By Lady Cocotte
Tonight’s The Walking Dead Episode focuses on Daryl, Sasha and Abraham. While everyone else returned to Alexandria to help fight the wolves, they continued to lead the horde of walkers away from Alexandria. Sure, some walkers got off-course and ended up outside the gates (20 deep, by Rick’s estimation) but the rest have been lead 20 miles away by our intrepid threesome. Now it’s time to bring our friends home safe.
Daryl, Sasha and Abraham abandon their horde and cruise through a small town on the way home. They’re finally out of danger and we can relax. Oh, crap! Someone’s shooting at them. I forgot that you never get to relax in the zombie apocalypse. If the walkers don’t get you, the humans will. It’s a well coordinated attack. Sasha is veering all over the place and Daryl just lost control of his bike. Daryl gets going again but he’s separated from the others. Sasha barrels through a wall and slows down her tail. Daryl is chased right into a herd of walkers. Sasha and Abraham are out of their vehicle (apparently cars don’t like driving through walls) and they shoot up the car that followed them. So many bullet holes. But not enough for Abraham. He wants to keep shooting but Sasha stops him. She doesn’t want to call attention to their position and she finds Abraham’s lust to kill off-putting.
CHECK OUT ALL OF THE WALKING DEAD RECAPS HERE!
Daryl loses his tail by driving into the forest. A short way in, he collapses in exhaustion. You don’t often see Daryl in a position of weakness. The forest has been burned and is littered with burnt skeletons, some still walkers even though they have little flesh. The makeup department loves creating walkers in new states of distress. These skeleton walkers aren’t as gross as some we’ve seen but they definitely send a chill up my spine. Even after their flesh is gone, the hunger to feed remains. Daryl removes his jacket to check for injuries (thank you for that). He hears someone coming so he hides his bike under brush. The burnt forest is like a black and white film except for Daryl. He’s the only living thing there so he’s the only color. So far the visuals are amazing. He comes across two girls who raise their hands and plead, “You found, okay? Here we are. We earned what we took.” Uh, okay. Their eyes look to the right and Daryl turns just in time to be knocked out by a blonde guy.
As Daryl comes in and out of consciousness, we overhear bits of his captors conversation (although we can’t tell what they’re actually saying). The next morning Daryl is woken by the blonde man threatening to shoot him if he speaks or moves. “I ain’t who you think,” Daryl rasps. The blonde cocks his gun and responds, “Say something else… Go ahead.” You don’t have to tell Daryl twice. They march through the woods. The blonde mentions giving Daryl to “them” if they get captured, hoping in exchange the blonde and his girls will be spared. “You see, we’re reasonable people. Everybody’s got their code. You feel you gotta kneel, it’s fair enough. We don’t.” Blondie is pissed about something but I’m just confused. Daryl takes the smart route and stays quiet. The girls talk about being home again. Blondie reminds them they’re just there to pick up Patty, nothing else.
Daryl’s captors talk about having set the fire. It attracted a bunch of walkers and after they burned, blondie finished them off with an ax. Oh, so this was what they did right after everything turned. They assumed they could end the apocalypse by killing all the walkers with the forest fire. It didn’t work. “We thought that was what everyone was doing. Fighting it. We’d all win together. We were stupid.” Daryl is done holding his tongue. “Y’all don’t think you’re being stupid right now?” Blondie doesn’t like that. His gun is in Daryl’s face again. He thinks Daryl is threatening him. He accuses Daryl of being someone’s killer in exchange for a home and food. I’m so confused. Daryl doesn’t flinch. “Look, I got somewhere to be. We can make a deal. I can help you out.” Blondie isn’t biting. “We should have never trusted you people to begin with.” Definitely mistaken identity but Daryl doesn’t bother to clear it up. Sometimes he takes being a man of few words too far.
They stumble out of the woods and come across some kind of construction site or plant. It kind of looks like the plant where Daryl and Aaron fell into the wolves’ trap. It’s teeming with walkers. “Patty,” Blondie exclaims. They look distraught. They worry that their friend is one of the walkers. “No, she’s gone,” Blondie rationalizes but it doesn’t look like he believes it himself. They decide to get out of there. One of the girls suggests going back and blaming their leaving on her. The other two aren’t willing to do it. And then she collapses. As they’re dealing with their fainted friend, Daryl grabs the bag they put his crossbow into and runs back into the woods. Blondie shoots but Daryl gets away. Whew. I know Daryl can look after himself but I feel much better when he’s not at the mercy of homicidal blonde men. He gets away but when he pulls his crossbow out of the bag he notices he also took his captors’ insulin. Oh, no. Is he going to be a good guy and return their insulin after the way they treated him? Probably. Is it going to blow up in his face? Most certainly.
CHECK OUT ALL OF THE WALKING DEAD RECAPS HERE!
Sasha and Abraham are looking for Daryl. They find his shells so they know he was fighting back. Sasha can’t understand why so many people were organized into an ambush without knowing they were coming. Abraham agrees that they were looking for someone particular. It was just their bad luck that they came across them. Abraham wants to look for Daryl but Sasha tells him, “The best way to find a tracker is to stay put. Let him find you.” It’s nice to have sane Sasha back. Abraham starts after a walker to finish him off but Sasha stops him. “You don’t need to leave breadcrumbs.” She’s the one leaving signs for Daryl (“Dixon” written on a door, etc) but she’s worried about walker corpses? I think she’s gone down the Zen Morgan road. Carol needs to have a talk with her.
They hole up in an office. Abraham finds an army uniform covered in medals and then a photo of the soldier and his family. He’s already on the edge so now isn’t a great time for PTSD. Sasha is watching a walker behind glass. It feels different from the Governor’s walker head tank but it’s disturbing nonetheless. Abraham wants to kill it but he won’t. It’s called the Sasha affect. They start discussing their situation. Sasha reminds Abraham that he didn’t have to join her. He disagrees. He thought she was a danger to herself. They both try to out-tough-guy each other about how in control of their emotions they are now. Neither is letting the other get away with any bullshit. They’re pissing each other off but also building rapport. It’s exhausting but they enjoy it.
Not surprisingly, Daryl returns to his captors with the insulin. Stupid, kind fool. This time he’s in control and gets their gun away. Daryl wants something in exchange for the duffle. Huh? This episode is confusing. They don’t have anything to give him but he points out that Blondie was carving something. “Grandfather taught me how…” Daryl cuts him off. “Don’t care. It’ll do.” He takes the carving and throws the bag at them. He’s about to leave when a huge truck pulls up. Several men exit and one shouts out, “Let’s end this.” “It’s ours,” one of the girls responds. “We earned what we took.” The guys from the truck are too clean to be wolves. They warn Daryl’s friends/captors, “You know the rules.” I don’t. What rules? Why doesn’t anything make sense tonight? I know eventually this will all pay off but for now I’m so confused. We’re not going back, Wade,” Blondie yells out. “We’re done kneeling.” These are obviously the guys they thought Daryl worked for. I still don’t understand the kneeling thing though.
Daryl grabs his friends/captors and helps them hide. He gives Blondie his gun back. Blondie can’t believe Daryl is helping him. I can’t either. The diabetic fainted again. Daryl lures one of the guys into a walker. His arm gets bit. He yells for Wade to “take it off.” So he does. Wade takes that arm right off. The truck guys decide to give up. “HE only wanted to take this so far. He only wants ass that’s willing, you know?” No, I don’t know. I don’t know anything. Wade tells the newly armless man to walk it off. My advice would be to cauterize that thing but what do I know? After they leave, Blondie turns to Daryl and yells at him for helping them. “Thanks” works too but whatever.
Abraham looks out the window for signs of trouble but instead sees something that makes him smile. A soldier walker is impaled on a bridge. First Abraham checks the walker’s truck. He finds some big ass grenades and a box of cigars. This is Abraham’s day! Then he notices the walker is wearing the grenade launcher. Well, he has to get that. Abraham’s wrestling it away from the walker as the walker tries to eat him. Abraham stares him straight in the face and screams at him. Then he backs away. It seems like Sasha’s lecture about being safe and “in control” made a difference. Abraham isn’t willing to risk his life anymore.
Abraham pulls out a cigar and watches the walker fall. Almost as if it’s payment for doing the right thing the rocket launcher stays on the bridge, swinging on the walker-less pole waiting for Abraham. He runs back to Sasha with his loot. And he proudly tells her that he realized that he wants to enjoy life until “the great cosmic Pete (ie: Porch Dick) comes to cut my throat unceremoniously and I gurgle my last breath.” And then he tells Sasha he wants to get to know her a WHOLE LOT better. Wink wink. She laughs and tells him he needs to take care of some things (ie: Rosita) first. Damn. I totally think Abraham and Sasha will make a good couple but I really like Rosita. I hope she’s okay with this change in plans.
Daryl asks his (now) friends how they didn’t know he was one of the bad guys. Even though they’d been with that group since the beginning, they didn’t know everyone. Wow. That must be a really big group. The group was good in the beginning but “as things got harder, people got harder.” “People will trade anything for safety… Everything. So they’ve got nothing left but existing.” Sounds a lot like the wolves but with kneeling and weird rules. They come across a greenhouse. The diabetic used to babysit the girls who lived there. The fire melted the greenhouse plastic over them, preserving their dead bodies. The diabetic lays flowers on them which wakes them up and they bite her. Daryl kills them but it’s too late.
While Blondie is digging the diabetic’s grave, Daryl asks him The Questions. He tells them about Alexandria. After the Pete situation, Rick didn’t want to add members but Daryl did. Well, I hope he’s making the right call with these two. He brings them to his hidden bike and tells them they can ride in the car with Daryl’s friends. Blondie asks how many friends are waiting for him. As soon as Daryl answers, Blondie pulls his gun. They take his crossbow and bike and leave him with a few bandaids. “We’re sorry.” “You’re gonna be,” Daryl growls. They ride away but I don’t think this is the last we’ll see of them. Daryl will get his crossbow back. Feeling like a fool, Daryl makes his way through the forest. He comes across a fuel sign and decides to look around. He pulls some bushes away and finds a Patrick Fuel Company truck. The license plate reads: Patty. They may have gotten his bike but he found Patty.
Abraham puts on the uniform he found in the office. Sasha gives him a big smile. They hear a vehicle approaching and grab their guns. Then they realize it’s Daryl and they smile even bigger. On the ride home, Daryl tries to reach someone on the walkie. They hear a faint voice. “Say again?” Daryl asks. The answer comes back faintly. “Help.” There are no promises on The Walking Dead but I think that was Glenn…
Next week: The preview is during AMC’s new show The Badlands so I didn’t see it. From memory of the preview from Talking Dead, Rick and Michonne are grilling Morgan on his decision to not kill. Rick asks him if he really believes he can survive without getting blood on his hands. Then people are running and looking scared. Someone is pulling out a gun. And the wall is till bleeding. What’s up with that? We only have two more episodes before TWD takes a break until Valentine’s Day. Trust me, you don’t want to miss either of them.
Dear Lady is TT alright?
This recap getting posted is a good sign… We love you, TT!
Your recaps every week are awesome.
Am I breaking rules by referring to the comics? If I am I’m sorry.
I was wondering the same thing, it’s strangely quiet.
I am hoping against hope that was Glenn , it did sound like him and he was the only other one with a radio.
Glenn got eaten, he’s out off the show
There is a lot of controversy otherwise, and a reason the writers alluded to it might not having been glenn that was eaten.
Norman Reeds aka Daryl said the voice we heard on the radio was NOT Glenn.
This better not get “Lost” crazy…like…”what you saw, you really didn’t see, it was all a dream”. I saw Glenn with chickenhead-delusion-dude on top of the trash can and cornered by hundred of Walkers. Dude fired the shot, then he and Glenn feel into the hurd of Walkers. Glenn’s guts and blood was everywhere when that “we sorry, we love, how sad’ music came on. There is no controversy, Glenn got eaten just like all our other favorites. I loved Glenn too, and I cant image this show without him. but y’all WD writers better not screw this one up, and better keep Glenn gone. Sorry, but I don’t want, and will not have any nonsense in my Zombie show. Now please, go figure something out, stay on track(epi 3 was choppy, epi 4 was nonsense and fillers), and get back to being out of this world creative.
I totally agree. He’s dead and needs to stay dead, or become a walker. Either way, he’s no longer alive. Now if we could just get rid of Maggie, and the inconsistent accent the actress uses while playing her, I’d be happy.
When this whole “is he alive/is he dead?” thing started, I was super pissed that TWD would manipulate us like that. I told a friend that I was upset that Glenn was dead but was going to be furious if he wasn’t. I’m trying to come around because the interwebs have convinced me he’s still alive. Now it just annoys me that they’re toying with us… And I’m ignoring your Maggie point because, how DARE you!!! (jk, everyone is allowed to their own opinions)
😛 I like the character of Maggie, just hate the fact that the actress that plays her sucks at accents 😀
I never noticed Maggie’s accent lacking authenticity before, I’mma listen the next time I watch.
If the WD writers somehow regurgitate Glenn back into the show, then any part of it can be tampered with, and I wont be able to watch anymore. It is that important to me that the writers stay ground breaking (killing off whoever needs to go, and allow us to mourn) and that they remain unswayed by popular opinion/disappointment.The only person guaranteed to stay is Rick, everyone else including his son can be eaten.
Seasons 1-5 made super human logical sense, and I loved it. I watched all 5 seasons, 67 episodes, on Netflix in 4.5 days; it was an unbelievable experience. All it would take for me to stop watching is for Glenn to return.
You’ll have to watch several episodes from different seasons to truly get how bad the actress is at delivering her lines with a consistent accent. It changes, even within an episode but even greater in different episodes.
Man, I’m kind of shocked everyone wants Glen to stay dead!?! (Assuming he is even dead)
I never, not once, thought he was the one being eaten because it clearly showed Nicolas landing on top of him. It was always, cool: let’s wait to see how he gets out of it. Glen always escapes.
No mourning at this end becuase he was always coming back.
Hope you guys continue to watch when he returns.. I need people to chat with here on Tamara Tattles for the walking dead! (Lmao)
I feel the same way, Espi. I think Glenn was yelling because they were eating Nicholas on top of him. There were no walkers eating his face, which was the only part of him that was exposed. If he was truly dying they would be eating his face, dammit. 🙂 In one of the first season episodes, he and Rick covered themselves with walker slime and were able to walk through them without getting attacked–kind of what happened to him here accidentally. I hope he is the one on the walkie-talkie, but they might want to draw out our suspense a while longer. #TeamGlennLives!
I’ll watch this show until the end, no matter who dies. I really wish Coral and Rick would die but know they wont.
daryl said in an interview this week it wasn’t glen on the radio… i’m hoping it is someone who found glen and is helping him stay alive? or it could be stupid blonde guy and the girl who stole daryl’s stuff
It could have been Jesus(new character, not the deity).
Something bad is a coming-a new character-on par with, “The Governor”. The distress call could also be a trick.
Negan is way worse than the governor.
Did you actually hear the interview or did you read about the interview? I’m hearing he said that Glen died-so who knows.
We got our first look at the Saviors, and heard about Negan.
Is the Saviors the name of the group that guy Wade was from?
They haven’t said, but I think so. Wade doesn’t appear in the comics, but the comment about ” him only wanting willing ones” makes me think definitely. I think Wade is a replacement for the Dwight character from the comics.
The blonde dude in this episode is Dwight.
thanks, i haven’t read the comics but this negan guy sounds bad ass
He’s definitely a Mother Fucker! Lol the character was written with Henry Rollins in mind. He’s quite the Bad ass.
I haven’t read the comics so I never know what to expect but I’ve heard rumblings about Negan. I love that he was based on Henry Rollins. Good tea!
Even with reading the comics I never know what to expect, the writers like to change things around, keeps us nerds on our toes lol. I absolutely adore Henry Rollins, disappointed he’s not going to play Negan in the show.
Just wanted to let everyone know that starting this week TWD will come on an hour later than usual 10pm set.
Thanks for the great recap, TC. It’s GLENN!! It has to be GLENN! Maggie is having a baby, dammit!!!
TT are you ok??
That better have been Glenn!
Am I the only one who thinks “kneeling” is some kind of bondage/sexual thing? Maybe so.
Where did the girl get those fresh beautiful flowers in a completely burned forest?
Great re-cap, Lady C!!! Thanks so much. I always enjoy reading these. I listened to the radio voice a couple of times and it definitely was NOT Glenn. I think it was the Blonde guy who stole Darryl’s belongings. I don’t think Glenn is dead, but we may not know for sure until the second half of the season, or maybe the mid season finale. They did the same thing with Beth last season.
Reedus also said we’ll find out who it was the zombies were eating “pretty quick”, I don’t think they’ll drag it out past the mid season finale. I also read several interviews with EP and writers saying the same.
I think Reedus might’ve said that to throw people off, same as the writers have taken his name off the credits….yet there was no post-death interview on the Talking Dead or memorial as they always do. Also, they clearly wanted the ambiguity and controversy, they have encouraged it and the way things were shot encouraged it as well. Making the walkie 100% visible just before they fell, Michonne talking about how in the thick of things you’re covered in blood and you have no idea whose it is, yours, your friends, etc. That was foreshadowing. Your intestines aren’t up near your neck, so that looked funny right near Glenn’s face, odd.
Very strong case in my book that Glenn lived and I think we will know for sure before the break.
He’s dead. I’ll be happy if I’m wrong but I’m almost 100% certain he died. His death was totally unexpected and shocking-he’s gone. 🙁
This whole episode felt like filler. So many dumb things happened that were insulting to the viewer, i.e., why was Daryl scrambling for his crossbow when one stinking walker showed up? Why didnt he just hit it with a rock or walk five feet away? Why didnt he warn the diabetic girl about the zombies in plastic? Just stupid mistakes that people who have been at it this long should never make.
And that come on of Abraham’s. Really? “A man knows??” Ugh.
I still think walking the zombies out of town was a fantastically retarded idea. What about the folks who live 20 miles away? Why not close off the ramp first?
BUT, as annoyed as I was by the episode, I still love your recaps, Lady! 🙂
Great recap. Patiently waiting for the Glenn mystery to be solved.
By the way, they don’t always show the death of a main character. Remember Lori? People questioned for weeks if Carl really shot her or not.
Why would people have questioned it? I thought it was pretty obvious that he shot her-I’m surprised people were confused
. I binged watched the show in September for the first time so I’m catching up on old re-caps.
I thought the same thing. I thought Lroes death was pretty clear… He did it and then even talked about it later.
I too was confused a lot after initially seeing the episode. From Patty to Wade and all the mummering… I re watched the whole thing and read a blog or two to make sense of it all.
I haven’t read the comics but am
Also excited these savior people have shown up… More conflict for the group. Jesus and Neagan on their way?
The fuel and rockets will definitely be used for a diversion and abliteration of the 20 deep zombie heard…
Tangent: I have been a walking Dead LoYAL fan… Lately however the make up team has been really creeping me out with these realistic shots of zombies. I’m starting to look at them through the lens of these all being people at one point. It’s sadness, fear, disgust, disturbed empathy… It’s really hitting home and I’m looking away a lot.
Either the team is doing a great job evoking so much emotion in me or I’m starting to go soft… Anyone else?
Seeing that walker with the wedding ring on a chain around his neck was a real stab in the heart.
Yeah, they’re getting very detailed with the walkers. I just can’t sometimes.