The Walking Dead – Dead or Alive

By: Kelly Kearney

The Saviors want this war over but once and for all. With Alexandrians on the run and Hilltop holding Negan’s men hostage, they’re going to have to come up with an epic plan to keep their leader in the driving seat. Little do they know, Daryl, Rosita and the remaining survivors are right under their noses and headed to Hilltop to join forces with Maggie and what’s left of the AHK.

Under the bridge and through the swamp

Daryl (Norman Reedus) hasn’t lost his tracking skills and is the perfect choice to lead the ASZ survivors to safety. The group, along with Rosita (Christian Serratos), Tara (Alanna Masterson) and an injured Dwight (Austin Amelio), quietly hide under a bridge as they listen to two Saviors above them talking about Dr. Carson (R. Keith Harris) and Father Gabe’s (Seth Gilliam) mysterious escape from the Sanctuary. They know the two men had help but have no idea that help came from Eugene (Josh McDermitt). The path to Hilltop is a risky, but luckily Dwight’s there to guide them through woods and away from the Saviors path. Tara, who is stull angry and blaming Dwight for the death of her girlfriend, doesn’t understand why they need him. Tara has quickly gone from comic relief to unlikable hate machine and chooses to risk the group’s safety when she throws a meandering walker at Dwight. Dwight manages to kill the beast one handed as Daryl orders Tara to stick to the plan and shelf her attitude. Tara is becoming a problem and her dismissal of the group’s safety while she goes rouge to handle personal grudges is unacceptable to Daryl who thinks Dwight can serve a purpose in defeating Negan.

Meanwhile, Dr. Carson and a very sick Father Gabriel are on the run from the saviors and seem to be lost somewhere in the woods outside the Sanctuary. To add to their dilemma, Father Gabe’s illness is spreading and starting to affect his vision, the man is quickly going blind, making it difficult to read a map and find their way to safety. Luckily, Gabe has faith that God will show them the way but the doctor, a man of science, doesn’t share his views. It’s that age-old trope of pairing the skeptic with the believer while forcing them to work together. An interesting idea in the middle of an apocalypse. Surprisingly, letting Jesus take the wheel seems to work because Gabe has a vision of which direction to go and the Doctor follows the priest’s lead.

Following the sounds of a bell, which is probably Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) calling her people to the meat grinder, Gabe and Carson stumble upon a cabin surrounded by a net to trap any wandering walkers. It’s not clear if the cabin is abandoned, but the walker traps around it say someone was trying to hold down this fort and keep it safe. Gabriel is overjoyed his mystical God vison worked and thinks this cabin could be their salvation.

Revenge, guilt and lies

At Hilltop, Morgan (Lennie James) can’t get over what happened at the Kingdom. Both he and Carol (Melissa McBride) trained Henry (Macsen Lintz) to defend himself, but neither warrior thought the boy would use those skills to avenge his brother murder. Now guarding the prisoners, Henry’s unapologetic in his quest for revenge and glares at the Saviors as he demands to know which one of them killed his brother. His thirst for revenge was not satiated and, quite frankly, the kid is freaking the prisoners out. Carol sits down with Henry and Morgan to relieve them of their guard duties as she plays caregiver and leader to the emotionless boy and the guilt-ridden man. Together, Morgan and Carol decide to lie to Henry and tell him the man he killed at the Kingdom was his brother’s killer. They lie to protect what little innocence the boy has left.

Over at the Sanctuary, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) seems to be losing his fear factor with Eugene when the cowardice man asks if anyone survived the bombing of Alexandria. This sets Negan off and he angrily asks the Mullet why he cares? Normally shaking in fear when Negan raises his voice, Eugene remains calm and manages to deflect the conversation towards his bullet production, of which Negan tells him they need more ammo to win this war. Then, he gives Eugene a promotion telling him he’s going to run his own outpost for the sole purpose of making bullets and Eugene has no other option but to agree, especially when he’s told there will be wine there. It seems wine dulls Eugene’s pain and guilt from selling out his friends and maybe this coward isn’t as selfish as everyone thought?

Over at the cabin, Gabe and Carson find a radio transmitter and soon realize the cabin was occupied by one man, now a walker with a bag over his head and shackled to a bed. It appears the man was sending radio messages for help and kept a decent log of his attempts, which all tuned out to be failures. It’s not long before Gabe accidently breaks a piggy bank and the two men discover a hidden map and a set of keys. Of course, Gabe thinks this another example of his faith in God.

Swamp Things

In the woods, Daryl and company are still trying to safely navigate the woods as the Saviors begin to surround them on all sides. Dwight mentions a path through a walker filled swamp that he knows the Saviors have strict orders to avoid. Tara doesn’t want any part of Dwight’s idea simply because she can’t get over her anger long enough to know Dwight is on their side. Dwight even goes as far as to admit that he can never go back to the Saviors because its obvious now that he was the mole and Negan will kill him. He has no choice but to help the AHK as his life depends on it. Tara, who is all full of attitude but not good decisions, refuses to go through the swamp and by now Daryl is so fed up with her that he orders her to stay behind and guard Dwight and the others. She claims it’s a risk going through the deadly swamp but since there isn’t a Savior free path home, they have no choice but to wade through the muddy pit of gnashing zombie teeth.

Back at the Hilltop, rations are dwindling and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) orders her captains to cut their usual food allotment by a third and to stop feeding the prisoners – a choice that is sure to cause outrage from the Saviors who are fenced in the yard and already hungry. She even denies their request to allow them recreational time from their pen and when Gregory (Xander Berkley) asks to be paroled for his good behavior. Maggie shoots that down with a quick, no way in Hell.

Cutting back and forth between the cabin and the swamp, Dr. Carson finds antibiotics on the cabin’s floor that could help Gabe and his mysterious illness. At the swamp, Daryl, Rosita and Siddiq (Avi Nash) take the treacherous hike through the mud with zombies lurking under every step. One walker, covered in mud and goo, attacks Rosita but she manages to handle it before it can bite her. As for the rest of the zombies, they’re stuck in the mud making it easy for Daryl and Siddiq to glide on by. I’m assuming they kill the trapped walkers but this entire scene, which could’ve been tense with an edge of your seat feeling, tragically misses the mark and focuses more on talking about the danger instead of showing it. On the banks of the walker pond, Tara is becoming more of an annoying liability to the group when she drags Dwight away by gun point on a mission to kill walkers but really it’s just an excuse for her to execute him. After he manages to take down a few, Tara turns the gun on him. I’m not sure when Tara became this vengeful Negan wannabe, but she ignores Daryl’s orders, ignores the fact the Saviors could hear her gun fire and ignores the fact Dwight could be an asset, all in the name of revenge. With her gun in his face, Dwight apologizes for killing her girl and admits it was a horrible accident, he was aiming for Daryl. Tara, the only one with a weapon, abandons the entre group she was ordered to protect to chase Dwight through the woods when he tries escaping her threats.  She manages to catch up to him just as they both hear the same two saviors from the bridge talking a few feet away. They both lay low and listen in as the men discuss their plans.

Home

God must’ve dropped the ball or the doctor and priest’s luck are running out because the two men wind up leaving the cabin only for Carson to get taken down by a bear trap. Whoever was guarding that cabin set a series of hidden bear traps to keep their hide out walker free. Dr. Carson is stuck and his cries attract the ears of walkers who try to eat the doctor while he’s stuck on the ground. That’s when a blind Gabriel calls on God and manages to shoot the encroaching dead, freeing his traveling companion. From danger. Again, Gabe thinks his sharp shooting skills are thanks to his faith and he’s sure this is a sign they will make it out of this alive. Only they wind up getting caught by the Saviors and one of them kills Dr. Carson as they load the blind Gabe into a truck and head back to the Sanctuary. Later, The Father is put to work making bullets, but Eugene offers Negan a new plan to defeat Rick and the AHK. He thinks catapulting walker guts at the group could be their next move, but Negan goes a bit further and adds that their weapons could be laced with walker blood. If the blood mixes with humans, the virus is unstoppable and maybe this is the trojan horse they need to win this war?

Back in the woods near the swamp, Dwight gives himself up to the two saviors and they buy his story about escaping the shootout through the swamp. Luckily, the only person that knew Dwight was a traitor was Laura, who is now missing, making it safe for Dwight to return to the Sanctuary. It appears that Dwight risked his own safety for Tara and she is shocked to silence by his altruistic sacrifice.

The episode ends on a heartbreaking discovery when Daryl and company finally make it to Hilltop and reveal that they are the only survivors who made it. Carol immediately runs to Daryl and the pain of the news is written all over her face. She knows they’ve lost family members and both hold back their tears as they embrace. Maggie consoles a devastated Enid (Katelyn Nacon) who crumbles to the ground and wails in agony when she realizes Carl (Chandler Riggs) is gone. It not long before Rick is knocking at the front gate, giving the group hope that together they can end this war once and for all.