Hello again, and much love, dear readers.We atbarnfullawalkers hope that you all are having a lovely summer, full of fun, frolic, naps, and shenanigans. May there be lots and lots of shenanigans.
Speaking of shenanigans, if you are among the lucky folk who are en route to San Diego, as I write this, for this week’s #SDCC2015, congratulations! A few years back, I was able to go to the SDCC, and it was the funnest, ever. As soon as I walked into the San Diego Convention Center, I felt like I had finally found my natural habitat, and immediately got to the business of having one of the best long weekends of my life (thus far).
Memories include: riding in an elevator with Gene Simmons (my friend said he checked me out); seeing Mix Master Mike spin at a club on the beach (and skinny-dipping in the Pacific ocean, afterwards); going to the “Marvel Party”with a friend who had done artwork for a few issues of different Marvel comics;walking behind David Cross and a girl that I think was Amber Tamblyn (not sure if they were together yet) and eavesdropping on their adorable fake-argument-debate; setting off on foot across the city in search of the Buffalo Exchange with my adventurous friend, Amy…we had only a vague idea of where we were going, and we shared stories along the way, browsed in stores, stopped at coffee shops and cafes, climbed trees and meandered for many hours (and about 80+ blocks) until we found the store we were looking for. After an epic shopping spree, we treated ourselves to a bus ride back to the convention center (which took all of about 25 minutes) as the fellow passengers, upon learning of our day’s journey, exclaimed over us for being crazy enough to actually walk that far, anywhere.
I also tried my first, and last, Bikramyoga class on that trip, after a night of hard partying…an ill-advised move, dear readers. I do not recommend anyone doing that, ever, unless one is both a seasoned partier and a seasoned Bikram yogi.
While, sadly, I will not be in attendance at the SDCC this year, I will bask in the memories, and I will be there in spirit. For those who are going, have a blast, be safe, and blow a kiss to the TWD and the FTWDpanels for me. ❤ ❤
One day, SDCC, I’ll be back, and the adventures will be many, and epic, indeed.
While I do entertain fantasies of being on a plane bound for San Diego, I am, in reality, exactly where I belong…at home, with the kids finally asleep, sitting in front of the laptop, drinking wine, simultaneously texting my WD buddy some mad gossip and getting ready to hash it with you all about just what the hell is going on with Rick, Morgan, our gang and the Alexandrians in this first image of TWD Season 6, the #TheWalkingDeadSDCCSeason 6 promotional poster.
Like, seriously, people…we need to talk about what is going on in this picture.
Let us begin our discussion with our two favorite frenemies in the forefront, locked in a terse moment of exquisite manly tension…Rickand Morgan.
When we last left Rick and Morgan, in the final moments of the TWD Season 5 finale episode, “Conquer,” Morgan’s journey to find Rick Grimes ended in a most unexpected fashion, when, in yet another classic TWD moment, the brains-and-blood-spray hit the proverbial fan…
Rick Smash! was all, like, BANG! and McBeaty’s face, head, and brains were all like, SPLAT! all over Deanna Monroe’s fancy courtyard.
And then,Bloody Rick looked up, and saw his old friend, Morgan,standing there, and Morgan was all, like, …
“Rick?!”
And, stone-cold busted, Rick was all, like, ….
<D’oh!>
The way I imagine it, later that night, Daryl set out in search of a missing Rick, and found him drunk, in Alexandria’s soundproofed recreation center, taking long pulls from a handle of bourbon, stumbling around, and singing karaoke to:
I mean, right? Honestly, people, watching that ending scene just reinforced for me the inescapable, irrefutable truth that timing is everything. It really is. Sometimes, timing works out, and it’s all like, “Oh, what perfect timing!” and shit’s all beautiful, and everything just seems to fall into place. Those are good, good times.
Savor those moments, people, because other times, timing is not your friend. Other times, timing will kick your ass, hard.
The “Bloody Rick looks up from blowing McBeaty’s brains into the bricks, and sees Morgan standing there, looking horrified” moment would, in my humble estimation, fall into the latter category.
Now, the way I see it, Morgan has been out there, in the feral open, for quite some time, and has most certainly seen some shit go down these past two years since the inception of the walker apocalypse. (I am, of course, hoping that Season 6 will give us TWD fans some Morgan backstory, a la Season 4’s “Live Bait,” which caught us up with the Governor’s whereabouts, and gave us one of our most beloved TWD characters, Tara.)
So, I have a couple of questions, here:We haveMorgan, flanked by Daryl and Aaron, coming up on a scenario where he sees, on one end, a man bleeding out from a gash in his throat, dying, as his sobbing wife holds him…over on the other end, Morgan sees Rick, who is dressed in a cop’s uniform (and yes, is covered in blood, I know, but it’s walker blood, and these are some crazy times, so you never really know what you are going to see when you turn a corner) standing over another man who has been wrestled to the ground…then, Morgan sees Rick shoot said man, wrestled to the ground,in the head…and, while it’s all a bit startling, I ask you, dear readers, is it really that shocking, in these times, to come up on a scene like that?
And, upon taking in the whole scene, is it really that hard for Morgan to put the pieces together and realize what events may have transpired to lead up to McBeaty’sbrains being splattered all over Deanna’s nice courtyard?
Seems pretty simple to me: Domestic abuser goes all crazy, slashes an innocent man’s throat, has to get put down like a rabid dog…seems to me that that shit goes into the “crazy fucker had it coming”category.
All I’m saying is, while this strange reunion may lead to some awkward moments when Rick and Morgan run into each other at the commissary, is this fateful first encounter, with its clash of idealogies, really going to be a friendship dealbreaker for Rick and Morgan?
I certainly hope not, especially since we know what’s coming for Alexandria…the Wolfboys, flanked by their Walker Army!
They found Aaron’s man-purse, they’ve seen the pictures, and they are coming, people.
As we study this first #TWDSDCC promotional poster image, we see Rick, standing close to Morgan, looking intensely at him, as if imparting crucial information to Morgan, or awaiting Morgan’s response to said information. We see Morgan’s gaze is fixed outward, towards the horizon, as if he is studying the walls surrounding Alexandria, and considering the threat that is coming from the outside.
(Um, yeah, Morgan, about that…remember those wacky, weirdo wolfboys sporting W’s on their foreheads? The ones that tried to kill you? The ones that basically told you, straight up, that they find and kill innocent people they come across, or they trap them, or they run through their camps and communities, massacring the innocents, turning them into walkers, and bringing them back, somewhere, in their new, “not exactly alive” state? Remember those guys, the ones you didn’t kill? That mean, nasty shit they do, and bragged to you about, is like their fucked-up hobby, their life’s purpose.
And after those wolfboys woke up from their kung-fu coma nap in the back seat of that abandoned car you so kindly tucked them away in, they found their way back to the trap you rescued Daryl and Aaron from, “walkerized” some poor dude in a red poncho, fashioning themselves another member for their undead army, and then, they found Aaron’s man purse, pulled out pictures of your new community, and now, they are coming to your new home, Morgan. They are coming, with their walker army, to kill people and fuck shit up, and I ask you, my friend…do you think that maybe, in retrospect, that some lives are a little more precious than others?
Sorry for the diatribe, but that shit needed to be said, and btw, I am also saying. right here, right now, that I just know that Kirkman, Gimple, and Nicotero are going to have a scene where we (and most likely, Daryl and Aaron) see that red poncho guy, who will now be Red Poncho Walker, sporting a W on his decomposing forehead, snapping and slavering amongst his fellow troops in the undead infantry…mark my words, dear readers. That shit is coming, to a walled community near you.)
Anyway, back to the poster…Morgan really does seem to be listening, thinking, processing what Rick is trying to tell him, which, judging from the grim expressions on both men’s faces, seems to be a matter of great importance.
Life, death, walker army…that kind of shit.
We see the others behind Rick and Morgan, divided, which is interesting, but not really so surprising, you know? A lot of shit has gone down in a short time in Alexandria, and everyone’s still trying to get their bearings. Everyone’s expressions are so serious, grim. (Which really did bum me out, when I first saw this poster. I was like, “Wait, what about the fun playdates at the Grimes’ house? What about Friday Night Dance Troupe?” Tragic, all this unrealized potential for fun, flirting, and frolic. Such a waste of hot, sexy talent. As we have said before in this blog, Damn you back to the hell that spawned you, cruel, cockblocking walker apocalypse!)
In the poster image, we see Rick’s gang, with Daryl and Michonne in the forefront, lined up behind Rick, standing at the ready, as if anticipating battle. Behind Morgan, the key members of the Alexandrian community stand together, including Deanna Monroe, and her surviving son,Spencer (who I think got cut off at the edge there in my reproduction for this post..sorry about that…was impossible to get a full-sized screenshot of the entire poster image). We seeAaron looking worried, behind Deanna, and, lurking in the background, looking tragic as usual, we see Father Gabriel.
Jessie, while on the side of the Alexandrians, has gaze turned towards Rick, while her body is turned halfway between Rick and his people, and her fellow Alexandrian citizens. I feel that Jessie’s placement, and posturing, in this image suggests that she is caught somewhere in the middle, between the two camps, Team Rick, and Team Alexandria.
I feel that we TWD viewers will see the a fuller scope of Jessie’s strength and character as Season 6 unfolds,as she negotiates the complex and vital role as translator/mediator between Rick’s group, Morgan, and Deanna’s group. She would be able to be more objective, and see the strengths of each side’s approach on how to navigate both survival in this new world, while trying to retain some of the humanitarian and moral codes of the world left behind.
The way I see it, Rick, Morgan, Deanna, and the others have enough challenges to face in the season ahead, as they try to come to some sort of accord, and find a way to coexist, flourish, and explore the rare opportunity to actually live a life worth living, however brief it may be, within the relative safety behind Alexandria’s walls. It is a tall order, especially with the ever-present threat that looms just beyond (and, sometimes, inside)the steel walls of Alexandria…the predatory world of both undead, and living, foes alike want nothing better than to breach those walls and prey upon those living within them.
War is coming to Alexandria, people, and as we study this poster, it is easy to surmise that each and every individual in this picture knows it. Daryl, Michonne, and the rest of the righteous gang look poised and ready, their battle faces on. Deanna’s face looks grim, and stormy, and her people, who are not so battle-savvy (yet) look worried.
Nobody’s fucking around, least of all Kirkman, Gimple, and Nicotero. And our man, Rick Grimes, ain’t playing. But, never fear, darlings. The TWD panel will convene at #SDCC this Friday at noon Pacific, and they will debut the Season 6 trailer, and it will all be good, I promise. And, of course, with that trailer, another tweaker blog post from barnfullawalkers will be forthcoming, and once again, all will be right in the world.
Until then, enjoy the playlist, darlings. With all this strife and discord in the air of Alexandria, I figured we needed a “rudey, ‘tudey, crass and crudey” punk rock playlist, with a triple scoop of Transplants, to help sort it all out. To Rick and the gang, and to TWD, and to the San Diego Comic Con…cheers to all!
Playlist:
Elvis Costello, “(What’s So Funny Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?”
Transplants, “Something’s Different”
Dead Kennedys, “Holiday In Cambodia”
Fugazi,“Sieve Fisted Find”
Balkans, “I Can’t Compete”
Billy Bragg, “To Have And To Have Not”
Bad Brains, “I And I Survive”
Transplants,“Diamonds And Guns”
FIDLAR, “No Ass” (Seriously, everyone in Alexandria needs to just settle down with all this internal fighting, seize the day, and get them some serious loving before the Wolfboys and their walker army come knocking…just sayin’!)
Liam Lynch, “United States of Whatever”
Transplants,“Tall Cans In The Air” (Tall cans in the air for Rick Grimes and our gang of hot, sexy, battle-savvy transplants. Alexandria hasn’t been this exciting since, well…ever!)
(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 unless otherwise specified.)
As The Walking Dead’s Episode 514, “Spend,” opens, we see shots of another day dawning in Alexandria…the sun rises over the stately homes. The birds are singing. All is quiet and peaceful within the steel walls of the enclosed community, hearkening to days gone bye.
We see Father Gabriel step into the opening of a garage that has been converted into a little chapel. He stands there, hesitating, before entering with an air of one who is resigned, and who is going through the motions.
Gabriel makes his way up to the front of the room, which has been decorated with care. Sunlight streams through the windows, and a pane of stained glass has been hung behind the altar to catch the light. Chairs are arranged in rows, and a brightly colored throw rug has been carefully placed before the makeshift altar. A bible is opened on the altar, surrounded by candles.
Gabriel steps up to his place at the altar, and carefully places a wrinkled piece of tracing type paper in the pages, which are open, and ready, for Alexandria’s new spiritual leader’s use. It is easy to imagine that the citizens of Alexandria are excited to resume worship, and eager for some spiritual comfort and guidance from their new priest, in these times.
Gabriel then looks over and spies…
…a bowl of fresh strawberries, and a sweet note welcoming the new priest.
This offering to Gabriel from a member of his new congregation seems to be bringing up some painful memories, and self-loathing, for Gabriel. Seth Gilliam once again delivers a powerful performance as the tortured priest who cannot forgive himself for the sins of his past…when he kept his church doors locked and refused his parishioners the safety inside the church walls, leaving them outside to be torn apart by walkers.
Gabriel turns back to the altar, and the bible before him. The top page has a tiny tear at the top of it, and Gabriel slowly tears the page out of the bible, and tosses it aside.
Gabriel continues ripping page after page out of the bible.
Faster and faster, Gabriel tears out the bible’s pages…
…until he has torn away half the bible, leaving the spine, back cover bare. He slams the bible shut.
After he destroys the bible, Gabriel looks over, once again, at the note and strawberries. His jaw clenches, and his face shows the torment inside as he looks at the sweet offering.
Gabriel then lifts his gaze towards the heavens with the manner of one who does not feel worthy of divine forgiveness, or salvation, for the sins of his past.
Meanwhile, as the gates of Alexandria roll open…
Yes…
…yes…
YES!
Daryl and Aaron head out on their first recruiting run together as Alexandria’s Dynamic Duo.
Across town, in a gazebo, Reg apologizes to a waiting Noah for being late…the power’s out again.
Reg jokes to Noah, “How is it that you’re the one who called this extremely early morning meeting, yet I’m the one bringing breakfast?”
As Noah takes the cup of steel cut oatmeal that Reg offers, he jokes back, “Because you’re a good guy?”
After the banter back and forth, Noah asks Reg if they can start meeting in the mornings, so Reg can teach him “how to build things.” Reg asks him if he wants to be an architect, and Noah replies, “I wanna make sure those walls stay up.”
Reg, surprised, asks Noah if he thinks the walls could fall. Noah looks around, replies:
“I think they could get knocked in.” Surely, Noah is thinking of his family, and what happened to the Shirewilt Estates.
Noah softens this train of thought at Reg’s alarmed reaction, saying it could happen years from now, and then tells Reg, “It wouldn’t hurt if I knew some of what you knew.”
As Reg regards him, Noah continues, “The walls, the houses, some new buildings…”
Reg stares at the young man before him. “So, you’re in it for the long haul?”
Noah looks down, shyly, says that he is. Reg pulls out a black journal notebook, opens it, and begins writing in it.
Noah asks Reg what he’s writing, and Reg replies that he writes everything down, everything of note, that is. When Reg looks up, he sees the young man watching him, so he takes his notes out of the notebook and hands it to Noah.
“Now you should,” Reg says, handing the notebook to Noah. “There’s going to be a lot to remember.”
Reg continues, “This is the beginning of this place.” He motions with his head towards the notebook, prompting Noah, “You should record all that…along with everything I’m going to teach you about building things.” At Noah’s look of surprise, Reg smiles, begins to dig into his oatmeal. Noah smiles, shyly looks down and begins writing in his new notebook.
Meanwhile, Abraham stands at the bathroom mirror…
…while his lovely lady sleeps in.
Abraham’s face is grim as he peers at his reflection in the mirror.
Later, as the Run Crewprepares to go out on a goods run for a new micro-inverter for the solar grid, Noah holds out a gun for Eugene to take. Eugene tries to decline the offer. “Oh, no thank you.”
“Not if I don’t go,”replies Eugene. The one thing Eugene is not afraid of, it seems, is owning up to his cowardice.
Aiden walks up, informs Eugene that he’s not driving all that way to come back with the wrong shit…Eugene tries to tell them that there are at least a dozen different options of this “shit”, clearly-marked and available through a variety of manufacturers, and “the shit will be right,” and he, of course, will be available to “install said shit” once they return, and the solar grid will once again be operational…
In reply, Noah presses the gun to Eugene’s chest. His unspoken message is clear. No backing out, dude. You’re the only one who knows what the hell we’re looking for…you’re going.
Eugene reluctantly takes the gun, looks down at it with dismay.
As they load up the van, Tara says to Noah, “Heard you talking to Holly last night…what’s her story?” Noah plays dumb. “Why do you ask?”
They are so young and cute and full of life…am drowning some serious sorrow right now with Modelos as I rewatch this scene. Damn you back to the hell that spawned you, zombie apocalypse!
As Noah turns away, smiling, Tara calls after him, “What? It was an innocent question…don’t make me hurt you!”
Aiden, meanwhile, says goodbye to his parents. He assures them that everything’s set, and the mission is a straightforward one. Aiden assures his parents, “We’ll be fine.”
His father, Reg, protests lightly that he’s a worrier…that’s how that wall over there got built.
Aiden kisses his mom and bids his father farewell.
Now, it’s time for Glennand Maggieto say their goodbyes. Maggie assures Glenn that he’s got this…he always does. Although her words inspire confidence, her face shows her worry. Every run is a risk.
Glenn and Maggie kiss goodbye.
As Glenn and the gang turn to go, Deanna makes a point of thanking Glenn once again.
As they load into the van, Tara tries to ask Noah about Holly once again when the loud techno beats of Dubstep flood the van.
“Oh, great, another mix,” mock enthuses Noah.
As Noah and Tara make funny shrugs and faces at each other in silent commentary about the ridiculous music, the song’s lyrics announce, “Now, you’re going to die.”
As Glenn, Tara, and Noah prepare to suffer the long drive with bad 90’s techno blasting in their ears, Glenn tries to look on the bright side, “At least it lures them (the walkers) away.” From the community and the fences, he means, but his words unknowingly foretell events that will to come later in the episode.
As the van drives away, Gabriel emerges, looks at Reg and Deanna significantly. Reg raises his hand in greeting. Gabriel seems to be thinking, already, coming to some conclusions, decisions about his future course of action. As I have said before, SethGilliam is killing it in this episode…at this point, he has not spoken yet in Episode 514, but has already communicated so much with just his eyes and facial expressions. After a moment, Gabriel turns away and goes back into his garage chapel (perhaps to try and tape the pages of the bible back together…can’t exactly ask for another copy, can he?)
Meanwhile, in another garage across town…
Rick stops by and sees Jessie in her garage, picking up pieces of the wrecked owl sculpture…it seems someone finished the owl demolition job that Rick accidentally started when he crashed into the sculpture during his wack attack a couple of episodes back, in “Remember.”
Jessie says stuff like this never happens around here…
Constable Grimes has a caper to solve…the case of the Villianous Owl Vandal. (“Did the owl have any enemies that you know of?”)
Rick and Jessie share a joke and a laugh about the situation…any opportunity to flirt and smile at each other, they’ll take it!
Rick tells Jessie about the Broken Window Theory…keep the windows intact, keep the society intact. Besides, he adds with a smile, he’s gotta do something today…
Rick gives Jessie one more hot look before walking away. I must cop to being a total jealous Babout Jessie at first…my WDbuddy and I agree that we really like her, and it’s super cute how Rick acts with her. Alexandra Breckenridge, who plays Jessie, imparts a realness and sweetness to her character that makes Jessie really endearing and easy to relate to, like in this shot, as she processes her smoking hot crush on Rick Grimes. ❤
Meanwhile, the young crew in the van has made it to the warehouse, where they hope to find a new micro-inverter for the solar grid. A micro inverter converts direct current (DC) generated by solar modules to alternating current (AC), which is then fed back into the electrical grid.
After taking a quick survey of the outside of the building, Aiden remarks that the one door visible to them “is the fastest way in and out.”
Glenn points out that they should know all the exits before going in, “so there’s a plan if things go south.” He’s right, of course.
But Nicholas, being, well, Nicholas, chimes in with, “I already got one…it’s called ‘going out the front.’” Even Aiden is looking at Nicholas like, “Dude, you’re kind of being a huge douche right now.”
Tara alerts Noah to an approaching walker, and Noah aims his gun, drops it with one shot. Aiden commends Noah on his aim, then turns to Nicholas and voices his agreement with Glenn’s plan, to do a perimeter check of all the exits before entering the building.
I definitely was railing on Aiden before, but I have seen how he seems to be able to roll with the reality and accept, on some level, that Glenn and his people do have the goods to back up what they are talking about. Glenn nods at Aiden’s plan.
Nicholas, however, shoots Aiden a sour look before shrugging on his backpack and glumly going about the business of splitting up into pairs and checking the exits.
Eugene and Tara pair up, and after Tara rekills a walker by plunging her knife into its skull, Eugene feels the need to “go on the record” as saying:
“Just so you know, I’m on record as stating that I should not be here. You will know that I am not combat ready or even for that matter, combat inclined.”
Tara replies, wisely, “You never are ’til you are.” She then tells Eugenge, “You gotta start pulling your weight…you know, I did.”
In response, Eugene stops, looks at Tara. She stops, looks at him. “What?” she asks.
Eugene makes his case. “All things being equal, I do believe my weight’s been pulled. I got you all to D.C., which is, in this man’s opinion, is damn near close to nirvana, judging by current standards.”
I do feel he has somewhat of a point, here…they certainly would not have lucked out with being recruited for Alexandria if Eugene hadn’t brought D.C. into the collective consciousness, even if it was based on a total lie…
Tara, however, is like, um, no. “Except you didn’t get us here…we got you here.” Ouch, Eugene, truth hurts!
Eugene continues to plead his case. “If it were not for me and my mention of this city’s potential for home and hearth, not a one of you would have had the vision to come here, let along the cojones to travail such a fraught and punishing pilgrimage.”
“That, sister, is a fact,” concludes Eugene. “That’s as cold and hard as they come.”
Tara shakes her head at this. “God, you’re really that much of a coward,” she marvels. Eugene once again slows his step, looks at Tara.
“Yes, I am,”Eugene states, baldly. “I told you I was.”
Tara has no response to this, merely shakes her head and walks away. After a moment, and a nervous look around, Eugene takes off after her.
Meahwhile, Glenn and Noah are paired up, walking together. Glenn commends Noah’s aim back there, with the walker.
Noah replies that target practice has helped…
…and then laughingly admits that last week, he was pretty close to doing some “target practice on Aiden.” Glenn joins the laughter at this statement.
Glenn and Noah reach the front left corner of the building, and what they see beyond the tall chain link fence enclosing the property makes them stop in in their tracks.
In front of the building, there is a large group of walkers, milling about. Glenn mutters, “Well, we’re not getting out the front.”
The gang enters the warehouse cautiously, led by Glenn, who bangs his hand on the door to draw any walkers inside the buiding to them. But all is quiet.
Glenn motions for them to wait a moment more, then Aiden speaks up, suggesting they get a move on…they go in, be careful, get it done. Glenn agrees, pulls out his gun before entering the building.
Holding guns steady, shining flashlights into the darkness, the gang slowly and carefully begins to make their way into the warehouse, where they split up (Tara and Eugene in one aisle, Glenn, Noah, Aiden and Nicholas in another), moving cautiously through the aisles, looking for boxes marked with the name, brand, serial number of the micro-inverter they came for.
Glenn hears the sounds of walkers, somewhere in the building. He shushes, motions to the rest to be quiet, listens. “They’re stuck behind something,” he says. “How do you know?” Aiden asks. “I don’t…but they aren’t here.”
Glenn moves the gang forward, and as they turn a corner, they see:
A sizeable group of walkers, locked behind chainlink gated doors. The walkers begin to get loud and agitated as they see, and smell, the living.
There are a lot of walkers.
It is probably one of the few opportunities someone like Aiden has had to really observe the walkers, close up…Aiden looks really freaked…
…especially when his eyes lock with the vacant, hungry stare of one of the walkers.
Aiden, rattled, says to Glenn, “You know your stuff.” Tara tells him that they were out there a long time.
Tara then turns and shines her flashlight on Eugene, who gapes in fear and horror at the trapped walkers…
…and tells him, “You’re up.”
A little ways down one of the aisles, Eugene and Tara find the box marked with the information for the micro-inverter they are looking for.
It is indeed the type of micro-inverter they are looking for. As Tara digs them out of the packing, Glenn gives props to Eugene, “All right, Eugene!”
While the gang, and their mission, seem like they are in the clear, the happy moment is short-lived, for behind Aiden, who is stealthing along another aisle, weapon held high, comes an unwelcome visitor…
S.W.A.T. Walker!
It takes Aiden a bit to hear the walker, whose riot gear face shield may have muffled the walker’s hissing and slavering. Aiden finally whirls around and sees the walker coming towards him.
The walker is encased in military-issue full-protective gear, including helmet and face shield.
Aiden faces the S.W.A.T. Walker, and begins firing upon it, but the walker’s protective gear makes it hard to get the head shot…
…and the S.W.A.T. Walker keeps coming.
Hearing shots, Glenn shines his flashlight over the shelving and sees the armored walker approaching Aiden. Glenn advises Aiden to let the armored walker get closer before trying to rekill it.
Aiden says he’s got it, busts a cap into the walker’s knee, dropping it.
But, instead of going forward and rekilling the walker by hand at this point, Aiden keeps on firing bullets into the walker. Glenn, who has come forward, peers more closely at the downed walker, who is writhing and hissing on the floor, and sees…
The S.W.A.T. Walker’s armor has a grenade clipped to its shoulder, and Aiden continues to shoot at the walker.
Glenn cries out to Aiden not to shoot, to stop shooting, but Aiden either does not hear, or heed, these warnings, takes a few more shots at the walker…
Aiden fires the fatal shot…
…and we hear Glenn’s cries, warnings, before the blinding explosion of Aiden’s bullet connecting with the S.W.A.T. Walker’s grenade rocks the warehouse.
After a much-needed commercial/bathroom/beverage re-up break, we are taken back to the warehouse, as the smoke and dust begins to clear from the blast. We hear the sounds of the walkers, louder now, and we see figures lurching forward in the haze. Glenn shines his flashlight, calling for, “Noah, Tara, Eugene..!”
As Glenn calls for the others, we see the shadowy figures of the walkers in the background, coming closer.
Noah emerges, dazed…Glenn tells him the cage is open. Noah turns and sees the walkers, freely moving about.
Glenn and Noah hear Eugene’s voice, and they rush over and peer over the shelving, to the next aisle…Eugene is there, looking frightened, pale, sweaty…they shine their flashlights down and see Tara, lying unconscious on the floor,with a pool of blood at her head.
Glenn asks if she is breathing…Eugene replies that he doesn’t know, he can’t tell from where he is…then Eugene starts saying, over and over, with growing alarm, “Walker…”
“…walker!”
From the next aisle, unable to get to Eugene right away, Glenn coaches him, “Eugene, it’s yours, take it out.”
Terrified, Eugene backs away from the advancing walker…
…and raises his gun with shaking hands. But, before Eugene can pull the trigger…
…Eugene gets grabbed from behind by Sneaky, Snappy Walker…
…who ends up on top of Eugene, snapping at his face as poor Eugene tries to turn away, unable to get himself free.
Glenn leaps through the shelving and manages to pull Sneaky, Snappy Walker off of Eugene, and Noah comes through and throws down the death blow, smashing the butt end of his rifle into Sneaky, Snappy Walker’s slimy, squishy skull.
Noah is a badass. ❤
Glenn blasts another oncoming walker’s brains all over the floor, and the lens.
Noah pulls Eugene up, and Glenn orders them to get to the office, and he’ll get Tara. “Go!” Glenn barks, before leaping over the boxes to get to Tara.
Glenn is a total badass. ❤
Meanwhile, back in Alexandria…
Carol hears a rustling noise downstairs…she pads lightly, quickly down the stairs…
…and opens the cupboard door, quickly, and finds Sam inside.
Carol pulls Sam out of the cupboard, asks him angrily what he’s doing there…Sam cheerfully informs her that he didn’t tell anybody about the guns. That kid sure doesn’t scare easy!
Carol growls out, “Answer the question!” Sam pauses a moment, then asks Carol if she has any more cookies.
Personally, I am amazed by both Sam’s bravery and the fact that he still likes cookies, after that Creepy Carol Threats & Cookiesencounter the other night.
Carol tells him the cookies are gone, while turning him around and trying to march him to the door. “Go home,” Carol tells him. Sam protests that his house doesn’t have any power, and he wanted to paint his owl sculpture, but somebody broke it…
Carol narrows her eyes at Sam, tells him these aren’t problems, and besides, she doesn’t care…she tries once again to march him to the door. Sam asks her if she can make more cookies…she tells him no, and when he asks why, she tells him that she doesn’t want to.
Carol shoves Sam out the door and is about to close it in his face when he suggests that if she shows him how to make cookies, maybe he can make them himself…kid’s letting loose a Hail Mary pass as the last second runs down on the clock…anything not to have to go back home, it seems.
Corrosion of Conformity Carolnarrows her eyes again, asks Sam if he wants cookies. He nods enthusiastically. COC Caroltells Sam if he wants cookies, he’ll have to steal the chocolate from Olivia, and he is to get an extra bar, for her…and if he gets caught, and tells anyone why he is stealing, he’s not going to like what happens next…
“Now, go,” orders Carol, shoving Sam out the doorway. Easy there, sister…but poor Sam, who is probably used to getting shoved around, simply turns and runs off to do Corrosion of Conformity Carol’s bidding.
Meanwhile…
We see Tara, unconscious on a table, blood still seeping out of her head wound.
Glenn comes over, asks how she’s doing…Eugene replies that she’s suffered serious head trauma and is losing blood fast. We can see and hear the walkers, hissing, slavering, and batting at the outside of the office door and windows that overlook the inner warehouse space.
Noah asks how they can stop the bleeding. Nicholas replies that there’s a meds kit in Aiden’s bag, which got blown to hell…Glenn says there’s one in the van.
To this, Eugene looks up, replies, “She’s on her way out…”
Eugene looks over at the door, the walkers pawing at the windows, trying to get at them. “We need to get her there,” Eugene says, meaning they need to get Tara out of that warehouse, to the van, to the meds kit, then back to Alexandria asap.
“All right, we’ll get her there,” Glenn assures Eugene and the others. I have to give Glenn mad props on being a solid, capable leader, especially in this mission, where everything is starting to go wrong at every turn…and then, right on cue, there is a loud, agonized cry from across the warehouse…Aiden!
Glenn stops at this sound, horrified to realize that Aiden is still alive.
At Aiden’s cry, Nicholas whirls around and looks out the windows. “Oh, Jesus,”he laments.
Aiden’s head moves, but the rest of him looks immobilized as he starts to come to. He is impaled on something, probably thrown back onto it from the grenade’s blast.
“He’s still alive?” Glenn asks.
“I checked him, I thought, I…I…” Nicholas stammers to a stop. You were saying, Nicholas?‘I…I…I am a total dumbass who can’t be relied on to do anything except fuck it up worse for everyone else?’ Yes, we fully agree, Nicholas. You are.
Glenn-In-Charge looks out at Aiden, assesses the situation quickly. “It’s gonna take at least three of us,” he says. Noah, his second, turns to Eugene. “Do we have that kind of time?” he asks him.
Nicholas offers his attempt at a cowardly out, probably, regrettably, something he and Aiden would have come to, together, when faced with a highly dangerous rescue scenario of a trapped or wounded comrade, in times before…he offers that lifting Aiden off of whatever he’s impaled onto could kill him…
Noah whirls on Nicholas, asking, “Are you saying we leave him?”
You’re up, Eugene.
“Go. Save. Him,”Eugene tells them, his hands on Tara’s head, keeping pressure on her bleeding wound. “She’d do it, I know she would. “
Eugene looks up at them. “I’ll stay with her. I’ll keep her safe, I assure you. I will.”
After Eugene’s proclamation, Noah and Nicholas turn to Glenn, who must channel Rick-In-Chargein this moment. What would Rick do now?
Glenn-In-Charge thinks fast. “All right, we’ll knock ’em back…you still have that flare?” Nicholas says he does.
Glenn tells Nicholas, “You fire the flare over the shelves.” Glenn walks quickly to the office door. “I’ll draw some of them over.”
Glenn turns now to Noah, “We’re going to hit the rest hand-to-hand.” Glenn turns to Nicholas. “You ready?” Nicholas says he is. Glenn prepares to open the door into total walker mayhem as the others brace themselves.
Glenn counts to three, then he and Noah shove the door open, hard, knocking the walkers back. Nicholas points and shoots the flare gun into the far corner of the warehouse aisles and shelving.
Glenn-In-Charge leaps into action, spearheading the Against All Odds Aiden Rescue Mission.
Meanwhile, back at the construction site…
It seems Abraham is working with a team led by Tobin, gathering materials from the abandoned mall construction site, to bolster a compromised section of Alexandria’s protective wall…
…the men load the materials, while a woman stands watch high in an excavator bucket.
Abrahmam asks another guy if Tobin really thinks the job will take four weeks. The guy shrugs, says that last time, the job took twice that. Abraham’s look says, ‘Not on my watch, it wouldn’t.’
After a moment, the guy checks in with Abraham, makes sure he’s ok to hold it all down here…the guy then excuses himself to go “send a fax to Cleveland,” waving some papers and walking off.
I really don’t understand what the hell that guy was talking about, either, Abraham…is that code for poop?
As Abraham watches over the site, a group of birds startle somewhere deeper in the woods and fly quickly away, over the trees, over the site. Abraham watches them fly overhead, gripping the edge of the flatbed where his gun lay. He breathes deeply, readying and steadying himself.
Watching this, I feel like this is a coping mechanism that Abraham must have relied on even before the turn, being a soldier returning from duty overseas, back to home and family.
Breathing, and steadying oneself. Not every startle means emergency, crisis…
…except when it does. Like now.
Enter theJob Site Walkers!
Abraham rushes forward to help Tobin and the others fire upon the oncoming walkers.
Unfortunately, a stray bullet from Tobin’s rifle hits a piston on the excavator’s workings, releasing the bucket and sending poor Francine to the ground, hard…
…far out into the path of the oncoming walkers, who begin to close in around her. Tobin orders everyone back, to take shelter in the trucks.
Abraham turns to Tobin. “What about Francine?” he asks. Tobin looks at Abraham helplessly, shakes his head.
Abraham rushes forward, alone, to help Francine.
Abraham nails two of the I Wanna Eat FrancineWalkers in the heads, rekilling them…
…before grabbing up Francine. The walkers are beginning to swarm in from all sides…
Abraham gets Francine inside the safety of the truck…
…before turning and facing the swarm of walkers. Abraham’s surrounded, but does he look scared? Hell, no.
Facing the press of walkers closing in on him, Abraham marvels, with a laugh and a shake of his head, “Mother dick!”
Ladies and gentlemen, another instant classic from the mouth of Abraham Ford. ❤
The Job Site Walkersbegin to swarm the truck…
…while Abraham quickly slides under truck, taking momentary cover there…
…and drawing the walkers under the truck as they come after him.
Abraham begins blowing the Under The TruckWalkers away by firing into their heads…
…rekilling them.
Francine offers Abraham her hand, wanting to pull him up into the truck with her, but he tosses her his rifle instead, instructing her to take care of the rear end…
…while he “takes care of the uglies in the front,”hand-to-hand style.
Abraham taunts, “C’mon, don’t be shy,” and throws in another “Mother dick!” when he loses the ball and chain part of the mace thing he’d been using to bludgeon the oncoming walkers. Abraham continues going to town on them with just the metal pole part. Francine seems take brief moments to stare in disbelief at Abraham’s berzerker style before turning the rifle once again on the Bringing Up The Rear Walkers.
Abraham’s heroics seem to inspire the others…the Fax 2 Cleveland guy inches forward, aiming his rifle at the swarming walkers. “Son of a bitch is still alive,” he marvels, watching Abraham brain the walkers who come at him. As the F2C guy continues to make his way towards the mayhem, Tobin calls out, with alarm, “What are you doing?”“Making sure he stays that way!”answers the F2C guy, before rushing forward in a burst of bravery.
Abraham continues to singlehandedly massacre the oncoming walkers, armed with only a wrench-sized metal stick.
Back in Alexandria…
Dr. Petey McBeaty has been catching a daybuzz, it seems, and he’s come knocking on Rick’s door with a beer offering “for helping my wife earlier today.” McBeatydoes not look Rick in the eye as he steps inside the home.
Rick puts on a smile and politely declines the beer. You can tell by the look on his face that he really hates this guy and wants to smash him.
“Don’t tell me you’re still on duty,” presses McBeaty. Rick replies, politely, that he kind of always is.
“Not at Deanna’s party…I saw you,” says McBeaty, his voice sounding careless and slurry as he leans against a support beam, facing Rick.
Rick faces McBeaty, standing loose and casual, but definitely always at the ready. He waits. McBeaty raises the beer bottles in his hands, says, “You had some, right?”
Rick Grimes is like, Yeah, bitch, I had some.
Rick looks down, takes the high road, says that he wished that he could have done more, today…he asked around, but nobody seemed to see or hear anything like someone going to town on an owl sculpture.
McBeaty says, “Well, it was just an owl…in the grand scheme of things, I think we’ll live.”
Rick Smash! seems to be thinking, “In my grand scheme, McBeaty, you just might not.”
An awkward silence follows, and then McBeaty ups the awkward a few thousand notches by saying, loudly, “I’m sorry…I heard you lost your wife.”
McBeaty, McBeaty, McBeaty...I don’t know how Alexandria managed to keep the vast amounts of beer and booze on hand to feed your alcoholism these past two years, but I don’t think they did you or your family any favors by enabling your addiction or your stupidity. Can’t you read the non-verbal cues the man in front of you is giving you, right now, that he wants to kill your stupid ass, hard?
Between head shakes, nods, sighs, and belches, McBeaty goes on some sodden soapbox soliloquy about how “I’m sure it looks like we haven’t lost much, but we have…”
“We’ve lost things, “ muses McBeaty, nodding and looking off, somewhere.
McBeaty looks back at Rick. “Other things, we’re fighting like hell to hold onto.” Whatever, McBeaty. Nobody cares. I do think, however, that Rick Grimes is feeling more and more justified in his “end justifies the means” imaginings right about now.
McBeaty continues on his soap box, telling Rick that he doesn’t know if Rick and his people, after everything they’ve been through, can see the plight of the Alexandrians, or McBeaty in particular…
“We do,” says Rick, with the barest of a smile. Oh, he sees it, all right, McBeaty. Rick Grimes sees everything.
Somewhat mollified, McBeaty takes a swig of his beer.
McBeaty’s barely swallowed his mouthful of beer when he utters another classic McBeaty non sequitar, urging Rick to “Bring your kids in for a check-up…they were out there a long time, right?”
Rick Grimes smiles a secret smile in response to this, bounces back and forth a bit lightly between his feet, like, ‘Yeah, right, asshole, so you can either drunkenly molest my kids or mismanage their care in the throes of a violent hangover? I don’t fucking think so.’
Instead of voicing his real thoughts, Rick politely agrees and thanks Pete for the offer while motioning with his head towards the door, like, ok, dude, time to go. All falls silent again for another moment of pure awkwardness between the two men.
Once again oblivious of nonverbal cues, Pete lurches forward until he comes face to face with Rick.
McBeaty leans in conspiratorially to Rick. “Let’s be friends, man,” he says.
McBeaty continues, “We kind of have to be, right?”
Looking right into McBeaty’s eyes, Rick smiles and agrees, “Yeah, we do.” Notice how McBeaty has dropped his gaze, does not meet Rick’s eyes. Universal sign of submission to an alpha.
“So we will,” says McBeaty, grabbing Rick’s hand for another fake, gripping handshake that is a little too hard, and a little too much like arm wrestling to be fooling anybody.
After the handshake/wrestle, McBeaty slaps a couple of hard ones on Rick’s shoulder as he lurches out. “See you, Rick.” Rick shoots McBeaty this look over his shoulder as McBeaty beats a hasty retreat.
Watching McBeaty’s retreating form, Rick thinks a moment, then looks down at his left hand…
Rick reaches down and twists his wedding ring…is it time to take it off?
Meanwhile, back at the warehouse…
Eugene’s going all “empty chair therapy” on Tara as she lay unconscious…
“I take no responsibility for this…I told you what I was. You should have listened.”
“All of you…you should have listened.”
Looking down at Tara’s still form, Eugene knows what he must do. The sounds of the walkers have died down, and there are none around the office…they are surely being diverted by the others. Eugene stands to his full height…
…and the next shot we see is of Eugene, peering fearfully out the office door…
…and then, Eugene is carrying Tara over his shoulder, making his way down the hallway. He hears a walker approach…
Eugene fires at the walker…
Yes, Eugene!
You can do it!
Eugene busts a cap in another walker’s leg, dropping it. The door is right there…
Alas, things are not looking as hopeful for poor Aiden…
It’s not good.
Glenn tries to reassure Aiden. “Aiden, it’s gonna be ok…we’re gonna get you out of here…it’s gonna be ok. I just need you to stay quiet…”
Aiden nodds, dazed and shocked.
But, it’s so not good…
As Glenn and Nicholas attempt to pull Aiden off the metal bars he is impaled upon, Aiden screams in pain. Noah turns and tells them the flare is burning out.
Aiden begins to panic. Glenn says, “Again!” Nicholas, being ever-fucking helpful, says querulously that, “We’re never gonna make it.”
What a total whiner! Way to inspire confidence and calm in your poor friend who is gravely wounded, impaled on metal bars, and who is currently freaking the fuck out, Nicholas.
Nicholas, after this episode, we TWD fans hereby ban you to the Land of Suck. (Of course, I am sure the actor who plays Nicholas is a lovely person in real life…just hating on the character, not the man. 🙂 )
Nicholas may suck ass, but Glenn needs him. He pulls Nicholas close and tells him, yes, they can, but he needs his help. “You can do this!” urges Glenn.
Aiden pleads to his friend, “Don’t leave me.” Nicholas looks at him, nods, but it’s not in his eyes. The sound of walkers approaching gets louder, closer.
Nicholas and Glenn try to pull Aiden off, again. The sounds of Noah’s shots piercing the oncoming walkers ring through the air…Nicholas winces with each shot like the bullets are piercing his body, and he seems to be more vested in reacting to his own growing panic than helping pull Aiden off the jagged metal bars that are impaling him in two places…one bar is up by the left shoulder, where Nicholas is, and one bar down by the right lower belly, where Glenn is.
Instead of grabbing his friend and pulling, hard, Nicholas lay his hands on the metal spike, on his friend’s chest, wincing. Nicholas looks at Aiden.
Nicholas leans in, tells Aiden, in his ear, “You left them…we both did. That’s who we are.”
“I’m sorry,” says Nicholas, repeating it as he backs away, then hurries off, leaving them. Glenn turns to Aiden, and begins trying in earnest to singlehandedly pull the young man free. Noah warns, “They’re coming,” and continues firing on the walkers.
Aiden confesses to Glenn, “It was us…the others before…”
“…they didn’t panic. We did.”
Glenn takes a brief second to register this sad confession, then pulls in earnest one more time…“No,” Aiden says, then Noah is there, pulling Glenn away, “They’re here!”
As Noah pulls Glenn away, just in time, Glenn looks at Aiden, anguished. Poor Glenn in this episode…
And then, it becomes…awful.
Poor Aiden! 😦
I know I was mocking Aiden before, in Episode 512, “Remember,”calling him a “budussy” and joking about him getting chomped…
…but I assure you, I get no pleasure from this. I see Aiden now as just a young man, full of brash and swagger, who had shelter and privelege on his side for a long time…
…who fell into, or volunteered for, a role in this new world order that he wasn’t fully equipped for…
…but who was basically a good person, a young man on the verge of adulthood, who just wanted to stay alive, and who now must suffer a painful, lonely, horrific death. RIP Aiden 😦
It’s not even noon, but it’s Spring Break, and the kids are at the grandparents’, and so I am cracking open a Beck’s…to raise a toast to poor Aiden, and to an incredible acting job by Daniel Bonjour, who supposedly interrupted his honeymoon for the chance to play Aiden on The Walking Dead; and to Glenn, who tried so hard, and was getting it done, and to Noah, who stayed true and solid, and to Eugene, who stepped up…and to Michael Traynor, who plays Nicholas. Cheers to all! ❤
And so, we continue…and you know what’s coming. So, I drink again, and onward we go…
Back at the job site, Abraham shoves Tobin, gives him The Biz.
“Is that how it works with you?” demands Abraham. “You leave people behind to die?”
Tobin stammers, indignantly, “We have a system…tell him, Francine!”
In reply, Francine rushes up and tells Tobin with a surprise right hook to the jaw…ow, this is not a good day for you, Tobin!
Abraham looks down at Tobin, slumped against the truck. Francine mutters, “Asshole!”
F2C guy tries to interject that all this noise will attract more, and maybe they need to just call it a day…Abraham has other ideas, however. They still got daylight…it’stime to get back to work. Abraham turns to Francine, asks her if she’s ok to continue on…
Francine replies yeah, they got three hours of daylight left.
Tobin, doubled over, and F2Cguy look at Francine, disbelieving, as Abraham starts calling for two lookouts, one in the bucket, and one at the trucks, to see if any more come along after the Bash and Pop…he actually calls his one-man walker massacre the “Bash and Pop”… ha!
“Now pull the cobwebs outta your asses and MOVE!”
Abraham looks back at Tobin, F2C guy, nods. “We have a wall to build.” (Yes! Totally drinking to Abraham..and for bravery. <3)
Meanwhile, the shit is majorly going down at the warehouse. We see Nicholas making a run for the front exit, where Glenn and Noah saw the swarm of walkers milling about earlier. He runs for the revolving doors. “You’ll never make it!” Glenn tries to call after him.
Nicholas is going to try, but he doesn’t really have the fortitude or hand-to-hand skills to even have a fighting chance.
It’s a tough one, even for seasoned warriors like Glenn and Noah.
Nicholas quickly gets overrun by the swarm outside, and Noah, Glenn are out of bullets and out of time, inside. Nicholas runs in, as Noah and Glenn run out, and the three men take refuge in the only space available to them, the revolving doors.
On one side, Nicholas braces himself, alone, in one enclosed middle section, while Noah and Glenn are together in the opposite enclosed middle section, with swarms of walkers on both sides, outside and inside the building.
Back in Alexandria, in Deanna’s office…
Tobin has come to talk about the events of the day with Deanna and Reg…Maggie, as Deanna’s aide, is present for this conversation as well.
“I’m sorry to lose you, Tobin,” Deanna is saying, leaning in to the man who sits beside her on the couch, looking down at his hands. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely,” Tobin replies. He continues, saying if Abraham had followed his orders, Francine would be dead. Reg chimes in, points out that while somebody saving another person’s life certainly makes them a hero, it doesn’t qualify them to run a construction company.
Tobin looks at Reg. “He’s out there, still working, the whole team. And he’s leading them…”
“…better than I ever could.”
Deanna and Reg exchange a look, then Deanna turns to Tobin. “It’s settled, then.” She stands, tells Tobin that she will speak to Abraham upon his return and make it official. Tobin has resigned his post, and Abraham will now be put in charge of Alexandria’s construction team.
Being a good, honorable man, Tobin tells Deanna, “The thing is, I know you won’t regret it.”
Reg walks Tobin out, and as the door closes behind them, Deanna leans against the corner, thinking. Maggie quietly says, “He’s right, you know…Abraham is more than qualified.”
Deanna looks over at Maggie, gives a little laugh. “I put another one of your people in a position of power, you vouch for them…it’s becoming a pattern.”
Maggie quietly asserts, “We know what we’re doing. That’s why you wanted us here. That’s why Aaron and Daryl are out there, looking for more people.”
Maggie looks at Deanna, says, “You wanted a future…you need us for that.”
With a little smile, Deanna agrees, “That’s right,” but her voice sounds less than convinced. Maggie smiles and excuses herself, saying that she’ll go down and get to work on those field plans. Deanna tells Maggie she’ll be down to join her in a minute.
Meanwhile, a playful knock raps on another door in town:
Carol opens the door to a grinning Sam…
…who wags a ziplock baggie containing the chocolate contraband up at Carol.
Carol yanks the bag from his hand and pulls the child inside. As she turns on the oven, Carol grouses to the young boy that this is the last time she’s helping him, and after this, he is not to come over or bother her again. Sam agrees, when pressed by Carol, who then goes on to tell him that he had better not be thinking that he’s getting more than half the batch of cookies, as he did barely half the work…
As Carol does her best to try to be mean and run the young boy off, Sam just looks off sadly in the kitchen. It seems like he is used to people being mean around him.
Sam looks at Carol, asks her, “Were you always a good cook?”
Carol tries to shut this down. “Sam, we’re not talking.” She instructs the boy to wipe the counter, and while doing so, Sam tries again to ask Carol about cooking, if she likes it…Carol turns to Sam, admonishes him again.
“We don’t have to be friends,” says Sam, looking down at the counter he is wiping. “It just doesn’t have to be quiet.”
Carol gives in. “I was good at it, it distracted me, it made me forget when I was sad,” she offers. Sam tells her when he gets sad, he breaks stuff. Carol looks at him, asks him what kind of stuff. Sam shrugs, and Carol puts two and two together.
Carol knows kids. Looking right at Sam, Carol asks him, “You told me someone broke your owl statue. Did you break it?”
Sam looks down, nods. Carol asks him, “Why?” Sam does not answer. “Why are you here?” Carol asks him.
Sam looks at Carol. “Why did you steal the guns?” he asks, looking down and wiping at the counter.
Carol drops the tough act. “Because sometimes you need to protect yourself,” she tells him.
As Carol looks down at the boy, Sam stops wiping, looks up at her.
“Can I have a gun?” Sam asks Carol.
Carol asks Sam why he wants one. “It’s not for me,” Sam says.
Carol asks Sam who the gun is for. He doesn’t answer. “Who is it for, Sam?”Carol asks again.
At this, Sam turns and runs off, as Carol looks after him, realizing what the little boy was really trying to tell her. She calls after him, “Sam!”
Meanwhile…
Trapped in a section of revolving door, walkers on all sides, Nicholas is buggin’, hard.
Nicholas calls to Glenn and Noah, suggests they can blast their way out…they have the guns. But, as Glenn points out, Nicholas has the ammo. “We gotta do something,” Nicholas laments. “We’re gonna die in here.”
Bracing himself, sweating, Noah says there has to be another way, there has to be a way…
Glenn tries to think of a way as the walkers paw and push, trying to get at them.
Suddenly, the sound of a honking horn and the driving beats of Dubstep fill the air. Glenn whirls around, and they see…
Eugene, who has gotten Tara to the van and who pulls up, slapping the door and calling the walkers away, “Hey, over here! Come get me!”
Eugene leads the walkers outside away from the doors.
Noah and Glenn share a laugh of relief, and disbelief, as the walkers begin to abandon the doors and follow the Eugene and the van as it slowly leads them away, blasting techno beats. Outside clear, but inside, there is still a press of walkers. Trying to escape through the front on either end would push the other person/people into the inside swarm of walkers. Glenn thinks, and comes up with a plan.
Calling to Nicholas, Glenn tells both he and Noah to hold the doors steady, while Glenn uses the butt end of his rifle to break the glass on his and Noah’s side…once the glass shatters and they are free, Nicholas can push himself out and grab the rifle. Nicholas nods, agrees.
Glenn rams the butt end of his rifle into the glass of the revolving door again and again, but is unable to break the glass.
Nicholas is having a hard time holding his side of the door steady, and panicked, yells for Glenn to stop, that it’s not safe…
Nicholas begins to shake his head, saying that the glass is not going to break…
Glenn and Noah look at Nicholas, urge him to hold the door steady…they know he is about to bail, and this only works if everyone does his part, keeps the doors steady…if Nicholas bolts for it, pushing the doors to escape outside, he presses them into the walkers inside…Glenn tries to talk Nicholas down, “Trust me, count to three, ok? At three…”
“One…two…three,” but as Glenn gets to “three,” Nicholas pushes the door pane before him forward, hard…
…and pushes his foot through the opening of the door…and we know how revolving doors work…an opening here creates another opening, diagnonally across, to the inside…
As Glenn and Noah frantically try to hold the walkers back, and push back, Glenn pleads with Nicholas to stop, to not do this…
Not heeding Glenn, Nicholas squeezes an arm through, trying to press through and free himself at any cost…
…at any cost. 😦 😦 😦 😦
Uncaring, frantic to save himself, Nicholas pushes his bag, then himself out, hits the ground, outside, thus sealing poor Noah’s fate…
The walkers grab Noah’s leg once the doorway opens enough for them to get a hold of him…and they don’t let go. 😦
Noah looks at Glenn, who clings to him…
“Don’t let go,”Noah tells Glenn, before getting dragged inside by the walkers. On Talking Dead,Tyler James Williams (Noah) and Steven Yeun (Glenn) said that they talked about that line a lot during shooting, and they took it to mean that Noah is telling Glenn not to let go of his hope, and his humanity, and the dream of building Alexandria into a future for them all. Sadly, there is no hope for Noah, now, and they both know it.
It is horrible to watch Noah get dragged away from Glenn, into the swarm of savage walkers.
Trapped in the glass doors, Glenn must watch his friend’s painful and tragic demise.
Noah gets thrown up on the glass of the door by the walkers. The expression on his face as he looks at Glenn is agonizing to watch.
The walkers begin to bite into poor Noah’s flesh as he screams in agony.
It takes a while, and poor Glenn must bear witness to it all, the sights, the sounds, the horror of his friend and comrade being torn apart, and eaten, before his very eyes.
It is hard to imagine anyone, even someone as strong as Glenn, coming back from something as unspeakable as this.
Meanwhile, Nicholas chases down the van, orders Eugene to “Move over, we’re leaving!”
Eugene looks at Nicholas, turns off the engine, and begins to step out of the van, despite Nicholas’s orders to get back in.
Eugene faces Nicholas, not backing down. “Not until you tell me where they are,” he says. Nicholas looks down a moment…
…before telling Eugene that he, Eugene, can go with him, Nicholas, now, or he can stay and “die with your friends…your choice.”
Eugene fumbles for his gun, and Nicholas throws him to the ground, grabs the keys and jumps in the van, but before he can start it…
Glenn runs up and grabs Nicholas out of the van…
…Glenn throws Nicholas down and pounds him into the pavement until he’s out, cold.
As Glenn stands over Nicholas’s unconscious form, Eugene comes forward and looks questioningly at Glenn. Glenn tells Eugene, miserably, to help him get Nicholas in the back.
“Where’s Noah?” Eugene asks him.
Glenn looks at Eugene, too distraught to answer. His look, and his red, swollen eyes say it all. Glenn turns and walks away.
Back in Alexandria…
We see Carol knocking on someone’s door…and after a moment, Dr. Petey McBeaty answers it, forgets, then remembers, her name, and asks if she needs something…is she sick?
Trying to peer past him, into the house, Carol hedges, then says she was just with Sam…is he ok?
McBeaty leans in closer to Carol, shutting the door a little tighter around him, blocking her view, asks, peevishly, “Why wouldn’t he be?”
Carol puts on a smile, asks if she can talk to Jessie. “Not a good time,” whispers McBeaty, before closing the door in Carol’s face.
Glenn drives home, silent. The daylight is beginning to wane.
Holding the gun, in case Nicholas wakes up, Eugene first looks towards Nicholas, then at Tara…
…and finally, at Noah’s first, and last, journal entry: This is the beginning
Meanwhile, there is a knock at Deanna Monroe’s door…it is Gabriel, asking to speak with Deanna privately.
Gabriel gets right to it. “Satan,” he begins, “disguises himself as the angel of light.”
Deanna Monroe’s like, “Say what?”
Gabriel continues, “I’m afraid that false light is here, inside these walls.”
Gabriel tells Deanna, “Your community, you say it’s not a paradise, but it is. I’m grateful to be here, I am…”
“…but you made a mistake letting in the others.”
“How so?” asks Deanna, as Maggie creeps up the staircase, from working downstairs, and listens.
As Maggie listens, Gabriel says, conspiritorially, “Rick, his group, they’re not good people.”
(I am not sure how, or why, Maggie stays silent throughout this exchange, but she does, continues to listen to Gabriel talk some mad shit to Deanna Monroe about Rick and the gang…I would have been all busting up those stairs, like, “YOU LITTLE BITCH! Why don’t you ask him what happened to his last congregation, Deanna?Right, Gabriel? You wanna tell Deanna here what happened to them? Why don’t you tell her what happened to them, Gabriel, you cowardly, shit-talking, little bitch?“)
I am sure Maggie has her reasons, and I am certainly not always known for my impulse control, so perhaps Maggie is showing good judgement, and caution, in staying still and listening to Gabriel’s whole spiel to Deanna Monroe:
And we see a shot of Rick, looking out the window, fiddling with the wedding ring on his left hand…he turns, and Carol comes in the house, looks at Rick.
Carol tells Rick, “Pete’s hitting Jessie, maybe Sam, too.”
Rick Smash! is all like, “Grrrr…”
We see a shot of Deanna, as she tries to placate Gabriel, “To make it out there as long as they did, they had to have done things…Rick said as much. They survived…that’s what makes them assets.”
Gabriel Snitch,TheLittle Bitch whispers, “You’re wrong.”
“They can’t be trusted.”
Gabriel continues, “They’re dangerous. You may believe that they did what they had to do, that they were afraid…but the day will come when they put their own lives before yours, and everyone elses, and they will destroy everything you have here, and everything you are trying so hard to build.”
Shots of Abraham, at sunset, praising the crew for a good job that day, advising them to call it an early night, as they are sure to have another long day of work tomorrow.
We see a shot of Rick, asking Carol she knows this…how? Did Sam tell her? Carol looks at Rick, tells him, “He didn’t have to.”
We hear Deanna’s voice asking Gabriel, “Why are you just now coming to me with this?”
Gabriel says, again, “Satan…disguises himself…as the angel of light. His disciples are the false apostles of righteousness…”
Gabriel whispers, “They don’t deserve this…they don’t deserve paradise!”
Deanna thanks Gabriel, tells him she has a lot to think about…
…and as Deanna holds the door open for him to leave, Gabriel stops, leans in, tells Deanna that he wishes he had come to her sooner. “I just hope it isn’t too late,” he tells her.
Hidden in the stairwell, Maggie listens to all this, troubled.
Deanna closes the door, processing this, as we hear the van pull up, and somebody starts screaming for help…
And Rick, pacing, thinking…from behind him, Carol tells him that she knows how this is going to go down, with Pete…there’s only one way it can go…
“You’re gonna have to kill him,” Carol tells Rick.
Well, like I said before, shit’s getting cray in Alexandria.
I apologize again for getting behind in the posting, dear readers. Life, and all that. I, along with you all, will be watching Sunday night’s 90-minute finale episode, and I will be sending the love to all of you in the TWD family. Get your coping mechanisms, your Daryl Partner, your tissues ready. Don’t be afraid to call in to work on Monday if you can pull it off without getting fired. Be strong, my darlings.
I will probably hold off and publish the posts for Episode 515, “Try”, and the WDSeason 5 finale episode, Episode 516, at the same time. I have thought about it, and it makes more sense for me to do it like that.
It is ideal for me to post before the next week’s episode airs, but this time around, posting for the Season 5 2.0 episodes didn’t quite go like that. It is what it is. But, I promise when the posts do come out, they will be full of the love, with epic playlists. And, it’s gonna be a long summer…lots of time to read, recap, reminisce about the wild ride WDSeason 5has been for us all.
Episode 514 Deadies go to: Tyler Jesse Williams, and the character he plays, Noah. Amazing performance, this episode and all around, especially during Noah’s harrowing death scene. Tyler Jesse Williams is one smooth, classy young dude, a consummate actor who really brought the character Noah to life, as a young man who joined the crew later on in the game, but who stepped up and became family, a solid team member, and a great friend. #RIPNoah
Deadie #2 goes to: Steven Yeun, and the character he plays, Glenn Rhee. Steven Yeun delivered an incredible performance once again, and with this episode, set the bar even higher than he has before. As a character, Glenn displayed incredible leadership abilities in this episode: unparalleled heroics, quick-thinking, bravery, heart, compassion. I am worried about Glenn on many levels in this moment, and I am thinking that he has become one of my very favorite TWD characters, ever. Much love, Glenn Rhee. ❤
Deadie #3goes to Josh McDermitt, and the character he plays, Eugene Porter. Amazing throwdown performance in this episode by Josh McDermitt, who manages again and again to blend comic genius with real heart and depth in his portrayal of Eugene Porter. Eugene, you finally did it. You stepped up, you got Tara out of there, and you stood up to Nicholas. You even killed a walker! Good job, buddy! ❤
Deadie #4 goes to Seth Gilliam, who plays Father Gabriel, a.k.a. Gabriel Snitch, The Little Bitch. I saw on Talking Deadthat Seth Gilliam even rented a place far away from the rest of the TWDcast, to keep a separation between himself and the others, and to stay in character, more or less, in his portrayal of the odd priest. That is some dedication, because I would want to be all up in whatever fun those beautiful, inspiring cast members are having at any given moment!
And Gabriel, as far as you are concerned, you better watch out…as @therickygrimes account posted on Instagram:
Deadie #5 goes to Daniel Bonjour, the young actor who plays Aiden Monroe. Cheers on a job well done, and once again, sorry I was a dick before, Aiden. #RIPAiden ❤
Deadie #6 goes to Michael Cudlitz, and the character he plays, Abraham Ford, for once again being a total badass, and for the line, “Mother dick!”
And, last but never least, lucky Deadie #7 goes to the inimitable Bear McCreary, for composing one of the most haunting, disturbing, exceptionally beautiful soundtracks I have ever heard for the second half of WDSeason 5. Don’t think I haven’t noticed, Bear McCreary! Mad props to a true genius. ❤
Much love, my WDO darlings, stay strong, end enjoy the playlist.
(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.
In The Walking Dead’s Season 5, Episode 10, “Them,” we, the viewers, along with our righteous gang, are finally getting that chance we’ve been waiting for, to slow down, take a long, ragged breath, and process, for a moment, everything that has happened, thus far, in the relatively short period of time since the prison community was struck down, first by a highly lethal virus, then, by a madman and his army…and so on.
Our gang has suffered so much loss in this brief space of time. Maggie, at this point, has lost her entire family, She, and Daryl, are reeling over Beth’s senseless murder at the hands of Dawn Lerner, after a hostage trade negotiation at Grady Memorial went horribly awry.
Sasha has lost, in rapid, horrifying succession, first, her sweet boyfriend, Bob, and most recently, her beloved brother, Tyreese.
Noah has just discovered that his mother, twin brothers, and entire community have been brutally murdered by an unknown enemy. He, too, has lost his entire family at this point.
Abraham, having lost his entire family, before, when they ran away from him in terror and were attacked by walkers, has suffered another blow: Eugene Porter’s confession that he had been lying, the whole time, about having the key to a cure for the walker epidemic. With Eugene’s confession came the crushing realization, for Abraham, Rosita, and many others of the group, that there may not be an end in sight to the horror and savagery that the world has become.
This hell that they are living, every day, may be all that there is.
Abraham had embraced Eugene’s lie readily, before, as it gave him a mission, and a reason to continue on. Now, Abraham seems to be grappling with the same doubts and uncertainties as everyone else. In Episode 510, we see Abraham taking frequent pulls from a bottle of liquor he has found in a sweep of abandoned cars, and there is not much direct interaction between him and Rosita, at this point.
On top of everything else, poor Abraham may have lost the love of his hot, sexy girlfriend (I truly hope this is not the case, Abraham, my man, but if so, maybe she’s still up for a fwbscenario now and again on those cold postapocalyptic nights…here’s hoping, bud!).
Carol is sure to be feeling the loss of Tyreese keenly, as he, and she, shared, just between them, the terrible knowledge and grief of Lizzie’s downward spiral into insanity, and then, Mika and Lizzie’s tragic deaths back at the pecan grove.
And now, Carol is watching, and feeling,Daryl pull away from her, and the group. While Carol seems to be keeping herself open and available for him, and reaching out, letting Daryl know she’s there, Carol also knows that she needs to keep giving him the time and space he needs, right now, to process the loss of Beth, and work through his grief.
I personally think it must suck for Carol, deep down inside, to see how hard Daryl is grieving for Beth, on some level, as it confirms that he had deep feelings for the beautiful young girl.
And, like I said, if Daryl and Beth had been together longer, just the two of them, well, we all probably agree that something would have happened, sooner than later.
In my personal estimation, judging from how things were progressing, from the span of Season 4’s“After,” to “Still,” and then, finally, “Alone,” the making out would have happened more on the soonerscale.
Remember, in “Alone,” when Beth asked Daryl what made him change his mind about the goodness of people, and he fixed her with that sweet love look, at the kitchen table?
He was all like:
And she was all like:
(Sorry for the reflections, it was back before I knew how to do a screenshot.)
But, reflections aside, those archival shots from “Alone,” to me, are photographic proof of:
Daryl is good at holding his cards close to his chest, but he’s not good at lying. Daryl doesn’t lie. If he can’t be honest, he’ll keep silent. He won’t say it.
Daryl showed his love for Beth, clearly, in actions more than words, back in Season 4, and later, in the first part ofSeason 5, Daryl shows his love for Carol in actions, and in words (because that’s how the grown women do…you gotta show them in actions and in words, none of this “one or the other” business. Grown women need to see you got all the skills.)
In “Consumed,” Daryl clearly, and honestly, communicates his love, and his intention (“I’m trying”) to Carol, and when we saw that episode, it showed us how far Daryl has come in owning and expressing his heartfelt emotions.
This is something he hasn’t been able to do before, and I find it very beautiful and endearing to see this sweetness blossoming in Daryl. It’s such a crazy-ass thing that it took an apocalypse, and the gathering of fine people who came into his life because of it, for Daryl to get to the point where he could open up and be who he really is.
And, I said, before, if I were Carol, and I saw how bad the object of my singular love and affection was pining for someone else, well, that personally would really suck for me. But, it’s honest, and that’s how Daryl does it, and to be with Daryl would mean that New Carol would have to roll with that.
New Carol, being the champion that she is, seems to know all that, and she seems to be able to not take it too personally, or too hard, when Daryl rebuffs her, pushes her away, and goes off, alone, which is often, in Episode 510.
Carol knows Daryl pretty well by now, and she knows that this is what he needs to do, and how he needs to do it, and hopefully, when he is done, he will be ready and happy to come, fully and ready to party naked, back toCaryl.
And, with this, I am raising my coffee in a toast: To Caryl!
Moving on, now, to other characters…
Tara has been remarkably resilient, and adaptable, since we first met her back in the middle of Season 4.Tara has also had to come to grips with the loss of her entire family: her sister, her niece, her father, and her new girlfriend, Alicia. Tara, who fell prey to the Governor’s lies, has also had to come to grips with her own naivete, guilt, and self-doubt for playing a part in the destruction and massacre of the prison.
Tara has made her apologies, and her peace, with Maggie, and the others in the group, and, as she is funny, solid in a crisis, and a good friend, Tara seems like she may play a key role in helping the others heal their wounds and open back up to each other.
The gang is having a hard time finding the balance between nursing their private wounds and keeping open and communicative with the good folks around them, who are also hurting, exhausted, hungry, thirsty…demoralized.
And speaking of social retardation… Eugene Porter and Father Gabriel, the Oddball Outsiders, have lost a good degree of standing within the group with their respective revelations.
Eugene, of course, was forced to come clean and confess to lying about having the walker cure,and basically using Abraham, Rosita (and a number of fine men and women who died in the cause of getting Eugene to Washington, D.C.) as bodyguards, and protectors.
While the zeal of having a mission, and something to believe in, was certainly a positive thing for Abraham, and others, that geeky shoe was bound to drop sooner or later…and now, here we are, and it will be interesting to see how the story of Eugene Porter unfolds at this point in the TWD storyline, and what role he will ultimately end up playing in the group.
And Gabriel...well,Gabriel finally confessed his big sin to someone other than God, and tearfully unburdened himself to the gang, back at his cursed church, about how, in the beginning of the turn, he kept the church doors locked when his frightened parishioners came to the church, seeking refuge there, and did not let them into the church.
(Something about it being too late, or too early. Not a good time, apparently. Come back during business hours, which are posted on the door…yes, thatdoor, the one you are pounding on.)
Despite his congregation’s desperate cries and pleas, Gabriel still refused to let them in, and so the helpless families were swarmed and savagely attacked by walkers, who were attracted to the noise of the families’ cries, pleas to be let inside the church.
And, as the poor men, women, and children of his congregation were torn apart by walkers, Gabriel cowered within the safety of the church’s walls, alone, listening to the horror and the savagery as it happened.
Gabriel, once a spiritual leader, is struggling mightily with his self-hatred, self-condemnation, and his loss of faith in God right about now, and this theme, losing faith in God, resounds with other characters, especially Maggie, in Episode 510.
Glenn, who has always been such a source of positivity, strength, and reason, for the others, has seemingly lost his faith, and his will, as well, after watching so many people he loved and cared for die tragically, needlessly, horribly.
His driving force, his love for Maggie and concern for the others in the group, spurs him onward, but as we saw in last week’s episode, “What Happened and What’s Going On,” Glenn is struggling within himself, wondering aloud to Rick if anything matters, anymore.
Each member of the gang is struggling with their own version of Glenn’s question: Does anything matter, anymore? What can someone truly put his/her faith, intention, and energy into striving for, in this world, as it is now? What is the point in trying to build anything good, or lasting, when it can all be torn away, brutally destroyed, in the blink of an eye?
Nowadays, even the very concept of having hope, or a dream, or faith in anything good seems to be ripped away before the hope, or the dream, can even materialize. The promise of building a lasting home at the prison was snuffed out by one man’s obsessive desire for vengeance.
The offered promise of a Sanctuary turned out to be a trap, and a place of unspeakable evil and brutality. Eugene’s promise of a cure was nothing but a lie concocted by a weak, insecure young man (and his egregious mullet) to buy himself some time, protection, and a ride toD.C.
Carol and Tyreese’s hope of settling in at a quiet, cozy farm house nestled in a pecan grove, and enjoying a quiet respite, with Mika, Lizzie, and Judith, ended suddenly and tragically, with the deaths of the two young sisters.
The brief hope, and promise, of finding Beth, and getting her and Carol back, alive and safe, ended in Beth’s violent and senseless murder.
And most recently, the promise of a potential new home for the gang, in Noah’s family’s walled, secure neighborhood outside of Richmond, resulted in the gang’s discovery of the grisly aftermath of the massacre of an entire peaceful community, including Noah’s mother and little twin brothers, and ending in the heartbreak of Tyreese’s painful, agonizing death.
Hershel. Lilly. Megan. Mika. Lizzie. Bob. Beth. Noah’s mother, and little brothers. And now, Tyreese.Not long ago, they were alive. They were loved. They were family.
And now, they are gone. All of them. And our sweet gang, both as individuals and as a collective, must find a reason, deep within themselves, to carry on, despite carrying the heavy burden of so much grief, and so much loss.
The opening shot of Episode 510, “Them,” shows a pair of eyes, closed, crying…the shot pans out, and we see, of course, that it is Maggie, sitting against a tree, crying quietly.
Her eyes and face are swollen, as if she has been crying, on and off, for a long time.
Maggie’s much needed cry is then rudely interrupted by Tangled Up In Blue Walker, who comes hissing and pawing at her, but gets entangled, and stuck, in the hanging vines of the tree. Maggie gets up, annoyed, like, “Can’t a girl have a moment to herself?”
Maggie easily rekills Tangled Up In Blue Walker with one quick thrust of her knife into its decaying skull…
…and then sinks miserably back down against the tree to resume her cry, with the dead walker’s body draped, unnoticed, in the vines behind her.
Meanwhile…
We see a tanned, muscled arm digging deep in the mud...for water, it seems.
…no water, but we see the digging has yielded a tasty morsel…
Eat the worm, Daryl Dixon!
Daryl eats the wriggling earthworm so matter-of-factly, without registering any distaste or disgust while doing so, that it seems like something he’s done many times before, and that somehow makes him even hotter, and even more beautiful, and endearing, if that is even possible…
…especially when the shot pans out, and he’s sitting like a little boy, having his own little worm picnic. I have thought about Daryl as a boy so many times (the boy whose mom died drunk, and passed out, in thehouse fire, leaving him to be raised by a drunk dad and a sadistic older brother) and it makes the mom in me, and the woman in me, feel so much love and hurt in my heart for him. ❤
Sasha, meanwhile, walks along a creek bed, which has run dry. She crouches, and digs a moment, but there is no water to be had, here.
Sasha sees the bodies of many frogs, belly up, along the dried creek bed. Would frogs just lie back, and give up the ghost, as a creek dried up, or would they hop away? I don’t know much about frogs, but it’s not the first time I have wondered if all this decay and pestilence in the post-apocalyptic world is poisoning the water, air, soil, food supply.
Alarmed, Sasha angrily kicks the dirt, partially burying the frog.
Looking up, Sasha sees Daryl and Maggie approach, look down at her from the top of the bank. Sasha wordlessly shakes her head. No water here.
Daryl turns away, crossbow over his shoulder, while Maggie looks down at Sasha, standing in the dried creek bed littered with dead frogs, a moment more. No words are exchanged between any of them. Maggie then turns away, and follows Daryl. After a moment, Sasha heads up the bank, after them.
As they head back to the group, who sits, waiting, in the road, Sasha signs, “Oh, shit.” Not one of the three found any water to bring back.
The sun beats down on them…
…as they trudge back to the group, empty water bottles hanging from their bags, belts. “How much longer we got?” Maggie asks. “About 60 miles,” replies Sasha. Maggie gives a small shake of her head, says grimly, “I wasn’t talking about that.”
After the opening credits, we see a brief shot of the front end of a truck, stopping. We hear Abraham’s voice saying that the truck’s run dry, like the other one. Rick’s reply is immediate, “So, we walk.”We see legs, boots coming out of the truck, and the rays of the hot sun beating down.
As they walk, Daryl turns back to look at a small group of walkers that are shuffling slowly behind their group, maybe 50 yards back.
Rick, holding Judith, turns to regard the potential threat. “We’re not at our strongest,” he says. “We’ll get them when it’s best, high ground, something like that.”
Turning back around, Rick adds, “They’re not going anywhere.”
Rick turns to Daryl. “It’s been threeweeks since Atlanta…I know you lost something back there.” (Besides feeling the exquisite pain of this moment, I just need say that, in my opinion, there cannot be too many scenes like this one, of beautiful men holding babies and talking about feelings.)
Daryl does not reply. Judith give a little whimper, and Daryl looks down at her. “She’shungry,” he says.
Rick pulls Judith up a little closer to him. “She’s ok,” he says, looking forward. His voice falters just a moment as he asserts, “She’s gonna be ok.” (Exquisite pain, watching this…exquisite pain.)
“We gotta find water, food,” Daryl says.
Looking like a beautiful Moses, Rick looks up at a couple of clouds forming, and says that it’s gonna rain, sooner or later.
Daryl hands the crossbow to Rick, tells him that he’s going to take a run. Carol is close behind, seems like she may have heard the men’s earlier exchange.
As Daryl turns to leave, Rick chides, gently, “Don’t be too long.” Seems that Daryl takes a lot of opportunities to dip out, these days, going off for long stretches of time. Carol speaks up. “I’ll go with you.” Daryl replies, “Nah, hey, I got it.” Ouch, my heart for you, Carol!😦
Not to be deterred, New Carol shakes her head, and starts after him. “You gonna stop me?” she asks, wryly. Daryl turns to her, pauses, waits for her. Not so fast, Daryl Dixon!
Carl catches up to Maggie and gives her a gift, a music box he found while looking for water. He tells her it doesn’t work, but he thought she would like it.
As Maggie opens the box, it is easy to imagine that the little blond ballerina inside would remind her of Beth. This sweet gesture brings a small, rare smile to Maggie’s face…
…and she turns and thanks Carl.
Some of my WDO buddies still hate on Carl, but I really love him. He is becoming such a sweetie, and has really had to roll with some hard times. Can’t hate the little man for having his tween tool moments back in the day(and ps, he really didn’t mean to kill Dale. That shit was a total accident).
As Carl walks ahead, Maggie turns to see Gabriel, behind her, pulling at his priest’s collar. Seeing her look, Gabriel jokes that he used to call the collars the modern-day incarnations of the hot, itchy “hair shirts” that priests, in times before, were forced to wear as an act of atonement. Besides the unspoken sentiment that there wouldn’t be a shirt hairy enough for Gabriel to wear to “atone” for his horrible betrayal of his own parishioners…
…Maggie tells Gabriel, without looking at him, that she knows what hair shirts are, that her “daddy” was religious.
Staring ahead, Maggie adds, “I used to be.”
Gabriel begins to offer to Maggie his services as a spiritual counselor, if she ever wants to talk about her father, or Beth, and Maggie interrupts him, with as much politeness as she can manage, “Please stop.”
Gabriel continues, in his automatic priest-mode, “Whenever you’re ready, I’m here.”
Staring straight ahead, Maggie replies, “You never even met them.” Gabriel replies, “I know you’re in pain.”
Maggie whirls on Gabriel. “You don’t know shit,”she tells him. “You had a job…you were there to save your flock, right? But you didn’t…you hid. Don’t act like that didn’t happen.” And with that, Maggie stalks off.
Some ways down the road, the gang trudges along, while the walkers behind them have gained in number, and are gaining on them, only about 20 yards away, and their telltale hiss and slaver are audible in the background.
Sasha looks back at the walkers, then at Michonne, tells Michonne, “We can take them.” Michonne sides with her future bf and replies that, “Rick’s right…we barely have anything left. No use in spending it all now.”
Sasha, however, is not so easily deterred. She’s in pain, she’s pissed, and she’s spoiling for a fight. “I can take them,” she insists.
Michonne knows all too well what is going on, here. “Your brother was pissed too, after what he lost, “ she tells Sasha. “It made him stupid.” Sasha whirls on Michonne. “We are not the same,” Sasha says. “We never were.”
Michonne looks at Sasha, not unkindly. “But, it’s still the same,” she says to the young woman. “It just is.” Sasha has no reply to this, just turns and walks away from Michonne.
Meanwhile, out on another water run, Carol asks Daryl if he’s found anything…he says everything’s too dry. Carol suggests they start heading back, and Daryl is quick to suggest that Carol go on, without him.
Carol looks at Daryl. “I think she saved my life,” she says, referring, of course, to Beth. “She saved your life too, right?”
Daryl does not reply. Carol walks over and hands him a knife, sheathed in a blond leather casing.
“It’s hers,”Carol says simply. Daryl takes the knife, looks at it a moment, still says nothing.
“You’re not dead,” says Carol, softly, mirroring Daryl’s words to her, some time ago, back to him. “I know you…you have to let yourself feel it.”
Carol reaches out and gently, tenderly smooths Daryl’s hair back…
…then kisses him on the forehead, stand back, looking at him. “You will,” she says, laying a gentle hand on Daryl’s shoulder.
Some TWD fans posted disappointment at this motherly, rather than loverly, show of love on Carol’s part, but I think it’s exactly what Daryl needed in the moment…pure, supportive, unconditional love, to take the time he needs to grieve Beth’s death. Super awesomeness, New Carol-style.
Meanwhile…
Rick looks down at the steep drop from the bridge…here is the gang’s opportunity to take care of the walker herd that’s been tailing them all day. The gang is in formation, lined up on either side of the bridge.
Rick wordlessly nods to Abraham, the others, as he walks towards the walker herd.
Abraham nods back. They are ready.
Rick and the gang face the herd of walkers.
As the first walker approaches Rick, Rick sidesteps, stumbling a moment, then sends the walker flying down the steep embankment of the bridge, using the walker’s forward momentum to propel it downward, without using too much of his own energy, aikido-style.
Using this same technique, Abraham sends two more flying down the steep drop.
Glenn and Michonne both use the technique successfully. It seems to be working…
…until Sasha breaks formation, striding up to her walker and spearing it in the head with her knife.
Rick assesses the situation immediately, tells the gang to stay in line, and flank Sasha. They must fight now, as the walkers are coming more quickly and aggressively, responding to Sasha’s escalation. Abraham grumbles that the plan is “dicked” as he and Maggie unsheath their knives and prepare to go to battle.
Michonne grabs Sasha’s arm, tells her to stop, to go, as Sasha is not thinking clearly, and is a danger to herself and others.
Rick and the others, so weak already, must go to battle with the oncoming walkers.
Rick narrowly escapes getting bitten by a walker…thankfully, Daryl is there to pull the walker off.
Michonne pushes Sasha away and quickly beheads the last of the attacking walkers, then points down at Sasha. “I told you to STOP,” Michonne tells her angrily.
Winded, Sasha seems to grasp how nearly she cost herself, and the others, their lives with her anger and recklessness. She stands, however, and faces Michonne with a look of pure attitude, before stalking off, sheathing her knife.
Later, down the road, Carl sees some abandoned looking cars in the distance. As the gang approaches the vehicles, Maggie looks in the windows of one car, checks inside, finds nothing useful, but sees the keys in the ignition. Maggie takes the keys and goes around to the trunk, opens it, and makes a horrible discovery…
…inside the trunk of the car, a woman walker is gagged, with hands and feet bound. As with so many walkers we encounter on TWD, we will never know the full story of Hostage Walker, but we know it is another violent and horrible end to a person’s life. On Talking Dead, later, guests Lauren Cohan, Seth Gilliam, and Robin LordTaylor speculated on how Hostage Walker may have reminded Maggie of Beth, as Beth was abducted in a car, as well.
Maggie regards Hostage Walker for a moment, before closing the trunk on the whole situation, without bothering to rekill the walker.
As she turns to go, Maggie hears the walker moving inside the car trunk, thumping against the confines of the closed, dark space. Maggie returns to the trunk, but cannot get it open. The keys are stuck. Maggie pulls out her pistol, ready to blast the lock of the trunk.
Glenn steps up, reaches a hand out to Maggie, and stops her from shooting the lock. When Maggie tells him about the walker in the trunk, Glenn steps forward, manages to get the trunk open, and rekills the walker with a knife to its head. He then turns to Maggie, and gently says, “Let’s go.”
Daryl, of course, has taken this opportunity to once again go off by himself and “take a sweep” of the woods, but has found nothing but a ravaged deer carcass and a dead body against a tree. When he comes back, the gang is sitting at the roadside, resting. No food, no water to be had, but Abraham did find a bottle of liquor, which he cracks open andstarts taking pulls from.
Abraham sniffs the bottle, then takes a drink. “It’s not going to help,” Tara remarks to the others. “He knows that,”Rosita replies. Eugene adds that Abraham is a grown man, but he, Eugene, cannot imagine how things could get any worse. Eugene, Eugene, Eugene, haven’t you watched enough movies in your once-sedentary life to know that whenever you say something like that, something terrible happens?
Like, I don’t know…wild dogs, for instance?
Luckily, Sasha is there to take the dogs out, sniper-style.
Wordlessly, Rick takes a long stick, breaks it over his thigh...looks like tonight’s dinner entree is…
…wild dog meat. (My WD buddy texted me, How are they going to feed that to the baby? I truly didn’t know, but figured that maybe Rick could chew it up a bit and then feed it to Judith, so it would be easier to eat, Emperor penguin-style. Rick Grimes could even pull off making that look sexy…hey, at this point, whatever it takes, you know?)
Noah, freaked, is not eating, and is looking over at one of the dog’s collars, which reads, “Duke.”
Sasha steps up with some more wood for the fire, and Noah tells her that her brother, Tyreese, tried to help him. Sasha looks down at Noah, who then looks up at her, says, “I don’t know if I’m going to make it.”
Sasha looks grimly down at the young man. “Then you won’t,“ she says, her face immovable. Noah looks down at these harsh words.
Sasha softens a bit, tells Noah, “Don’t think, just eat.“
Meanwhile, as the gang sits around, eating, Gabriel pulls his ragged priest’s collar off his shirt…
…and throws it into the fire. Without watching the collar burn, Gabriel takes another bite of meat, stares off, chewing. Maggie watches this, taking it in.
Later, Glenn is trying to get Maggie to take a drink of water. She refuses. “Ok,” Glenn relents, on the water, anyway. “Why don’t you just talk to me?”
(Later, my WD buddy and I talked about how we were glad that Glenn was making himself available to offer support, counsel, and comfort to Maggie, even though he was going through his own doubts, and darkness.)
Maggie tells Glenn that she never thought Beth was alive, that after seeing their father, Hershel, get killed, she just…didn’t, or couldn’t, think about Beth being alive. Learning that Beth was alive, and then thinking she was going to see Beth, be reunited with her sister, and then seeing Beth, dead, in Daryl’s arms, the same day…Maggie confesses to Glenn that she doesn’t know if she can fight the darkness, any more.
Glenn tells her she can, that they must keep fighting it, that that’s who she is, who they are. He urges Maggie to drink, and she does, taking a tiny sip from the water bottle.
Abraham walks alongside Sasha, offers her a drink from his bottle. She refuses, saying that it’s gonna make things worse.
“The way you’re going, you’re what’s gonna make things worse,” retorts Abraham. Sasha looks down, digesting this. “Hey,” says Abraham. Sasha looks back up at him. “You’re among friends,” he says to her.
Sasha shoots him one of her looks. “We’re not friends,” she snaps, and walks ahead. Abraham thinks a moment, then shrugs, unconcerned, and takes another pull from the bottle.
Glenn, meanwhile, tries to offer his water bottle to Daryl, who refuses it, even at Glenn’s insistence.
“We can make it,” Glenn reminds Daryl. “But we can only make it together.”
Daryl hangs back, tells Abraham to tell the others he went looking for water. Abraham says nothing, takes another pull from his bottle.
In the woods, Daryl sees a barn in the distance.
He sits against a tree, looking at the barn.
Pulling out a stash of battered cigarettes and a lighter, Daryl lights one up. Poor guy’s eyes are swollen, and he looks like he’s really in a bad way.
After taking a couple of long drags off the cigarette, Daryl takes the lit end and presses it into his hand, burning himself.
It’s the type of thing you could imagine Daryl doing to himself at a young age, ritualistic cutting or burning, a behavior which most often starts in the tween or teen years.
The searing pain seems to bring Daryl a much-needed release…
…as Daryl’s tears finally start to flow. Overhead, there is a rumble of thunder, suggesting the dry spell is about to break. It is a recurring theme in classical poetry, and prose, that tears, and rain, symbolize rebirth, and renewal.
When Daryl gets back to the gang, Rick hands him a note that was left for them, along with an offering of many bottles of water, in the road…
“From A Friend”
As thirsty as they are, it would be so tempting to take the risk and drink the offered water, but Rick tells the group that they can’t risk it, as they do not know who the water is from, or what their intentions are.
Eugene steps forward and grabs a bottle, saying he’ll be “quality assurance,” and is about to drink, when:
Abraham steps quickly forward and slaps the bottle right out of Eugene’s hand, sending the water flying. Eugene looks like he is about to cry, and Rick tells him, gently, that they can’t take the risk.
In that moment, the group begins to feel drops of water falling on them…it’s raining!
Gabriel tearfully looks to the heavens and apologizes to the Lord, presumably for his loss of faith, burning the collar.
At a loud clap of thunder, Rick stands and looks to the horizon, sees…
A dark storm cloud is coming. Daryl shouts to Rick that there’s a barn nearby, and the gang all runs to take shelter there.
The gang goes through the ritual of “clearing” the barn of any walkers, or living foes…
Maggie sees a bible on top of a stack of books…
…before opening a door to a side room and discovering the reanimated, cobwebby remains of I Died In A Barn Walker.
It is unclear exactly how I Died In A Barn Walker originally died…hunger, lack of water, illness, exposure, walker bite? Maggie rekills the walker with a single spear of her knife to the walker’s skull, then remarks to Carol that the woman had a gun, which is shown, leaning up against the wall of the room. “She could have shot herself,” Maggie wonders aloud. Carol muses that, “Some people can’t give up,” and looking sideways at Maggie, adding, significantly, “Like us,” before walking away, leaving the young woman to process this.
Later, the gang tries to get some much-needed rest in the barn, with the sound of the rain pouring outside.
Huddled around a small fire, Rick looks over at this sleeping son. “He’s gonna be ok,” Carol assures him, adding that Carl, being young, will be able to bounce back sooner than any of the adults will.
Rick says that he used to feel sorry for kids who have to grow up in these times, as they will never get to experience what it feels like to have a protected, happy, carefree childhood. But, Rick says now, he wonders if he got it wrong.
Rick wonders if kids growing up in these times actually have it easier, as “growing up is getting used to the world.” Daryl listens to this, in the darkness. Even before the turn, as a child, Daryl had a hellish world that he had to grow up in, to “get used to.”
Michonne speaks up. “This isn’t the world,” she says, simply. “This isn’t it.”Glenn looks back, into the other room, where Maggie is lying down. “It might be,” he says, quietly.
Michonne counters, “That’s giving up.” Glenn counters that that’s just being realistic. Rick says that until they see otherwise, this, what they are living, is the world they must survive in.
Rick then tells the group that when he was a kid, and he asked his grandfather if he ever killed any Germans in the war, his grandfather wouldn’t answer, telling young Rick that such topics were “grown-up stuff.”
When young Rick then asked his grandfather if any Germans ever tried to kill him, his grandfather got real quiet, then told his grandson that he was already “dead, as soon as he stepped into enemy territory.”
Rick’s grandfather told him that every morning, when he awoke, and had to prepare himself to go back into battle, he would tell himself, “Rest In Peace, now get up and go to war.”
Years later, after pretending he was dead, every day of his tour in the war, Rick’s grandfather made it back home, alive.
“That’s the trick of it, I think,” Rick tells the others. “We do what we need to do, and then, we get to live.”
Rick continues, saying that no matter what they find in D.C., they will be ok, because “This is how we survive. We tell ourselves that ‘We are the walking dead.'”
Daryl and Glenn exchange looks, then Daryl asserts, softly, “We ain’t them.”
Rick tries to echo his agreement, that they are not them, the walkers…(“Dude, it was a metaphor! I was just getting a little caught up in the moment…awww, c’mon dude, that’s not what I meant! Come back!“)
Daryl, however, has had enough of this conversation, and he stands up, collects his things, and turns to leave, but not before turning back to Rick and the others, and saying, once more, “We ain’t them,” before walking out of the room.
Poor Rick, but hey, buddy, you tried…and I (among many others in the TWD family, I am sure) was cheering this epic speech as it was being delivered.
Personally, it made me think of all those years ago, back in 2004, when I bought the first two issues of TheWalking Dead comic series (which had just come out, and was sending shockwaves, and geekgasms, throughout the entire comic book community).
The clerk at the comic book store told me, “And the name, ‘The Walking Dead,’ you don’t know if it applies to the zombies or the living human survivors.”
Ah, memories! 🙂
Meanwhile, Daryl stalks off into another room, sees the chain barring a main set of doors has come a little loose, and the winds from the storm are blowing the doors open and closed against the chain, giving little glimpses of the raging storm outside.
Daryl puts down his crossbow and goes over to fix the chain, and sees, outside, coming fast towards the swinging doors of the barn:
A horde of walkers!Ahhgh!
Daryl cries out in alarm, hurriedly tightens the chain, and then presses his back against the doors, and the press of hissing, snarling walkers trying to push through.
Maggie sees Daryl, runs to help…
And one by one, all the gang runs to help hold the doors steady against the crush of walkers. It is a terrifying, amazing scene, capturing the mayhem of another life and death moment in WD.
As the gang works together, despite their individual pain, beliefs, differences with each other, to do whatever it takes, in this moment, to survive together, Rick and Daryl exchange a long, significant look as they push against the walkers with all their might. I like to think they were like, “Dude, I’m sorry for the weirdness back there…I didn’t mean it! I love you, man!”
The next shot, it’s morning…
As Maggie opens her eyes, it seems she may be thinking (along with theviewers), “Was that all a dream, last night?”
Maggie looks into Baby Judith’s sweet face. The baby is awake, but seems to know to let her dad sleep a little longer…Rick, once again, is looking like the hottest single dad ever, sleeping, holding his baby girl.
Maggie stands up, looks around at the others, sleeping in the barn. She then sees Daryl,who is sitting awake, against the far wall. It seems like he has stayed up, keeping watch as the others slept.
Maggie goes over and sits down next to Daryl. She gently urges him to get some sleep, tells him, “You can rest now.”
They look over towards Sasha’s sleeping form, and Daryl says, of Tyreese, “He was tough.”
Looking over at Maggie, Daryl adds, “She was tough, too. She didn’t know it, but she was.” This brings a smile to Maggie’s face, and they share a moment, remembering Beth.
Daryl then hands Maggie the music box, saying, simply, “The gear box had some grit in it.” It is easy to imagine Daryl, keeping watch, cleaning and fixing the music box while the others slept. How we love thee, Daryl Dixon! ❤
Maggie thanks Daryl, smiling sweetly at him, and then gets up, music box in hand, and goes over to wake up Sasha. “C’mon,” she whispers, and Sasha gets up to follow Maggie, as Daryl prepares to get some sleep.
As Maggie and Sasha step outside, they are greeted by an incredible sight. All around the barn, tall pines are felled by the fearsome storm of the night before, spearing and pinning the walker herd helpless, but miraculously missing the barn, which would have been crushed under the huge old trees.
As the girls look around in wonderment, it seems that Maggie may be rethinking her faith in God…the recent events certainly make a strong case for some benevolent, divine intervention.
It’s the dawn of a new day.
Sasha and Maggie sit down, take in the beauty of the sunrise. “Why are we here?” asks Sasha. “For this,” Maggie replies. It sounds like the answer her father, Hershel, would have given. ❤
Sasha and Maggie, the PSOAM’s (Post Apocalyptic Sisters On A Mission), look out at the sunrise. Sasha begins talking, says that Noah had told her that he didn’t think we could make it. “That’s how I feel,” Sasha confesses to Maggie. Maggie tells her that she, Sasha, is going to make it. “We both will,” says Maggie. “That’s the hard part.”
Maggie then reaches into her bag, and pulls out the music box. “Daryl fixed it,” she tells Sasha, but when Maggie tries to wind it up…nothing. The music box stays silent, the tiny ballerina doesn’t move.
Maggie stares down at the dead music box, pans, “You gotta be kidding me.” The PSOAM’s share a laugh at the absurdity of it all…
…as some well-kempt, preppy dude comes onto the scene, interrupting their giggle moment. “Um, hello, excuse me…”
The PSOAM’s ain’t playing. They immediately leap up to their feet, weapons drawn. The stranger cautiously approaches, hands up, introduces himself as “Aaron,” says he is a “friend.”Aaron tells the girls that he would like to talk to the leader of the group…Rick, right?
Maggie starts to ask, “How-?” and Sasha cuts in, asks, “Why?” Aaron smiles, says he has some “good news.”
Who the hell is this guy? And how does he know Rick’s name?
And suddenly, the music box kicks on, starting to play its bright, tinkly music as the tiny ballerina twirls around and around.
Well, darlings, if God is indeed having a hand in all this, one thing is clear…God has a really crazy sense of humor!
Deadies this week go to our three walking wounded soldiers: Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Daryl (Norman Reedus), and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green).
Playlist:
Lightning Bolt, “Ride The Sky”
Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ In The Wind”
Phantogram, “Turning Into Stone”
City and Colour, “Sleeping Sickness”
Georgiana Starlington, “Dry As A Bone” (currently not available on Spotify, but great track if you can find it…I’ll keep checking in to get it directly to readers if and when I can…perfect for this episode)
Tori Amos, “God”
Aaliyah ft. Missy Elliot, “Best Friend” ( for the PSOAM‘s, Maggie and Sasha)
barnfullawalkers 