Are THE WALKING DEAD survivors too far gone? Is this the new world?
The show opens up on THE WALKING DEADs very own Golden Girl, Carol. She’s back in the kitchen playing Susie homemaker and baking up a fresh new batch of beet and chestnut cookies. She’s able to take the random remaining items left in the pantry and make nothing into something and something is quite delicious. Food is clearly sparse and such treats like cookies go a far way in the world they live in now where they have to ration food. Carol collects chestnuts outside the wall and causally kills the occasional walker while doing so, gets blood on her fresh white shirt; she’s not impressed. You can tell Carol enjoys providing for her fellow community and does get happiness from the fact that she’s making other people happy and feels needed.
In this week’s episode they couldn’t have picked better songs to capture the mood and to match and relate to what was going on in the story line. The song playing,Weeds and Wildflowers by Parsonsfield, in the beginning of the episode signified the changes that happened with not only Carol but with everyone else and change is big part of this episode. The song even mentions cigarettes and we see Carol picked up that nasty habit even after telling Ms Niedermeyer she should quit and smoking kills. Literally.
Carol delivers her cookies around Alexandria and they are a hit, it boosted morale and everyone seemed to really enjoy them especially Tobin. Hitting two birds with one stone Carol was able to provide well needed nourishment for her people and use it as an opportunity to flirt with Tobin. There’s something clearly there between the two of them and when Carol told Tobin to put the cookie in his mouth and called him a jerk, you could tell she’s trying to play it cool. Some say a way to a mans heart is through his stomach.
The group gets back from the Hilltop. They let them know they have food and enough for a month and Rick wants everyone at the church for a town meeting. Carol asks Rick what’s going on and he tells her that they are going to have to fight and she doesn’t seem happy about that at all. Carol makes her last stop with her last cookie and Morgan interrupts the silence. It’s been weeks since Morgan and Carol have talked. Carol and the others that were there when the wolf guy got free and took Denise didn’t tell Rick what happened and that Morgan was the blame. There’s friction between the two of them and she doesn’t agree with anything Morgan has to say and asks him to leave. She wants to be left alone and for good reason, she’s visiting Sam’s graveside and left him a cookie, since he was such a fan. I’m sure Carol feels somewhat responsible for Sam’s death and feels bad that he did die because they did have an odd friendship.
The group has their town hall meeting and Rick fills everyone in on what happened and what’s going to happen. He lets them know Maggie set up a deal with the Hilltop community that they get food in exchange for killing the saviors and protecting them. Rick wants them to know it’s their only option to keep them safe and to provide the community with food. Rick wants it to be fair and for everyone to agree with what has to be done and of course Morgan has to stand up and object. Morgan questions Rick about them being capable of beating Negan and his men. He still doesn’t want them to kill anyone but to solve it without violence. Rick wants the element of surprise and to attack them before they find them and attack them first. “Where there’s life, theres possibility” Morgan is all about second chances. “Morgan they always come back” “They come back when they are dead too.” Morgan answers Rick. Rick asks the others if anyone agrees with Morgan but no one feels the same way as him.
As Rick is giving his speech he says “We kill them All” which triggers bad memories in Tara. That last time she heard those words were coming out of the mouth of the Governor when he was giving a similar speech at the prison. The governor wanted his group to kill every last person just like Rick is asking everyone to do for the good of the group. It’s happening and everyone needs to get used to it.
Carol can’t sleep, she has to much weighing on her mind. She opens up a notebook and it appears she’s keeping a diary of her kills. R would stand for Ryan Samuel’s, he was Lizzie and Mika’s father who got bit in the prison and she had to kill him before he turned. K & D for Karen and David, who she lit on fire in hopes to stop the spread of the deadly sickness spreading in the prison. L for Lizzie, she had to kill her because Lizzie killed her sister Mika and was going to kill Judith next. Terminus/courtyard 3? (She wasn’t sure if it was more or less) Candle women which was Terminus Mary and Gareth’s mom and 4 others and 7 wolves. Her kill count is at 18 and she even seems upset by how many it has been.
Even though we all have demons sometimes, it’s good to keep them on a leash.
See you next week!