The Walking Dead – Chokepoint

By: Kelly Kearney

In “Chokepoint” we see Daryl, Connie, Henry and Lydia are on the run from Beta, who is hot on their trail and looking for a fight. Ezekiel and Carol are having their own issues when the royal couple receives an ominous letter from an unknown group. The two made assurances that everyone attending the fair would be safe. Now, The Kingdom may have a problem keeping their promise.

On the Run

Daryl (Norman Reedus), Connie (Lauren Ridloff), Lydia (Cassady McClincy) and Henry (Matt Lintz) manage to escape the Whisperer’s camp, but their troubles are just beginning. After breaking their peaceful trade with Alpha (Samantha Morton), Daryl can’t take them all back to Hilltop without putting the entire community on danger. Henry offers to go on the run with Lydia but Daryl, who was put in charge of protecting Henry, says no and asks, “What about your mother?” He knows Carol (Melissa McBride) wouldn’t want her son to run off on his own so he tells both teens they are coming with him. Where they’re headed is anyone’s guess.

Back at the Whisperers camp Beta (Ryan Hurst) is checking out the casualties from Daryl’s walker ambush and we see a more human side to these masked cultists of the dead. One of their own is lying on the ground with a walker bite and Beta approaches the dying man (Ben VanderMey) with sympathy. The man says, “I will never be one of them,” meaning he’s about to turn and rejects his walker fate. Beta responds, “But you’ll always be one of us.” To some extent, the Whisperers have a moral code and some basic loyalty towards their own. Beta orders for someone to get the man’s wife before he turns and then grabs another Whisperer and asks about Lydia. The girl is nowhere to be found and Beta says, “Lydia will walk with us again.” Watch out Daryl, Beta is coming!

A New Threat

Carol and Nabila (Nadine Marissa) take a stroll through the Kingdom while talking about the upcoming fair and what it means for the survival of their home. The two women seem optimistic and look forward to seeing their old friends. The mood changes when a disheveled Jerry (Cooper Andrews) shows up with news of an attack on the road. Ezekiel’s (Khary Payton) second in command was jumped by a group of men with a warning meant for the King – a warning in the form of a threatening letter signed with the red symbol that was painted all over the neighboring towns. These people know about the fair and they will kill anyone who travels the roads unless Ezekiel pays a ransom of food and goods. The problem is The Kingdom can barely feed themselves and they have nothing to offer these pirates that call themselves The Highway Men. Diane (Kerry Cahill) wonders if these men were leftovers from Jed’s marauder Saviors, but Carol is quick to shoot that theory down, since she set Jed’s group on fire and kept it from her husband. Whoever these guys are, they’re threatening the Kingdom’s one chance to bring commerce and trade to the communities. Ezekiel will not negotiate with the Highway men and Carol agrees. They have their work cut out for them if they plan to keep the roads safe for the fair goers.

Speaking of unsafe roads, Tara (Alanna Masterson) and the other Hilltoppers are in route to the fair when they come across a downed tree blocking the road. If that’s not bad enough, the people are restless and worried over Daryl and Connie’s whereabouts and Tara tries her best to keep everyone calm and focused on the task at hand. She reminds them all that Daryl and Connie can take care of themselves and the real worry is clearing the road and getting to the fair.

Speaking of the archer, he and his group stumble upon a six-story building that could be the perfect place to set up watch for the Whisperers. In the past, the building was a hideout for Magna’s (Nadia Hilker) group and lucky for Daryl it’s set up with a few good barricades and even some food and supplies. Lydia lets Daryl in on a little information about her mother. Alpha broke her own rules and came for her daughter before; she won’t do it again. Instead, Lydia warns that her mother will send her second in command and their best fighter, Beta. “Good. We’ll kill him first,” Daryl says.

A Civilized Deal

Back at the Kingdom the armed Highway men surround the entire community. Carol, Ezekiel and the others keep a close eye on the group while they mull over their options. Ezekiel and Jerry think these men only understand violence, but Carol (who is always level headed and thinks things through) noticed that the attackers didn’t kill Jerry when they stole his sword and they had every opportunity to do so. She points out that they appear civilized, at least according to their grammatically correct letter. But Jerry says, “Screw that. It was a grammatically correct death threat.” Diane points out that they never actually threatened to kill anyone, but claimed they wouldn’t let any visitors to the fair pass their roads.They said nothing about how they would stop them. Ezekiel agrees to Carol’s plan. First, they try to reason with them and if they refuse then they kill them. Luckily, it doesn’t get to that because Carol was right – the men were desperate, but reasonable. And after a confronting them Carol offers them a deal they cannot refuse. If The Highwaymen work for the Kingdom by helping to keep the roads to the fair safe the newcomers can gain access to the fair and watch a movie! The movie is what seals the deal and The Kingdom’s fair is back on!

Over at Whisperer look out Daryl and Connie get ready for the inevitable fight with Beta. They block the stairwells and keep the only two exits open, hoping to draw Alpha’s lieutenant inside while Daryl hunts them all from various look out points in the building. It seems like solid plan but once they take out the threat, “Then what?” Connie asks. Daryl tries to explain to the hearing-impaired woman by writing his answers on her note pad. He tells her that they can’t take Lydia back to Hilltop without putting their friends in danger. Connie points out that, “We have friends, she [Lydia] does not.” The persistent woman may be right. Lydia is alone, thanks to her choices, but that doesn’t mean the girl is going to kill her own people. In fact, Lydia makes it clear she has no intention of killing any of them, which really makes her a liability in this entire scenario. Henry tries convincing her with a spear he made as a gift, but she refuses and instead asks why he’s protecting her. Henry admits that he cares for the girl and he would go on the run if it meant keeping her safe. The teens kiss, but their smooch session gets interrupted by Daryl who orders them to get back to work preparing for the fight.

Beta vs. Daryl

As the Hilltoppers try and remove the tree branch from the road a herd of walkers attack! The pack of zombies forces them all to draw their weapons for battle. Even Tammy-Rose (Brett Butler) goes into savage mode when the older woman takes out three hungry zombies trying to eat her husband Earl (John Finn). The group is overwhelmed by the dead and that’s when The Highway Men jump in to save the day! In between slashing up the walkers Tara spots their leader Ozzy (Angus Sampson) and asks who they are. Ozzy in his cowboy hat and leading the rescue mission looks at Tara and says, “The Highway Men. We’re your escorts to the fair.”

Over at the look out Lydia and Henry are stationed on a balcony when they spot Beta and a group of Whisperers and walkers approaching. The two teens let Daryl know and he unleashes a few arrows into the crowd. One lands in the skull of the man turned walker who beta comforted before he turned. Beta looks at his dead walker friend and then up towards the balcony and gives Daryl a menacing glare that screams, YOU ARE MINE! That’s when the walkers and Whisperers start entering the building down below and Daryl jumps into action. He locks Lydia in a closet with Dog, knowing she won’t kill her kind but still wanting to keep her safe from her mother’s abuse. Then like the hunter he is, he creeps through the building taking walkers and Whisperers down like a silent assassin. Henry and Connie also take down a few, but the amount of mask wearing creeps in the building is starting to wear on them. In the midst of all the chaos and arrows flying, Beta crashes through a door and uses the wooden slab as shield from the attack. Daryl gets away but in the commotion Henry gets hurt and Lydia breaks out of the closet just in time to save him from being eaten by a walker. The very next moment Beta crashes through a wall, grabs a shocked Daryl and lifts him high in the air then flicks him across the room like a flea. LET THE FIGHT BEGIN! The archer is out matched by his giant nemesis and the two go back and forth, blow after blow, with Beta mostly having the upper hand. During the brawl, that consists of some cool knife twirling and a few serious pro-wrestling moves, Daryl manages to plunge a switchblade into Beta’s chest! The beast of a man rips the knife out and tosses it across the room but loses sight of Daryl who was able to run and hide from the wounded Beta. Mumbling something about Daryl’s world being over, the man approaches what looks like a dark doorway. Bursting out from a hidden space beneath the floor Daryl shoulder checks Beta into the darkness and it turns out to be a bottomless elevator shaft! Beta falls a few floors down and lands in a heap, effectively putting an end to their fight to the death. Looking down the shaft, Daryl spits on Beta’s crumpled body and then struts away like the winner. Little does he know Beta is alive and he will not rest until he gets Lydia back and probably kills Daryl, too.

With the fight over Daryl and his three friends have no choice but to move on. Alpha looks weak in the eyes of her people and she won’t stop until she gets vengeance for breaking their deal. Daryl can’t risk any of his friends’ lives so tells Connie and the kids they’re leaving. “There’s a whole world out there…” he says, but first they will stop at Alexandria to rest. The problem is Daryl knows Carol will never quit looking for her son or her best friend and it isn’t long before she figures out something is wrong when the two are a no show at the fair. As the episode draws to a close we get a glimpse of the calm before the storm. The fair is underway and the old and new friends are all hugs and smiles thanks to the turn out. When Carol spots Tara she asks her friend where Henry is and Tara looks surprised. She asks, “He’s not here yet? What about Daryl? We were meeting them here.” Carol, with a worried look on her face asks, “Where exactly are they?”

When Carol finds out her son and bestie are on the run there is little doubt she will move heaven and earth to bring them home. If that means an eventual showdown between the Queen of the Kingdom and the Queen of the Whisperers, Alpha better be ready because Carol takes no prisoners!