THE WALKING DEAD oozes into its horrifying 6th season home stretch.
(For previous entries in our THE WALKING DEAD Season 6 recaps,go here)
A slow-burn on the fuse leading perfectly into next weeks finale, the 90 minute long spectacle which will come to a head. Building to the moment most fans have been waiting for since the beginning of this season.
Trouble was right around the corner throughout this entire episode, keeping us on the edge of our seats the whole time.
We are thrown into the middle of the episode (it’s revealed later on) and we hear Carol say, “I can see you, come out. Slowly. A young man replies, “Ya, I think I’ll pass on that.” You hear him charge and gun shots fire, all while the camera pans across carol’s prayer beads scattered among broken glass and then fixates on dripping blood gathering beneath a bloody spear fastened to a car.
Flash back to Carol and a small machine gun hides beneath the letter Carol wrote for Tobin and the others and Carol is altering the sleeve of her coat. She’s stocked up on supplies and homemade food items and is packing up and ready to leave Alexandria. Tobin pays her a visit after hurting himself building a new guard tower and having to go to the infirmary. Tobin mentions how quiet it is over there now and that he knew Denise since the beginning of the outbreak. He tells Carol how Denise used to be before, when Pete was the main doctor and Carol starts to disconnect from Tobin and zones out. She has other things on her mind and she is disassociating with the situation and chimes in at the en,d mentioning how she is thinking about Tara and when she finds out about Denise. Tobin tells Carol everything will be ok and she gives him one last kiss.
Johnny cash’s song Its All Over begins to play as Carol sneaks out late at night, sneaking out of Alexandria undetected. The sun is up and everyone is following their schedules.
Carl finds a handgun in the armory with a baseball bat and barbed wire around it engraved in the handle. In the walking dead universe one man has a weapon like that and his name is Negan and the bat, well that’s Lucille. We know our group has taken weapons from the Saviors and this is more than likely one of them.
Carl takes that gun, could this be foreshadowing?
A happy Glenn and Maggie are enjoying a hot shower together and are washing each other down. Bruises cover Maggie’s back and side which were caused when Maggie had the fight with Michelle; one of the women from the Saviors who captured her and Carol in the episode “The Same Boat”. You can clearly see that had a lasting effect on Maggie and Glenn comforts her.
Daryl has Denise’s death on his mind and blames himself, feeling if he had killed Dwight she wouldn’t have died. Abraham relieves Sasha on guard duty and she gives him a cigar as they openly express their love for each other In front of Rosita; Rostia’s and Sahsa share an icy glance.
Michonne and Rick are cuddled in bed together and share breakfast in bed (an apple). Rick is happy and glad that the deal with Jesus and the Hilltop came through. Maggie is taking the leadership role and has everyone on a schedule; she’s worried of an attack. Rick tells Michonne, “When they come for us, we’ll end it. The whole thing. This won’t be like before. We’re putting everything in place and these people know what to do now. The world is ours and we know how to take it. Everything we need is right here, inside these walls. We are not losing any of it again. I’m not.” It seems like Rick is being cocky because of the groups recent achievements but he should be careful of being overly confident.
Maggie and Glenn are talking about distributing the weapons and that they should hide some as well Incase anyone gets in the walls. Daryl’s taking off on a unexpected mission of revenge and Glenn knows they have to stop him from doing anything stupid. Glenn and Michonne jump in the van to chase after Daryl and Rosita insists on going since she knows where he’s headed. Maggie watches them drive off and Glenn watches her in the side mirror as Abraham closes the gates. Could this be the last time Maggie sees Glenn alive?
Tobin finally brings the note to Rick that Carol wrote about why she had to leave. Rick is very upset she left and wants to know anything that could help find her. No one seen her leave and Rick learns about Daryl taking off and Glenn, Michonne and Rosita going after him to bring him back and stopping him from getting killed. Tobin realizes one of the cars they just added to block walkers is missing and know Carol must have taken it. She planned her departure between the shift changes and where no one could detect her. She covered the headlights so she couldn’t be seen leaving. Morgan wants to go looking for Carol but Rick wants to go with him. He tells them no one else is allowed to leave and everyone should stay ready for a fight.
Carol is driving the a car with spikes and spears sticking out of it that was being used as a walker trap in front of Alexandria. As she’s driving down a road not far from Alexandria, a truck approaches from the opposite side of the road. As the truck gets closer the people begin to fire at Carol, shooting out her tires. Carol grabs hold of her prayer beads and begins fretting about what’s about to happen. She’s already in chameleon mode and begs them not to hurt her and that she has nothing they want. They want information about where she came from and where she’s going. She’s tries to convince them she’s a nobody named Nancy from Mont Claire that bounces around a lot and isn’t really heading anywhere specifically. The guy who’s doing all the talking for them doesn’t buy her story of her not being from anywhere. He knows she’s from Alexandria which isn’t far because he recognizes the car from the spikes sticking out from it. Unlucky for them they think she’s weak and clueless but they are unaware of what shes capable of. They tell her they were just on their way to her place and that they will drive her back and hope they let them in since they have her.
Carol begins to hyperventilate and freak out about what she’s about to do, what she doesn’t want to do anymore and the reason why she’s leaving Alexandria in the first place. She knows she has to kill them and begins to fight her inner demons and cries. She begs them to turn back home and it doesn’t have to be this way, she doesn’t want anyone to hurt. As they go to approach Carol she unleashes her hidden machine gun upon them spraying across them and the truck effortlessly. (Say hello my little friend!!) The driver quickly gets out of the truck and heads for Carol firing rapidly at her and she hides behind her car. She watches his feet from under the car timing her attack perfectly so she could use one of the spikes and Stabs him; killing him. She takes his guns from him and heads to the truck to check and see if anyone else is alive. You can see one of the guys faces melted, like Dwight’s, giving another clue that he is part of the Saviors, but his scar looks like it’s old. She sees someone hiding behind the truck and that’s when you hear the words spoken in the opening scene of the episode. Carols character is so complex that she’s both the victim and the aggressor in the situation and she breaks down from the weight of both.
The last known survivor from the group sits anxiously behind the truck as he sees his buddies blood drip into a puddle and hearing the trucks fluids spill out onto the pavement. Carol makes her way around the truck and he jumps up quickly to attack her, the camera flashes images of the carnage of the scene and we hear gun shots, not showing us what happened.
Enid is in the pantry and Maggie comes in to make a lunch before she takes an extra shift. Enid hands Maggie’s pickles and says she’ll take her shift while she rests.
Morgan and Rick are tracking Carol and Morgan tells Rick he didn’t have to come but Rick wants to try to find her to. He doesn’t care if it’s dangerous, he wants to find her and knows it’ll be difficult since Carol will cover her tracks.
Tire tracks, pointed east; we go east, Rick tells Morgan and Morgan agrees. Rick explains to Morgan that he doesn’t even know her but he tells Rick that he got to get to know her a little. Rick asks Morgan why he’s doing this. Morgan says there’s no right and it’s just the wrong that pulls you down eventually. He thinks it will pull Rick down cause he knows him.
We come back to the scene of the shootout and one of the guys from the truck wake up in pain to see all his friends dead or dying. He tells the young boy to let go and gets out of the truck. Morgan and Rick approach the accident up ahead and the guy hides in the trees. They recognize the car Rick tries to question the dying guy on the road but he’s useless and Rick stabs him in the head.
Rick sees that they are getting weapons from the Hilltop and knows that these guys are part of the Saviors. Morgan is worried she’s been hit and Rick says that he’s proud of her because she took four of them down alone. She’s a force of nature and Morgan says she left because she can’t anymore and Rick tells Morgan she could because she had to and that sometimes you have to. Morgan grins at Ricks comment and says that there is a trail of blood that leads into the field and they are unsure if she’s alive or dead but Rick knows she took their guns which is a good sign. They follow the trail of blood hoping to catch up to her. Rick says to Morgan, “We’re close to Alexandria, there’s even more of them didn’t end it.” And Morgan answers Rick, “No, we started something.” The last remaining Savior from the truck comes out of the trees after Morgan and Rick follow the blood trail. He picks up carols prayer beads that he spots beside her car and he grips the cross tight in his fist and follows Morgan and Rick.
Rosita takes Glenn and Michonne back to the train tracks where Denise died, thinking that’s where Daryl would go. Michonne finds Daryl’s bike covered by leaves and knows he’s close by. Glenn asks Rosita which way Dwight ran so they can track him and she says that they should let him do this. Glenn tells her it isn’t smart because he doesn’t know what he’s doing and neither do they. He tells her that it may make her feel better right now but it doesn’t help. The Saviors could be learning more about them and Daryl can get himself killed and she tells Glenn where Dwight ran towards.
Daryl is tracking and looking for clues where Dwight could have went to and Rosita and the others catch up to him and he’s not happy. He fired a bolt purposely at them, just missing Rosita. Daryl blames himself for Denise’s death because he didn’t kill Dwight when he had the chance. He wants to do what he should have and even the score but Glenn reminds him she’s dead and that he isn’t doing it for her but for himself. Glenn doesn’t want him doing it alone and wants him to go back home with them and figure it out together. Glenn tells Daryl that they need him, “It’s going to go wrong out here.” Michonne swears to Daryl that they’ll square it and she promises him but just wants him to come back with them. Daryl can’t and storms off and Rosita follows him and says she can’t either.
“We just got stuck with each other. We were lucky. Figure it all out together. It felt like we did, after everything, we did. Well it’s not what we thought it was Hilltop, the Saviors it’s bigger ”. Glenn is saying this to Michonne and before he can finish, he’s interrupted by loud whistling. Armed men appear from all around them pointing their guns at them and they are outnumbered and surrounded. Dwight appears last and greets them.
Rick and Morgan continue to follow the blood trail which they believe belongs to Carol. Morgan asks if Ricks doing this because Carol is his friend and he Rick replies that she’s family. Morgan tells Rick that he knows what happened at the prison and that Rick sent her away for burning and killing two of their people. He asks Rick what if she did it today. “If it happened today I’d thank her or I would have killed them myself. She was right to do it. They were sick spreading a disease, they weren’t going to make it.” Morgan tells Rick that he sent her away and she came back and helped them anyway. He believes people can come back.
There’s a walker that strangely looks like Carol roaming in the field ahead of them (a cool fact is that this walker was meant to look like Carol and was played by carols stunt double!). Rick and Morgan quickly run over to the walker, relieved, seeing it wasn’t Carol. They can tell that she hasn’t been dead for too long and hear noise from the barn up ahead. As they get close to the barn they see dead bodies scattered across the grass that haven’t been dead for long and see a man in the distance attack a walker. He’s using a spear and is wearing body armor. He’s alarmed when he sees Rick and Morgan and hides. He’s looking for his horse and Morgan asks if theyve seen their friend. He yells they are coming and to go and a bunch of walkers appear from around the barn and he takes off running. Rick goes to shoot him but Morgan pushes him causing him to miss. Morgan and Rick take out the walkers together and Rick sees that he was using the same type of spear the others were and believes he could be from the Saviors or Hilltop and could be looking for Carol too. Morgan tells Rick, “Maybe the man is looking for a horse, maybe he is from Hilltop. Maybe hes from somewhere else,” (In the comics there’s another community called the Kingdom ruled by a leader named Ezekiel and they wear body armor and ride horses. They also use weapons from the Hilltop and perhaps this guy is from there). Rick tells Morgan that he doesn’t take chances anymore and that’s when Morgan feels it’s time to come clean with Rick.
He finally tells Rick about the situation he had with the wolf and comes clean about everything that happened. He explained that after everything that had happened, the Wolf still helped Denise and saved her life, showing that people can change for the better. All life is precious he tells Rick and knows everyone is capable of change no matter what. Because the wolf saved Denise, she was able to be there to save Carl. “It’s all a circle. Everything gets a return. The fact is the fact, I did what I did; I let him live.” Morgan tells Rick to go back home and that he’s better there and that he can find Carol. “You’re coming back?” Rick asks Morgan and he says yes, but if he doesn’t, to not come looking for him. Rick makes Morgan take a gun and before he leaves he tells Morgan that Michonne did steal his protein bar. Morgan smiles and shakes his head and tells Rick that he knew
Rick is the first one to get back to Alexandria. Rick tells Abraham that Morgan is still out looking for Carol and asks if Michonne is back yet. Abraham tells Rick she’s still out there and asks, “You afraid, to go back to it. Let somebody close?” And Rick says yeah and Abraham agrees that he is too. Abraham is ready to rip the world a new one and believes they’ll be back any second now. Abraham seems optimistic and Rick and him stand at the gates and wait for the others to return.
Maggie wants Enid’s help. She wants her to cut her hair. Maggie wants her hair cut short and they both like how it looks. Enid asks her why and Maggie says that “I have to keep going and I don’t want anything getting in the way.” Maggie answers and an overwhelming pain hits Maggie, she doubles over in pain holding her stomach. Could this be the after effects of her fight?
Glenn and Michonne are tied up and gagged. Daryl and Rosita spot them from a distance and Glenn tries to warn them but Daryl motions them to be quiet. It’s too late, they’ve been spotted and Dwight has the upper hand. Dwight is behind them and just as Daryl lowers his crossbow, Dwight shoots Daryl in the shoulder causing blood to splatter all over the screen. Covering our view and we hear Dwight say, “You’ll be alright.” And the episode ends.
What an episode! Carol is a one woman army and clearly everyone knows it and wants her to be with them because they are all a family. Glenn was giving lots of speeches and words of wisdom which is never a good sign. This episode took place within an entire day and built up the momentum to the finale next Sunday.
Will they answer all of our questions? Will they find Carol? Who will meet Negan? Who are we going to lose next?
Like Johnny cash sang, is it all over?
Find out next week in the 90 minute season finale of season 6 of THE WALKING DEAD!
