The Walking Dead – Bounty

By: Kelly Kearney

This week’s episode focuses on two stories that both share a similar theme; the power of hope and preserving their humanity. For Hilltop and more specifically, Daryl, fighting for their humanity means having to choose between handing Lydia over to her abusive mother or going to war with her and her walker wannabes. Risking their community and friends for an abused girl isn’t such an obvious choice when Daryl and the others have to live with the outcome of their decisions. Likewise, The Kingdom is facing their own hard choices. Hoping the fair will bring the communities together, Ezekiel decides to risk it all for a movie night that will not only entertain the masses but give them hope for a better future. What is life without art? What is life without hope? Are either worth risking the ones you love? These are the questions asked in “Bounty.”

Flashback/ Flashforward

After Jesus’ (Tom Payne) death in the cemetery fight against the Whisperers we flashback to a happier time where he and Tara (Alanna Masterson) deliver a hopeful gift to Carol (Melissa McBride), Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and Jerry (Cooper Andrews). After learning Jerry and Nabila (Nadine Marissa) are expecting their first child, Jesus and Tara arrive on horseback with supplies and Michonne’s (Danai Gurira) community charter. Tara lets them know that Michonne has no idea she’s left Alexandria to join Hilltop and she probably won’t be happy she stole supplies and her charter for The Kingdom. Something definitely went down between Maggie’s Hilltop, The Kingdom and Alexandria, but so far we have no idea what that was. Carol hugs Tara and Jesus and thanks them for their generosity while Jerry and Ezekiel are all smiles over the charter and what it means for this new world they’re creating.

Flash forward to the present and Ezekiel is in the Kingdom’s theater, glancing at the community charter and his hopeful smile has turned into a worried frown. His Kingdom is crumbling and as the supplies dwindle his people are losing hope. The King sees this upcoming fair as their last chance to save their home and rebuild the bonds with the other communities. Diane (Kerry Cahill) enters the theater to let Ezekiel know they’re about to leave for a supply run and Carol, his Queen (she hates when he calls her that), is coming along for the ride. Little does she know her husband is planning a secret and dangerous mission that he’s calling “The Cobra Strike.”

Wrong Answer

Back at Hilltop, Alpha (Samantha Morton) and her group are standing outside the gates and demanding they hand over her daughter, Lydia (Cassady McClincy). After what Daryl (Norman Reedus) learned about Lydia’s mother and her abuse, he is unwilling to send the girl back into the arms of this dangerous woman. From Hilltop’s look out he tells Alpha to leave before they all get hurt. Alpha smirks and raises her hand saying “wrong answer,” signaling more of her Whisperers to approach the gates.

Inside the community Doctor in training Enid (Katelyn Nacon) is trying not to think about Alden’s (Callan McAuliffe) disappearance as she helps Earl (John Finn) with his arthritis. Tammy (Brett Butler) thanks her and the two get interrupted by Marco (Gustavo Gomez) who says the group who killed Jesus are outside the gates and they want Lydia back. She runs off to join the others and that’s when we see Connie (Lauren Ridloff) still hiding in the cornfield and watching this confrontation unfold. The leader, with her bald head and terrifying lack of emotion, tells Daryl that they did not kill his friends and she has no interest in a confrontation with Hilltop. She does say, “Bring me my daughter and there will be no conflict.” Daryl, who isn’t Hilltop’s leader but acts like he is, storms off of his perch and come face to face with Alpha at the gates. He tells her she can’t have the girl and they should leave before his community opens fire on them.

Elsewhere Carol, Ezekiel, Jerry and Diane are finished their supply run and that’s when the secret mission is brought up. The King kept it from his wife so she wouldn’t worry, but now she wants to know all the details. The big mission is over a film projector bulb that’s inside a theater full of walkers. Ezekiel thinks a movie at the fair will not only bring the communities together, but for children born after the apocalypse it could blow their minds and give them an idea of what their future could look like. It poses the question, is life even worth living without art and human expression? It is the foundation of our humanity and gives humans hope. The King thinks this mission is as important as any supply run and the risks outweigh the benefits. Carol agrees and the group heads to the theater, armed with their weapons and a tape player that blasts 70’s funk music. Apparently, walkers like to get down and boogie and the music draws them away from the theater so they can get in and out, cobra strike style.

Shocking Brutality

After Daryl tells Alpha he will not hand over Lydia he spots one of her masked followers holding a crying baby. Shocked, he asks her why she would bring a baby to this stand off and the woman explains they live with the dead and babies don’t change that. Again, the frightening woman demands her daughter but this time she offers Daryl a trade. She orders her group to remove the masks from two hostages and we see she has Alden and Luke (Dan Folger) tied up at knife point. She repeats that she doesn’t want conflict and the fact their friends are alive is proof of that. She wants to trade her hostages for Lydia, a two for one deal that she thinks Daryl can not turn down. Daryl storms off as the Whisperer baby wails outside the gates. It’s crying begins to attract walkers to the field and Alpha does not seem worried. In fact, she seems down right pleased with this turn of events.

Over at the theater Ezekiel and his group manage to take out a few walkers that weren’t attracted to the music and, so far, his cobra strike mission seems to be working. Inside the theater they see a group of walkers barricaded inside the theater doors and since they cannot get out he sends Jerry and Diane to the projector room to procure the bulb and end their mission. Removing the bulb is delicate work and Jerry does his best as the moaning dead crowd the theater exits. Meanwhile, Carol and Ezekiel remove a movie poster frame from the wall that they hope will display the community charter at their fair.

While Carol and Ezekiel are fighting off Funkadelic zombies Daryl decides that he cannot risk Luke and Alden at the cost of protecting Lydia. He goes to get the girl while Alpha orders her group to draw the walkers away from the front gates. Luke spots Connie hiding in the field and uses sign language to let her know walkers are coming and to stay hidden. Speaking of hidden, it seems Henry (Matt Lintz) couldn’t live with himself if he let Lydia get hurt so he broke her out of the cell and the two left Hilltop! Now Daryl has nothing to offer Alpha in the trade. One of the teens that snuck off to drink with Henry says she’s sure she knows where the two are, and Enid offers to go bring him back since Henry has always liked her. Outside the gate the baby is still screaming,and we finally get a glimpse of Alpha’s brutality. The masked woman holding the baby looks nervous and with her pleading eyes begs Alpha for mercy. Alpha smiles and nods, letting the mother know to leave the baby in the field for the walkers to eat! After all, they live with the dead and if a baby can’t stay silent then natural selection will turn it into walker snacks! The Hilltoppers watch on in horror and start banging the gates to lure the dead away from the baby but it doesn’t work. Luke signals to Connie that there’s a baby in danger and the brave woman decides to run from her hiding spot to save the child. The Whisperers make no move to stop her, but Alpha does send two of her people to follow the deaf woman into the corn field. With the baby in her arms, Connie fights off walkers in the field until Daryl shows up saving the day and leading her and the bay to safety.

Call Me Alpha

Enid manages to find Henry and after a speech about tough choices and how she learned “just surviving isn’t living,” Lydia decides to go back to her people and she hopes that’s enough for her mother to leave Hilltop alone. She kisses Henry goodbye, but the boy is devastated and thinks the choice to sacrifice his friend is the wrong one.

It’s not long before Lydia finds Daryl, who walks her to the gate and right back into the abusive hands of her mother. Giving in to Alpha is the last thing he wanted to do but the threat to their own is real and he has no choice. The trade happens peacefully, for the most part. Alpha releases Alden and Luke and as Lydia approaches she makes the mistake of calling Alpha as “mother.” This is where the woman shows Hilltop the savageness of her rule. She smacks Lydia across the face and then hugs her, whispering, “You call me Alpha and I call the rest.”

The gates to Hilltop close and Henry wonders if they all just lost a little piece of their humanity. Daryl explains that there was no good choices in this trade and he did what he had to do. Later that night Henry does what he has to do and takes off from Hilltop to find Lydia. Having promised Carol he would protect her son Daryl decides to go out looking for him, but he doesn’t go alone. Connie, armed with a sling shot and a writing pad, demands to go along because she can’t live with the fact they put both kids in the path of that monster Alpha, even if it was to save her friend.

Meanwhile, the mission to get the projector bulb is a success, minus a few walker scuffles, and the Kingdom is almost ready for their big fair. As Carol and Ezekiel ride away from the theater the King sees this mission as a good omen; proof that their hard times are over. Carol halfheartedly agrees while in the background we see an ominous red sign that looks like a warning of bad things to come.

“Bounty” ends with a feeling hope, now that their communities have prevailed over this new threat. The Kingdom is still preparing for the fair, working projector, framed charter and all. Hilltop is relieved that they got their friends back and the group celebrates with some drinks and love making. There’s even hope for the baby Connie rescued. It’s given to Earl and Tammy and after the loss of their son a child is just what the doctor ordered. Everyone seems to be at peace, all except Connie and Daryl who are on a mission to save the apocalypse’s Romeo and Juliet from a woman that would sacrifice her own people to preserve their way of life. From the looks of things, Ezekiel’s promise of easy days ahead just hit one massive Alpha sized snag thanks to his son Henry. The outcome of which they might not ever recover from.