick strikes upside the blond wolfboy’s, well, everything, and then sends blond one’s dark-haired little bastard compadre back into the dirt with two fierce blows, one with the staff, followed by one downward blow with his gloved fist.
It is truly satisfying to watch Morgan kick some wolf-poser ass, with style, grace, and restraint, in the way of the master. #kungfupimp
#MorganIsMySifu
Morgan then whirls with pimp flourish, twirling his staff expertly as he changes direction, readies his stance. His young opponents struggle to come to another shaky stand… they flank Morgan, pause, wait for their opportunity to strike again. This next time, they will both rush him at once, and Morgan knows this, waits for the attack.
“Just go,” Morgan says again. The young men, of course, do not listen.
The young dark haired one draws his knife. It seems the two wolfboys aren’t used to having to work this hard to subdue other victims…
…as they crouch, reading Morgan, readying for the next attack. The blond one seethes as he looks at Morgan. This time, it’s personal.
Morgan softens his gaze downward, as if at a focal point in front of him. Watching this scene, I was reminded of young Luke Skywalker, wearing eyeshields, learning to tap into The Force and block an attack with his lightsaber, without relying soley on his sense of vision to guide him. Morgan seems to use the point in front of him to access his peripheral vision equally on both sides, to be able to feel and read sudden movement from either end, and respond accordingly. “Please,” he asks, once more.His unspoken message is clear: Go now, young wolf posers…don’t make me do this.
Suddenly, the dark haired one screams,“Now!”and both young adversaries rush Morgan at once, from opposite sides.
It’s time to shut it down. Morgan sends the dark haired boy into the dirt, unconscious, with one or two swift high strikes to the head…
…Morgan whirls to the other young man and sends him out with a high, then low, strike, from each end of his staff, bam bam!There is no more movement from either of the young men. #knockedthefuckout
Morgan bends and picks up the handgun, hears a walker approaching. He points the gun at the walker and pulls the trigger repeatedly, gets only clicks.
The damn gun was empty the whole time?
Nothing to be done but sully the staff with some walker brains…Morgan pulls a cloth from his coat pocket and wipes his staff clean of the undead mess on his chosen weapon.
In the next shot, we see Morgan carefully lay the unconscious blond man on top of his dark haired counterpart in the back seat of the abandoned car he himself had spent the previous night in. (Enjoy your nap, wolf-posers, and btw, those “W’s” you drew on your foreheads look really fucking stupid. Wearing a “W” on your forehead doesn’t make you a wolf, or a primal tribesman, or anything remotely cool like that. It just makes you look really dumb, like you’re fronting wolf while acting like sadistic, demented assholes.) “W”clearly stands for “wack” and “Whatever, weirdos.”
Morgan shuts the young feral felons into the back seat, and then leans across the front seat of the car, honking the horn 2 or 3 times, ostensibly to alert their “tribe” to come look for them. We see that Morgan’s way of dealing with the men is very different from the way Rick Grimes would have handled them. Morgan could easily have killed his young assailants, or left them to be killed by walkers, but didn’t…he seems to value their lives to the degree that he took the time and effort to move them to an enclosed, protected place, where they wouldn’t be prey to walkers as they lay unconscious. Morgan then looks up at Duane’s rabbit’s foot, hanging from the rearview, and smiles at it once again before tearing the lucky charm from the mirror, taking a quick look around, and slipping off into the forest, in search of Rick Grimes.
Before we move on, kudos and Deadies to the following mavericks (I am giving out mad Deadies this post because it’s the WD Season 5 finale, people, and attention must be paid, props must be given, and the love must be shown!)
First Deadie goes to Greg Nicotero, directorial and special effects prodigy, who directed the TWD Episode 516, “Conquer,” as well as other groundbreaking episodes in Season 5: “No Sanctuary,” “What Happened and What’s Going On,”(just to name a couple of my personal favorites).
Standing ovation, Greg Nicotero. You really brought TWD Season 5 to a whole new level, and set an unprecendented standard of excellence to television as a whole.
Suck on that, Emmy snubbers.
There are many who say that Season 5is, hands down, the best season yet of The Walking Dead television series. In many respects, I fully agree. I personally feel Greg Nicotero is a huge reason for this season’s artistic excellence on all levels, and I imagine anyone working directly with the project knows this to be fact.
Much love, many thanks to Crazy Uncle Greg from us at barnfullawalkers. Thank you, Crazy Uncle Greg, for bringing the love, and the pain, and for being so beautifully twisted, genius, and spectacular. You are bringing it like Bukowski.
Next Deadie goes to our man, Lennie James, who plays Morgan Jones, kung fu badass who walks the way of the peaceful warrior. I do not know if Lennie James has been studying martial arts for a long time, or if he had to immerse himself in a quick study for this role, but damn, that man is pure poetry in motion. Style. Speed. Grace. Power. Poise.
And, impeccable acting, time and time again, in every project I have ever seen him in, and especially as Morgan Jones in The Walking Dead.
(I was a huge Morgan-and-Duane fan from the first moment I met them in the TWD pilot episode, Season 1’s “Days Gone Bye,” when Duane clocked Rick in the back of the head with a shovel, and he woke up, bound, in Morgan and Duane’s house.
As I watched WD Season 1, I kept asking Rick, on the screen, “Rick, have you tried to radio Morgan yet today? Call Morgan and Duane! They need to know where you are so they can meet up with you!”
Look, people, I knew Rick was super busy in Season 1, reuniting with his wife and kid, getting cuckolded, road tripping back and forth to Atlanta, trying to get to the CDC, but I was always super worried about Morgan and Duane.
I never stopped thinking about them, and I was kind of mad at Rick for dropping the ball on keeping in touch with Morgan like he said he would. I got over it, of course. I can’t stay mad at Rick Grimes for long, and who would want to? That’s just crazy talk, people!
I must tell you, however, when I watched Season 3’s “Clear,” when Rick, Carl, and Michonne found Morgan, and we found out what happened to Duane, it messed me up, hard…I won’t go into the sordid deets, but suffice it to say that the entire rest of that night was awash in bourbon and tears. I was haunted. I wore a black armband for days after under my work attire. It wasn’t pretty.
But, as hard as “Clear” was for me, I was mesmerized by Lennie James’ performance in that pivotal episode.
I remember hearing an interview with Andrew Lincoln on Talking Dead, and Andrew Lincoln said that he and Lennie James filmed the Morgan-to-Rick soliloquyscene in “Clear” on Andrew Lincoln’s birthday. In the TD interview, Andrew Lincoln said that the way that Lennie James delivered that monologue was the best birthday present he could have asked for.
For me, personally, Duane being alive and well would have been the best present I could have asked for, but alas, that was not to be…Kirkman said no, so I abide.)
R.I.P.Duane. ❤
So, much love, Lennie James, and mad props. You are an amazing actor, a talented martial artist, a total master, anda total pimp.
And, the last of the First Round of Deadies goes to genius composer, Bear McCreary, who delivered another incredible score, bringing the Morgan kung fu asskicking scene in the woods to new heights. Pure perfection, really. Once again, kudos,Bear McCreary.
Speaking of kudos, and sheer awesomeness, let us now return to Episode 516, where we see another beloved character, doing one of the things he loves best, being a beautiful badass on a bike…
Daryl Dixon. ❤
Behind Daryl, Aaron follows in a car that has seen better days. Daryl, then Aaron, pull over on an abandoned dirt road, shut off their vehicles, and gather their belongings. After a quick look-around, the two men slip into the woods.
Meanwhile, back in the Alexandria Juvenile Detention Center…
Rick Grimes wakes up in lockdown.
Rick blinks awake, peers around at the darkened room. There are rays of sunlight pouring through some small opening, or window, and Rick tries to sit up, painfully. He laughs a little, softly, to himself, shaking his head before giving it up. Shielding his eyes, he starts to lie back on the cot, when he is surprised by a voice in the room.
“What’s so funny?” we hear Michonne’s voice ask.
Shielding his eyes, caught unawares, Rick looks up at her.
Girlfriend is not looking pleased.
“You were here the whole time?” Rick asks her, hoarsely.
“All night,” Michonne answers, succinctly. She asks again, “What’s so funny?”
“This,” Rick replies, sitting up with some effort, motioning to the room around him, “is like the train car. After the whole thing…I’m still there.“
“Deanna wanted you in here,” Michonne replies. “Calm things down.” Her manner is terse, annoyed. “Rosita patched you up, Carl came by for a while, sent him home.”
Michonne’s tone and manner with Rick right now seems to be like: “Hey, remember your kids? Your people? Or did you forget about all that while you went off chasing after your own little drama story of, ‘Let me get all up in Jessie’s biz and fuck it all up for everyone else?'”
Then, Michonne stands, brings her chair a few steps closer to Rick’s bed, sits down again, looks at Rick. Classic interrogation room style.
“Rick,” Michonne asks, “what are you doing?” Rick shakes his head slightly, does not reply, rubs the back of his head.
Oh, Rick, does your head suddenly hurt sooo bad that you can’t answer the question? I love the man, but Rick Grimes is kind of being a total dramaking right now.
Michonne knows this, looks away, rolls her eyes, takes a deep breath. “They put Pete in another house,” she informs Rick. (And yes, they should have done that way sooner…but who exactly was going to enforce that, before Rick Grimes came along?)
“You could have told me what was happening,”Michonne tells Rick.
Rick turns the baby blues up to max volume, looks at Michonne. “It moved fast…and then, Noah,” he says, by way of explanation. (Whatever, dude. That’s code for, “I was seeing everything through my one-eyed monster, and now, here I am…here we are.”)
Michonne ain’t buying it, and, really, neither am I.
“I couldn’t tell you about the gun,” Rick continues.
Michonne fixes him a look, replies, “Nooo,you couldn’t…” Her tone quietly calls bullshit on Rick. I tend to agree. The gang is a tribe, a family, and after all they’ve been through, true family shouldn’t keep big secrets like that from each other. Go down in folly, whatever, but go down together, get checked before you wreck it for everyone.
“You wanted this place,” Rick says.
Michonne narrows her eyes at him. “We needed to stop being out there.”
Rick looks around the room. “Well, we’re here,” he says, stretching his leg out on his prison cot.
(Like I said, people, I love the man, and we all know that Alexandria is rife with bullshit on many levels, and I do love when Rick Smash! comes out to play and fuck shit up, but I find myself siding with Michonne on this one.
The gang needed to get to a safe place, and change is something that happens slowly, not all at once. Rick and Carol have been enabling each other’s drama and crazy, big time, which is, of course, completely delicious on many levels…but once it was clear that Deanna Monroe and her people were not malevolent, merely clueless, perhaps Rick and Carol could have dialed it down a little, and given it some time, let things play out.
I know the storyline here is all about Rick Smash! having a hard time readjusting to society, but is plotting a hostile takeover within the first week of being at the choice new digs really necessary? Dude, you’re a dad…when was the last time you cuddled your baby girl, or have you been too busy being all up in Jessie’s grill to even think about your own family?
In my opinion, Rick is being pretty self-obsessed, all about his own drama, and he is being a bit of a brat right now. While I love Rick, this isn’t all about him, and his actions are having a direct, negative effect on the rest of the righteous gang.
Talk to me, people…I would love to get readers’ thoughts on this one.)
In response to Rick’s drama king “Well, we’re here“comment, Michonne regards him coolly, replies, “Well, you just said you weren’t.” Rick looks at her like, “D’oh!” Oooo, burn, Rick Grimes!
The door opens then, and Glenn, Carol,and Abraham file into the room.
As Glenn, Carol, and Abraham stand, watching, we hear Michonne’s voice ask Rick, “Where’d you get the gun?”
Before Rick can answer, we hear Carol’s voice chime in, quickly, ” You took it, right?” (And thus begins the Carol’s Gonna Save Her Own Ass part of this program…)
“From the armory?” Carol prompts, looking hard at Rick, like, <“Um, I ain’t getting exiled along with you, dude…just sayin’.”>
Carol continues her award-winning performance. “That was stupid,” she admonishes Rick. “Why’d you do it?”
TheFirst Carol Commandment states: First and foremost, thou shalt save thy own ass.
Rick looks away, turns up his hand like a shrug, then looks back at Carol, locks eyes with her. Then, Rick says, “Just in case,” cocks his head to the side. Michonne watches all this, studies Rick closely through narrowed eyes.
Glenn says that Deanna is planning on having a meeting tonight, for anyone who wants to. “To kick Rick out?” Abraham asks. “Totry,” replies Carol.
“We don’t know that,”Glenn points out. He turns back to Rick, tells him that Maggie is with Deanna right now, and is going to try to find out what exactly the meeting is about.
As Rick takes all this in, Carol begins coaching him. Her voice is shaky, betraying her worry for Rick. “At the meeting, you say that somebody was being abused, and no one was doing anything about it. You say you took a gun, to make sure that Jessie was safe from a man who wound up attacking you. You say you’ll do whatever they want you to, just tell them a story that they want to hear.”
Carol looks over towards Glenn, says, “That’s what I’ve been doing since I got here.”Glenn looks down, puzzled, like, “Wait, have I missed something, here? What the fuck is happening with everyone?”
Michonne turns to Carol now, her arms crossed. “Why?” she asks.
“Because these people are children, and children like stories,” Carol replies.
From behind, Abraham chimes in, looking at Carol, but addressing everyone in the room, “What happens after all the nice words, and they still try to kick him out?”
Glenn informs them, “They’re guarding the armory now.”
“We still have knives,” Carol muses, aloud. “That’s all we’ll need against them.”
Rick takes this all in, his fingers working. How are you enjoying this nice little war you’ve started so far, Rick Grimes?Any20/20 hindsight kicking in yet?
Apparently not, because Rick begins to plan aloud, “Well, tonight, at the meeting, if it looks like it’s going bad, I whistle. Carol grabs Deanna, I take Spencer,” and then, Rick points his finger towards Michonne, “and you grab Reg…”
Listening to this, Michonne’s like, “What the shit?”
Rick continues, working out his super cray “Hostile Takeover of Alexandria” plan aloud, “…Glenn and Abraham cover us, watch the crowd…”
Wow, great plan, dude. It only has about 1,000 major, gaping holes in it. I’m sorry, but what the hell are he and Carol talking about? Knives v. guns? Have either of them checked in with the the rest of the gang, to see what they think about this? What about CarlandJudith?
Michonne tries to interject some sense into all this. “We can talk to them,” she asserts.
“Wewill,” Rick assures her. “But, if we can’t get through, we’ll take the three of them and say we’ll slit their throats.”(Hmmm. Well, Rick, I’m sure that will be a real turn-on for your new gf, Jessie, and I’m sure her sons will be so impressed with their NewDad’s take-charge attitude.)
Rick looks over at Michonne after delivering this announcement. (I guess no good deed really does go unpunished, does it, Deanna Monroe?)
“Like at Terminus,” Glenn says.
“No,” Rick asserts. “We just tell ’em: They give us the armory, and it’s over.”
Glenn’s look says it all. Yeah, ok, dude. One question… do you hear yourself right now? WTF?
Glenn looks at Rick. “Did you want this?” he asks him.
“No,” Rick replies. “I hit my limit, I sna-…” Rick gestures to his head, does not finish the thought in words.
Instead, Rick opens his arms in mock surrender, announces to the room, “I screwed up!”
(Well, that’s something, anyway…first step to overcoming a problem is admitting that you have one…and that you did, indeed, screw the pooch on this one, Rick Smash! P.S. You are still looking majorly cute though, all beat up and bandaged and bratty in your prison bunk 🙂 )
Rick looks around at the others in the room. “And, here we are,” he says. (Um, yeah, Rick, you said that already. He really does seem to know that he’s kind of fucking up the second chance they’ve been given, and the choice new digs for everyone else.)
And with that, Rick Grimes turns away, towards his pillow, and dismisses them.“And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to sleep some more.”
Two words: Hot Brat.
And, speaking of brats…
Looking out a window, Maggie watches Gabriel, the holy brat, take his priest’s frock down off the clothesline.
Reg comes in to collect Maggie, tells her Deanna’s out on the porch. Maggie follows him out to where Deanna is waiting. As Maggie walks out, onto the porch, Deanna looks up from some papers in her hands. Her manner is more businesslike than warm towards Maggie, and she asks, “What do you need to talk about, Maggie?”
Maggie faces Deanna, answers, “The meeting tonight.”
Reg, who seems to greatly dislike conflict, tries to interject, reassure, but Deanna talks over him.
“I want to talk to everyone about what happened, and what we need to do about it,” Deanna says, firmly.
“If it includes sending Rick away,” Maggie says, looking Deanna in the eye, “It’s not going to work.”
Deanna looks at Maggie. “Tell me what that means,” she says.
“You let Rick in. You let all of us in.” Maggie looks at Deanna a moment before continuing. “You talked to us; you decided.”
Deanna looks down. Maggie continues, “And, now you want to put the decision on a group of very frightened people who may not have the whole story. That’s not leadership.”
Reg explains to Maggie that the meeting is just a forum, to give people a chance to say their piece…
…and Deanna says that she will make the final decision, as she has done since the beginning.
Maggie explains, “(Rick) was frustrated…the things he’s seen? The things he’s lost…the things we have all lost.”
Deanna raises her eyebrows at this last part. “The things he’s lost?” she asks, softly.
Reg looks over at Deanna, like, “Uh oh...danger zone.“
Maggie looks at Deanna. “We’ve lost so much more,”she dares to say.
Deanna looks back at Maggie, angrily. “Rick took a gun, and he pointed it at people.”
“He didn’t pull the trigger,” Maggie replies. “That’s a metric, that he didn’t pull the trigger?” Deanna asks incredulously.
“Yes,” Maggie asserts. Deanna is clearly getting agitated, and Reg steps in, faces Deanna.
Deanna looks at Maggie. “I’m going to do what I have to do, Maggie,” she tells the young woman. Maggie looks at Deanna a moment, then stalks off. Reg calls after, then goes after, Maggie, as Deanna turns back to the papers in her hands.
“Maggie!” Reg hurries down the stairs after her. Maggie whirls around to face him. Reg stands on the steps, looks at the young woman before him, collects his thoughts a moment before speaking.
“The cave men… were all nomads, and, um, they all… died. Then, we evolved into this,” and Reg gestures around, to the buildings, the homes around them, “and we lived.” Maggie looks at Reg, listening, and he comes down a couple more steps until he stands at Maggie’s level, facing her.
“Civilization starts when we stop running,” Reg says, his hands in his pockets. He shrugs. “When we live together…when we stop sending people away, from the world, from each other.”
Reg looks at Maggie. “That’s what I’m going to tell her…that’s what I’m going to tell everyone.”
Maggie looks at Reg, silently expressing her thanks and gratitude, before walking off. Reg, man, you’re awesome. Solid gold. ❤
Meanwhile, just outside the steel gates of Alexandria…
Sasha is doing the lonely work of cleaning up the walker bodies she rekilled up in the tower. She loads another corpse on her cart and pulls it towards a deep pit that has been dug for walker burial.
Sasha looks down at the bodies in the pit, then turns and tugs at the body on her cart…the body is stuck, and is hard to dislodge, and Sasha herself slides into the pit with the dead walkers.
After a moment, Sasha lowers herself down until she lay on top of the pile of walkers in the pit…
…and the shot pans out as Sasha closes her eyes, opens her arms, and surrenders to the strange peace of lying on top of the fallen walkers. A really dark concept, creating a really beautiful shot, Nicotero-style.
The next shot we see is of Daryl and Aaron, making their way through the woods. Daryl notes that somebody came through that way a while back, and Aaron is quick to say that if they see the people, they hang back, set up the mike, “Watch, and listen.”
“For how long?” asks Daryl. “Until we know,” replies Aaron. “We have to know.”
Daryl continues to stealth through the woods, tracking as he goes. “You sent people away?” he asks Aaron.
Aaron confirms yes, they did. “What happened?” asks Daryl. Aaron tells him that it was early on…it was three people. Two men, and a woman.
“Davidson was their leader,” continues Aaron, as he follows Daryl through the woods. “Smart ashell, strong…I thought they’d work out. They didn’t.“
“I brought them in,” Aaron tells Daryl, “and I had to see them out.” The two men continue through the woods, the cool air misting their breath. Aaron tells Daryl how he, Aiden, and Nicholas drove the exiles out, far away, gave them a day’s worth of food and water, and left them.
“They just went?” Daryl asks. “We had their guns…all their guns,” replies Aaron.
“I can’t make that kind of mistake again,” Aaron tells Daryl.
Back in Alexandria, Carol is sitting on the edge of Rick’s bed, shaking his sleeping form. “Wake up,”she says, softly.
Rick starts awake, sees Carol sitting there, and sits himself up.
Carol gets right down to business. “It’s good what happened last night,” she says. “We have more cover now…all of them think you’ve been‘found out.’ They think it’s over.”
Carol holds out another handgun to Rick, and after a moment, he takes it.
After taking the gun, Rick looks at Carol. “Why didn’t you want to tell them we had more guns?” he asks her.
“Michonne stopped you…she knocked you out,” Carol says.
Rick looks away a moment, then back at Carol. “I deserved it,” he admits.
Carol doesn’t agree. “It was stupid,” she says, disgustedly. Rick looks at her. “She’s with us, Glenn is,” he asserts.
Carol looks at Rick. “I didn’t tell them about the guns, just in case,” she replies.
Rick leans his head back against the wall, then looks back at Carol.
“I don’t want to lie anymore,” Rick says.
Carol looks at Rick. “You said you (don’t?) want to take this place, and you don’t want to lie? Oh, sunshine, you don’t get both.“
Rick shakes his head, taking in the full import of Carol’s words.
(A couple of thoughts, before moving on. I replayed Carol’s response to Rick quite a few times, and she clearly said, to my hearing, “You said you don’t want to take this place,“ which confused me. I can’t really understand, after repeated playbacks, what exactly Carol’s saying, but I think I am picking up what Carol’s putting down. To me, it sounds like Carol’s still riding the train of, “Let’s take this fucking place.” It’s kind of the only interpretation that makes sense to me, in the moment, and as I’m sleep deprived and on mad deadline right now, a lot doesn’t really make sense in my world, right now…so, really, I have no idea.
Another question…is Alexandria really that bad, that Carol thought that Michonne was stupid to interfere with Rick’s Fifty Shades of Cray moment out in the street, the day before? If Michonne hadn’t interfered, and knocked Rick out, where would Rick’s standoff have ultimately led to? Would Carol have pushed Sam off her, run to get her guns, and come out, barrels blazing? What exactly is their grand takeover plan, here?
Is their plan to kill Deanna, Reg, Spencer, and all the other Alexandrians in charge, and then offer the other citizens a choice, join us or die? Are Rick and Carol really up for slaughtering any resistant elders, innocents, children, to take over a peaceful, established community that took them in, that appears to truly mean them no harm, as clueless as the Alexandrians appear to be about the true state of life outside the walls? Especially when they are not sure if all of their people, their best people (like Michonne, Glenn, Daryl, Abraham, Maggie, Rosita, Sasha) would be on board with this plan to begin with?
And, what does Rick think Jessie would say about all of this? How was he planning on explaining this to her? “Oh, it’s simple, babe…I just kill your abusive husband, we take over your community, and then, you are riding high as First Lady of the Ricktatorship! What was that you said? What about your sons? Oh, they’ll be cool with it…their biodad’s a real dick!”
How would Rick’s own son, Carl, feel about this plan? What about the inherent danger a hostile takeover would be to the most vulnerable Alexandrian citizens, like Baby Judith? A loud gun battle within the walls of Alexandria would bring every walker within a twenty mile radius, hissing and pounding on those walls…and don’t even get me started about potential living threats who may come knocking!
And, how does Carol think that Daryl will feel about this plan? As Carol and Rick plot and plan, Daryl’s with Aaron, 50 miles out, looking for others to recruit into the Alexandria community. Does Carol think that Daryl will approve of this hostile takeover, or that Aaron’s just going to sit back and accept this order of things upon his return, especially if his boyfriend, Eric, is one of the dissenters, and gets killed for his refusal?
Sorry for the rant, gang. I, of course, love all the hot crazy in theory, but when it comes down to it, I say:Bad plan, sorry, can’t back you guys on this one.)
Anyway, back to our story…
50 miles away, out on the scout, Daryl and Aaron have spied a lone man, wearing a red rain poncho, carrying a backpack. They watch him through their binoculars.
“What’s he doing?” Aaron asks, as they watch the man bend down, pick something from the ground, and rub it vigorously on his hands, then his face.
Watching the man, Daryl remarks, “Wild leeks…looks like somebody knows how to keep mosquitoes off him.”
After a moment, Daryl bids Aaron, “Come on,” and they begin to follow the man, keeping a safe distance behind.
Back at Alexandria…
Rick steps out of juvie, blinking in the sunlight…
…and begins to walk down the sidewalk, where Tobin and two other men stand. Tobin is wearing a rifle on his shoulder, a new development in Alexandria…the armory is being guarded, and it seems that Rick’s quarters are under watch as well.
Rick and Tobin greet each other as Rick passes. It is safe to assume the men with Tobin are armed as well, and Rick is most certainly packing his heat. When I first watched this episode, I thought Rick was carrying his pistol openly on him, but rewatching it, I am not sure if it’s open, or hidden, but it most certainly is on him.
Deanna looks up from her papers and watches Rick pass, with some alarm showing on her face.
Rick passes by Deanna, makes eye contact with her, but neither one greets the other as Rick passes.
Seems like Rick could have taken the opportunity to greet Deanna, or apologize for the previous day’s events, but I guess that’s not happening…
Meanwhile…
Glenn sits on the porch, waiting for Maggie to return from her meeting with Deanna as a shady lurker watches him from the shadows….
Nicholas Lurker watches Glenn, hatred in his eyes…he surely has his handgun on him.
Maggie comes up, and Glenn asks her what the verdict is…Maggie tells Glenn it’s what they thought.
Maggie assures Glenn that she will go and talk to people today, before the meeting, plead Rick’s case.
Maggie assures Glenn. He manages a small smile, nods. Maggie sees something is bothering Glenn, asks him, “What?” He does not reply. Maggie sits down next to him, asks again, “What?”
Instead of voicing his real thoughts, Glenn puts his hand on Maggie’s knee, smiles, tells her, “I love you.”
Maggie looks at Glenn’s troubled face. “We’re gonna work it out,” she tells him. “I know it.” They look at each other, and Maggie smiles bravely at Glenn. “I’ll see you there,” Maggie says, and the young couple parts ways.
After Maggie leaves, Glenn sits a moment more on the porch, thinking…a sudden noise makes him look up, and he sees…
… Nicholas, climbing up, and over, the fence. Glenn stands, looks around, then sets off after Nicholas.
The weird just keeps on happening, it seems, because in the next scene, we see Spencer, at the main gate, opening the door for Gabriel. Spencer asks Gabriel, “Sure you don’t want a gun, Father?”
Looking intense and spooky as all get-go, Gabriel replies, “I just want a quick walk.” He looks around, adds, “The Word of God is the only protection I need,” before heading out.
As he closes the gate, Spencer’s look is like, “Ummm…ok.”
Rick, meanwhile, has made it to his house, opens the door, and is greeted immediately by Carl. “Dad!”Carl exclaims, relieved, and rushes forward to give his dad a hug.
Carl, please talk some sense into your father.
Carl asks Rick if he’s ok, and Rick assures him he is, apologizes to Carl as he continues walking through the living room. Carol tells his father he heard about the meeting, and Rick is quick to issue the order, “You’re staying home.”
“That’s what it is, now, right? Home?“ Carl asks. The question stops Rick in his tracks, and he turns around to face his son.
Damn. Even with bandaids and shit all over his face, Rick Grimes is just one fine-ass looking man.
Rick looks at his son for a moment, then answers, “Yeah.”
Carl looks at Rick. “They need us,” he tells his father. “They’ll die without us.“
Rick looks at his son a moment, walks over to him, faces him.
“I may have to threaten one of them,” says Rick. “I may have to kill one of them.” “You won’t,” Carl asserts. “I might,” counters Rick.
“You have to tell them,” Carl says. Rick protests, “I tried to tell them last night.”
Carl looks into his dad’s eyes. “You have to tellthem so they can hear you,” he tells his father, wisely. (I love Carl in this scene!)
Rick leans in towards his son. “I don’t know if they can,” he says softly. He asks Carl, “Does that make you afraid?” Carl shakes his head, then looks at his dad again.
“For them…you have to tell them,” he insists, looking earnestly into Rick’s face. Carl’s right, and deep down, Rick knows it. The Alexandrians may be clueless about some things, but they are basically good people, and both Carl and Rick have grown to care about certain members of the community very, very much.
Rick looks at his son, and nods.
Rick Grimes has some of his finest moments when he is getting schooled by his son. ❤
Meanwhile, about 50 miles away…
Peering through binoculars, Daryl and Aaron spot a couple of tractor trailers which look promising for a major food score.
As Daryl surveys the trucks through the fence, Aaron laments, “We checked the forest, we checked the roads…we can’t find him.” He is talking about the man in the red jacket, who they spotted earlier. They have been searching for him, in vain, and ended up here.
“Sometimes, they (people) slip away, it happens,” Aaron continues. He looks through the fences, at the tractor trailers, then at Daryl. “But, you don’t come across something like this every day.”
Daryl points out that if they do this now, it means they’ve given up on finding the man with the red jacket. Aaron replies that home is 50 miles back…it’s time to go.
“You saw it last night…there’s bad people out here,” Aaron says.
“That’s why we gotta keep looking for the good ones,” Daryl maintains.
“We need more people, we do, and when we find them, we’ll need to feed them,” Aaron points out.
Daryl thinks about this for a moment, then agrees,“All right.” He takes his knife and raps on the metal fence, calling over the walkers that are milling around outside the inner fencing, blocking the way to the trailers.
After making quick work of rekilling the walkers through the fencing, Daryl and Aaron pull open the gate, and make their way towards the trailers, sitting abandoned in the loading area of the canned foods distribution center.
It seems like an ideal score...too good to be true.
As they approach the tractor trailers, Daryl and Aaron don’t seem to notice that each trailer has a couple of empty cans, with holes punched through and strung up alongside, or under, the trailers. The cans catch the wind, and seem to be some kind of noisemaking or alert mechanism.
As they approach the backs of the trailers, each emblazoned with colorful images of cans, vegetables, laden fields, Daryl keeps watch while Aaron, beaming, crouches, opens his backpack. and begins unscrewing something low on the back of one of the trucks.
“Whoa!” Aaron exclaims, looking delighted. “Wasn’t sure I’d see one of these!”Yep, too good to be true…
As he works, Aaron tells Daryl that he doesn’t like giving up either, but, you know, the guy is in a red poncho…
“You can see him from a mile away!”
Aaron pulls up a license plate from Alaska…triple bonus score!
As they stand in front of the three trailers, Aaron happily remarks that even though they may have lost track of the man they were tailing, finding trailers full of canned goods is a pretty great find… Daryl agrees, squats down to pull open one of the trailer doors…the sliding door seems to set off some kind of chain-reaction mechanism, and all at once, all three doors slide open, and what they reveal inside is not quite the bounty the two men were looking for.
Sometimes, it seems, the universe has quite a twisted sense of humor…
…and triple bonus score is merely another name for…
…triple fucked.
Walkers begin to pour out of the trailers, snapping and snarling, while other walkers, without arms or legs, hang on hooks, helplessly gnashing their rotting teeth...just what is the deal with these torso walkers?
Daryl and Aaron make a run for it, only to find their way blocked by another large group of walkers…it seems the trailers open at both ends once the booby trap mechanism is set off.
Daryl and Aaron must fight through the first wave of walkers…Daryl uses his knife to spear through the walkers’ rotten skulls…
…while Aaron uses his newfound Alaska license plate to slice through the walkers’ brains, like a walker-killing MacGyver.
There are too many walkers to fight through, and Daryl and Aaron dive under one of the tractor trailers for momentary cover.
The walkers, however, are not far behind them, clawing their way, hissing, towards the men.
Daryl finds a good-sized length of rusty chain, and he bids Aaron to follow him out the open side of the trailer, away from the crawling walkers. Daryl encounters three walkers in his path, and he chainwhips them in badass bullwhip style…
I have no idea how the WD special effects mavericks achieved this particular effect, but kudos to them…so seamlessly realistic.
Daryl then spears his knife into a walker that has come up on Aaron. Aaron must be taking notes, because he machetes two walkers upside the head in pimp padawan style as the men run for cover from the walker horde that is closing in around them.
Daryl and Aaron run to the only refuge from the walkers they can find, and abandoned car that is sitting in the middle of the lot. As they dive in and try to shut the doors against the crush of walkers, Aaron slams his door on SquishNasty Walker’s head, squishing it nasty…
Yuck.
After a couple of tries, Aaron finally gets the car door shut, and then the two men are trapped in a closed car, as the walkers swarm the outside of it.
Oh noooo!
Back inside the truck, hanging from hooks, the Torso Walkers are all like,”Goddamn it…we miss all the fun shit!”
Well, this sucks.
Aaron says the glass should hold a while…right? Daryl says he thinks so, comes up with the idea to cover the windows, so the walkers can’t see them in there, and eventually lose interest…if they can find something in the car to cover the windows, maybe they can ride it out, or maybe somebody else will come along…
As Aaron and Daryl look around the car for something to cover the windows with, Aaron finds a crumpled note, saying, “Trap. Bad people coming. Don’t stay.”
Aaron, alarmed, looks at Daryl, who looks down at the note. Shit.
Fucked creek, without a paddle, this is.#yodaspeak
And, speaking of fucked creek…
We hear a knock on the door, as we see McBeaty sitting alone in his dark, solitary mansion…it sure is gloomy and lonesome when there’s no one around to terrorize, huh, McBeaty?
After the second knock, McBeaty gets up, goes to the door, and opens it. Carol strides in, carrying a casserole.
“What the hell are you doing?” demands McBeaty.(Wow,McBeaty, you have quite the way with all the ladies, don’t you? What these Alexandrians have yet to realize is that a Carol casserole on the doorstep seems to be the equivalent of a dead canary…)
Still holding the casserole, Carol informs McBeaty, “You need to check on Tara. You treated her, you’re a surgeon, you need to do that.”
McBeaty points to the door. “Get out,” he growls at Carol, beginning to walk back to the dark living room, presumably to sulk some more (as I am sure that Deanna Monroe, Inc. cleared out all the alcohol inMcBeaty’s detention mansion).
As I watched Carol casually reach for her knife, still holding the casserole, I could only think: McBeaty, McBeaty, McBeaty… remember when you tried that line, just yesterday, on Rick Grimes? Remember how that turned out?
As I remember it, as soon as you uttered the fatal words: 1) your wife basically jumpstarted the process of quitting your ass and leaving you for another man, 2) that said man threw you through a window, and, 3) you got your ass beat on some hotasphalt in front of the entire town of Alexandria.
I dunno, McBeaty, maybe next time, you should try another angle…that line doesn’t seem to work very well in your favor!
“I could kill you right now,”Carol informs McBeaty, holding the knife under his chin.
“I could,” Carol continues. “I will…”
“And who would believe I did it because I didn’t like you? No one,” Carol singsongs, holding the pointy end of her knife right up under McBeaty’s chin, twisting it for effect. McBeaty’s breath becomes shaky.
(It is truly comical to see this tiny woman holding a huge knife to this big man, who is breathing hard now, truly shaken.)
Carol keeps the knife point under McBeaty’s chin, not letting up. “They’d believe you tried to hurt me…they’d definitely believe that,“ she informs him.
With one quick swipe of her knife, Carol deftly draws the barest drop of blood from under McBeaty’s chin, and shows it to him on the tip of her blade.
Carol brings the knife down, invites McBeaty, “Come at me.”McBeaty takes the barest step forward, then thinks better of it. “No?” asks Carol. McBeaty wisely doesn’t move, doesn’t answer. “Yeah?” taunts Carol. McBeaty stays still and silent as a stone. “No,” concludes Carol, with some regret in her voice.
Carol regards the tall, shaken man in front of her. “The way this has played out, you have a chance,” she informs him. “You’re here, your wife’s…there,” and New Carolmotions her head towards the end of the street.
New Carol sizes up McBeaty. “You’re a small, weak nothing,” she says, disgustedly. “And with the world how it is, you’re even weaker.”
New Carol tells McBeaty, “Play your cards right, and maybe you don’t have to die.” She then shoves the casserole hard, into his gut, turns to leave, then turns back once more. “I want my dish back clean when you’re done.” And with that, New Carol walks out the door. McBeaty stands there a moment, in shock, before dropping the casserole to the floor, and in an impotent rage, storms into the other room and starts trashing it. “This isn’t my house,” he seethes. “This isn’t my house!”Loud crashing ensues.
Ah, so very good, New Carol…a low bow to you, most honorable master. ❤
Meanwhile, out in the woods, Glenn is following Nicholas, keeping some distance behind. Nicholas scurries deeper into the woods, and after looking around, Glenn follows behind.
Glenn peers at the rekilled remains of Houdini Walker(forgot about you in the memoriam,bud…sorry!) R.I.P.Houdini Walker
Glenn approaches the site cautiously, taking in the sight of the walker, and the bloody chain Aiden and Nicholas used, to try to keep the walker tethered, so they could torture it for their sport when they weren’t feeling so good about themselves, back in the day.
Glenn hears a noise in the bushes, and draws his knife, looking around. A loud shot rings out, and Glenn is hit, the bullet grazing the top of his shoulder.
No!
Glenn winds back, falls to the ground.
Nicholas rushes forward from his cowardly hiding spot in the bushes. (Nicholas! You bastard!)
But when Nicholas reaches the spot where Glenn fell, he only sees drops of blood on the grass and leaves…Glenn is gone.
You tell him, Nelson:
Ah, this next scene…so beautifully done. One of my all-time favorites.
As Jessie tries to clean up the broken mess of her living room window, we see a gentleman caller has come to pay a visit…
I love this look on her face when she looks up and sees Rick coming up her porch stairs. AlexandraBreckenridge does an amazing job in this scene, this episode, and of course, Andrew Lincoln…well, there are no words, even for me. Beautifully shot, beautifully acted. Michael Satrazemis, director of photography, director Greg Nicotero, of course…Deadies all around for this scene, another classic TWDmoment.
“You should go,” Jessie says to Rick (translation:You should goto my bedroom, with me, now!)
“I just wanted to check on you,” Rick says, gently. #constabledreamy
Jessie and Rick share a sweet moment, looking at each other, not saying anything…in words, anyway.
Rick leans forward, noticing. “Your eye,” he says, concerned. Jessie is indeed sporting a black eye from McBeaty’s savage backhand when she tried to pull him off Rick, and break up the fight.
Jessie assures Rick that it happened during the fight. McBeaty has been in Lockdown Mansion, down the street, and hasn’t had a chance to lay a hand on her since.
Jessie then says that they shouldn’t be seen talking right now…but it’s pretty hard to tear themselves away.
“I’m not sorry I did it, no matter what happens, or what I have to do,” Rick tells Jessie (which is pretty much the most perfect thing he could say in this moment). #swoon
After another moment, Rick turn to go. As he turns away, Jessie calls to him, “Don’t turn around, Rick.”
Rick stops, waits. He doesn’t turn around.
“You were right,” says Jessie. Rick turns his face slightly towards her, before walking away.
And down the street, from inside a house that isn’t his own, we see McBeaty watching this interaction.
Cue the sinister Bear McCreary music…
Meanwhile….
50 miles away…
Inside the car, Daryl looks at the walkers outside the window, then looks straight ahead, gives a little laugh as a funny thought occurs to him. “Huh!”
Aaron looks over at Daryl. “What?”Daryl explains, with a shake of his head, “I came out here to…I feel all closed up back there (in Alexandria).”
Daryl looks towards Aaron, then slightly away as he marvels, “Even now…it still feels more like me.”
Daryl sadly muses that back at “those houses,” he was really putting himself “on.”
Aaron winces as the pain of Daryl’s sad statement hits him. Daryl feel his importance as someone who can contribute to his group out in the wild, but is overcome with self doubt finding his place in a walled, polite society, housed in homes that would have never been an option for someone like him before the turn.
Aaron looks at Daryl, says, gently, “You were trying.” Daryl looks ahead, thinking a moment, then replies, “I had to.”
Aaron shakes his head. “No, you didn’t.” Daryl doesn’t respond. Aaron continues, “Listen, I saw you out there with your group, in the road…and you went off, on your own, by the barn. The storm hit…you led your people to safety.” Daryl is silent, listening to Aaron’s words.
“That was it,” Aaron says, remembering. “That’s when I knew that I had to bring you people back.”
Daryl does not reply, and then it is Aaron’s turn for self-reflection, and self doubt. As the walkers continue to hiss and paw at the windows, Aaron looks down, muses, “You were right. We should have kept looking for that guy in the poncho.” Aaron shakes his head. “I shouldn’t have given up. You didn’t.”
After a moment, Daryl pulls out a cigarette, puts it in his mouth, and reaches in his jacket, fishing for a light.
“I’ll go,” Daryl offers. Aaron turns, looks at him in disbelief. “I’ll lead ’em out, you make a break for the fence,” Daryl says, gesturing beyond the car’s windows.
Daryl then lights his smoke, inhales deeply.
“No, no, no,” Aaron counters. “This was my fault.”
Daryl looks at Aaron.
“It wasn’t a question,” rebukes Daryl, “and this ain’t your decision. Ain’t nobody’s fault.”
“Now, just lemme finish my smoke first.” (A very special Deadie right here, right now, for our man, Daryl Dixon:The Most Beautiful, Tender Hero, Always Award)DarylDixon, you are the most beautiful, tender hero, always. ❤
“No,” whispers Aaron. “You don’t draw them away…”
“…we fight.”
Aaron looks at Daryl. “We go for the fence. We do it together…whether we make it or not, we do it together. We have to.” ❤
( A Padawan Hero Deadie for Aaron, here, and a Most ExcellentNewcomer Deadie to Ross Marquand, the actor who plays Aaron. He even does impressions! ) 🙂
Daryl looks over at Aaron, regards him with the barest of smiles, and a new respect. “All right,” he agrees. He takes one more drag of his smoke, asks, “Ready?”
“Yeah,”Aaron replies, softly. Daryl says, “We’ll go on 3.”Aaron grips his machete, and Daryl draws his knife, begins to bounce himself in the seat, readying himself for battle as he begins to count, “1…”
As Daryl counts, Aaron, gripping his machete, turns and locks eyes with one of the walkers, outside. 1-2-3 Walker seems to be smiling at Aaron, as if it knows what is about to happen…
“…2…!” Daryl counts, and as if on cue, 1-2-3 Walker’sbrains are suddenly dashed against the car windows, to Aaron’s shock and surprise.
The car door is flung open, and we see who the rescuer is…Morgan!
Brandishing his trusty wooden staff, Morgan continues taking out walkers, buying Aaron and Daryl a moment to get out of the car and begin battling walkers themselves.
Aaron brings his machete down on a walker’s head…
…as Daryl stabs at the walkers, and Morgan takes them out with his staff. Between the three of them, they are able to clear a line to the gate and quickly get outside, pulling the gate closed behind them, barring the walkers’ way.
As the walkers rush the fence, Aaron, Daryl, and Morgan take a moment to process the fact that they just escaped, with their lives, against all odds. They did it!
Aaron turns to Morgan, ecstatic. “That was…” he begins, bowing his hands towards Morgan, unable to find the words. “Thank you,” he says, simply.
Morgan receives Aaron’s thanks, and praise, humbly.
Aaron introduces himself, and Daryl. Morgan introduces himself, “Morgan.” Daryl regards Morgan, puzzled.
“Why?” Daryl asks him. Morgan looks at Daryl.
“Why?” Morgan replies. “Because all life is precious, Daryl.”
As Morgan and Daryl regard each other, Aaron begins talking, quickly, reminding them that whoever set that trap will be coming back, at some point, and that they have good news…they have a community, with electricity, and walls. Aaron tells Morgan he is welcome to come with them, if he likes.
“I thank you,” Morgan tells them, politely and sincerely, “but I’m on my way somewhere. Fact is,I’m lost.” Morgan begins fishing in his coat pocket for something, says, “If you could tell me where we are,”and hands a map over to Daryl…
…who takes the map Morgan has handed him, and looks down to see Abraham’s note to Rick: “The new world’s gonna need Rick Grimes!” ❤
Daryl looks down at the map, then up at Morgan a couple of times, trying to wrap his head around this. Morgan returns his gaze in an open, friendly manner, his eyebrows raised in silent question.
🙂 Cue the sweet Bear McCreary piano music
Some ways away, another type of music is in the air…a singsong bird whistle carries hesitantly through the woods as Gabriel walks along, clad simply in a long-sleeved white shirt with dark pants.
Gabriel seems to be dressed in white for some sort of ritualistic Eat Meself-sacrifice, and is whistling, presumably, to attract walkers. Judging from Gabriel’s face, however, he may be whistling because he’s really, really terrified and doesn’t quite know what to do with all that.
Gabriel approaches a clearing, and what he sees beyond it warps his little singsong whistle into some shrill, discordant notes…he makes himself step closer…
…towards the walker feasting on some poor doomed somebody in the road.
Gabriel seems to find his resolve more and more with each step towards the walker, who is pretty busy in the moment, and who does not yet notice Gabriel behind it.
Gabriel opens his arms and calls out, “I’m ready!“
That gets Eat Me Walker’sattention, and it turns to face Gabriel.
Eat Me Walker stands and begins lurching towards Gabriel, whose eyes are wide with fear, but who continues to step towards the fast-coming walker…
Arms open, walking towards the walker, Gabriel repeats, more uncertainly this time, “I’m ready.”
Eat Me Walker lurches towards Gabriel, whose face begins to look more and more like, “I’m not ready” for this…
“No, fuck this, I am definitely not ready for this! Fuck. This!”
Gabriel pushes the walker back with its first rush at him, and it takes him one more second of considering his course before he does what any other person, sane or not, would do if he/she wanted to continue living…he defends himself.
Crying, hating himself, Gabriel pulls at Eat Me Walker’s hanging noose end until the walker’s head pops off its rotten neck.
So much for self sacrifice. Never been a big fan of it, myself.
Gabriel takes a large rock and smashes it into Eat Me Walker’s gnashing, reanimated head, spattering its brains all over the ground. The only thing I could think in the moment, watching this scene, was, “Well, where was all that brawn and bravado before, Gabriel, when Rick and the gang could have really used another killing machine in their many righteous battles against the undead, and your ass just hung back, and watched, and sniveled? You better be jumping up and getting up in there next time…just sayin’…time to be ahelper, Gabriel!”
Gabriel walks over to Eat Me Walker’s chomped victim, who lay convulsing on the ground…
Gabriel lifts the rock high, and brings it down on the poor man’s head, killing him for good.
Gabriel breaks down, sobbing. He collapses in the road, crying in real anguish. The Renegade Deadie goesto our man, Seth Gilliam, who is killing it once again as Gabriel, the tortured priest! (I do hope that Seth Gilliam can start living closer to the rest of the TWD cast during Season 6 shooting, and not be an outsider any more…closer digs would be way more fun.)
Meanwhile, back in Alexandria, Abraham comes to visit Tara, bearing hand cut flowers in a jar…
…and stops short when he sees Eugene’s dozing form, slumped in one of the visitor’s chairs beside Tara’s bed.
Abraham turns to go. “I’ll come by later,” he mutters, trying to duck out the door. “He’s asleep,” Rosita says. Abraham stops. Rosita smiles at him, as if trying not to laugh. “He’s asleep, sit,” she says. Rosita turns back to writing as Abraham quiety closes the door and begins to gingerly step over to Tara’s bed.
After taking a second to stare down at Eugene, determining if he really is asleep, Abraham begins to ease himself slowly into the chair beside Eugene when…
…Rosita deliberately pushes a metal pan off the counter, sending it clattering loudly to the floor. “Whoops, “ Rosita mock laments. Abraham freezes in mid-sit, his face saying it all. She got him good, and they both know it.
Eugene jolts awakes, sees Abraham beside him. He peers over at Abraham, who is turning back from shooting Rosita a look…Abraham and Eugene regard each other a moment.
“Good afternoon,” says Eugene. Abraham says nothing.
First Abraham, then Eugene, turn their gazes back to Tara, sleeping in her bed. An awkward moment passes, then Eugene speaks up. “She saved my life,” he says, of Tara.
Eugene continues, “She also cracked open my gourd to considering implications I hadn’t… I’ll remark on those at this time.”
Eugene turns to Abraham. “You got us here. All I did was craft a top shelf lie, to which a person of strength and heroism could apply their talents.”(Editor’s note: The Top Shelf Lie is an amazing name for a mullet.)
“My bet was that you needed that,” Eugene continues, still looking over at Abraham. Abraham is kind of staring ahead, at Tara’s sleeping form, taking it all in.
“I thank you,“ Eugene says, simply and humbly, and bravely. Abraham turns to face Eugene.
Tears in his eyes, and a shake in his voice, Eugene looks at Abraham and says, “I am sorry.” Awww!❤
“And I mean both, emphatically and in equal measure,” Eugene concludes.
After a moment, Abraham looks back at Eugene…
…then looks away again. As Rosita and Eugene watch, Abraham seems to really struggle with saying the words: “I’m…sorry, too.”
Eugene hurriedly tries to assure Abraham that his apology is “utterly and completely unnecessary,” when Abraham reminds him that:
“I almost killed you.” Abraham’s voice betrays his anger at himself for losing his shit on Eugene so hard after Eugene confessed his big lie.
“Yes,” Eugene concedes, “there’s that.” The men look at each other for one more awkward moment, then both turn back to look at Tara.
Meanwhile, Spencer, who is pulling gate duty, hears a rap at the gate, peers through an opening in the tarp covering the fence, and sees Gabriel has returned.
Spencer rolls open the gate. “You’re back,” he greets Gabriel. “Good. Just wanted to sneak off to the meeting.”
Gabriel does not reply, just looks like his usual spooked self, and Spencer turns to go, then turns back to Gabriel. “Do you think we could find some time to talk later?” he asks the priest. “About Aiden? There’s just some things I need to say, and I’m not sure who I can say them to.”
Spencer looks shyly at Gabriel, confesses, “I don’t really have anyone here, right now, if you know what I mean.”
Oh, I think Father Gabriel knows exactly what you mean, Spencer!
Gabriel whispers something like, “I see,” which really isn’t the most comforting or reassuring reply, but Spencer seems like he’s already onto number next. There’s a meeting to get to, and it’s a big one…they’re gonna be talking exile and shit.
“Cool,” Spencer says breezily, and turns to go, then turns back to Gabriel, motions towards the gate. “Can you get that?” Spencer asks Gabriel, and like someone half asleep, Gabriel whispers, “Yeah…”
“Thank you,” says Spencer, turns, and strides off towards the meeting. Gabriel turns and pulls the gate closed, half-heartedly, and is already walking away as the metal door bounces against the frame and begins to roll back open…unlatched, unlocked, unmanned…open.
Dude, really?
Meanwhile, out in the woods…
Nicholas is running through the woods, buggin’ hard, trying to find Glenn, who he shot, and lost…he sees a figure moving through the trees, raises his gun.
The moving figure, however, turns out not to be Glenn, but Je Ne Sais Quoi Walker, whose face alights as it spies Nicholas, and begins to stride towards him with a certain, undead, je ne sais quoi flair to its shuffling step.
Nicholas pulls out his knife as the walker approaches, but seems to lack confidence in his hand-to-hand walker takedown skills…
Nicholas goes for what he knows, reaching for his pistol and firing upon the walker , rekilling it instantly. Glenn knows this is the moment to strike, and he tackles Nicholas against a tree.
Glenn, being shot, has the definite disadvantage of being wounded, in pain, and losing blood, but he manages to land some good shots at Nicholas…
Nicholas gets some good shots in on Glenn, and does the dick maneuver of jabbing a finger or thumb into Glenn’s bullet wound, causing Glenn to cry out in pain. Glenn tackles Nicholas to the ground…
…and manages to stomp the inside of one of Nicholas’s legs, hard, most likely breaking the bone. Nicholas gets the advantage once again, ending up on top of Glenn, punching him again and again, jabbing poor Glenn’s wound. Glenn screams out in pain.
The noise attracts the attention of Aye, Aye, Aye Walker, who ambles up crookedly with a high-pitched, gurgling snarl, “Aye…aye…aye!”
As Aye, Aye, Aye Walkercomes up, Nicholas rolls off Glenn and flees, leaving Glenn at the mercy of the she-walker and two other undead fiends…Nicholas, you bastard!
Aye, aye, aye! Watching this finale episode, my WD buddy and I were super freaked at this scene, which ended with the shot fading out, to the next scene, or commercial. I turned to my WDbuddy and said, “They’re not going to take Glenn down with a fade-out!”
Meanwhile…
Rick is sitting alone, looking down, thinking. Michonne comes up behind him, watches him a moment. “Rick,” she says, softly, “you ready?”
Rick sits a moment, then turns to Michonne, and starts to confess the truth. He looks pretty adorable, abashed, not really able to meet her eyes at times as he comes clean with her.
“Daryl, Carol, and me…we worked it out together. Carol took three guns from the armory. I still have one, she still has one.” Rick turns to look at Michonne, who is digesting all this information.
Rick takes a deep breath before continuing. “We lied to you, because I wasn’t sure how you’d take it, what you’d do.”
Rick holds out the gun for Michonne to take. Michonne, however, makes no move to take the gun.
Michonne tosses the constable’s jacket on the bed, fixes Rick with a look. “You think I’d try to stop you?” she chides gently.
Rick, still holding out the gun, looks at Michonne, who still does not reach for it.
“Well,” he jokes, “you did hit me over the head.”
“That was for you,” Michonne replies, “not them.”
Rick takes this in, gets up from the bed, walks over to Michonne. He stands before her, faces her.
“I was afraid you’d talk me out of it,” Rick tells Michonne. “You could have.”
Michonne’s face softens as she looks at the big adorable dummy in front of her. “We don’t need them (guns) here,” she says gently, shaking her head. “I don’t need my sword.”
Michonne looks up at Rick, looking like The MostBeautiful Wise One (and you know that’s a Deadie, and you know it goes to Michonne/Danai Gurira!). ❤
Michonne tells Rick, “I think you can find a way.” Rick looks away, in a moment of resistance, or embarrassment, as he hears aloud what he probably already knew, deep down, to be true.
“We can find a way…” Michonne continues, “and if we don’t?” Michonne pauses a moment to let her next statement sink in, “I’m still with you.”
Dammit, Richonne, why? Why?? It could have been so amazing! I am trying to be supportive and unconditional with the whole Ressie thing, but you two, together, would have been the sexy superhero team-up of my dreams… <sob!>
Continuing to be a beautiful oracle,Michonne tells Rick, “Something’s gonna happen…just don’t make something happen.”
Rick takes the wisdom, and the lesson, in. He tries to hand Michonne his handgun one last time, and she presses it back towards him.
Michonne turns to leave. “Don’t be too long,”she tells Rick, who stands silently, mulling over her words.
Rick sits on the end of the bed, unsheathing a long, machete-style blade, weighing options, remembering words that Bob had told him, back on the goods run at the food bank:
“And you’re gonna find yourself in a place where it’s like where I used to be…and if you let too much go along the way, it’s not gonna work. “
As Rick stands and looks at the gun in his hand, Bob’s words continue to come back to him: “You’re gonna be back in the real world.”
Rick’s own words to Bob come back to him as he tucks the handgun into the back waistband of his pants, “This is the real world, Bob.”
We hear Bob’s laugh, then his reply: “Naw, this is a nightmare…and nightmares end.”
Rick is pacing around the room, thinking, deciding…as he looks out the window, something outside catches his eye…something very amiss.
Alarmed, Rick grabs his jacket, and rushes out of the room.
Outside, Rick walks quickly towards the gate, which is open…he checks all around the fence, peers outside, then sees…
…blood and gory bits left on the slide-latch part of the gate…Rick looks down at the ground, sees drops of blood in a line leading into Alexandria.
Rick quickly pulls the gate closed, latches it locked, and turns to scour the streets of Alexandria…
…for uninvited, undead intruders!
Meanwhile, we see Gabriel, gate-jacker, returning to his makeshift chapel, where a surprise visitor awaits him…
Sasha.
Gabriel and Sasha look at one another a moment, then Gabriel walks silently up to the front of the chapel’s altar. Sasha looks down miserably towards the floor in front of her as she talks. “I came here…because I don’t knowwhat to do…I’m losing my head.”
“Can you help me?” Sasha asks, still staring towards the floor, unable to look at Gabriel, tears in her eyes.
Gabriel turns to regard the woman seated in his chapel. “No,” he replies, cruelly.
Meanwhile, the town meeting is waiting to begin…Rick is not there, nor is Glenn, Gabriel, Nicholas, Carl.
Deanna Monroe’s face looks grim as she waits with Reg and Spencer.
Maggie is trying to keep cool, but glances over towards Deanna. You can tell she’s worried. It doesn’t look good for Rick, his not being there. And where is Glenn?
We see a shot of the assembled townspeople, seated in chairs around a fire. We see Michonne looking around, surely wondering where Rick is, where the others are.
We see Jessie, sporting a black eye, most certainly freaking out inside, but outwardly keeping it together pretty damn well, and looking pretty cute doing it.
After a moment more, Deanna announces to the assembled townspeople, “We’re going to start.”
“Can we wait?” Maggie’s voice is soft, but firm. “There’s still people coming. Glenn…Rick.” (Awarding a Maggie For President Deadie to Maggie Greene/Lauren Cohan here, for bringing it in Season 5, and looking gorgeous doing it!) ❤
In response, Deanna Monroe turns back to the assembled citizens, says again, “We’re going to start.”
Deanna turns to look at Maggie. “It’s alreadydark,” she says, petulantly. Man, these Alexandrians really have gone soft behind these walls!
Deanna turns and begins to make her case to the assembled. She orates grandly, and it is easy to imagine her before the turn, taking the stage, or the floor, and addressing the public, or her fellow members of Congress.
“We’re going to talk about what happened,” Deanna begins, “not the fight, not what precipitated it. We’re dealing with that. We’re going to talk about one of our constables, Rick Grimes. We’re going to talk about how he had a pistol…”
“… he stole from the armory…”
“…about how he pointed it at people…”
“And, we’re going to talk about what he said.“
Deanna lays it on thick as she shakes her head and mock laments, “I was hoping he’d be here.” (It made me think that Deanna considered it a personal affront on Rick’s part, and a show of disrespect for the Alexandrian way, his not being at the meeting. It seemed to me that while Deanna considered herself an impartial judge, she had, on some level, already made up her mind about how she wanted to handle Rick, with this perceived insult at the forefront of her consciousness.)
Junior League Carol chimes in, with a hopeful smile at Deanna, “I’m sure he’ll be here…and I’m sure we can work all this out.”
The scene shifts to the darkened woods outside the walls…
…and we see Nicholas looking around fearfully…
…making his way back towards the walled town, limping on his broken ankle, thinking he had gotten rid of Glenn for good.
The scene shifts again, to the darkened streets of Alexandria…
…where Rick Grimes runs through the streets, knife drawn, patrolling the town that is deciding his fate in this very moment .
Meanwhile, in Gabriel’s chapel…
“I think I wanna die,” Sasha says in a shaking voice. Gabriel looks down grimly a the candles he is lighting. “Why wouldn’t you want to die?” he asks, brutally.
Gabriel turns to face Sasha. “You don’t deserve to be here. What you did, can never be undone.”
Gabriel flings his words, and contempt, at Sasha like weapons. “The dead don’t choose, but the choices you made, how you sacrificed your own….”Gabriel trails off here for a moment, looks away. Is he talking about Sasha…or himself?
Sasha looks at Gabriel, says, “I know what you’re doing.”
Gabriel does not let up, however, and the hurtful words keep coming.
“Bob was mutilated…consumed…destroyedbecause of your sins.“ “Stop it, ” Sasha tells him, eyes wide. But Gabriel keeps walking towards Sasha, jabbing his finger at her, accusing. “Your brother thought that he was apart from it…he was a part of it. He didn’t deserve to be here! You don’t!” (Yep, Gabriel seems to definitely be projecting his guilt and anger at himself onto Sasha, Tyreese, and the others.)
“Stop it! Stop it!”screams Sasha, rushing Gabriel, shoving him up against the wall.
Rick, meanwhile, is racing through the yards, searching…a couple of dogs from inside the houses begin barking, obscuring the sounds ofsomethingcoming up behind Rick…
One of the Freejack Walkers sneaks up behind Rick…
…who whirls around, just in time, to face his undead attacker.
At the meeting, Michonne is trying to explain reality to the Alexandrians. It’s hard to know if the lot of them are picking up what she is putting down…
“And after being out there, and then not being how you were out there, it can drive you crazy. Rick just wants his family to live. He wants all of you to live.”
Michonne looks around at the assembled Alexandrians, then at Deanna Monroe. “Who he is, that’s who you’re gonna be…if you’re lucky.“
In that very moment, in another part of town…
Rick is busy fighting off, stabbing the Freejack Walkers…
Back at the chapel…
Sasha and Gabriel battle it out, wrestling the gun, which fires an errant shot through one of the chapel windows…Sasha manages to smack Gabriel in the head with the butt end of the gun, and he falls to the floor.
…and out in the dark woods…
We see Nicholas, limping through the trees, looking around, looking frightened…a noise behind him startles him…
…and we see Glenn come up behind Nicholas, and beat him down with one punch. Yes!
And, back around the fire, the Rick Grimes Testimonials continue…
“Rick Grimes saved my life, over and over,” Carol tells the group. “There’s terrifying people out there, and he rescued me from them. People like me…people like us, need people like him.” Amen to that, New Carol!
Junior League Carollooks at the others. “I know what happened last night was scary…and I’m sure he’s sorry for that…but maybe we should listen to what he was saying.”
Rick, meanwhile, has his hands full, as Blow Yer Top Walkerhas him pinned underneath as it snaps at Rick’s face…
Rick Smash! summons all his strength, pressing his handgun into Blow Yer Top Walker’s rotting neck with all his might. We hear the horrible liquid sounds of Blow Yer Top Walker’s head reaching max pressure as Rick presses the pistol deeper and deeper into the decaying flesh under the walker’s chin…
As Glenn takes another, then another shot at Nicholas, out in the woods…
Abraham testifies on Rick’s behalf. He informs those gathered at the meeting, “Simply put, there is a vast ocean of shit that you people don’t know shit about…Rick knows every finegrain of said shit, and then some.”
Case in point, elsewhere in town…
Rick, underneath Blow Yer Top Walker, continues to press into the underside of the walker’s chin, upward into its brain, pulling the trigger, and exploding Blow Yer TopWalker’s head in a gorish spray of fetid blood and brains, all over his face. Rick sputters, pushing the dead walker off him, and lying there with walker blood and goo all over his face and front.
RIPBlow Yer Top Walker
And, speaking of terrifying people…50 miles away, at the canned food distribution center…
We see the Wolfboys walking Red Poncho Guy, whose hands are tied behind his back, up to the gates of the distribution center, where the walkers snarl and grab at the fence.
The poor man pleads with them, but the Wolfboys pay him no heed. “They’ll hear you,” the dark-haired one tells him. “It will take longer to reset.”
Repeating his words to Morgan, earlier that day, the dark-haired one tells the Red Poncho Guy, “Just be still…just be still.” The blond one then turns the Red Poncho Guy around, and the dark haired one slashes the poor man’s neck with one swift stroke of his knife. RIPRed Poncho Guy 😦
The dark-haired wolfboy turns to the blond one, as their latest victim, a newly deceased addition to their walker army, slumps to the ground, his life’s blood streaming out of the gash in his throat. “Welcome home,” the dark-haired one says, as the wolfboys turn to regard the savage walkers, fenced in, snarling, beyond the gate.
After a much-needed commercial/beverage re-up break, we are taken back to Alexandria, where Maggie is talking to the group about Rick Grimes.
“My father respected Rick Grimes,” Maggie tells the others. “Rick is a father, too. He’s a man with a good heart, and he feels the things he does, the things he has to do.”
Maggie continues, “And all of us, who were together before this place, no matter when we found each other, we’re family now. Rick started that.”
Maggie looks at the group, then turns to look at Deanna Monroe. “And you won’t stop it. You can’t. And you don’t want to.”
Maggie looks around at those gathered, at Deanna. “This community…you people…that family…you want to be a part of it, too.”
Deanna, and the other citizens of Alexandria, seem to have many things to consider while deciding Rick Grimes’ fate.
After Maggie finishes speaking, Deanna steps forward. “Before we hear from…anyone else, I would like to share something in the spirit of transparency.”
Deanna rubs her hands, pauses, then with fingers laced, thumbs tapping together, continues: “Father Gabriel came to see me the day before yesterday, and he told me that our new arrivals can’t be trusted, that they are dangerous, that they would put themselves before this community.”
Maggie looks over at Deanna, but holds her tongue...once again, Maggie is exhibiting way more self control in this moment than I ever could!
Deanna continues, “And, not one day later, Rick seemed to demonstrate all the things that Father Gabriel said.” Deanna looks at the group assembled, concludes,“I had hoped Father Gabriel would be here tonight.”
As Deanna moves to sit back down, Jessie speaks up.
“I don’t see him here, Deanna,” Jessie says clearly, stopping Deanna mid-sit. “So, you’re just saying what someone said…did you tape him?” (Yes, Jessie, way to have your man’s back!)
“He’s not here,” Maggie confirms.
“Neither is Rick,” Deanna fires back.
And, neither is Noah…and for that, out in those dark woods, Glenn wants to make Nicholas pay…
“Noah died because of you,” Glenn grinds out, pinning Nicholas to the ground.
“And I tried to tell you how it is, how it has to be, and you tried to kill me?!” In the face of Glenn’s fury, Nicholas is crying, shaking his head… to no avail, of course. Too little, too late, Nicholas.
Glenn cocks the pistol, points it into the center of Nicholas’s forehead, as Nicholas starts to sob in terror.
And back in the chapel…
Gabriel lay on the floor, dazed and terrified, himself…
…because Sasha’s been pushed too far. Sister’s got her #killinface on, and she’s standing over Gabriel, pointing her rifle down at him, ready to defile another chapel with some blood and guts! (Gabriel, I guess if you were hellbent on dying today, you picked a quick, effective means of departure from this world!)
Meanwhile, 50 miles away, a surreal moment unfurls…and the plot thickens.
We see a hand press a button on a remote, and suddenly, lights flash inside the open truck trailers, and a happy, soothing, singsongy song plays loudly in the fenced distribution area. The walkers turn toward the lights and noise…
The wolfboys watch the walkers turn and begin to shuffle back towards their trailer/holding pens, as if trained. It is easy to imagine these young men were technically savvy before the turn, and have used their talents in these times…
…to rig up a system of manipulating, keeping, and even customizing walkers, for use in some mysterious, nefarious scheme (which I am sure will be revealed, courtesy of Kirkman, Gimple, Nicotero & Co.,in due time!). Shudder!
Back at the meeting…
Tobin has the floor. “I just want to keep my family safe,” he is saying. “I don’t know what that means anymore, but if that means we have to get rid of some-…”
Tobin stops mid-sentence when he sees…
Bloody Rickhas finally made it to the meeting, and he’s brought Deanna a present…
Rick throws Blow Yer Top Walker’s rekilled body onto the ground, right at Deanna’s feet, as his people, and the assembled citizens, gape wordlessly at him.
Bloody Rick looks around at the group, like, “You were saying, assholes?”
Out in the woods, pistol to his head, Nicholas is terrified, pleading, blubbering…
“I was scared…I was scared…I don’t belong…I don’t belong out here!”
“Shut up!” Glenn grinds out, but Nicholas is too scared to stop himself, keeps saying, “I was scared…I was scared…”
“I don’t…I don’t belong out here…I don’t belong out here…”“Shut up!” Glenn hollers at Nicholas, preparing to squeeze the trigger, but we see Glenn’s face, his anguish as he holds the gun to the sobbing man’s head...can he really pull the trigger, kill a man who is crying, pleading for his life?
“Shut up,” Glenn whispers to the crying man underneath him, before rolling off Nicholas. Nicholas sobs in relief. Glenn cannot do it. Despite all he has seen, and all he has lost, Glenn has not lost his humanity, his compassion. Beacon of Humanity Deadie for our man, Glenn Rhee/Steven Yeun❤
Back at the chapel, pointing her rifle at Gabriel, Sasha is struggling with her own moral dilemma…
Sasha points the rifle at Gabriel, but cannot bring herself to pull the trigger.
“Do it,” urges Gabriel.
Maggie comes in to the room, sees what’s happening. “Sasha!” Maggie admonishes, coming quickly to her friend’s side, gently placing her hands on the gun, and holding steady as Sasha breaks down in tears. Maggie gently takes the gun away from Sasha.
“You should let her,” Gabriel says, miserably. “They died…they all died because of me.”
Maggie looks down at Gabriel, her face showing her compassion for the priest’s anguish. She kneels down, and looks at Gabriel.
“They did,” Maggie agrees, simply, taking Gabriel’s hand, and pulling him up to standing. Truly her father’s daughter. ❤
Meanwhile, at the town meeting…
Rick tells the assembled, who are still staring in disbelief at the dead walker in front of them, “There wasn’t a guard on the gate…it was open.”
Deanna looks at Spencer, who tells her, “I asked Gabriel to close it.” Deanna takes this in. “Go!” she orders her son, who rushes off.
Rick turns to the townspeople. “I didn’t bring it in…it got inside on its own.”
Rick turns to Deanna, and Reg, who look like they are finally ready to listen to what he has to tell them. “They always will…” Rick tells them.
“…the dead, and the living, because we’re in here.The ones out there...”
“…they’ll hunt us…”
“…they’ll find us…”
“…they’ll try to use us…”
“…and they’ll try to kill us.”
We see one of the wolfboys collect Aaron’s dropped bag from the ground at the distribution center…
…and look through the pictures, images of people living a life like before the turn…
…in a peaceful, idyllic community, nestled behind tall steel walls. Choice digs for the taking.
“But,” Rick continues, “we’ll kill them. We’ll survive. I’ll show you how.”
Rick looks around at the assembled citizens of Alexandria. “You know, I was thinkin’…I was thinkin’ how many of you do I have to kill, to save your lives?”
“But I’m not gonna do that…”
“You’re gonna change.”
Rick turns to Deanna. “I’m not sorry for what I said last night…”
“…I’m sorry for not saying it sooner. You’re not ready, but you have to be. Right now. You have to be. Luck runs out.“
And right on cue, here comes Mr. Bad Luck himself, Dr. Petey McBeaty…
“You’re not one of us!” McBeaty grinds out, brandishing…Michonne’s katana?
Reg, being the kind, kind soul that he is, rushes forward, between McBeaty and Rick, trying to talk McBeaty down. “Pete…you don’t want to do this!”
McBeaty growls out, “Get the hell away from me, Reg.” Reg, being a good, reasonable man, continues to try to talk sense into a furious, probably drunk, madman. (Let’s face it…if McBeaty broke in and stole Michonne’s katana from their house, he probably took the booze, too!)
Deanna frantically tries to call Reg back, but before she can get him to back away from McBeaty, luck does indeed run out for Reg…and Deanna. 😦
McBeaty pushes Reg, who is trying to talk to him, stop him from certain folly, then McBeaty slashes Reg’s throat with the katana. Horrible. Just… horrible.
It is so awful watching Deanna hold her beloved husband as his life’s blood pours from his wound, sobbing, “My love…my love!”
Deanna looks up at Rick, anguished. “Rick…” she says.
“Do it.”
Rick turns and fires one fatal shot into McBeaty’s head…later, McBeaty.
And, hello, Morgan!
“Rick?”
Can somebody say, “awkward??”
Wow. Done. It has been a long, epic, and sometimes arduous journey to get this last post out. Life, and all that. Thank you for reading, and for being patient, and a special thank you to all those who kept checking in these last two months, to see if I had posted yet. It was like a blue jay pecking at my open wound (completely intentional reference to Seth McFarlane’s hilarious western spoof, A Million Ways To Die In The West…once again, I say, thank you, Seth McFarlane!) to see my sad stats page, knowing I was letting readers down.
All apologies, loves, and I do hope, with my finale post, and with my homage to WD Season5, that I brought it in a way that was worth the wait. Let me know. Give me a shout.Much fun to be had this summer, with social media, new music tech, and new spinoff series, Fear The Walking Dead.
Start of the turn? In L.A.?I am so there! Not writing about it (unless someone wants to hire me for recap/synopses…give a shout! I can be brief, and not use cuss words…really!) but maybe a pic or two, a playlist with each episode. I have lots of fun on social media, always throwing random stuff out in my continuous worship of pop culture, so keep posted with barnfullawalkersthis summer:
Happy summer, loves, and enjoy the playlist. Lots of fun to look forward to…stay tuned, and keep in touch…I may be showing up in some TWD chatrooms, waxing poetic about Richonne and shit…and if I pull it off, a new graphic header just in time for Season 6!
I dedicate this post to my sister, Peg. Thank you for supporting me, and believing in me. I love you.
Season 5 Finale Playlist:
Carl Douglas, “Kung Fu Fighting”
KRS One, “Sound of the Police
DMX, “What’s My Name?”
Prodigy, “Smack My Bitch Up”
Ty Segall, “Shoot You In The Head”
Royal Blood, “Little Monster”
The Soft Moon, “Insides”
Cold War Kids, “Relief”
Father John Misty, “True Affection” (for Rick and Jessie)
(All images used in this post are screen caps from AMC’s The Walking Dead, unless otherwise specified.)
The Walking Dead’s Season 5, Episode 15, “Try, opens with a shot of a lone walker, lurching through a woods at night…we see the walker’s mouth, chin, and shirt is slick with fresh blood, suggesting it has recently fed.
I have read on Walking Dead Wiki http://walkingdead.wikia.com/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_Wiki that walkers do not need to eat the flesh of the living to continue to move, and function at their rudimentary level (as they are already dead). The impulse to eat the flesh of the living is the strongest (and only) remaining impulse that the reanimated, rotting corpses possess, and eating the flesh of the living does seem to energize the walkers…this guy, You Got A Little Something On Your Face, There, Walker does seem quite animated after chomping on some poor somebody, or some thing, in the woods.
As the walker makes its way, snarling, through the woods, we see it step upon a shattered framed picture lying in the grass…
…and as it lurches off, we recognize the picture as one that Sasha had used as target practice, not far from the gates of Alexandria.
Meanwhile, inside the walls of the sustainable community…
…there is a small family vigil being held for Aiden at the home of the Monroes. Candles are lit, and we see Deanna’s hands holding a CD of another one of Aiden’s specialty “Run Mixes.” Deanna’s fingers lightly caress the cd case before she opens it, walks over to the CD player, and puts the CD in, presses “Play.”
The beginning of Nine Inch Nails’“Somewhat Damaged”begins to play in the room…the song starts out kind of mellow, with jangly guitar notes and a steady beat… the song quickly builds as Deanna, Reg, and Spencer listen, thinking of Aiden.
And, in the kitchen of another palatial Alexandria home…
…an oven preheats…
…and we see Carol’s hands as she begins to make a tuna casserole.
We see how Carol carefully measures and prepares each ingredient of the casserole, most certainly amending the recipe to substitute for missing, unavailable ingredients.
It is easy to imagine how the step-by-step science and methodology of cooking helped provide distraction, comfort, and order in Carol’s world back before the turn, when she was married to an abusive husband, trying to survive each day and protect her daughter from the violence and unpredictability of her everyday existence.
After Carol sets the casserole in the oven to bake, she wipes her hands on a kitchen towel and picks up a pen, trying to find the words to craft a sympathy note for Deanna and her family.
Carol’s pen is poised above the blank notecard…
…and Carol looks up at a tiny picture of a baby (is this a baby monitor?) left behind by the former residents of the home. Like Deanna, Michonne, and so many others, Carol is a mother who has lost her child in the apocalypse, and who has had to find the strength inside her to keep going, to keep living, while carrying this loss, this grief inside her.
As Carol struggles to find the words, a little face peers in the window…it’s Sam. He looks at Carol through the window.
Carol looks up and sees the little boy. It seems that lost children keep finding Carol in these times, and she is challenged once again to open her heart to a child who needs her.
As “Somewhat Damaged”continues to build, and escalate, layer by layer, we see, next, Sasha’s hand, in the darkness of the watchtower, grabbing for the night scope rifle propped up next to her.
As Sasha tries to peer through the scope, and focus, we see she is shaking, distressed, near tears.
Sasha is unable to hold the gun steady, keeps trying to bring herself back under control.
For a moment, it seems Sasha is able to rein in her emotions, regain control, aim and focus her rifle…
…but after a moment, Sasha again dissolves into tears.
As Sasha struggles in the watchtower, You Got A Little Something On Your Face, There, Walkeremerges, snarling, from the woods, then turns….
…lurching towards the gates of Alexandria.
Meanwhile, poor Reg, who has valiantly tried to hang with Deanna’s method of honoring Aiden, cannot bear the driving, intense music any longer.
Tears in his eyes, Reg quietly says, “Turn it off.” Spencer quickly rises to do his father’s bidding, looking relieved as he does so.
As Spencer kills the music, Deanna hugs a throw pillow, and the empty CD case, miserably to her chest.
A light knock on the front door surprises Deanna out of her reverie, and she looks up, goes to the door to see who it is.
We see, once again, a quick shot of the walker, lurching crookedly towards Alexandria… and then, the scene shifts back to Deanna, who opens her front door. Nobody is there. Deanna peers out into the darkness a moment, her expression grim. She is about to step back inside and close the door when she spots something sitting on her doorstep.
Looking down, Deanna sees Carol’s condolence casserole.
There is a note leaned up on the lid of the casserole, which reads: We’re truly sorry for your loss.
Deanna reaches down, picks up the note and reads its message, then looks up from the note, her expression still grim.
Deanna goes back into her home and closes the door, leaving the casserole untouched on the doorstep.
Deanna comes back into her living room with Carol’s sympathy note, and holds the note to the candle’s flame.
Deanna, Reg, and Spencer watch the note burn in silence before Deanna drops it into a dish on the coffee table, where it burns and curls into ashes.
Meanwhile, You Got A Little Something On Your Face There, Walker has reached the Alexandrian walls and paws at the gates, snarling and trying to get in.
The walker seems to be bolstered by its recent feed, and it seems to smell the flesh and blood of the living on the other side of those steel panels. (I also read in Walking Dead Wiki that while the walkers do not possess keen eyesight, their sense of smell, and hearing, remain their strongest senses.)
We see the walker’s face just before a single bullet from Sasha’s gun blows its head to bits.
Meanwhile, in the darkness, somewhere outside and away from the walls of Alexandria…
…a lone walker in a field goes down after a single arrow spears its skull.
Daryl strides up in the darkness towards the dead walker to retrieve his arrow, while Aaron, looking around, remarks, “There’s more of them around than there used to be….don’t know if any people are…” Daryl shushes him quiet, points to something ahead, in the distance.
“Someone is,” Daryl says quietly.
In the forest, the men see a light of a fire burning in the distance.
Cue the Bear McCreary opening title sequence…
After the commercial break, we see Nicholas’s videotaped account of what happened to Aiden being rewound, before being played again…
As the videotape rewinds, we see the many contrived gestures, expressions, sighs, and pauses Nicholas puts on while recounting the events leading up to Aiden’s death…of course, Nicholas is lying his ass off, trying to put the blame on Glenn.
Nicholas turns his eyes to the camera, trying for an earnest expression. “Aiden was, uh, trying to save us…from a roamer…shooting at it.” Nicholas looks off, shakes his head. “Then, Glenn distracted him.” Nicholas’s story has many starts and stops, like a kid who is making up a lie on the spot to try to avoid getting in trouble.
We then see Glenn, who is giving his own, truthful, account of what happened during the fatal run to the solar supply warehouse. His expression stays even, and he doesn’t often break eye contact with his listener, even though his eyes are dull with grief and misery while remembering the horrors he witnessed. There is no need for gratuitous gesturing, sighs, embellishments…the nightmarish account speaks for itself.
Glenn’s voice is soft, hoarse. “I saw the grenades…I tried to stop him.”
“They wanted to just go,” Nicholas lies. “I didn’t.”
“He was gonna run,” Glenn says of Nicholas.
Nicholas looks off again, shaking his head. “I wasn’t going to leave him (Aiden),” he asserts, sanctimoniously. “What about Tara?”asks Deanna, off camera. Nicholas turns to face the camera. “I wasn’t going to leave her.”
“But we made him stay,” Glenn continues. “(We) couldn’t get Aiden out of there without help.”
Nicholas continues his lie, looking off again, getting more animated as his story gains momentum, “Then, when we got into the lobby…”
Glenn says, wonderingly,“All he had to do was hold the door…”(Nicholas clearly would have never lasted with out there with our fine, fine gang, who time and time again worked together to accomplish way more extraordinary feats to survive than holding a damn rotating door. Curse you, Nicholas, you cowardly liar!)
Nicholas keeps looking away from the camera, away from Deanna, as he proclaims, “He kept hitting at the glass, pushing my door open…they were going to kill me!”
Glenn looks sorrowfully at his listener. “But he (Nicholas) panicked.”
“Or, they were trying to, or…they didn’t care.”
“Noah…I had him. I had his hand…”
“And I…if I didn’t push back…I’d be dead too.“ Nicholas looks at Deanna then, his mouth set...it’s his story and he’s sticking with it.
Glenn looks sadly down, then. “I tried,” he whispers sadly, thinking of his friend.
Glenn looks miserably up at Rick, who is sitting with him, watching him, listening. “I watched him die,” Glenn tells Rick, his voice breaking.
Nicholas looks right at the camera. “They did this…it was them.” We hear Deanna’s voice point out, “But you all came back together.”Ha, ha, Deanna’s no dummy…if Glenn and the others were trying to kill Nicholas, why would they bring him back to Alexandria with them, unconscious, in the van? Why not just leave him there, say he was attacked by “roamers?” Ooooo, burn, Nicholas!
“How did that happen?” presses Deanna. Nicholas’s mouth works a second as he grapples for an answer to that very logical question. We then hear Spencer’s voice, off camera, ask, “Mom, what are you doing?”(Ah, Nicholas, you douchebag, saved by the Spencer!)
Deanna replies, off camera, to her son, that they need to do this now, to be watched, later…
We see Deanna, now, watching the video of her interview with Nicholas…
…and we see Nicholas react silently, angrily as Deanna lays down the law on video, “No guns, no going outside the wall…same goes for Glenn, until I finish looking into this.”
Nicholas, on the video, demands, “What do you need to look into? I’m telling you how it went down! These people need to go…they’re not like us.” As Deanna watches this, we hear Nicholas’s voice lower conspiratorially as he tells her, in the interview, “I know you see it, too.”
We hear Deanna’s recorded reply to this: “You don’t know what I see, Nicholas…and I see a great deal.” Definitely makes me think that Deanna Monroe isn’t buying Nicholas’s story, but she does seem to be having some buyer’s remorse about letting Rick and the gang into her community as well…and she is grappling with the loss of her son.
Meanwhile, Glenn confesses to Rick,” I almost left him out there…could have told a story.” Rick shoots him this look in response. (Well, I guess we know what Rick Smash! would have done in that situation, don’t we?)
Glenn looks at Rick, reads his look. “You think that’s what I should have done?”
Rick shakes his head. “They don’t know what they’re doing…any of them.”
“We’ll show them,” Glenn protests. Rick replies, “I don’t know if they can see it, how things really are…I don’t know if they can, yet. They haven’t caught up.”
Glenn isn’t giving up on Alexandria so easily. “We have to be here,” he insists. “We have to.”
“Yeah, we do,” Rick agrees. “But, their rules? We don’t answer to them.” (Zut alors!Constable Smash! is tres encroyable when he goes all renegade and shit.)
Glenn, however, is not seeing the appeal…
“Rick,” Glenn says, incredulously, “we are them. We are, now.”
Glenn continues, telling Rick, “Noah believed in this place…I’m telling you, we’ve got to make this work.”
Meanwhile, Carol stands on their front porch, watching Jessie, Sam, and Rowan across the way, on their front porch. Jessie nudges Sam, who seems to have fallen asleep in a porch chair, and sends him off to bed, along with his older brother.
Rick comes up and stands with Carol, watching Jessie and her sons. Carol turns to Rick, informs him that she sent a casserole over to Deanna’s family, adding, “I want her to see that.”
Carol then asks Rick if he’s thought about Pete, about what she said. “Yeah,” Rick answers. As they watch Jessie sitting on her porch, with her head in her hands, Carol tells Rick that she talked to Sam some more…Sam said that his mom put a bolt on the inside of his closet, tells him to lock himself in sometimes, and not come out until morning.
Rick’s face is stony as he digests this information.
Carol continues, telling Rick that Sam said that he can hear his dad yelling, things breaking, his mom crying. Last month, it got quiet in the middle of it, and Sam came out and found his mom lying on the floor, unconscious, bleeding, while “Pete was just sitting on the porch.”
Rick’s jaw and facial muscles work as he takes all this in, breathing deep, looking towards the porch floor, then back at Carol. “Why do you care what happens to Jessie?” he asks her. Carol looks at Rick.
“You know why,” Carol replies softly. “I know why you do.” Rick, looking down, asks gruffly, “Why?” Carol’s expression softens slightly as she looks at him. “I’ve seen you talk to her,” she replies gently.
Across the way, Jessie gets up and leaves her porch. Carol looks up at Rick. “If walkers hadn’t gotten Ed,” she says, “I wouldn’t be here right now.”
Rick looks at Carol. “Yeah, you would,” he replies, before turning to resume his night patrol.
Rick goes and stands at the small pond near their homes. Facing the water, he pulls out the contraband handgun from his waistband and holds it, crossing his hands, waiting…
As Rick faces the pond, we see once again an image that Rick has noticed three times thus far in Episode 515…a helium-filled red balloon floats above the pond, tied to a paper boat like a sail. The breeze blows the balloon, gently propelling the paper boat in the water. Watching this, I marveled that Alexandria is so mad-stocked in these post-apocalyptic times…they even have helium tanks to blow up party balloons (or to inhale and do funny voices with: “Hey, look at me…I’m a roamer!”).
And who walks up right in that moment but Rick’s good buddy, Petey McBeaty…”Hey, Rick!” McBeaty calls out. When he gets no response, McBeaty tries again. “Rick!”
Rick pauses a moment, weighing his options…
…before turning around, slowly and facing McBeaty with this fearsome, smoking-hot look. McBeaty, meetOfficer Not-So-Friendly!
McBeaty starts to ask Rick if he’s ok, and then begins to falter upon seeing the malevolence in Rick’s face as Rick silently stares him down.
Constable Smash! looks at McBeaty a moment more before grinding out, “Keep walkin’.”
McBeaty kind of gapes at Rick, asks, “What?…What are…?” but as Rick Smash! turns to fully face him…
As the scene ends, and McBeaty walks away, Rick closes his eyes, and we see his right hand, hidden by his leg, holding the pistol…it seems it has taken all of Rick’s will to stop himself from pulling the trigger on McBeaty, right then and there.
In the next scene, we see an alarm clock strike 6:30 am…
…and we see Michonne lying in bed, trying to get another moment of sleep.
But she cannot…she lay awake, her eyes open…she looks over at a laundry basket filled with clean laundry…
…and Noah’s t-shirt on top.
Michonne gets out of bed, walks over, and picks up Noah’s shirt, looks at it a long moment.
Michonne then walks over to the bed, throws the shirt and jacket of her constable’s uniform on top. She stands a moment, looking down at the uniform.
Instead of putting on the uniform, Michonne sits on the edge of the bed, covers her face with her hand. It must be exhausting for our gang, the loss and hardship that never ends…it must be so hard to keep going, to not give up.
Then, there is a quiet knock on the door. “Come in,” calls Michonne, still looking off, thinking. Rosita peeks in, enters the room, greets Michonne, “Hey.”
Michonne asks, “How is she?” talking, of course, about Tara.
Rosita replies that she’s “stable, hanging on…I’ll go back there later.” Meanwhile, there are other things that need attending to…
Rosita tells Michonne, “I think Sasha might have spent the night in the tower.”
Michonne looks at Rosita, quick to grasp the potential gravity of that statement. “Is she still up there?” she asks.
Rosita replies that Abraham’s on watch now, but Sasha hasn’t been back, and nobody’s seen her. Michonne is definitely quick to grasp the real gravity of that statement, and she grabs her cardigan, leaving the shirt and jacket of her constable’s uniform on the bed, and follows Rosita quickly out of the room.
Patrolling the streets of Alexandria: Vanilla Dream can wait…these ladies have a post-apocalyptic sister to find!
As they walk through the woods, Rosita tells Michonne, “it’s up ahead.” It seems Rosita has seen Sasha go out of the gates with her gun and a box of bullets, and upon further inquiry, Rosita found out that somebody was already on watch in the tower.
A sound in the woods startles them, and quick as an instant, both women have their weapons drawn, ready to battle…
Badass warrior women who can bring it. ❤
I did find myself missing the katana, watching this scene…
Michonne and Rosita watch, and listen, a moment more, but all is quiet…lowering their weapons, they continue walking, cautiously, through the woods.
As they continue on, their breath frosting in the cold morning air, Rosita admits that this is the first time she’s been out, beyond the walls, since they got to Alexandria.
“That’s good,” Rosita tells her. Michonne isn’t so sure. “I don’t know,” she says, in a low voice.
As they walk, scanning the forest for Sasha, and living, and non-living, threats, Rosita tells Michonne that after finding out that Eugene was lying about having the cure, “I was screwed up, because I lost something…you seem screwed up because you’ve found something.”
Michonne turns and faces Rosita. “Noah’s dead,” she says.
Michonne continues, “And I think…” She turns, then, as if trying to complete the unfinished thought in her head. After a brief pause, she shakes her head, resumes walking. “Just feel like I was asleep in there.”
Rewatching this scene, I got a lot more insight into what Michonne may have been thinking, and feeling…like the moment she let her guard down, relaxed her vigilance, another one of their own was taken from them, and maybe if she had kept her guard up, hadn’t forgotten, Noah might still be with them.
“You were trying to forget…you could try,” Rosita tells Michonne. I really love in this scene how Rosita is giving Michonne permission, girlfriend to girlfriend, to try to be happy, to be regular. To me, this scene, beginning to end, portrays the bond, the sisterhood, and the unconditional love & support between the fine women of our gang.
We have seen, many times before, the brotherhood between the key males in our gang. Now, we get to see how the women of the gang do with having each other’s backs.
“I don’t want to forget,” Michonne says. “So,don’t.” says Rosita. “But it doesn’t mean you have to give up.”
Rosita points out, “You didn’t bring your sword with you…that’s not nothin’.” It seems Rosita definitely has fine-tuned the ability of talking down a high-idling, always-on-duty soldier, having Abraham as a boyfriend and all…and, she has def fine tuned the ability of looking totally hot and adorable while doing it!
Meanwhile, back in Alexandria…
Deanna stands at the community’s makeshift graveyard, presumably in front of Aiden’s grave marker.
Rick approaches her. “I’m sorry for what happened.” He asks Deanna how’s she’s holding up…
“I’m not,” Deanna replies.
Now would be a good time to say something comforting to Deanna Monroe, but Rick Smash! is too filled with id and righteous rage (and the primal desire to straight-up kill McBeaty and take his woman for himself) to do this. So, instead, Rick barges into theconversation with, “We have a problem with Pete.”
Deanna looks down regretfully, says, “I hoped it would get better.” Rick Grimes is like, “Say what?”
“You knew?” he asks, incredulously. Deanna does not nod, but lowers her lids once, in silent assent, Yes.
To Deanna’s credit, she doesn’t look proud of herself, admitting this. Everyone who is still alive has had to do something shitty (probably more like many things shitty) to survive in these times…and Deanna Monroe is no different. I personally like, even admire, Deanna Monroe in many aspects, and I love Tovah Feldshuh’s graceful, poignant portrayal of this complex character.
But, enough of that, because Rick Smash! ain’t having it, any of it…
Rick Smash! is all like, “Oh, now I really amgoing to fucking take this place.”
To his credit, Rick tries diplomacy first, asserts, “It hasn’t gotten better. It won’t.”
“Pete’s a surgeon,” Deanna says, flatly. (Not her finest moment, granted.) “He’s saved lives.” Deanna turns and looks at Rick. “He might be saving Tara’s life.”
“He’s beating his wife,” Rick counters. “We have to stop it.”
Deanna looks at Rick, archly, arms crossed. “How?” she asks.
“Separate ’em. Tell him that’s how it will be from now on,” suggests Rick (thinking, of course, ‘And then, let the playdates begin!’).
Deanna knows it’s not that simple. “And what happens when he doesn’t wanna do that?” she asks. She takes a couple of steps closer to Rick, looking him in the eyes. She waits. She’s right, of course…McBeaty is notgoing to go for that.
(I’ve gotta give props to Deanna Monroe, in this moment, for as she told Nicholas, earlier in his taped interview, she does see a great deal…she probably was a fierce congresswoman, back in the day, and most certainly is one hell of a poker player.)
In reply, Rick licks his lips, pauses a moment before answering, hoarsely, “It’s not his choice.”
Deanna nods at this. She knows where this is going. Deanna peers up at Rick, narrowing her eyes. “So what happens?” she asks softly.
Rick looks at Deanna. “I kill him…we kill him,” he says.
“We don’t kill people,” Deanna replies. “This is civilization, Rick.”
Rick Smash! is like, ‘Step aside, homes, and let me take this one.’ Rick shifts his weight back and forth between his feet, leans in towards Deanna, says, “Warning someone to stop or die is civilized nowadays.”
Deanna makes a disgusted noise, looks down and away, not believing the truth of Rick’s words. She, and most of the other Alexandrians, really have no idea what it’s like out there.
Even though Nicholas is a total douche, he really is one of the only ones in Alexandria who has any idea what the world beyond the walls is like, having borne the brunt of going on runs with poor, doomed Aiden (and whatever unlucky crew was recruited to ride along with them), armed with weapons, working vehicles, half-a-clue between the whole lot of them, and loud 90’s techno music.
Rick asks Deanna, “So, what do we do,then? We let him hit her, we let him kill her?” “No,” Deanna replies. “We exile him, if it comes to that.”
To this, Rick replies, “If we do that, we don’t know when he comes back or what he does to…” Rick doesn’t finish this sentence, continues, “Letting him go makes this place vulnerable. “
Rick Smash! continues, asking, “You really wanna wait til someone in that tower has to take care of it, and that’s if we’re lucky?” J’adore, Rick Smash! ❤
Struggling to keep her composure, Deanna yells, “We are not,” then takes a breath, continues, more softly, “executing anyone.” Deanna looks hard at Rick. “Don’t ever suggest it again.”
Deanna then narrows her eyes, threatens, “That sort of thinking doesn’t belong in here.”
Rick Grimes, undaunted, tries to school Deanna in the ways of the new world order. “People die now, Deanna, they do,” he tells her. But it is like he is speaking a language that she can’t understand. Rick Grimes is from Mars, and Deanna Monroe is from Planet Denial.
In inimitable Rick-In-Charge fashion, Rick Grimes lays it down for Deanna Monroe,“There’s times like this, you can decide who, and when, or it can be decided for you.”
This isn’t Deanna Monroe’s first game of seven-card-stud, and it’s showdown time. She narrows her eyes at Rick. “It already has,”she replies, adding, “I wouldn’t kill you…I would just send you away.” Oooo, snap, Rick Grimes!
(By this point in the watching, were you like me and completely blown away by this back and forth between two such amazing actors? Andrew Lincoln and Tovah Feldshuh, killing it! This whole episode was like some awesome play or musical to me, with amazing dialogue, soliloquies, tense moments, high drama, forbidden love, beautiful stolen moments…I crafted an epic playlist at the end of this post to honor it all. The TWD episodes directed by Michael Satrazemis, like this one, Episode 515, and Season 4’s “The Grove,” are some of my favorite episodes, always rich in beautiful imagery and layered in meaning, message, and symbolism. A round of Deadies to this power trio of Episode 515!)
Meanwhile, Michonne and Rosita have happened upon a trail of dead walkers, each one shot in the back of the head…
Michonne and Rosita stare down at the dead walkers. It definitely looks like Sasha’s handiwork. “Must be her,” says Rosita.
Rosita then kneels down, touches the shattered picture that Sasha had used as target practice a day or two earlier with the tip of her knife.
“She’s hunting them,” Michonne says.
Meanwhile, in another part of the woods…
Carl peers around, looking for Enid, when he hears her voice call out, “Carl.” He looks around, does not see her. “I know you’re following me…again.”Enid’s voice continues. As Carl peers around, looking for her, Enid says, “And you’re going the wrong way.”
Still peering around, not seeing her, Carl asks, “You knew?”
“You’re very loud,” Enid’s voice replies, matter of factly. Carl then steps forward, onto a twig, which makes a loud crunching noise. He grimaces.
“Can you go back?” Enid asks him. “To be honest…you scare me.” Carl doesn’t answer this, instead tells her, “You shouldn’t sneak out by yourself…two people just died.”
Enid emerges from behind a tree. “Oh, come on,” she says. “People always die…you know that.”
Carl, unnerved by Enid, suggests again that they should go back. “Why?” asks Enid, looking at him.
In reply, Carl looks around the woods, asks Enid, “What do you do out here anyway?” Enid shrugs. “Same thing as you,” she replies, before playfully turning and taking off running. Carl’s face lights up, and he takes off after her.
In a beautiful slow-motion sequence, set to a dreamy Bear McCreary score, we see the young people run through the woods, happy and free, at least for this moment. Young love and innocence shining through these dark times, like a flower pushing up through a crack in concrete, and turning its face up to the sun.
Enid and Carl stop short upon seeing a lone walker lurching along in the woods and hide behind a tree, watching it.
Enid and Carl watch the walker a moment…
…then Enid pulls out a white plastic kitchen timer out of her pack. She winds it, then lobs it out so it lands in front of the walker’s path…the timer ticks a moment, then the alarm goes off, diverting the walker.
As the walker approaches the ringing timer on the ground…
…Enid smiles a moment before turning and running off, Carl in hot pursuit.
Back in Alexandria, two people are about to engage in a much less playful exchange…
We see a hand scrubbing out the blood in the back of the run van…
Glenn approaches, comes around the van, addresses Nicholas, who is inside. “Nicholas…don’t talk, just listen.”
Nicholas emerges from the van, faces Glenn.
“Those four people you lost on that run, that’s on you,” Glenn informs Nicholas.
“And Noah,”Glenn continues, “that’s on you,too.” Nicholas says nothing. “Those five lives, you have to carry that.”
“People like you are supposed to be dead,” Glenn continues. “But, these walls went up just in time. So, you’re not.” Nicholas glares at Glenn, who faces him, unafraid.
“You don’t go outside those walls anymore,” Glenn informs Nicholas. “Not by yourself, not with anyone else. And that’s how you’re going to survive.” (I completely agree…this edict should be drafted into Alexandria law, asap.)
Nicholas, however, does not agree. He steps closer to Glenn.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” Nicholas asks.
Glenn menaces closer to Nicholas. “I’m someone who knows who you are,” he informs Nicholas. “I know what you did. And it’s not going to happen again.”
This, of course, sends Nicholas right up. “I’ve been protecting this place…I’ve been providing for it. You just got here.”
Glenn, undaunted, replies, simply, “Don’t forget what I said.” Nicholas looks at Glenn. “Are you threatening me?” he asks.
In response, Glenn lets out a little laugh, says, “No…I’m saving you.” And with that, Glenn walks away, leaving Nicholas, shellshocked, at the van.
Ooooo, burn, Nicholas!
Meanwhile, back at the frolicsome forest…
Still smiling at her walker prank, Enid and Carl find a felled tree stump and sit down to take a breather.
Looking out into the woods, Enid says, “We’re supposed to be out here…we’re supposed to feel like this.” (Carl looks at her, seems to be thinking, “Well, maybe sometimes…but sometimes, it’s pretty sweet to be sleeping in an actual bed, or taking a hot shower, or chilling with my feet up on the couch, reading a comic book…you know, just sayin”!”)
“I don’t want to forget,” says Enid. It seems she has been having the same thoughts and feelings as Carl and the rest of his people.
“And,” Enid smiles, “running makes me feel better.”
“I can’t forget,” Carl replies. He turns to Enid. “I dream about it, being in the forest…with them.”
“I do, too,” Enid says, quietly.
Carl looks at her a moment, then says, “Rowan’s a good guy…” “He is,” Enid agrees. Carl asks, “Does he know you come out here?” Enid tells him no.
“He wouldn’t understand,” she says. Carl digests this information a moment, then asks Enid, with a laugh, “Why do I scare you?”
Enid reaches into her pack, pulls out a fine knife with a wooden handle, and begins carving into the stump. “I don’t know, you just do,” she replies.
“Cool knife,” Carl remarks. Enid regards the knife in her hand.
“It was my mom’s,” Enid replies, softly. Her voice sounds sad.
“What happened to you, before you got there (to Alexandria)?” Carl asks. Enid looks at him. “It doesn’t matter,” she says. “It does,” Carl asserts. “Something bad has happened to me, too.”
Enid looks at Carl, says nothing. She seems to want to tell him, but then, the telltale snarls of walkers approaching interrupt their sweet moment.
Carl and Enid jump up. “We need to go,” Carl says. “It sounds like a lot.”
Enid quickly ducks into the opening of a hollowed-out tree stump. Carl follows, and the young people find themselves face to face in the hollow.
Watching this scene for the first time, I cheered out loud. This sweet moment is like, everything. ❤
Carl tears his gaze away from Enid and looks out with alarm towards the walkers, whose snarl and slaver grow louder as they get closer. Enid leans in towards Carl and whispers to him, “It’s their world…we’re just living in it.”
From inside the tree, Carl and Enid watch the group of walkers pass…
There are a good number of them.
Carl and Enid turn to face one another…
…and Carl touches Enid’s hand, holding her mother’s knife, briefly with his own.
After a moment, it becomes too much for Carl, and he turns away, exhaling a long-held breath. Enid smiles at this.
She leans forward, whispers…
“Cool…you’re afraid of me, too.”
Carl and Enid turn to watch the last of the walkers pass…
…and we see one of the last walkers has a telltale “W” carved into its forehead.
Elsewhere in the woods, we see a pair of hands digging with a stick at the base of a tree, unearthing a metal canister…we see the hands open the canister, and pull out a handgun…
It seems that Rick Grimes isn’t the only one stashing guns around these woods! (This couldn’t be Rick’s gun, could it? Nah…but…could it, though?) Talk to me, people!
The shot pans back, and we see that the stealthy gun-stashing saboteur is none other than…Nicholas!(Thatbastard!)
Meanwhile, in another part of the woods (yes, children, the woods are def theplace to be this particular morning in Episode 515…shit’s going down and blowing up all over the place in these damn woods!) …
…we see another group of walkers shuffling through the forest…
…only to be taken down, one by one, from behind, by a rifle with a silencer and scope. Not a bullet wasted, so of course the shooter must be…
…our favorite crazy lady with a gun…
Sasha!
After she takes out the group of walkers, Sasha runs forward, soldier style, towards a walker that is ambling through the forest, as yet unaware of her presence…
Sasha lines up the walker in the crosshairs of her rifle’s scope…
…and brings down Crosshairs Walkerwith a single shot to the head.
Sasha takes a brief moment to survey her handiwork when she hears Michonne’s voice from behind her.
“Sasha!”Michonne calls. Sasha’s face registers her annoyance at being interfered with. “Go back,” she tells Michonne and Rosita, striding towards her next undead targets.
Rosita and Michonne follow Sasha, keeping back a safe and respectful distance behind her. Sasha continues forward, walking quickly, scanning the forest for walkers. “What are you doing?” Rosita asks her. “I’m sick of playing defense,” Sasha tells them.
“So…you’re just going to take on all of them?” Michonne asks her.
Ahead, in a clearing, a sizable group of walkers approaches…
Sasha, unafraid, quickly pulls off her pack as she strides towards the walker pack, ready 2 rumble.
Sasha lifts her rifle and peers through the scope as Michonne looks on dubiously…
…because man, that’s a lot of walkers.
The walkers begin to close in, and there seem to be more and more of them coming through the trees, from many sides. Rosita says with some urgency, “We gotta get outta here.”
“Ohhh, you do…I don’t,” says Sasha, looking full-on crazy as she raises her rifle and peers through the scope, ready to massacre some walkers.
As Sasha begins blowing the walkers away, one by one, Michonne watches, remembering…
Something clicks inside Michonne, and she raises her handgun. Sasha turns to her, tells Michonne, “I don’t need your help!”
“This isn’t for you,” Michonne says, and begins firing on the walkers.
Rosita joins the #walkerparty “Hey now, save me some!”
#Rosita got her #killinface on…
#Michonne #killinface
#Sasha #killinface
That’s how it do with #sisterunconditional. Your bitch be crazy in the woods, getting medieval on a horde of walkers…what does a real sista do? A real sista don’t judge… she jumps in ands gets to killin’ & slayin’!
Rosita! Rosita! Rosita!
Rosita goes it #hand2hand style…
She pins I Think It’s Broken Walker to a tree, winds back, ready to stompkick some rotten walker knee backwards…
Awwww, #thatsgottahurt
I think it’s definitely broken, I Think It’s Broken Walker…#sux2bu
Meanwhile, it looks like somebody got lost on their way to the GOT set…
Enter White Walker, stage left! “Um, this wasn’t the scene I read for, but hey, I’ll take it!”
As Rosita finishes off I Think It’s Broken Walkerwith a rekill to the head…
… D’oh! Sasha’s outta bullets…
Michonne looks around, sees Sasha scrambling to reload, and has her sister’s back by standing firm and continuing to blow away oncoming walkers…
…but White Walkergets the jump on Sasha and tackles her to the ground.
White Walker is #ready2rage(btw, I would seriously love to throw down at a metal show with White Walker.)
As Sasha is having a hard time getting her knife, which lay just out of reach above her head, Michonne steps up and rekills White Walker, executioner style. Buh bye, While Walker.
Instead of thanking Michonne for saving her ass, Sasha looks up indignantly and says, “I had it!”
Pouring himself another Bloody Mary, watching this scene, Sterling Archer’s like, “That is just so classic Sasha!”
Sasha slaps Michonne’s outstretched arm away, says, “I don’t need your help!” Rosita and Michonne exchange looks as Sasha rolls over and pushes herself up to standing. She turns and faces Michonne angrily.
Sasha glares at Michonne.
“I told you to go,” she tells her. Michonne stands silently, lets Sasha unleash some of her anger and grief on her without reacting…Michonne looks really beautiful here as she lets Sasha dump on her.
Sasha looks up and sees Rosita looking at her, sadly. Sasha has been through so much, has lost so much in a short period of time…first Bob, then Tyreese…and now, Noah’s death is affecting them all deeply. Rosita and Michonne know that Sasha’s really struggling right now.
Seeing Rosita’s, and Michonne’s, pitying looks sends Sasha right up…it’s either ride the anger, and take the offense, or let herself feel the crushing grief inside her, start crying, and not stop, maybe, ever…Sasha chooses the anger offensive over crippling grief (and I can’t say I blame her).
When in doubt, blame the big sister…Sasha glares at Michonne. “You,” she begins…(when in doubt, blame the big sister!)
“…you can’t do anything! It worked out for you…you can’t help me!”
Sasha whirls around to Rosita, who looks at her friend helplessly. “No..body…” Sasha begins, cannot continue. Nobody can take her pain away, as much as they wish they could…they can only listen, be present with her as she feels it. Going after Sasha, not abandoning her, was a real act of love on Rosita and Michonne’s part.
Sasha knows all this, on some level, and her anger starts to give way into its true form: grief. Her face softens as she looks at Michonne, grappling for the words. “Noah…” Sasha begins.
Sasha looks miserably at Michonne. “I told him he wouldn’t make it.”
Sonequa Martin-Green plays it beautifully as Sasha silently rides out a wave of realization and sadness at this statement. Nobody says anything. After a moment, Sasha stalks off, Rosita following her, after exchanging a last look with Michonne.
Michonne looks after Sasha’s retreating form. She’s been there, in the throes of grief, having lost everything in the early days of the turn…her baby son, her man, her best friend. And she has lost so many, so much, since…Michonne knows exactly what Sasha is going through right now, and she knows that Sasha needs to feel it, to ride it out, and decide on her own if she wants to continue on…
Michonne then looks down at the gun she is holding…she seems to be thinking about what the gun represents: the Alexandria way, and her new position as constable. Is their “civilization” the better way, or is there a place in the middle, a more realistic place, which combines the edge, knowledge, and skills required to negotiate the world outside the walls, while exploring life beyond sheer survival within the relative safety of Alexandria’s walls? It’s a tough question…how do they find the balance between survival, and really living?
Meanwhile, now that it’s daylight, Daryl and Aaron make their way cautiously towards the campsite where they saw the fire burning the night before. As they come around the trees, into the clearing, they are met with a horrific sight.
Disembodied arms and legs lay scattered about…it looks like they were severed cleanly, like the arms and torsos Rick, Michonne, and Glenn came across, back at the Shirewilt Estates. Who did this, and how…and, why?
Legs severed cleanly from the torso, which is missing. We have never seen remains like this from a walker attack before…
A girl’s arm, severed clean through the sleeve of a striped shirt…where are the heads? Where are the torsos?
Daryl takes it all in, says, “Whoever did this, took what was left with them.”
It is a truly distressing and horrifying sight. We see one arm in the foreground, with the hand still bearing a wedding band…these were once living people, presumably huddled around a small campfire just the night before. Much like Rick and the gang, these people were just trying to make it the best they could, out in the open, living day to day in the savage, predatory arena the world has become.
As Aaron takes this all in, Daryl lifts his crossbow and stealths forward, realizing, “This just happened.”
Daryl and Aaron cautiously make their way forward, until they some upon another distressing, horrifying spectacle…
…a young woman’s body, lashed to a tree, naked, disembowled.
Aaron and Daryl take in this awful sight.
The arms, and legs, and now this…it speaks of a sadistic cruelty and methodology being executed, as the woman was clearly stripped naked, lashed to a tree, helpless, and left for walkers to tear into…which they clearly did.
“She’s tied up,” Aaron says, horrified. He is breathing heavily as the full import of this hits him, “And they fed on her…they tore her apart.”
Aaron turns to Daryl. “Did this just happen?” Daryl nods.
“Yeah,” Daryl says, softly.
Aaron shakes his head. “How the hell did this happen?” he whispers. Daryl reaches out and pulls the dead woman’s head up, by her long, blond hair, to get a better look at her face.
There is a fresh “W” carved into the woman’s forehead…she was young, blond, pretty. She reminded me of Beth, and it seemed like the TWDwriters, and director Michael Satrazemis, wanted to invoke that similarity, comparison, for the viewer (and, for Daryl). 😦
As Daryl holds the young woman’s head up, her eyes flutter open as she reanimates.
Aaron raises his gun as the young woman walker begins to snarl and bare her teeth.
Daryl quickly does the young woman walker a solid rekill, plunging what may have been Beth’s knife into her skull, ending her misery.
Back in Alexandria…
Jessie’s sneaking a smoke…I am sure girlfriend needs something in these times. If I were married to McBeaty, raising two sons in a zombie apocalypse, I would def be raiding the storeroom for liquor and smokes on a regular basis.
“Jessie.”Jessie looks up to see Rick, who has come into the garage. She has been crying. Her life really is becoming more and more intolerable…I am sure McBeaty came home after his encounter with Rick the night before feeling less than manly, and probably took it out on her.
Jessie grinds out her cigarette, asking Rick to please not mention her secret smoking…she doesn’t want Rowan or Sam to know.
“Your secret’s safe,” Rick assures Jessie, looking at her…it feels like they like each other more and more every time they interact with one another.
Jessie stands and faces Rick. They look at each other a long moment.
Jessie says, “Noah was a sweet kid…and Tara…Tara’s in good hands with Pete.” She really is a good person, finding the one nice, reassuring thing to offer about her shitty husband. After that, Jessie kind of looks down, and away.
Rick watches Jessie, says hoarsely, “He’s hitting you.”
“He’s hurting you…” Rick continues.
“It has to stop,” Rick asserts softly. Jessie looks down, as if Rick is voicing all the thoughts she has been having for years, and especially, I’m sure, lately, since Rick Grimes and his people came on the scene.
“It will,” Jessie tries to tell Rick, and herself, mostly out of force of habit by this point. She didn’t really have a way out, before…she was stuck in these walls, stuck with Pete, and nobody was coming forward to help her…until now.
“How?” Rick presses. Jessie tries another played out rationalization then, saying how Pete had a lot of things happen to him to make him this way… Rick cuts her off, tells her basically he doesn’t care, he doesn’t want to hear about what happened to Pete…
Jessie tells Rick, “Look, it was like this before, and he got help.” Rick doesn’t reply, and Jessie asserts, “I helped him, and things were good.” Rick still doesn’t say anything. “I can fix it,” Jessie says.
Rick shakes his head at this. “No you can’t,” he says, adding, “But I can.”
Now, Jessie shakes her head, steps up to Rick, asking what is he going to do, put Pete in jail? “You’re only going to make things worse!” Jessie tells Rick.
“If it’s gotten worse,” Rick replies, “that means he’s killed you. That’s what’s next, and I’m not going to let that happen.”
Jessie looks at Rick, asks, “Why do you care?”
Rick’s look says, Dude, because I’m falling in love with you. But, being a guy and all, he can’t quite manage to find the words to answer her question, and so Rick says nothing.
Jessie searches Rick’s face, presses, “Why is this so important to you?” Rick still cannot answer with words, but his look says everything…surely she must see the answer on his face, in his eyes?
Jessie must see something, because she tries to then talk Rick down from his crusade: “Now, you, you’ve made it…you’ve found a home for your kids.” Jessie shakes her head in disbelief, asks, “Rick, what are you doing?”
Rick manages, hoarsely, “I’m trying to help.”
(Poor dudes…women and girls talk really fast, and sometimes dudes get really overwhelmed…we women can process, and verbalize, feelings like computers process digitized information, so quickly, that we are on to the third or fourth question before the dude can even think of, let alone speak, the words to answer to the first question we asked! Moral of this story? Ladies, take a breath, stop talking a minute, and let the dude find the words…dudes, pick up the pace, find some words, and tell your special ladies how you feel about them! You’re welcome.)
Now, back to our story…
Jessie narrows her eyes at Rick. “I don’t know that,” she says. Rick still cannot find the words he needs to say to her, stands looking at her, shifting back and forth between his feet.
Jessie looks at Rick, exasperated. “I’m married,” she says. Rick’s mouth works, like he’s trying to find a nice way to say, ‘Yeah, but if we do it my way, then you won’t be married any longer, because I will kill him, and you will be a hot widow, and I’ll be your hot boyfriend and the best NewDad ever to your sons!’ Can’t exactly put that one in a Hallmark card, can you?
Jessie informs Rick, who is still standing there, wordless and kind of gaping, “Ok, I can take care of myself!” She turns and begins walking away, looking over her shoulder at Rick, adding, “We have to take care of ourselves.” Jessie goes to the door and opens it, pressing the garage door remote.
As Rick Grimes stands there, still searching for the words, the garage door begins to roll down in front of him. Dang, these women are firey in Episode 515…and I am so loving it! ❤
Rick strides quickly down the street, agitated. Around him, suburbia abounds…neighbors are on their porches and stoops, gossiping and chatting. Children are playing, walking their dogs. Just another day in Alexandria: Vanilla Dream.
Rick stops a moment, breathing deep, trying to keep his cool, as the Bear McCreary music simmers and pulses in the background.
As he struggles to keep his composure, Rick sees a boy run by with the red helium balloon tied to his boat…the red balloon seems, to me, to represent the red fury that blooms inside of Rick Smash! whenever something, or someone, really pisses him off.
Rick turns towards Jessie’s house. It seems he had finally found his words. He strides towards the house.
Jessie is crying inside the living room when Rick opens the door. She looks at him in disbelief. “What are you doing?” she asks, helplessly, crying. Rick looks near tears himself.
“Sam asked for a gun, to protect you,” Rick tells Jessie in a shaky voice. Good for you, Rick Grimes…you found your words, and just in time, too!
Hearing this seems to break Jessie’s heart even more.
Rick’s words are coming fast, now. “Jessie, in here, it’s the same as out there…you can’t see it, but it’s the same. There’s food, and roofs over our heads, but you don’t get to just live. You don’t get to put it off, or wish it away, Jessie…”
“If you don’t fight, you die.”
Rick’s face is soft as he concludes, “And…I don’t want you to die.” <3<3
Jessie hears that sweet message loud and clear. (I really am just beaming with pride at our man Rick Grimes’ bravery, facing his feelings and speaking his piece…in my humble opinion, he is super fantastic bf material on all levels.) ❤
Rick leans in to Jessie, inching closer and closer to her as he talks. “I can help you,” he says softly. “I can keep you, and the boys, safe.”
“I can,” Rick says softly, emphatically, his eyes never leaving Jessie’s face. Two words: dream boat.
“All you have to do is say ‘yes,'” Rick tells Jessie.
Before she says yes, there’s something Jessie needs to know. “Would you do this for someone else?”she asks him. It’s like, I know I’m falling for you, hard, Constable Dreamy, and it seems you like me too, but maybe you’re just all beautiful and heroic to everyone…am I special to you, or what?
Jessie asks, again, “Would you do this for anyone?” And this time, it’s important…it’s everything, and this time, she gives him time to answer her question.
“No,” Rick whispers. He says it again, a little louder, “No.”
AwwwwwwwwwwwRick Grimes, you are a total sweetie and a total beast!
Jessie finally surrenders to the manly love and heroic hotness that is Rick Grimes, and whispers, “Yes.”
In classic Rick fashion, he silently bows his head once, in humble assent and gratitude, overcome with feeling, and then looks into Jessie’s face with a look of hot mutual accord and intimacy. And love.
It is in this moment, when they are looking into each other’s souls, when McBeaty comes into the room and finds them there, together. “Rick,” McBeaty says, surprised. “What are you doing here?” Ummm, nothing, just professing our mutual and undying love for one another, so why don’t you run along, and fuck off? Beat it, McBeaty!
Stone. Cold. Busted.
“Pete,” Jessie begins, and McBeaty steps forward into the room, his eyes never leaving Rick.
Jessie steps forward towards McBeaty (who seems drunk already, even though I think it’s still early in the day), tries to talk to him. “Pete, listen to me…”McBeaty does not acknowledge his wife, still fixated on Rick. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave, Rick,” McBeaty tells Rick, his civil tone slipping away to reveal the menace underneath the statement.
Rick Grimes isn’t going anywhere. If he leaves, it may very well be the time that McBeaty does finally kill Jessie. And besides, she said yes. She is Rick Smash!’s woman now, and nobody, I mean nobody, lays a hand against Rick Smash!’s woman. Fuck you, McBeaty.
(Saying all this, I must interject that I have heard on many occasions that Cory Brill, who plays Pete on The Walking Dead, is actually a super sweet guy, even though he doesn’t play one on tv…once again, hating on the character, not the man!)
It is Jessie who speaks up. “No.” Rick looks at her, recognizing, no doubt, her bravery in standing up for herself to a dangerous man, a man who has beaten her, time and time again, repeatedly causing her, and their sons, real physical, mental, and emotional harm. McBeaty cocks his head, comes closer to Jessie, as if he didn’t hear her right. “Excuse me?” he asks, softly, with a little smile, like, oh, now you’ve done it…you’ve done it, now. Yes, children, McBeaty totally sucks, and needs to be voted off the island, like, yesterday.
Jessie looks like she’s too tired of all this shit to be scared any more. She stands her ground, tells McBeaty, “You need to leave.”
McBeaty, who is a bully, and a dick, menaces closer to Jessie, trying to intimidate her. “What are you talking about?” Jessie shoots McBeaty a look, says, “Just go, Pete.”
McBeaty’s starting to put it all together, and he’s losing it. His voice is shaky as he attempts a smile and asks, “What have you two been talking about?” Oh, all sorts of things, like how you beat me, and terrorize our children, and how I’m done with that, and I’m taking the kids and leaving your ass…oh, and ps, Rick Grimes is my boyfriend now.Any more questions, asshole?
When his quiet menacing fails to intimidate Jessie, McBeaty steps to her, screams, “What have you been doing!?” Jessie instinctively cowers back, protecting herself.
Rick steps forward, says quietly, “Pete, you and me are going to leave, now.” Petey McBeaty is in a full fury now, and he ain’t having it. He snarls at Rick, “You come in to my house…” and starts walking towards Rick.
Rick Grimes gives McBeaty one more chance, says quietly, firmly, slowly, “Pete, you and me are leaving.”
“You’re leaving, right now,” counters McBeaty.
McBeaty squares off with Rick, face to face. “You think you’re the law?” he demands. “You actually think you have a say in anything, here?” It is easy to see here how McBeaty uses his words, and his towering physical presence, to try to intimidate others, and diminish their self-confidence and sense of worth. His poor sons, and poor Jessie!
“Who do you think you are?” McBeaty grinds out.
Rick Smash! grinds out, “Someone who’s trying not to kill you.”
And the words are barely out of Rick’s mouth when McBeaty throws the first wild punch, and with that, the McBeaty Beatdown has begun…
Rick Smash! wants it as much as McBeaty does, to end this fucker once and for all…
McBeaty, being the bigger man, and filled with rage, rushes Rick and slams him up against the wall.
McBeaty has Rick pressed up against the wall, in a chokehold.
Jessie desperately screams for the men to stop, to no avail.
Rick, of course, manages to get out of McBeaty’s chokehold, and soon the men are rolling around, scrapping on the floor…from outside the home, the sounds of crashing and screaming come through the window, and then…
...McBeaty and Rick Smash! come through the window.
Meanwhile, Sasha is back up in the watchtower…it’s her safe place. She watches a group of walkers pass by the walls, then spies something within the walls…women running, screaming.
The McBeaty Beatdown has hit the streets, and every Alexandrian has come running and rubbernecking…it’s the most exciting thing to have happened in this town in ages!
The men have each other in a double chokehold.
Reg screams for Deanna, who comes running.
At first, Rick is above McBeaty…
…but the large man gains the advantage, and ends up on top of Rick.
Jessie tries to pull McBeaty off of Rick and end this…
…but McBeaty backhands her swiftly and savagely, knocking Jessie onto the pavement.
McBeaty chokes Rick, who surprises him with some blow to the something or other…
…and Rick ends up back on top.
McBeaty knows that Rick will kill him without hesitation, if given the chance.
Carl screams for his father, tries to pull Rick off, and Rick, blind with rage, shoves his son off…at least he didn’t backhand him, like some people, McBeaty, you dick!
One more shift, and Rick is behind McBeaty now, with his arm wrapped around the man’s throat, #likeapython .
As it happens when Rick Smash! is smashing and killing, shit gets all slo-mo, and, in his killing haze, Rick watches the red balloon of Episode 515 fly away. For real surreal.
Deanna’s voice breaks through Rick’s #murderhaze as she commands him to Stop.Right. Now. (Meaning: Stop, or you will be banished, and your family, and chosen family, will have to choose whether to go with you, or to stay. You choose, but I suggest you fucking Stop.Right. Now.)
Rick Smash! can’t resist growling one last threat to McBeaty…if McBeaty even tries to talk to Jessie or the boys again, he’ll kill him.
Terrified, Sam hides behind Carol. Many TWDfans speculated on Sam’s choosing Carol over his own mother for comfort and protection in this scene.
“Dammit, Rick, I said stop!” screams Deanna.
Tobin, Nicholas, and Glenn take a step towards Rick, and then backpedal quickly as we hear Rick’s voice, all crazy and askew, ask, “Or what?”
Rick pulls out his secret handgun, points it at Tobin and Nicholas, Deanna…Spencer’s back there, like, “Whoa!”
Rick asks, sounding super crazy, “You wanna kick me out??” (Carl’s back there with Enid, like, “Um, so, that’s my dad.”)
Deanna tries to reason with Rick, “Put that gun down, Rick.”
Rick’s looking all Bloody Romeo and shit, looks around, laughs, shaking his head. “You still don’t get it,” he says loudly, addressing the lot of them who stand around, watching the bloody constable, kneeling and ranting in the street.
“You still don’t get it…none of you! We know what needs to be done…we do it!”
“We’re the ones who live,”Rick rants.
“You,” Rick points his gun at Deanna and her people, who stand, shellshocked, in front of him, praying that he doesn’t pull the trigger during his tirade…
“You pretend like you know, when you don’t. You wish things aren’t what they are…”
Sasha continues to peg the walkers, one by one, as they paw at the steel walls, agitated by the commotion going on inside…
“Well, you wanna live? You want this place to stay standing?”
Rick looks at Deanna, says, “Your way of doing things is done.” He’s right of course, even though his presentation kind of lacks sanity credibility in this moment. (Enid’s back there, like, “You’re dad’s a little crazy (and btw, crazy hot!), but he is making some solid points. Shit’s way cray out there…we gotta keep our edge, be prepared. This is their world…we’re just living in it.”)
Deanna looks down at Rick…does she hear some truth to these words?
“Things don’t get better because you want them to,” Rick snarls.
Carol looks at Rick, like, “That’s my boy.”
Jessie, however, is all like, “Oh no, now both my boyfriends are crazy!”
(Jesus, we could really use Daryl Dixon around these parts right about now, right? But Daryl, and Aaron, are, of course, solving some important mysteries right about now…more on that in our Episode 516 discussion!)
Rick’s looking, and sounding, a little shaky. It’s been a long day (and what time is it, exactly, at this point? 2pm? 5pm? Noon?) Rick, however, needs to bring the point home, so he perseveres, looking a little woozy and wobbly as he does…
“Starting right now, we have to live in the real world.”
(He’s cute. He’s cray. He’s the constable!)
“We have to control who lives here,” Rick asserts, jabbing his bloody finger down towards the pavement to accentuate key words in the sentence.
Deanna may not have a gun, but she is armed with a firey intelligence, and the ability to articulate said intelligence. She replies, cooly, “That’s never been more clear to me than it is right now.” Oooo, burn, Bloody Rick!
Bloody Rick looks up at these words…
“Me? Me?”
Bloody Rick laughs at this. “You mean me??”
Bloody Rick gets serious, then, tells Deanna, “Your way…your way is gonna destroy this place. Your way is gonna get people killed…”
“…it’s already gotten people killed…”
“And I’m not gonna stand by and let it happen.”
“If you don’t fight, you die.”
Bloody Rick starts to get going again, “I’m not gonna stand by – !”when…
WHAM! Michonne lays down the tough love on Bloody Rick, knocking him the fuck out.
Stop. Fucking. Talking.
My WD buddy and I, watching this scene, turned to each other and said, “Yeah, she needed to do that.”
Thanks so much for being patient, darlings, and new readers, welcome. Tomorrow I rest, but then, I will endeavor to conquer “Conquer.” Stay tuned.
Sweet dreams, Bloody Rick. ❤
Dripping with Hot, Hot Drama ’80’s Playlist:
The Jam, “Town Called Malice”
The English Beat, “I Confess”
Love and Rockets, “No New Tale To Tell”
Go Go’s, “This Town”
Duran Duran, “Hungry Like The Wolf”
The Smiths, “Bigmouth Strikes Again”
Siouxsie and the Banchees, “Arabian Knights”
Sex Pistols, “Problems”
Van Halen, “Everybody Wants Some”
Scorpions, “No One Like You”
Romeo Void, “Never Say Never”
Pretenders, “Bad Boys Get Spanked”
Joe Jackson, “Breaking Us In Two” (I read somewhere that Joe Jackson was not yet inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame…could this be true? The man is a genius composer and deserves highest props and allocades!) #inductjoejackson #recognize
(All images used in this post are screen caps from AMC’s “The Walking Dead”/FX’s “Archer” unless otherwise specified.)
When we left off with Rick and the gang last week, at the end of Episode 510, “Them,” many members of our favorite crew were catching the last few moments of a rare, long stretch of sleep in an abandoned barn, after riding out a harrowing night of violent storms, invading walker herds, and personality conflicts (not necessarily in that order, or order of importance).
As the sun rose on a new day, Daryl tried to settle down for a few moments of rest himself, after keeping night watch over the others (and good luck with that, Daryl Dixon), while Maggie and Sasha stepped out to catch the sunrise, and a few moments of soul-sister share time, before the others awoke.
Upon stepping out of the barn, Maggie and Sasha were met with an incredible sight…the raging storm of the night before had blown down many tall pine trees, which lay all around the barn, but somehow missed the barn completely.
While any one of the felled pines could have crushed the barn and killed the gang inside, the barn remained miraculously untouched, and unharmed, by the trees and the storm.
The felled pines did, however, serve to skewer and crush the reanimated, rotting walker horde that had charged the barn doors, the night before, as the storm raged. The gang was forced to rush the doors and work together, struggling mightily as they pushed back at the barn doors from the inside, keeping the walkers back, until the storm, and the trees, took care of the threat from the outside.
Seeing the trees, and the skewered, helpless walkers pinned underneath, seemed to awaken something deep within Maggie and Sasha...the realization, perhaps, that maybethere was hope, after all, even in these dark times. Maybe there was a benevolent force looking out for them, and maybe there really was something to believe in, to live for, in this crazy world.
As the young women sat, and watched the sunrise, sharing ruminations, resolve, and laughter, they were approached cautiously by a well-kempt, preppy stranger who greeted them, introducing himself as “Aaron.”
Looking down the barrels of Sasha and Maggie’s guns, Aaron, with hands raised, tried to reassure the girls that he was “a friend” who bore tidings of “good news.” Aaron, inexplicably, seemed to know things about the group already, referring to Rick, “the leader,” by name, and asking to speak to him.
As the young women processed all this, holding Aaron at gunpoint, the broken music box suddenly sprang to life… and as its tinkly music played, and the tiny plastic ballerina twirled, we TWD fans, along with Maggie and Sasha, were all thinking our own versions of, “Just what in the walker apocalypse is going on here?”
In the opening shot of The Walking Dead’s Episode 11, “The Distance,” we see members of the gang, awake now, sitting on the barn floor. Some of the gang, like Carol, Abraham, and Daryl, are checking, cleaning their weapons, while others, like Rick, and Gabriel, are sitting quietly, alone in their thoughts. Judith is playing quietly on the floor, while Carl is collecting boards, presumably to reinforce the barn, or make a bench, or something.
The barn door creaks open, and it’s Maggie. “Hey,” she calls to the others, as she pushes the door open a little wider, steps in, followed by…
“Hey, everyone…”
“…this is Aaron.”
The gang springs to life, drawing weapons as Daryl quickly goes to the barn door, peers out, then gives Aaron a rough patdown (lucky, Aaron!) as Maggie hurriedly explains, “We met him outside, he’s by himself…we took his weapons and his gear.”
As the barn door is closed behind him, Aaron looks nervously, in quick thanks, towards Maggie, and then towards Rick and the group, who stand and face him silently, weapons drawn. “Hi,” he manages, and at the sound of a stranger’s voice, Judith begins to cry. Papi Grimes fixes Aaron with this withering look, before handing the baby over to Carl. Uh oh,Aaron, the baby doesn’t like you...and neither does Papi Grimes. Not the most auspicious of beginnings for you so far, my friend.
Aaron nervously tries to step forward, towards Rick, with a “Nice to meet you,” only to be met, one step in, to the sound of weapons being cocked, and Daryl stepping up behind him. Aaron wisely stops in his tracks.
Rick, making no move to reply to Aaron’s greeting, regards the stranger a moment more before asking Maggie, hoarsely, “You said he had a weapon?” As Aaron tries to not pee his pants (and I tried not to swoon over how hot Rick-In-Charge was being during this whole exchange), Maggie steps forward and hands Rick Aaron’s handgun.
Rick checks the chamber of Aaron’s gun, then sniffs the weapon, to see if it had been fired recently…then fixes Aaron with this look…
…before putting Aaron’s gun in the back waistband of his pants, not breaking his gaze from Aaron’s face, like, “Yeah, bitch, this is happening…I’mtaking your gun…what are you gonna do about it?”
Aaron, of course does, and says, nothing about Rick’s taking his gun. Rick asks Aaron, softly, “There somethin’ you need?”
(And at this point in the watching, I was getting all Cheryl Tunt and shit, like):
“Oooo, yeah, even that little bit’s enough to get the engine revved up!”
Sasha speaks up, saying that Aaron says he has a camp, nearby, and they want them, Rick and the gang, to “audition” for membership…
Aaron looks over at Sasha with some alarm, as this pronouncement is going over about as well as can be expected with this seasoned band of warriors...not very.
Backpedaling like a motherfucker, Aaron quickly adds, “I – I wish there were another word…“audition” makes it sound like we’re a dance troupe…that’s only on Friday nights.”
Aaron’s smile dies as his attempt at a joke falls flat…
The gang is not amused, Aaron. (But I, for one, was laughing my ass off, by this point, watching this scene…like, “Oh, no you DID NOT, Aaron.”)
Aaron’s voice is pretty shaky as he explains that it’s not a camp, it’s a community, and he, Aaron, thinks that our fine gang would make, “valuable additions.” Aaron adds, quickly, that it’s not soley his “call,” that his job is to convince them to follow him back “home,” to his community…
As Rick glares at him, shifting his weight back and forth, one foot to the other, Aaron backpedals again…sounding like a rookie Alexandria Amway salesperson, Aaron tries the up-until-now-foolproof“Seeing Is Believing” selling technique: “I know…if I were you, I wouldn’t go either…not until I knew exactly what I was getting into.“
And with this, Aaron turns to Sasha, asking her, “Sasha, would you hand Rick my pack?” and earning himself this look from Sasha….
…and another peal of laughter on my part, watching this.Aaron, Aaron, Aaron, you dumbass…you’ve been listening to this gang for the last two weeks (and btw, creepy, much?) and this is the best presentation you could come up with? Two words: Weak. Sauce.
After a pregnant pause (ha ha, get it?Sonequa Martin-Green is pregnant at the filming of this episode), Sasha brings Rick Aaron’s backpack, and Aaron tells Rick to look in the front pocket.
As Rick pulls out an envelope, Aaron continues his “Seeing Is Believing” sales pitch, telling the group that while nothing he can say will convince them to follow him to his community, these (pictures) might…while Aaron apologizes for the poor picture quality, as they were taken with an old found camera, Daryl interjects, growling something to the effect of, “Words/Talk/Pictures/Cameras don’t mean/prove shit.” (Repeated playbacks yielded zero clarity on what exactly Daryl said, but it ended in something like “prove shit,” and he sure wasn’t sounding impressed with Aaron at this point.)
Aaron looks back at Daryl, nervously acknowledges that, “You’re absolutely,100% right” (about whatever it was that you said.)
Rick looks at the first blurry picture, of tall walls, reinforced with diagonal supports bracing the walls from the inside, making a solid-looking barrier.
As Rick looks at the first picture, Aaron says, “That’s the first picture I wanted to show you, because nothing I say about our community will matter unless you know you’ll be safe. If you join us, you will be.”
Aaron bring his sales pitch home, extolling on the walls’ impressive stats and dimensions: “Each panel (of the wall) is a 15 ft. high, 12 ft. wide slab of solid steel, framed by cold-rolled steel beams, and square tubing.”
Aaron continues, the emotion building in his voice as he gets swept up in his own fervor, “Nothing, alive or dead, gets through that without our say-so.”
As Daryl, and the rest of the gang, listen, Aaron continues his spiel, “Like I said, security is obviously important…”
“…in fact, there’s only one resource more critical to our community’s survival: the people.”
“Together, we’re strong. You could make us even stronger.”
Aaron ends his sales pitch soliloquy with some big, velvet-painting puppy-dog eyes. I mean, really, who doesn’t want to believe him? But…doesn’t this pitch seem a little, um,canned,practiced, like it’s been used on other people? Does salvation really come in the form of…this guy?
Ooooo…I think I see a familiar face…
Ummm, Aaron? Rick Smash!no likey your blurry pictures and your talky talk about big walls and impressive dimensions and all that shit…
It gives him a headache, and makes him see red and want to smash things…smash YOU.
And, if Rick Smash! no likey, me no likey…
…because I am, now and forever, riding in Rick Smash’s! car.
🙂 ❤
As the others run toward Aaron’s unconscious form, Rick Smash! shakes out his fist, and looks down at Aaron, like, “STOP. FUCKING. TALKING.“
I love this last look he gives Aaron before walking off.TLARick Smash! ❤
A few thoughts, before we move on. Back at this early point in the watching, and even now, I remain utterly unclear about Aaron’s, and Alexandria’s, motives. While I do not get an initial hit that they’re totally bad, I don’t think they’re totally good, or harmless, either. Something stinks. This “audition” shit. And this sales pitch-style presentation. What’s up with that?
Rick and the gang didn’t need a whole presentation when they interviewed prospective candidates for the prison community. They just asked the three questions.
Simple. Straight up. No Friday night song and dance routine, with blurry pictures and talk of walls and dimensions.
(And, speaking of the three questions, Aaron majorly fails the three questions when Michonne puts them to him in the back of Glenn’s Walker Massacremobile. And, sometimes, the Bear McCreary music gets really dark and twisty when the focus is on Aaron. Don’t think I haven’t noticed that shit.)
Aaron’s spiel feels really contrived to me, like something is being misrepresented, or not presented, like there’s some catch, some important, major detail about the agreement that’s hidden somewhere in the fine print of the whole Alexandria contract, and you only find out what it is once the gates close, and lock, behind you. And by then, it’s too late. You’re in there.
As Aaron said, himself, “Nothing, alive or dead, gets through (those walls) without our say-so.”
Sounds to me like that shit goes both ways, that once you’re in those walls, you are not exactly free to come and go as you please. (Not like the beautiful prison days, when all were free to do as they wished, within reason, of course, and after their chores and culling-the-walkers-at-the-fence shift was done for the day.)
And what’s with the spying? For two weeks? How the fuck did Aaron and his gay boyfriend manage that, to track the gang and spy on them, for two weeks? And what would a community’s motivation be, to put that much effort into screening potential future citizens, in such sneaky and invasive fashion, for such a long period of time?
My only guesses at this point are:1) they need to recruit soldiers, as they are in a war, conflict, or standoff with someone, some other established community, nearby;or,2) they want toprocreate and populate, and they just happened to find our smoking hot band of lovewarriors,andthey want to get on that shit.
Either way, they have a major agenda, and while Aaron seems likeable enough (whenhe isn’t being shady), it seems pretty obvious he isn’t telling the whole story.
We all know, at this point, that something is amiss with Alexandria. There is never an offer of any kind of shelter, or respite, without its asking price, and what Alexandria’s asking price is, exactly, remains to be seen.
But, whatever the case, or the price, may be, it looks like Friday Night Dance Troupe just got a lot more interesting!
And,dorky and shady as Aaron may be, he does have some serious pros to put on the negotiation table…
First off, Friday Night Dance Troupe. I mean, obviously, right? If you remember, Aaron mentions the dance troupe right away, even before talking about the tall steel fences…that was no accident, people!
All I gotta say is, if Daryl and Carol had a Dirty Dancing moment at Friday Night Dance Troupe, I would like, die of happiness.
Next: Aaron’s appearance. He is obviously clean, manicured, well-fed, well-cared for. He’s rocking the sporty outerwear that’s lined on the inside.
Chris Hardwick joked onTalking Deadthat Aaron looked like a “Land’s End” model…ha!
Not only does Aaron look like a sheltered, suburban preppy, he acts like one. Aaron is not exhausted, bereft, starving, stressed-out. He hasn’t been for a long time, so long, actually, that he seems to have forgotten what all that was like, back in the day, before he becameFabulously Gay Ambassador of Alexandria.
Aaron is so yuppified, living the vanilla dream behind Alexandria’s steel walls, that he even attempts a little joke about Friday Night Dance Troupe in an attempt to disarm the gang, to get in with them.
When his attempt is met with vacant looks, and glares, instead of laughter, smiles, or nods, Aaron gives a little shake of his head… it was like he was either really surprised that they didn’t like (or get) his joke, or he was honestly in a place so far removed from where the gang was at, in that moment, that he had to quickly rethink his approach.
Aaron lives in his own house, for God’s sakes, and his backpack is filled with more canned goods than the gang has seen in a long time. Our gang is starving, literally. They are physically and emotionally exhausted. They are having to shoot, kill, and eat wild dogs for survival and sustenance. Poor Daryl is eating worms, and Aaron balks at having to take a spoonful of applesauce. What a baby.
By all appearances, Aaron seems to be living like a pampered housecat within the steel confines of Alexandria…that is, when he’s not being sent off for weeks at a time to spy on promising nomadic groups, assess their potential value to the community, approach them, try to sell them on Alexandria, and bring them backthere to “audition” for membership to the community.
Anyway, speaking of babies, we come to our next huge trump card in Aaron’s hand: Baby Judith.
Having Baby Judith in the gang changes the stakes, because the longer that baby is out in the open, without shelter or proper nourishment, the greater the risk is that she will not survive these coming days, despite her father’s, and the gang’s, best efforts.
Alexandria, trap or not, seems to offer the best hope for Baby Judith’s, and the rest of the gang’s, immediate survival.
Alexandria is a big question, and a big risk, but the gang is fast running out of time, and out of options, these dire days, and offers like Aaron’s are rare indeed.
Rick Smash! may have beaten Aaron unconscious, for a moment, but the offer, with all its questions, remains…should the gang go with Aaron?
Is the promise of shelter, and protection, that Alexandria offers, with all its red flags and unknowns, worth the risk?
Many in the gang are thinking yes, and after Aaron’s burly beatdown, Rick Smash! finds himself outnumbered by those who are of the opinion that Aaron may really be a good guy, after all, and maybe Rick Smash! shouldn’t have punched him.
I, of course, was still fanning myself from all the hotness of the Rick Smash! beatdown moment, but I could definitely relate to Michonne and the rest of the gang’s collective thought, that they are tired and hungry and sick of all this shit, out here, and maybe they do want to go see what Alexandria is all about.
Michonne is definitely in this latter category. As Carl and Judith’s Newmom, she has the children to think about. So, as Aaron lay unconscious on the barn floor, Michonne whisper-hisses to Rick, “So we’re clear, that look wasn’t a ‘let’s attack that man’ look, it was a ‘he seems like an ok guy to me’ look.”
Ha ha, great early Richonnegirlfriend-schools-the-new-boyfriend-on-the-communication-works moment. Those are bound to happen, especially when your new future boyfriend is prone to hulking out and becoming Rick Smash!
Rick basically looks at Michonne, unremorseful, and says, “We gotta secure,” before ordering Carl to dump Aaron’s pack, saying, “Let’s see who this guy really is.”
Michonne, who is no ordinary woman, and who can hulk out pretty ferociously, herself, will not be deterred. She tries again, saying Rick’s name, but he is now in full Rick In Charge/Deputy On The Edge mode, striding around, ordering everyone to be on the alert. ” Everyone else, eyes and ears open. They’re coming for us…we might not know how, or when, but they are.”
As Carol and Daryl bind Aaron’s hands behind his unconscious form, Maggie, kneeling, turns to Rick and gently tries to chime in, back up Michonne, be a voice of reason, “Me and Sasha, we didn’t see him…if he wanted to hurt us, he could have.”
Rick-In-Charge does not respond to this, as he has a barn to secure. He loudly asks if anyone sees anything. Glenn peers out through the slats of the barn, reports, “Just a lot of places to hide.”
“Keep looking,” barks Rick In Charge, and Glenn turns (a triflewearily) back to his post.
Rick strides over to Carl, who has emptied the contents of Aaron’s backpack, and asks him what he found. Carl hands Rick an orange flare gun.
“I’ve never seen a gun like that before,” Carl says to Rick. Rick takes the gun, looks in the chamber, then up at Aaron, begins to stride over to him.
Aaron is beginning to come to, realizing where he is, and what is happening. He looks up at Maggie, who is trying to blot his bloody left ear, and then gives a small laugh, remembering. “That’s a hell of a right cross, there, Rick,” he says, loudly.
Wow, maybe Aaron isn’t such a wuss, after all. Maybe he teaches the cardio kickboxing class at Alexandria on Thursday nights.
“Sit him up,”Rick orders. Maggie begins to suggest that maybe that’s not the best idea, but Aaron assures her he’s fine. Rick, who doesn’t care either way, says, “He’ll be fine, sithim up.” Michonne’s sitting there, thinking, “I am so annoyed with him right now…but this alpha male thing he’s got going is totally turning my crank right now…damn him!”
Michonne and Maggie help sit Aaron up, who begins to say, “You’re being cautious…I completely understand – …” when Rick interrupts him, asking, “How many of your people are out there?”
When Aaron looks questioningly at Rick, not answering, Rick holds up the orange flare gun. “You have a flare gun, you have it to signal your people…how many of them arethere?“
For the first time since coming into the barn, Aaron’s demeanor closes down to something less than his open, easygoing manner of before. Aaron looks worried, seems to be stalling. “Does it matter?” he asks Rick.
Rick’s manner, on the other hand, is pure Interrogation Room. “Yes,” he whispers, in answer to Aaron’s question….
“…yes, it does.”
Aaron backpedals, conceding that, “Of course, it matters how many people are actually out there, but does it matter how many people I tell you are out there?”
Aaron continues, “Because, I’m pretty sure that no matter how many people I tell you are out there…”
“…8…”
“…32…444…”
“…zero... No matter what I say, you’re not going to trust me.”
Rick looks down at Aaron, retorts, “It’s hard to trust anyone who smiles after getting punched in the face.” Oooo, burn, Aaron!
Aaron, however, retorts in kind, “How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you in the road?”
Rick looks at Daryl, who turns to look at the bottles of water on the table, which are indeed the same brand as the bottled water on the road. Daryl whirls back on Aaron, steps towards him. “How long you people been followin’ us?” Daryl growls down at him.
Aaron answers immediately, with an incredulous laugh, “Long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your trail…long enough to see that despite a lack of food, and water, you never turned on each other.”
Aaron looks around at the group, as if marveling at them. “You’re survivors, and you’re people… Like I said, and I hope you won’t punch me for saying this, again, but that is the most important resource in the world.”
This statement is true enough, and the gang exchanges looks, registering the import of these words. Rick steps towards Aaron and asks again, softly but menacingly, “How many others are out there?”
Aaron knows the stalling time is over. “One,” he answers. No reply, excepting a small shake of Rick’s head. Aaron continues, “I knew you wouldn’t believe me…if it’s not words, if it’s not pictures, what would it take to convince you that this is for real?”
Still no reply from the gang. Aaron has a thought, “What if I drove you to the community? All of you? If we leave now, we’d get there by lunch.”
Rick replies that he’s not sure how the 15 of them would all fit in the car that he, Aaron, and his one friend drove down here in. Aaron is quick to reply that they took separate cars, that they wanted to be able to bring an entire group back “home” if they found one.
“There is enough room for all of us,” Aaron tells them.
New Carol asks, skeptically, “And you parked just a couple of miles away, right?“
Aaron’s reply is immediate, “East on Ridge Road, just after Route 16…we wanted to get them closer, but then the storm came, blocked the road…we couldn’t clear it.” It does sound like Aaron is telling the truth about all this, as there is no hesitation in what he says, no guile in how he says it.
Rick, however, is not convinced. “Yeah, you really thought this through…”
“Rick,” Aaron protests, “If I wanted to ambush you, I would do it here…light the barn on fire, pick you off as you ran out the only exit…” Another good point by Aaron.
As Rick and Aaron regard each other, Aaron says, earnestly, looking into Rick’s face, “You can trust me.”
The gang stands around, looking down at Aaron. Of course they want to believe him, want to trust him…but can they?
Michonne turns to Rick, volunteers to go check out the cars.
“There aren’t any cars,” Rick replies. Michonne counters, voice soft, “There’s only one way to find out.”
“We don’t need to find out,” replies Rick.
Michonne counters, “We do. You know what you know…you’re sure of it. I’m not.” Rick regards Michonne, has no ready reply. (Watching this, I was thinking, “Man, she is so good for him!”) Michonne is strong enough to stand up to Rick, but she’s cool enough to do it respectfully, and not make him feel like a dick for just wanting to protect his people. Richonne is some mad sexywhen they butt heads! I kept wanting them to take it to the barn floor, and wrestle it out.
Maggie interrupts the sexual tension by siding with Michonne. “Meneither,” she says, simply, giving Rick a small, “I’m sorry, I love you, but I gotta go see for myself,”smile, with the barest shake of her head.
The days of the Ricktatorship are long gone… Rick looks down, and deep down, he knows he must give in. Still, so unwilling to risk any of his people, Rick tries to talk Michonne out of it…
…he says, hoarsely, “Your way’s dangerous, mine isn’t.” Michonne responds, “Passing up a place where we can live? Where Judith can live?“
“That’s pretty dangerous.”
Michonne’s face softens. “We need to find out what this is,” she says, softly, looking into Rick’s face. Her voice is reassuring,“We can handle ourselves.”
Michonne’s face, and manner become firm again. Her voice is no-nonsense. “So that’s what we’re gonna do.” It is settled. Rick, and everyone else, knows it. (OMG, I am loving Michonne so hard right now.)
Rick is bested, and he knows it. Top Mama has spoken. He shakes his head, then turns and calls to Abraham.
“Yeah,” Abraham agrees. “I’ll walk with them.” He draws up his rifle and walks over to the others.
“Rosita,” Rick calls next. Rosita nods, looks down a moment, then says, “Ok.”
Rick asks Glenn if they have enough firepower if there’s trouble. Glenn replies, “We gotwhat we got.” As Daryl pulls Aaron up and leads him towards the back of the room, Rick tells Michonne and the other volunteers that the “walkies” are out of juice, so if they’re not back in 60 minutes, they will come after them. Michonne nods, looks at Rick a moment.
Michonne has got her game face on, looking like a total badass.
Rick says, as she’s about to go, “This might be just what they want…”
Mmmm, can’t help but get that last word, last dig in, huh, Rick?
Michonne’s reaction to Rick’s baiting comment is awesome…she narrows her eyes, says nothing, turns and walks out the door.Gotta believe in your woman, Rick Grimes.
After the volunteer troupe leaves, Rick turns to the others, says that if they’re all in the barn, they’re a target. He orders them outside, in groups of twos, within eyeshot. Daryl tells him he’s got the area covered. They file out, leaving Rick, Aaron, and Judith in the barn.
As Rick peers out through a crack in the barn door, Aaron tells him that before the turn, he, Aaron, worked for an NGO, delivering food and medical supplies around the Niger River delta. Aaron says that he had guns pointed in his face by “bad people” every other week.
“You’re not bad people,” Aaron says to Rick. “You’re not going to kill us, and we are definitely not going to kill you.”
Still peering out, Rick replies, “Just because we’re good people doesn’t mean we won’t kill you.”
Rick then turns, looks down at Aaron. “If the five of them aren’t back in an hour, I’ll put a knife in the base of your skull.”
Meanwhile, Glenn-In-Charge is trying on the hardline approach, you know, just to see if it fits. “Eyes open, everybody. Weapons up. If you see anybody coming at us, you fire.”
Abraham agrees, “Copy that,” while Maggie looks away. She makes it look like she’s scanning the horizon, but I feel like she’s more trying not to look embarrassed for her boyfriend right now, while letting him have his moment.
Michonne turns to look at Glenn, studies his face a moment before looking ahead once more, and asking, “So, if we see someone, we just shoot them?“
Looking out to the side horizon, Maggie chimes in, “That’s a good question.”
“What if it’s someone like us?” Michonne asks Glenn. “What if Aaron’s telling the truth? What if it’s someone who has nothing to do with this?”
“We’re five people walking with guns,” replies Glenn. “Nobody’s coming up to say hello.”
“But, that’s exactly what happened,” Michonne points out, reasonably.
“If it’s someone like us,” Glenn replies, “Then we should be afraid of them.” Ha!
Glenn continues, wondering aloud, if Aaron and his person/people were really watching them, then they saw what they did, yesterday. (What, eating the dogs? Killing the walkers? What was so bad about that? What the hell else were they supposed to do?)
Glenn continues, after seeing what they, the gang, are capable of doing, why would Aaron’s people want them, the gang, to come live with them in their community?(I am thinking back to my “soldiers for hire” theory in answer to this question, but of course, “hot babymaking potential” is still on the table of possibilities.)
Michonne muses, “People like us saved a priest…saved a girl who rolled up on the prison with the Governor.” Michonne smiles, shaking her head, adds, “Saved a crazy lady with a sword. He saw that.”
Glenn replies, grimly, “I don’t know what he saw.”
The shot pans out, until we see the open field, and the gang of volunteers are now far away. And we see, crouching behind a stilled tractor…
Someone’s watching…
Meanwhile, Baby Judith is hungry, and crying, as Rick tries to crush some acorns in a bowl, presumably to feed to her.
Yuck. I have read that while acorns are certainly edible, and can be crushed to make a meal, or a flour, that they are extremely bitter, and must be soaked in water for a long, long time to leach the bitterness out. Good luck feeding those to that baby, Rick Grimes. You will hear some real crying then.
Aaron looks nervously towards the barn door, then towards Rick, who is on one knee, holding the wailing baby, trying to crush the acorns in a bowl. “You did see the jar of applesauce in my bag, right?” Rick looks at him, says nothing, goes back to trying to crush acorns with one hand, while holding his crying baby daughter in the other.
Aaron says, “This isn’t a trick…this isn’t about trying to get you to like me. This is about self-preservation, because if the roamers hear her and come this way, I know I’ll be first to go.” Rick looks up, shifts his daughter to his other arm, and stands, goes to the table, where a sealed mason jar of applesauce sits.
Rick looks at Aaron a moment before turning his attention back to the task of opening the jar (one handed, parents learn to do everything one-handed when there’s baby-holding and baby-carrying going on), spooning up some applesauce, and walking over to where Aaron is sitting, on the barn floor, hands bound behind him, around a support beam. Rick wordlessly holds the spoonful of applesauce to Aaron. You first.
Aaron looks up at Rick, horrified. “Do you think that I’m trying to poison your baby daughter?”
Aaron protests, “I’m tied up, and you’ve already expressed a desire to kill me by sticking a knife in my head, so how would cruelly killing your daughter help the situation?” Rick counters, a little crazily, that maybe she doesn’t die, maybe she just gets sick, and Aaron’s the only one who can save her, and then he, Rick, loses. Awww, you are a little crazy right now, Rick, and I can’t tell if your beard is real or fake, but I still love you, crazy-ass imaginings, fake-ass looking beard, and all.
Aaron replies that he is the only one who can help her, as he has the applesauce, and so they all win. Rick, undeterred, holds the spoonful of applesauce out to Aaron: Eat.
“I hate applesauce,” Aaron whispers miserably. He tells Rick his mom used to make him eat foods he disliked to make him more “manly.”That actually really sucks, and I do feel real bad for Aaron about that, but I can’t help but think, “You wanna try a real manly treat, Aaron? Try eating dog. Now, eat the fucking applesauce, and be done with it, so poor Baby Judith can eat her lunch!”
Aaron balks a moment more, until Rick reminds him that he, Aaron, will be first to go if Judith’s crying attracts “roamers.” Aaron opens up, and the applesauce goes in. Rick can’t resist tasting the spoon, after.
It made me think, when was the last time Rick, or any of them, tasted the sweetness offruit, or had an apple?Probably a long time, like back at the prison. And here Aaron is, balking at taking a spoonful of applesauce.
As Rick turns away to begin feeding Judith, Aaron tries to tell him that at the community, they can find a place for Rick and his children to live that would be so big, that nobody would be able to hear her cry outside the walls. Rick looks at Aaron a moment, then says, “You have 43 minutes.” Aaron’s like, “Gulp.”
Meanwhile, the volunteers have found something…
Michonne looks over at Glenn and Maggie. “He was telling the truth,” she says.
Well, he was telling the truth about that, anyway…
The volunteers hear a noise in the woods, and they draw their weapons. Glenn barks at whomever it is to put their hands in the air, come out where they can see them. After a moment’s more rustling, we see:
Mr. and Mrs. Walker.“Honey, look, our brunch guests have arrived! Welcome to our woods…you’re just in time…I was just telling the wife, ‘Sure am getting hungry!’“
Abraham says, “I got it,” and from behind, Rosita says, “We got it.” They stride forward to take care of Mr. and Mrs. Walker.
“Hi, I’m the missus! Boy howdy, you’re a big one...and aren’t you a real sight for sore eyes…and sore face…and sore everything else. I could just eat you up! Infact, I think I will…if you just hold still a sec…”
“Hey, that’s my arm!Wasmyarm…you’re not exactly friendly, you know that?”
Rosita finishes Mrs. Walker off with a bash to the head…
…before going to town on Mr. Walker.
“Um, I think I’ll just lie down here and take a little nap before brunch.”
Abraham turns towards Rosita. “Thanks,” he says, simply.
Abraham sneaks a look at her face, but Rosita does not turn to look at him. After a moment, she walks away.
Abraham and Rosita clear the RV, negotiating the the close space and the awkwardness between them.
Then, Abraham pulls a can out of the cupboard, exclaims softly, “Gracious Ignacious.”
S’Getti Rings … were those the kind the Gov dumped out the window?
Abraham gives a little laugh, “Oh-ho, it has been a while.” Rosita, smiling, remembers, “I think I saw Rex eat three cans one night.”
“Four,” Abraham remembers. “Sonuvabitch knew if he didn’t toss ’em back, I’d a come for ’em.”
Abraham looks down at the can, remembering Rex…
…and the happy memories turn into sad ones, as they think of Rex, and times past, and all the things, people they have lost.
Abraham approaches Rosita, asks her back at the fire truck, after Eugene…did she think he was going to hurt her?
“No.” Rosita’s reply is immediate.
“It’s not you,” she says. They both look away for a moment. (Well, that’s a little promising, right? Like maybe there’s a chance for reconciliation, or maybe a slow dance at Friday Night Dance Troupe?) I really like these two together!
Later, back at the barn…
You’re lucky you were telling the truth, Aaron.
These cans of food are seriously bringing up some emotional memories for the gang.
Rick turns and informs Aaron that the cans of food, “These are ours now.” Aaron wearily concedes that there is more than enough. This recruitment run has been way tougherthan Aaron bargained for…here he is, sitting on a barn floor with his hands tied behind his back, tethered to a barn pole. He probably really needs to pee.
Usually,at this point, Aaron’s probably basking in the thanks and adulation of the rescued survivors, driving the latest imports back to Alexandria, and regaling his captive, adoring audience with amusing tidbits about the latest Alexandria antics (realor fake, remains to beseen) while the survivors nod and exclaim and over-laugh at Aaron’s jokes, chowing down cold canned foods and chugging applesauce in the back seats.
Rick adds that the canned foods are theirs, the group’s, whether or not they decide to go back with Aaron…at this point, Carl interjects, asks his father incredulously, “What do you mean, why wouldn’t we go?“
NewMom Michonne chimes in, backing Carl up, answering his question while addressing the group, “If he were lying, or wanted to hurt us, but he isn’t...and he doesn’t. We need this. So,we’re going,all of us. Somebody say something if they feel differently.”
Nobody says anything. Rick doesn’t say anything.
Addressing Rick, from the floor, Daryl says, “I dunno, man…this barn smells like horseshit.”
Michonne looks over, awaiting Rick’s response.
“Yeah. We’re going,”Rick relents.
Michonne looks up like a satisfied queen. She is pleased.
Rick turns to Aaron and asks him where the camp is. Aaron, reading into the question, stammers that usually, when he brings recruits back, he is the one driving. Aaron assures the gang that he while he thinks they’re good people, in fact, he’d bet his life on it, he’s not willing to bet his friends’ lives…
Michonne steps forward, in a role reversal with Rick, who now hangs back, and interrupts Aaron. “You’re not driving,“ she says. “So, if you wanna get home, you have to tell us how.” Top MamaMichonneis kicking ass and taking names!
Aaron looks over at Rick, who is crouched down with pen and paper, ready to take notes...on directions to the camp, and on how hot his boss lady gf is when she’s taking charge and getting it done!
Aaron nods, conceding, says to take Route 16 North, and then he’ll tell them more when they get there. Rick counters that they will take Route 23 North.(On Talking Dead, later that night, guest Paul Feig and Chris Hardwickpoked some gentle fun at Rick Grimes for insisting on taking another route, but I do see where there could be ambush points set up along a preplanned route.)
Aaron protests that while Route 16 is cleared, Route 23 is not. Rick insists that they will take Route 23, and they will leave at sundown.
Sasha asks, in disbelief, “We’re doing this at night?“ Rick replies that he knows it’s dangerous, but they can’t come rolling up to the gates during the day…if it turns out not to be safe, they need to get gone before anybody knows they are there.
Aaron insists that nobody is going to hurt them. “You’re trying to protect your group, but you’re putting them in danger.”
Rick crouches down, looks right at Aaron. “Tell us where your camp is…we’ll leave right now.” Aaron looks around, then sadly shakes his head. He can’t.
Rick looks to the others, stands, tells them to eat up, as it’s gonna be a long night. Restup. He walks out of the barn, and after a moment, Michonne follows him.
Rick is crouched at the car, talking who-rides-with-whom logistics, then looks up, asks Michonne if she’s ok. (He really is scoring some major bf points in this episode.)
Michonne asks Rick if back there, when he said they were going, was that for real, or was that just to find out where Aaron’s camp was?
Rick stands, tells Michonne they are going. For real.
Rick then asks Michonne that back at the prison fence, when she first approached, what did she hear?
Michonne replies that she heard nothing. “Terminus?” asks Rick. Again, Michonne answers, “Nothing.”
Rick nods. “Some time tonight, we’ll be outside his camp’s walls, and without seeing inside, I’m gonna have to decide whether to bring my family in. He (Aaron) asked me before what it would take for me to believe it was real. Truth is, I’m not sure anything could convince me to go in there. But, I’m gonna see.” Rick turns away, towards the car, and gives Michonne one last, sweet look. “I wanna see,”he says to her. ❤
Later…
It’s a tailights caravan on Rt 23 N.
Aaron looks like he’s about to suggest a game of “I Spy.”
…when Rick finds Aaron’s license plate collection in the glove compartment. At Rick’s questioning look towards Glenn, Aaron leans forward from the back seat. “Oh,” he explains, “I’m trying to collect all 50 states…”
“…and put them on a wall in my house.”
“You have your own house?”
Aaron looks over at Michonne, nods, gestures towards the envelope of photographs on his pack, invites her to “see for yourself.”
Michonne reaches for the envelope, looks at the pictures of a charming wrap-around porch, which overlooks an enviable view of Alexandria’s walls and bracings…
Aaron allows himself a smile, looking on as Michonne flips through the pictures. Houses, buildings, the wall…but a key element is missing from all the pictures…
Michonne, alarmed, looks up, asks Aaron why he doesn’t have any pictures of his people?
Aaron’s self-satisfied smile of before quickly disappears, and he begins to stammer out some bullshit about how he tried to take a group picture, but the exposure, and then problems with the developing…he’s clearly lying. But why? My first three guesses, right off the top of my head:1)The people were all shut inside the factory warehouse, mass-producing some product that Alexandria makes and sells to other outside communities, like…license plates, andthey only get two 15-minutebreaks every 12 hours; 2)Everyone in Alexandria is bound and gagged in their respective gimp closets, except for the dominants who keep watch over them;3)Alexandria is actually a leper colony, and the inhabitants, while still technically living, are losing flesh and limbs at a rate that rivals the decomposition of the walkers.What’s your guess?
Michonne knows immediately that Aaron is lying, and looks to the front seat, asks Rick, “Did you ask him the three questions?”
Everyone looks at Rick, who seems to be, like, “Um, no, I did not…shit was going on, and I did kind of forget to ask the three questions…and,btw, there are 15 of us, and why is it always my job to ask the three questions? You motherfuckers know the three questions, and aside from Baby Judith, who can’t talk, maybe one of you could have thought of that shit, and asked...I was all sleuthing the flare gun and shit…does it always have to be me, asking the three questions?“
Rick does not give voice to his internal monologue, simply answers, “No.”
So, Michonne turns to Aaron, and asks the first of the three questions, “How many walkers have you killed?”
Aaron feigns ignorance, or confusion, at the direct question. “I’m sorry, what?“ Michonne repeats the question. “How many?”
As Glenn listens, and waits, for Aaron to answer…
Rick, looking ahead at the road, listens, and waits for, Aaron’s answer, as well. Aaron gapes at Michonne, indignant, hems and haws before answering, a trifle defensively, “I don’t know…a lot.”
Michonne continues to the second question: “How many people?”
This time, Aaron’s reply is more immediate. “Two,” he answers. “Why?” MIchonne asks the third question, looking at Aaron. Withoutmissing a beat, Aaron replies, “Because they tried to kill me.”
Look what Rick’s found…“Hey, Aaron, are you starting a collection of parabolic microphones from all 50 states as well?”
Glenn, who is driving, looks back at Aaron, shocked. “You were listening to us?”
Aaron actually manages to sound a little testy at being asked this question, says something like, “Yes, yes, I told you I was watching you…listening is a part of watching, duh…what part of, ‘I was spying on you’ do you people not understand?”
Rick says, quickly, that the others in Aaron’s group probably have mic’s like these, and they probably heard the gang’s plans. “This isn’t safe,” cries Rick, and then those words ring especially true, as Rick and Glenn brace themselves for the oncoming threat in the road…
Look out…!
…for the horde of NightHiker Walkers!
As Glenn plows through the rotting walkers, their blood and guts smear the windshield, making it impossible to see out…
Rick’s first thought is of the RV behind them, but Glenn tells him to stay in the car, that the RV would have seen what was happening and are either behind them, or they were able to get away…
In the back seat, Aaron is freaking while Michonne braces herself…
Have I mentioned how much Glenn rules in this episode?
Aaron’s classic old car has become a Walker Massacremobile.
The car finally clears a space from the walkers, and skids to a stop. Rick jumps out, and sees no sign of the RV. It seems they must have turned around, and Rick tells Glenn they will double back and meet the RV back up the road.
Glenn quickly tries to wipe the windshield clean before jumping back in the car…
…and of course, the car won’t start.
And, here come the walkers.
Aaron is freaking the fuck out, of course. Michonne volunteers to go out and see what she can see, and goes out to the front hood, pulling walker guts and limbs from out of the hood and grille.
As the walkers near, Aaron, panicked, cries out that they are closing in. Rick turns to himand grinds out that they know that. Glenn frantically keeps trying to start the car, to no avail, of course…and then, Glenn sees something light up the sky. “Look!”
Someone has shot a flare up, obviously to signal Aaron. But, who?
Aaron, upon seeing the flare go up, really starts to freak out. He keeps saying, “This is over, I’ve gotta get out of here.“
Rick turns and watches Aaron freaking out. “What’s going on?” he demands, but Aaron is in full bail mode. With hands still tied behind his back, Aaron kicks open the back door of the car, sending Michonne flying, and charges out into the night. Holy crap, dude.
Michonne starts to go after Aaron, and when Rick tries to call her back, she replies that the way to find the others is to go after Aaron. They abandon the car and run into the woods, in the direction that Aaron went, and must engage in some serious walker slaughter. As Michonne slices and dices with her katana, Rick fires upon the walkers, calling to Glenn to clear the way for them (I think that’s what he said).
Good shot, Glenn.
Oh, no, Glenn, look out behind you!
Glenn narrowly avoids getting bitten.
Glenn smashes Look Out Behind You Walker’s undead brains in against a rock.
Glenn hears a struggle nearby, finds…
Aaron, hands still tied behind his back, braced against a tree trunk, kicking at a walker.
Glenn thinks about it a minute, then, with a shake of his head, he goes to help Aaron, rekilling the walker and cutting Aaron’s hands free. “Run if you want, “ Glenn tells Aaron, “I’ve got other things to worry about.” As Glenn turns to leave, Aaron quotes Glenn’s words to Daryl, the day before, back to him:
“We can make it, but we can only make it together.”
“You said that,” Aaron tells Glenn. “I was listening.” Creepy! What the hell is the deal with these people?
Meanwhile, Richonne is calling for Glenn, and fighting off some mad walkers in their neck of the woods. Rick’s gun runs out of bullets, and the walkers keep coming, so he pulls out the flare gun and aims it for one walker’s head, creating my new walker obsession, affectionately named on Talking Dead as Rick’s Little Bit of Flare Walker:
How I love him. ❤
Now officially out of firepower, Richonne must do The Dance of the Double Katana on the oncoming walkers…
Then, a hail of bullets comes from behind the walker horde, felling them in their shuffling tracks. Rick and Michonne see, once the smoke clears…
Glenn and Aaron have come to save the day. Aaron holds up his hands, offers for Rick to tie him up again, if he needs to, but please hurry…methinks Aaron secretly is beginning to enjoy this getting tied up business!
Rick Grimes says, “Pass.”
As they emerge onto the open road, Rick turns to Aaron and asks where their people are. Aaron replies that he doesn’t know. Rick tells Aaron that if this all is a trick to get their gang where Aaron’s people wants them, “Your people are gonna die tonight.”(Whew, another Cheryl Tunt shiver just went through me…so delicious, Deputy Smash!)
They reach an abandoned looking industrial park. Rick whistles his singsong whistle, and Daryl, who has been outside, keeping watch, waves to them and pounds on the door, signaling the others, inside.
The gang reunites…Yay!
Aaron begins calling for Eric. He rushes inside, and when he hears a voice, he runs into a room, and finds…
His totes adorbsbf, Eric.
Poor Eric’s ankle is injured. He likens it to a “Volleyballinjury.Maggie thinks it might be broken…I like her,” Eric tells Aaron. (Lucky, Maggie…you found a fabulous gay bestie, which I keep asking Santa for, for Christmas, and have yet to get…I am lime green jelly!)
Aaron is so upset seeing his love’s injury...Eric playfully chides Aaron, saying it’s “your fault” he got injured, as he loves Aaron so much that it makes him worry about him and do stupid things, like getting a tractor tire rolled over his ankle.
Aaron rushes to Eric and pastes one on him, which made me cheer out loud. Man make-out sesh on prime time television…thank you, TWD!
Eric pulls out a gift for Aaron…a license plate from a state he does not yet have. Aaron cannot bring himself to tell Eric the truth, but Eric figures it out. “You lost the license plates,” he guesses. Aaron deadpans, “I lost the car.”
Their giggle is interrupted by Rick, who has come in the room and is watching their interaction. “Hi, I’mEric!” says Eric brightly. Aaron excuses himself and goes outside with Rick.
Aaron thanks the group for saving Eric. He tells them he is indebted to them, and he will make sure he repays his debt to them when they get to their new community, Alexandria. Aaron tries to excuse himself to go back and be with his partner, but Rick tries to put the kibosh on that, telling Aaron he is going to sleep out there, with them, where Rick can keep an eye on him.
Aaron looks Rick square in the eye and tells him the only way he, Rick, his going to keep him, Aaron, away from Eric is to shoot him. Glenn intervenes, and pulls Rick aside, telling Rick that Aaron told them where his camp was, that he was telling the truth about there being only one other person with him (Eric), and that both men are unarmed, one with a broken ankle.
“I want us to be safe too…I can’t give up everything else. I know what I said, but, it does matter.” Maggie, listening to this, is probably falling in love with Glenn all over again, in this moment.
Rick nods. “All right,” he says. The voice of reason has spoken.
And so, the next morning, the gang is Hauling Ass To Alexandria(Isn’t that the name of the country western song?).
In the back of the RV, while Eric sleeps, Aaron watches over him. Noah comes in with a bottle of water and a bottle of pills. Aaron says he wants to let Eric sleep, but Noah says the pills are for Aaron, as he knows that his hands must be hurting.
As Noah turns to leave, Aaron asks him about his leg. Noah tells Aaron that he hurt it in a car accident with his dad, and he did get medical attention, so he feels lucky he can walk at all. Aaron tells Noah that they have a surgeon, Pete, who is gifted and who Aaron has seen “dowonders” with others. Noah takes this in, asks, “Yeah?” Aaron nods, and Noah walks away, hopeful for the first time in a long time.
In the front of the RV, Eugene is teaching the rules to Seven Card Stud. Tara, I think, asks “Seriously?” to one of the finer points of the game, and Eugene replies, “Serious as two copulatin’ dogs.”Ha!
Rosita, riding shotgun, points out the Washington Monument, which is visible in the horizon. “Abraham, look!”
Abraham, who is driving this RV, looks over and takes in the sight of something he has been striving to see, firsthand, for so long…
He looks over at Rosita, who jokes, “Eyes on the road!”
Rosita is happy, though, you can tell.
Abraham looks down at the console. The battery light is on. He asks Rosita how long they’ve got, and she says they are halfway there. Abraham smiles, says they are going to make it…
A ways down the road, however…broken down again.
Abraham’s bummed (“Might as wellpaint it red and put a ladder on it”), but Glenn says all it needs is another battery. Abraham asks him where they’re supposed to get one of those. Glenn brings him around to the other side of the RV, and shows him…
…a backup battery. Abraham asks Glenn how he knew it was there, and Glenn smiles in a silent homage to Dale. ❤
Meanwhile, sitting on the hood of the back car, Michonne looks over at Rick, tells him the fight’s over…it’s time to let it go. Michonne, Michonne, Michonne, the fight is never over, or there wouldn’t be a show, would there?But, maybe everyone can get some rest, and some food, and a chance for some consenting adults to party naked, for a little while, anyway.
“I know it’s hard, after it’s kept you warm, and alive, and fed…but the fight, it turns on you. You gotta let it go.” Michonne speaks from a place of knowing, and Rick listens to her, looking tortured, and hot, and majorly hairy.
I think, judging from the recent pictures of Andrew Lincoln, and the recent interviews, that a clean shave is in Rick Grimes’ not-too-distant-future…and if it’s Michonne who does the shaving, well, I would pretty much die of happiness at that scene, as well, especially if she uses her katana’s blade.
Rick tells Michonne that Bob was telling him the same thing, when to give up the fight, and let the world and others in again. Rick tells Michonne he needs a moment, then goes off and, from what I gathered, stashes Aaron’s handgun in a plastic blender...just in case.
And then, they arrive at the gates of Alexandria.
Rick looks at the gate.
Then Rick hears the one sound that could convince him to enter those gates...the sound of children playing inside the gates.
As the happy sounds wash over them, Michonne gives Rick a sweet smile. When is the last time anybody heard that beautiful noise, the sound of children playing? Too long.
Michonne puts her hand on Rick’s a moment, then turns to him, asks him if he’s ready. After a moment, Rick tells her he is. He takes his hands off the steering wheel, puts the car in park, and gets out of the car to get Judith from the back seat.
The only thing hotter to me than RickSmash! is Papi Grimes, loving on his children with infinite love and tenderness.
Well, darlings, of course this week’s Deadie goes to Andrew Lincoln, and Rick Grimes, for being such a beautiful badass, a loving father to his children, his new gf, and his chosen family, and for choosing to believe…and for stashing that handgun in the plastic blender…just in case.
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 Archerbefore 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:
Like. A. Boss. This pic was taken last weekend at a buddy’s backyard bowl. My husband is a pro/am skateboarder, a genius drummer, and a master carpenter who could build a house from the foundation up. He is amazing, and when he skates, it’s pure fire and poetry. True Story:When we were first courting, I was sitting on his couch, and I picked up an issue of Thrasher magazine and opened it right to a full-pagepicture of my husband doing this trick. I was like, “Well, ok, then, I guess you can be my boyfriend!” 🙂 I love you, sweetie. Thank you for being my forever boyfriend. ❤
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 ConspiracyTheory 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 Setare 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.
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 “manipulativeepisode.”
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 52.0 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 muchsmarter than us Prime Time Pollyannas!>
I realized the distressing Tyreese Misspelling Debacle as I, emotionally shattered and tipsy from too many 420tall 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 75minutes 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 dowant his new show to literallybathein critical praise and mad success, I’m thinking a better name for that manuever would beBetter 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 TDfinally 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 Deadwas 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.
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):
These snapshots of the sweet Lil Bros are the second of a series of significant, recurring images we will see again in Episode 509.
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.
Woodburywas a sweet setup, especially in retrospect…didn’t really think that one through, did you, Gov?
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.
“What if it isn’t around anymore?” Glenn asks dully. “Then we keep going,” Rick replies. Michonne adds, “Then, we find a new place.“
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.
This image hearkens back to happier days, of children playing on playgrounds, running, laughing…living. We also see, however, what looks like blood stains on the concrete, clouding the rays of the painted sun.
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…
Sigh... Worried, so worried for Baby Judith, for all of our sweet gang.
…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:
We see this image of a little girl sitting, wearing a blood-soaked shirt, with another girl sitting beside her. We cannot see their faces, at first, but it just takes us a second to realize who they are….
The camera pans up to the girls’ faces, and we see Mika, and Lizzie. Mika is looking down at her bloodied shirt, with a bemused smile, while Lizzie looks at her sister’s face, waiting. smiling. Both girls have dribbles and specks of blood on their faces from their head wounds. Mika looks up to her sister’s face, and they share a smile in silent accord, and then both girls look into the camera, peaceful, smiling. Mika says, “It’s better now.”
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!)
This is def the more scenic route.
The Dayvan Cowboys, with Tyreese at the wheel.
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.
Looking over at Tyreese, Noah tells him that “the trade…it was the right play.” Tyreese does not reply. Noah continues, “It worked…it did work, just…something else happened, after.”
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.”
During this exchange, Glenn, sitting in the very back of the van, is looking at his reflection in a CD, turning it this way and that, warping the reflection of his face. He has been very quiet.
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.
Looking like a beautiful sage, Rick tells Tyreese to pull over in the woods, that they will take the rest of the way on foot, stealth-style. Noah protests, “We don’t need to.” Rick replies, “Just in case.”
Meanwhile, in the back seat, Glenn begins to grip the CD more tightly…
..pressing it…
…until it snaps into pieces.
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…
I got a little secret thrill seeing this momentary glimpse of Rick Smash! I have such a crush on him. Andrew Lincoln can convey so much with just the barest shift in his eyes. If only there were time to smash…next time, Rick Smash! Noah beckons, “This way,” and after a moment, Rick Smash! turns and follows the others.
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:
Tyreese is the only one who looks at the skeleton as they pass.
As the gang approaches a barbed wire barricade strung across the treeline, Michonne asks Noah if his people did this. Noah replies that they, “Wanted to…must have.”.
Then, one by one, the gang, led by Michonne, then Rick, step nimbly through the openings, holding the wire down and away. A cry from behind catches Rick’s attention…
Noah has cut himself on the barbed wire when trying to step through. Rick asks him if he’s ok, and Noah seems shaken, but assures them he’s fine, and begins to walk more quickly through the woods, towards the homes. Rick pauses a moment, looking around, before following the others.
Rick catches up to Noah, reaches out and pulls Noah back, asks him if they had spotters, or snipers, on watch at the community. Noah tells Rick that they had built a platform on a truck, and parked it in the front. If there was a spotter there, certainly he or she would have seen figures coming through the wire, approaching…
… the entrance of Shirewilt Estates. But there is no movement, no signs of life. No spotter.
Glenn turns to the group, says simply, “Not today.” It is the first time he has spoken this episode. Noah seems to be grasping the import of this, the fear and dread beginning to show in his face as he searches Rick’s face for Rick’s reaction, for answers.
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.
Both Andrew Lincoln and Greg Nicotero made refrences to director Terrence Malick’s style of layering stunning visual effects and evocative symbolic imagery into his films, when discussing the intention and inspiration behind the making of Episode 509. The grandfather clock, lying askew in the road, seems to suggest both the ruin of Noah’s community and the fact that Tyreese’s time is running out.
Noah runs to the locked gate, bangs it loudly, listens. There is no response from the other side.
Glenn scales up and peers over the stone wall, as Noah anxiously watches Glenn’s reaction to what he sees on the other side.
Glenn peers over the fence, then turns to Noah. His face says it all. Glenn looks away from Noah, shaking his head slightly, sadly.
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:
The burnt out remains of a neighbor’s home…
…dead bodies littering the street, as a lone walker shuffles along…
Noah collapses to the ground in grief and despair.
As the others pace around, looking out for danger and keeping close to Noah, we see a sign painted on the fence behind Michonne, which reads, “Wolves Not Far.” More ominous foreboding in Episode 509…
Tyreese tries to offer comfort to Noah, telling him, “You’ll be with us, now,” but of course, Noah is inconsolable in this moment. Tyreese, pained, watches Noah sob, at a loss for how to help the poor young man who has lost so much.
Rick approaches Noah, kneels down. “I’m sorry,Noah,” he says,“I truly am.”After a moment, Rick suggests that they take a quick sweep for supplies, then head back.
Michonne turns at this, angry. “Then what?“ she snaps. She then turns away, and stalks off, ostensibly to take care of the walkers, as “they’veseen us.”The constant horror, heartbreak, and disappointment…theconstant loss…they are all struggling to assimilate this new crushing blow.
Rick, your future gf is in a pretty bad way right now…gonna have to figure out a way to attend to that, later, my good man. (Hint: She masks her pain and hurt in anger, dude.You’re welcome.) Ps.Happy Valentine’s Day, Rick Grimes❤
As Michonne goes to mess up some walkers, Rick radios Carol. “We’re here,” Rick tells her. “It’s gone.” Rick clicks the radio off and shakes his head, struggling too.
Glenn, Michonne and Rick go to take a quick sweep, while Tyreese offers to stay back with Noah.
As Rick, Glenn, and Michonne approach one house, Michonne smashes her boot down on a framed boy’s little league jersey…
Rick reaches out and touches Michonne’s arm gently, with two fingers, briefly, respectfully. (Excellently done, Rick Grimes! You still got it, bud…never a doubt in my mind! :))
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.
Rick tells Glenn, “This (bringing Noah back home) was for her.” Rick pauses, looks away, adding, “And it could have been for us, too.”
But, alas, that hopeful scenario is not meant to be. Not here, anyway.
Meanwhile, poor Noah is trying to process this loss.
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 tells Noah, “I saved her, and I was able to bring her back to her dad. And that wouldn’t have happened if I had just given up.” As I rewatch this scene, it really feels to me that Tyreese considers his being there to protect, and save, Judith, and reunite her with Rick and Carl, was his reason, his highest purpose, in surviving up to this point in the apocalypse. He has done what he needed to do, and I think that plays a big part in Tyreese’s acceptance in the end, when he decides to let go. ❤
Tyreese reaches down, tells Noah, “This isn’t the end.” Noah seems to register this, starts to stand, to Tyreese’s gentle encouragement.
Then, Noah starts to limp quickly, then run, towards his home, with Tyreese running after him, calling for him.
Meanwhile, back at the driveway, Glenn begins talking. He’s been thinking of the guy in the storage car, back at Terminus, who he insisted on stopping for, and saving (good ol Ragin’ Face Tat Tweaker, who is most likely Ragin’ Face Tat Walker, now). Glenn says that after the loss of Washington, and Beth, nowadays, he wouldn’t have stopped to save that man. Glenn adds, “And I sure as hell would have shot that woman (Dawn Lerner), right or wrong.”
This image, of Glenn holding this baseball bat, is considered a potential “Easter Egg” by The Comic Book Set, a possible foreboding that events may mirror the comic series storyline in the future.
Michonne steps forward at this, says, “We need to stop.” At Rick and Glenn’s questioning looks, and silences, Michonne says, “You can be out here toolong.”Wise words from a woman who knows.
Tyreese and Noah face each other in front of Noah’s house. Tyreese tries to tell Noah that he, Noah, doesn’t want to go in there. Noah insists, “Let me see it.” After a moment’s hesitation, Tyreese draws out his knife, tells Noah, “Me first.”
After knocking at the front, Tyreese, then Noah, walk through the doorway, as the front door is open. They push through the screen door. and as they enter the living room, the awful sight of Noah’s mom, head bashed in, lying dead on the floor.
As Noah bends over his mother’s body, Tyreese hears a noise from the back of the house. As Noah covers his mom’s body with a large cloth, Tyreese makes his way slowly, quietly down the hallway to investigate, to “clear” the house.
Tyreese hears, then sees, the heartbreaking sight of what is surely one of Noah’s little brothers, now a walker, trapped in a room, hissing and pawing at the door. We see only one set of foot shadows under the door…and Noah’s brothers were twins.
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.
As Tyreese stares at the pictures, we see a shadowy figure begin to move behind him. Tyreese, transfixed by the images of Noah and his sweet Lil Bros, does not notice this.
Tyreese cannot tear his gaze away from this picture of Noah’s Lil Bros, with their mirth and mischief, sweetness, youth, and innocence shining from their bright, happy faces in this sweet picture.
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.
Before Tyreese can react, Lil Bro Walker lunges forward and savagely bites into Tyreese’s arm.
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.
I am grateful that Kirkman, Gimple, Nicotero and the rest of Kirkman’s Army go easy on us with not showing tons of child walkers on WD, because, one, they are really heartbreaking, and, two, Lil BroWalker is truly terrifying. Kudos to the child actor who plays Lil Bro Walker, and kudos to Nicotero’s Army for an incredible job with makeup and effects, especially in this shot.
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.
As Tyreese, in shock, clamps his hand over his torn, bleeding wound, Noah is freaking, but assures Tyreese that he’s ok, to stay put, that Noah will go get the others.
And, as Noah runs out of the room, leaving Tyreese alone, we see the large radio, another recurring image from the opening sequence. The radio looks like an old, retro style model from long ago. This harrowing, heartbreaking scene ends with Tyreese quietly crying, sitting on the floor, holding his bitten arm.
After rewatching the Tyreese/Lil Bro Walker bite scene, I texted my WD buddy: I am Joe’s complete and total devastation.
After the commercial break, we are taken back to the room where Tyreese has been bitten…the framed picture has fallen to the floor. (I, watching this episode twice now, know that the house pictured here is not a rendering of Noah’s house…his house looks nothing like it…does anyone know whose house this is?) We then hear the static of a broadband radio being dialed to a news station.
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.)
Tyreese’s bite wound is super gnarly...when he draws his hand away and looks at it, you can see the chunk that Lil Bro Walker took out of Tyreese’s arm. Poor Tyreese is bleeding out, hard…
Poor Tyreese is sweating, certainly in shock and probably in the first throes of the fever that will eventually kill him, unless an extreme measure, like amputating the bitten appendage in time, is taken. Wrenching, truly awful to imagine, but total amazement at the raw beauty and artistry of this episode. (Standing ovations all around for the WD cast and crew, but especially to: Greg Nicotero, directorial prodigy (Deadie for Best Director); Scott M. Gimple, writing genius (Deadie for BestScreenplay); Chad Coleman, who delivered an outstanding, fearless, heartful performance as Tyreese (Deadie for Best Leading Actor); JesseTyler Williams, the young gun on the rise,: Andrew Lincoln (always), Danai Gurira, Steven Yeun, and of course all the returning WD alums: David Morrissey, Lawrence Gilliard, Jr., Emily Kinney, Chris Coy, Brighton Sharbino, and Kyla Kenedy. And, definitely that kid that played LilBro Walker.) Bravo, all.
Then, a familiar voice, as the camera pans across the floor and up to reveal The Ghost of Shitty Martin.Martin’s neck is slashed from Sasha’s knife, and his clothes are soaked with his blood. He is sitting on the floor, against the wall, with hands and feet bound, the way he was at the cabin when Carol and Tyreese captured him. “I tried to tell ya,” sighs Martin, with a little shrug. “I tried to tell ya, man. It was gonna be you.” Martin is chewing gum, regarding Tyreese with a little smile, which widens as Martin enjoys a private joke. Martin then points his bound hands at Tyreese, says, with laughter in his voice, “You’re the kind of guy that saves babies.“
Tyreese regards The Ghost of Shitty Martin with no small amount of horror, but listens to Martin’s words, cruel and mocking as they are. Martin’s words contain a message, as he voices questions and uncertainties that Tyreese has been asking, and holding, within himself.One of these key questions is: If Tyreese had killed Martin, like he said he did, back at that cabin, when Martin attacked Judith, would things have turned out differently, for the better?Did he make the right decision, letting Martin live?
Martin’s Shitty Ghost leans his head back to touch the wall, asks Tyreese, “Do you think Gareth would have been able to follow you guys if you had just put a bullet in my brain, or cut me up like your sister did?”When Tyreese reacts, starting to rise up to Martin, Martin, laughing, motions him back down, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, don’t get up.”
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 looks away, gives a little shrug. “Maybe not,” he says, musing. Masterful performance from Chris Coy in this episode. I am busting a power move right here, right now, and awarding our man a Deadie for Best Supporting Actor in Episode 509.
Martin’s Ghost continues his mindfuck on Tyreese, musing, “Maybe you wouldn’t be bitright 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! 🙂
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.
Martin’s voice overlaps the end of the horrific news report. “If you just did it, if you didn’t lie like a bitch, maybe it would have changed things. Maybe the bill would have been paid.”
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. Gov. Is. In. The. House. And,he’s thinking it’s time toGET PAID.
Tyreese is all like, “Gulp.”
“You told me you’d do whatever it took to earn your keep. That’s what you said. Hmmm? Remember that?“
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:
Mika and Lizzie
“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:
Second Act Walker, on full attack. Poor Tyreese! Can’t the man have his existential, near death moment in peace?
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.
With this scene, we get many shots like this one, that shows what it would be like to be attacked by a walker, as Second Act Walker lunges and snaps its teeth at Tyreese’s face. Tyreese fumbles for his ever-handy hammer, but his bitten arm is too weak, and he drops it. Second Act Walker keeps coming and coming…
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.
Tyreese is in agony now, struggling to get himself under a desk for some degree of cover. He looks up at Second Act Walker, dead, body slumped over a desk chair. The walker’s blood is dripping…
…onto the framed picture of the little house, symbolizing the death of the days of home, hearth, comfort, and safety. A thought…could this house be a representation of the house from “The Grove?”It really looks like 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 and Glenn turn to look at the wall, considering Michonne’s idea, but it’s looking pretty obvious to me that some living foe rammed the stone wall down…aren’t those tire tracks, still on the ground, from where the vehicle plowed through?
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…
Carnage like we haven’t seen yet on TWD…lower torsos, legs intact, which look like they’ve been sawn clean through…arms, legs scattered throughout. What, and who, did this? Seems like they’d have to have a large circular blade, like a tree-cutting operation would have. Shirewilt is clearly not the place to stay…but, where can they go?
Just as Glenn is hitting rock bottom, telling Rick that, basically, nothing matters, Michonne says one word: “Washington.” Michonne continues, saying that while Eugene lied about the cure, he thought of Washington, D.C. for a reason. “It’s only 100 miles away…there could be people there.“
Michonne gestures to the devastation around them. “This is what ‘making it’ looks like.”
Michonne looks at Rick, and asks, “Don’t you want one more day with a chance?” And with those words, Michonne voices the one reason to keep going, to keep on, at this point: While placing hopes and dreams on a specific place, or plan, can fall through, living their lives and trying to get one more day with a chance, for themselves and their chosen family, is a real, positive reason to keep going in these dark times.
Stepping up like a good future boyfriend, and a hot future boyfriend, Rick, looking at Michonne’s face, agrees that they should go to Washington. “It’s only 100 milesaway,” he says, echoing Michonne’s words. Put another boyfriend point up on the board for Rick Grimes, ladies and gentlemen!
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.
Once again, a shot of the radio, and once again, we hear the crackle and static of the dial turning, finding a station…and this time, we find music. Beth, singing with her beautiful voice, playing guitar, a haunting song about a “strugglingman.”And Tyreese, so hurt, so ill, in such pain, most certainly is struggling now.
Beth finishes her song, and looks at Tyreese, along with Lizzie and Mika. “It’s all right, Tyreese,” Beth tells him. “You have to know that now.”
Bob tells Tyreese that it’s ok that he didn’t want to be a part of it any longer.
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.
“That’s your problem, right there,” says Martin. “What’s my problem?” asks Tyreese. “You didn’t want to be a part of it, but being part of it is being, now,” Martin replies. “It’s what it is. Open your eyes.”
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.
“You said you’d earn your keep,” says the Gov. “You had no idea what you were even talking about, did you? Did you?? Your eyes were open, but you didn’t wanna see, even though I made you see it… I showed you. But, did you adapt? Did you change? No!You would sit in front of a woman who killed someone you love, and you would forgive her!“
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.
“I didn’t know who I was talking to,”Tyreese says.”I told you I’d earn my keep, but I didn’t know you. I knowwho I am. I know what happened, and what’s going on. You didn’t show me shit.”
Tyreese points his bloody arm, finger, at the Gov. “You dead,” Tyreese tells him. “Everything you were, is dead. It’s not over. That’s why I forgave her. It’s not over. I didn’t turn away. I kept listening to the news, so I could do what I could to help! I’m not giving up, you hear me? I’m not giving up. Ain’t nobody’s gotta die today.”
In response, the Gov goes all art film and shit, saying, “You have to PAY THE BILL,” and shoves Tyreese back, against the wall. Tyreese, too weak now, slumps to the floor.
Tyreese, fading out, sees Mika and Lizzie sitting in front of him.
Lizzie and Mika gently reach out and take Tyreese’s arm, looking at the blood with quiet concern, but not fear. The look up at him, and gently begin to pull at the arm…
…and the scene shifts quickly to Rick, Glenn, and Michonne, holding Tyreese while Michonne swiftly amputates poor Tyreese’s bitten arm.
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.
On a light note, Chad Coleman said on Talking Dead that Andrew Lincoln and Steven Yeun dropped him at least a couple of times filming this scene.
At the gates, the gang must break the chains and then face the crush of the Gate Crasher Walkers.
As Noah stays with Tyreese, keeps talking to him to keep him awake, alive…
…the gang manages to get through the barbed wire fencing, and to the car.
Tyreese is loaded into the car.
Rick gets stuck in mud and squeals wheels to get out of there, crashing into the red truck in the woods, which contains a large amount of snapping upper torsos with “W’s” carved into their foreheads. Who is responsible for this mess?I imagine we will find out soon enough…
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.
“Turn it off,”says Tyreese.
Bob turns to look at Tyreese. “You sure?” he asks.
“It’s ok, Tyreese,” says Beth, who is driving this car. She no longer has blood on her, and her head wounds, scars are gone. “You’ve gotta know that now.”
“It’s not just ok,” says Lizzie. “It’s better,”agrees Mika.
So, Tyreese lets go.
RIP Tyreese ❤
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.RIPTyreese. 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)
(All images used in this post are screen caps from AMC’s The Walking Dead, unless otherwise specified.)
Well, people, here we are already…the mid-season finale…I am not sure who, where, or whence the ol’ mid-season finale concept came, but I, for one, am grateful for the idea. I am too busy in a million different ways to be able keep a boner going for any show, no matter how awesome, for 16 weeks in a row…especially through the holiday season. The Walking Deadwould have had pretty much one of the best shots at keeping me going for a straight 16-weeker…but it would have cost me.
I would have rallied, but it might not have been pretty at the end.
So, thank you, genius of television who came up with the mid-season break idea…for saving our collective sanity, and giving us something to look forward to in the last part of dreary winter, the January/February slump, where the weather is cold and grey, and there are no real breaks or holidays except Presidents’ Day and Valentine’s Day…and sorry, but in my experience, those two “holidays” are never really as fun as they could be.
However, Season 4, for me, as been a pretty epic one, more fun than I could have imagined. For one, it’s been the “coming out” season of barnfullawalkers,and despite the long hours of writing, rewriting, sleep deprivation, and technical difficulties that have come with this endeavor, it’s been a super rewarding adventure to start this blog and write about The Walking Dead. My WD buddy and I agree that Season 4has been one of our favorites so far, on many levels.
I personally have enjoyed where Robert Kirkman, Scott Gimple, Greg Nicotero, and the entire gang of WD have taken us in the story line of this season, and I like how dark elements and characters of the comic series have been woven back into the television series. For me, the writing team has done a masterful job of maneuvering the scope of these dark times while still keeping love, hope, and humanity alive in key characters…and it seems the actors have been inspired by such a high level of writing by the haunting performances that all of the key actors have delivered so far in Season 4. For some actors, these performances were their final ones for the series, and mad props need to be given to: David Morrissey, Scott Wilson, and Jose Pablo Cantillofor wrenching our hearts and guts all over the floor…and to the actor that played Red Shirt Walker,who rolled over from his prison cot and spilled his guts all over the floor…mad props to that guy.
I also must give mad props to Melissa McBride, who plays Carol, gone but not forgotten…I will add another level to the ongoing Carol Theory,and say the I feel that we will definitely be seeing Carol again, perhaps in some leadership capacity elsewhere, where the bounds of morality are based more on brute survival than human compassion…but we shall see, won’t we?
I have also enjoyed, in Season 4, the addition of music from different musical artists, blending with the ongoing genius of Bear McCreary, to create a soundtrack for each episode. I have read and heard various interviews with the actors of The Walking Deadwhere they said that they used music to prepare for, inspire, and come down from key scenes and performances throughout the series. For me, it just makes sense…music and The Walking Dead just go together.
Ok, enough preamble…let’s get to it, shall we? I’m not really going to get all recappy with this one…if you are reading this, you know what the fuck happened. But we have definitely got some shit to hash out here, tears to cry…memories to share.
“Too Far Gone”
I was pretty curious how the Gov was going to spring his evil plan to the RV gang, and so I enjoyed listening to the Gov’s rallying speech at the beginning of Episode 8. And, true to form for Season 4, the beginning was double-layered, with two scenes interposed, serving to turn the plot gears at double speed and getting the viewers right in there, and I, for one, am loving it.
In this episode, the Gov’s speech scenewas interposed with the scene of him ambushing Hershel and Michonne in the woods… For me, it was super-pimp the way the Gov popped Michonne with the butt of his gun, dropping her, then with a single turn of the wrist, pointed the gun straight and true at Hershel, who knew he was bested…so poor Hershel just set down his gun and put his hands up, like, “Dude, sucks to see you, but that shit was pretty Bruce Lee, right there…why the fuck can’t you be on our side, again?” (Don’t get me wrong…I am Team Prison all the way, but I just have to throw some admiration at the Gov’s style of kung-fu.)
And then, in inimitable Gov fashion, we see how “Brian Heriot” turns on his unique charm to sell the RV gang on the hostile prison takeover, twisting their emotions and the facts to achieve his nefarious scheme. “I want you to survive,” he tells them…calls the peeps of the prison the ones that destroyed Woodbury, took his eye, killed his daughter. Damn, what a storyteller…he’s good, that Gov.
And I love how he just throws in there, at the end of his initial pitch: Oh, and btw, I just happened to capture two hostages…not that I’ve ever TAKEN hostages before, because, you know, that would be weird…I just was thinking that a couple of hostages would be a good bargaining chip for mypeaceful hostile takeover plan, you know, the one where nobody gets hurt, and they leave gladly, and we live in peace and harmony at the prison for ever after…and we need to do this, like now, or we’ll lose the element of surprise and they’ll notice that their buddies are gone…not that I’ve ever done this before!
The Gov plays their emotions and fears, and before they know it, the group is nodding and agreeing to his plan…all except Lilly, who has overheard the Gov’s pitch and is not having it…girlfriend’s got her arms crossed and looks pretty pissed. When Lilly calls him out, the Gov throw out all the stops, telling her the only judgement he cares about is that she and Megan are alive and breathing…then, the Gov throws in a, “I love you,”for a good measure Hail Mary pass.
Lilly replies, “I don’t know who you are.” Get used to it, girlfriend…that’s life with the Governor!
The scene with Hershel, Michonne, and the Gov in the RV, with Hard Pass Mitchstanding guard outside, is pretty crazy. I love how Hershel calls the Gov out when the Gov tells them that nobody is going to hurt them…”I don’t believe that” says Hershel.
In response to this, the Gov avoids looking at Hershel and Michonne by pretending to pack up some battle snacks for later. “Well, I don’t care,” he replies. When pressed by Hershel to please explain what is going on, the Gov tells them that he needs the prison, nothing personal, and that he needs them to help him get it as peacefully as possible, without anyone getting hurt if it can be avoided.
It’s hard for me to know if the Governor is actually believing any of this story he’s telling at this point…is he just sugar-coating it, rationalizing it, to those around him to make them do what he wants them to do, or is he really telling himself this story, over and over, so he can believe that he really is the good guy in this “peaceful hostile takeover” scenario he’s cooked up?
When Hershel proposes that the two groups can find a way to coexist at the prison, peacefully, the Governor resists, acknowledging that Hershel is a “good man, better than Rick.” Hershel points out that it seems the Governor has changed, and tells him that Rick has changed as well…the Governor stops him right there, tells him there is no way that Rick and he, or he and Michonne, can live together in the same community.
When Hershel presses, the Governor snaps, then recovers his poise, telling them there’s many ways he can do this, and this way, “You get to live, and I get to be…”
The Gov never finishes that thought, seeming to get lost in the question of it. Who could he really be, when it’s all said and done? Could he do it differently this time, or would things progress the way they did with Woodbury? Things are already getting pretty fucked up as it stands.
Hershel asks the Governor, “If you understand what it’s like to have a daughter, then how can you be willing to kill someone else’s?” The Gov replies, “Because they aren’t mine,” and exits the RV.
The Governor has the RV’s moved to the water’s edge, assuring Lilly that they will be safe there, as the walkers cannot cross the river…he doesn’t really focus on teaching Lilly, Meganor those who stay behind at the camp the basics for defending themselves while he and his Makeshift Army 2.0 go to battle “peacefully” for the prison…instead, he makes a show of giving Megan, who is making mud pies, unsupervised, by the water’s edge (and the bushes’ edge…how is that a good idea?) a big goodbye hug, and that proves to be a fatal lapse in judgement for the Governor…and little Megan.
Back at the prison, poor Glenn is still looking pretty green, not quite recovered from the Explodey Flu…but he manages to laugh with Maggie and joke about needing a vacation…meanwhile, Rick is having the dreaded Daryl Conversation,and Daryl takes it as well as can be expected, which is not very well, at first…he’s pissed, he’s pacing, he doesn’t believe that Carol would kill those people…Rick seems to convince him, because when Rick tells Daryl he still needs to tell Tyrese all of this, and that he’s not sure how Tyrese is going to take it, Daryl says right away, “Let’s go find out.”
Like I said before, Daryl understands dude code better than anyone else…he isn’t happy with Rick’s decision, but he will not let Rick go have The Tyrese Conversationwithout a second to back him up if Tyrese goes apeshit at Rick’s news.
They find Tyrese down in a darkened hallway…and he’s got some news for them…he shows them the creepy mutilated rabbit and brain art that some fucked up person is making…he thinks that whoever killed Karen and David is the same “psychopath” who made the rabbit and brain painting and who was feeding rats to the walkers…Rick begins to tell Tyrese that he doesn’t think it’s the same person, and when Tyrese asks why, they are (saved by?) interrupted by a huge explosion.
Cue the pulsing Bear McCreary music…and here he is, ambassador for peace, standing atop a tank: the Governor, flanked by his Makeshift Army 2.0, calling for Rick to come down and “talk.”
God, Rick is so hot when he bellows back that it’s not up to him, there’s a council now….the way Rick handles himself in this crisis just ups his hotness index by like a thousand degrees, if that is even possible. The Gov is all silky and slithery as he asks, “Is Hershel on the council? What about Michonne?”and his minions trot out the hostages and force them onto their knees, for Team Prison to see.
When Rick asserts that he doesn’t make all the decisions any more, the Governor tells him that he, Rick, will be making the decisions today…”So come down here, and let’s have that talk.”
Rick quietly nods to Daryl, checks in with Carl, before going to face the Governor, the Gov’s tank, and his army, armed with only a pistol…like the lone hero in a cowboy movie…so freaking hot…Daryl’s making plans with Sashaand Tyrese to get everyone on the bus, to make their escape.
Rick tries to reason with the Governor, telling them there are sick children at the prison who would not survive leaving…to no avail…the Governor is being the dick with the tankand giving them until nightfall to leave.
Back at the RV camp, Lilly sees a walker making its way pretty easily so far across the water…then he goes down…Megan pulls up a flash flood area sign from the mud, and unearths a walker who was buried under the sticky mud and sign…it grabs for her, andbefore Lilly can get to her, poor Megan gets chomped:
Poor Megan!My WD buddy texted me, The Gov sucks at protecting his girls…he’sgonna go batshit now..
Back at the not-so-peaceful takeover, Rick delivers his epic speech: “We can all…we can all live together. There’s enough room for all of us.” The Gov pipes in that he doesn’t think “his family”would sleep very well with Rick and the prison gang under the same roof, as they (mistakenly) believe that Rick and the gang are the bad guys, not the Gov. Rick counters that the two groups could live in different cell blocks, that they wouldn’t even need to see each other. Hershel turns and backs Rick up by telling the Governor, “It could work…you know it could.”
The Gov is being a big baby about it, and the camera focuses on Michonne’s face as he says he can’t, not after Woodbury, not after Andrea.
Michonne is so hating him, and right now, so am I. The Governor tortured and killed Andrea, deliberately and maliciously, and Rick and the gang were just rescuing their people. Rick is too gracious to bring this up, saying instead that it would be hard, a lot harder to make it work than to go to battle, but that there is no other choice. Rick says they will not leave without a battle, a battle that would draw the walkers and tear down the fences, making the prison worthless.
The Governor then jumps down from the tank and seizes Michonne’s katana, holds it to Hershel’s neck. Hershel looks unafraid. Rick points to Tara, asks her if this is what she wants, if this is what any of them want. Hard Passinforms him that what they want is what he’s got, and it’s “time to leave, asshole.” Nice, Hard Pass. Way to turn on thecharm and the diplomacy.
Rick counters that he has fought the Governor before, and after the fight, former residents of Woodbury and compatriots of the Governor were welcomed into the prison community, where they became leaders. Rick invites them to put down their weapons, to walk through the gates of the prison, and become “one of us.”
Rick looks right at the Governor, who is still holding the sword to Hershel’s neck, but who seems uncertain now.
“We can let go of all of it,” Rick tells the Gov, swiping the air with his arm as if wiping a slate clean, “and nobody dies…everyone’s alive right now…everyone’s made it this far…we’ve all done worse kinds of things, just to stay alive…but we can still come back…we’re not too far gone…we get to come back…I know we all can change.”
The Gov lets the sword down for a moment…Hershel smiles at Rick, proud and happy to hear Rick speak of love and forgiveness instead of dwelling in fear and uncertainty, as he had before.
The Governor, no doubt overcome with hatred for yet another Hero Brother, whispers, “Liar,”and slices Michonne’s katana into poor Hershel’s neck. Maggie and Beth scream, and Rick screams, “No!” and fires…and Battle Royalehas begun.
As Battle Royale begins to rage, Michonne manages to sneak away, cutting ropes that bind her wrists after tripping an enemy soldier and stomping his face.
The Governor catches up with Hershel and finishes the job, badly, hacking away at Hershel’s neck until his head is severed. He then looks up to see Lilly, bearing her daughter, Megan’s, body. The Governor takes Megan’s body and rekills Megan with a shot to the head. Tara cannot bear to fight, dropping her gun and covering her ears, despite Hard Pass’s orders to pick up her weapon and fight. Alishatells Tara to run somewhere safe, and after the battle is over, Alisha will come and find her.
The Governor is in full kill mode, ordering the tank and trucks to run the fence down. “Kill them all,” he orders. “Roger that!”yells Hard Pass, waving his shitty hat in circles above his head… it’s his big dick moment. He puts throws tank in gear and proceeds to mow down the prison fences. Tyrese orders Sasha and Bob back, and Maggie orders Beth to get the others in the bus.
“We all have a job to do,”Maggiereminds Beth.(Hershel! 😦 We love you!)
Maggie runs into the prison to get Glenn, brings him to the bus, then runs to find Beth, who has disappeared. Rick tackles the Governor, and they commence with a western saloon-style beatdown, which the Gov almost wins, until:
Enter Michonne, saving Rick and finally getting to kill the Gov’s ass, katana-style!
Lizzy proves that she is Carol’s daughter when she saves Tyrese by killing some unnamed minion, then killing a shocked Alisha, putting a bullet right between her eyes:
Daryl pulls off a sweet maneuver, deftly slipping a grenade into the gun barrel of the tank (while using a dead walker as a shield). He kills Hard Pass with an arrow to the chest before grabbing Bethand hauling ass away from the prison, which is becoming overrun with walkers.
Unfortunately, Lizzy and Mika forgot about poor baby Judith…after Rick and Carl find each other, they make the horrible discovery of Baby Judith’scar seat, soaked in blood, with Judith nowhere to be found. Anguished, Rick and Carl run for the hills, with Rick advising Carl not to look back.
As walkers overrun the prison grounds, the group is splintered into factions as they flee the prison for their lives. As the Governor lay gasping, we see Lillycome to take her revenge:
And we see a familiar face from the past:
Creepy Clara Walker... I knew we would see her again!
So, there we have it…the prison is gone, the gang is gone, and some beloved characters have gone. So, here’s a little something to help cheer you up…enjoy!
(After this mid-season finale post, I plan to expand to social media with barnfullawalkers, and to keep posting, starting with the Episodes Gone Bye where we rewatch and revisit the entire WD journey thus far, starting with Season 1, Episode 1, “Days Gone Bye.” In addition, I will watch and post on all the Walking Dead webisodes, which, if you haven’t seen them, are like creepy little vignettes that are essential to getting the full scope of the Walking Dead story….so stay tuned, and thanks for reading!)
Playlist:
Weezer,“Say it Ain’t So”
Nirvana, “Oh Me” (for Rick)
Nirvana,“Lake of Fire” (for the Gov)
The Dexateens, “Still Gone” (for Judith, Carol, Megan, Alisha)
barnfullawalkers 