The Walking Dead – East

By starrymag | March 28, 2016

 By: Jennifer Vintzileos

 

Well now, Carol’s departure last week had me in knots for this week. Yet, after this week’s episode, I think Carol is going to take a backseat as we have reached the penultimate episode before the season finale. So let’s get right to it!

 

“Come out.”

 

The opening scene starts off with images. At first, we see a windshield that has seen gun fire with a single bullet. As the scene progresses, voices can be heard. With voices in the background, we then see a car with a wooden stake poking out of it, and what looks like blood on it. There is blood dripping onto the ground and with this imagery, we hear the gunfire.

 

“Happy to see you.”

 

In a bit of a flashback from last week’s episode, Carol (Melissa McBride) is seen with her note that she left in the prior episode, while she sews a gun into her jacket. She is preparing to leave, even going so far as to pack a bag with snacks and any other necessities that she may need upon her departure. Hearing Tobin (Jason Douglas) coming in the house, Carol quickly stashes her departure kit under the bed. Tobin comes in, with an injury to his hand from helping on the wall. Carol quickly puts on her “mask” and acts the doting girlfriend role.

 

As Tobin starts talking about working on the wall and about how quiet the infirmary has become without Denise (Merritt Wever) in Alexandria, the words start to become a distant echo. Carol is tuning him out a little in her own mind, yet still able to answer him after her momentary zone-out is over. Later on, sometime in the middle of the night, Carol is seen leaving while Tobin sleeps peacefully in bed. She makes her escape that was seen at the end of last week’s episode.

 

“It’s all over, it’s all over, my heart echoed it’s all over….” 

 

With the soundtrack of Johnny Cash’s “It’s All Over” in the background, the new day begins. Rosita (Christian Serratos) takes her place at the gate for her shift. Carl (Chandler Riggs) is seen at the armory, examining a gun that has a bat with barbed wire carved onto its handle. Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Glenn (Steven Yeun) are seen having a moment in the shower, enjoying each other’s company. When Glenn goes to help Maggie clean her back, he sees all the bruises on her body. Maggie gets emotional when Glenn goes to help clean her off.

 

Daryl (Norman Reedus) is examining his bike, holding the keychain that Denise had picked up with the name “Dennis” on it. Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) comes down the ladder from her post at the wall, Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) there to greet her. Sasha produces a cigar from her pocket to give to Abraham, as a sign of her affection to him. Abraham then goes up the ladder for his shift, while Rosita witnesses the whole exchange. She is still hurt by Abraham’s decision to leave her.

 

And finally, the song ends with Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Rick (Andrew Lincoln) sharing a quiet moment in bed together. Michonne reaches for the apple on the nightstand, taking a bite, then offering Rick a bite. While Rick wishes that Michonne would stay in bed with him for a little longer, she tells him that Maggie has asked her to come help her and Glenn with the weapons and reinforcing the security of their community. And defying a pregnant woman is not on her list.

 

Rick agrees that upsetting a pregnant Maggie would not be ideal, so he reluctantly lets her go. Obviously, being ready for outside forces trying to come in weighs on both Rick and Michonne, as they know that they need to be ready for what’s to come. Rick assures Michonne that no matter what, everything he needs is within the walls.

 

“Where are you going?”

 

Michonne goes out to meet with Maggie and Glenn, who are seen going through two barrels filled with guns. As they resume their task, Daryl’s bike is heard riding up to the gates. He gets off the bike to open the gate, with Rosita, Abraham, Maggie, Glenn, and Michonne all questioning his motives. As he rides down the road, Glenn and Michonne hop in the nearest working vehicle, a van, determined to go get him and bring him back to Alexandria. Abraham offers to join them, but Rosita blocks him. She is fairly sure of where Daryl has run off to and decides to go with Glenn and Michonne.

 

Meanwhile, Tobin goes to see Rick, handing him Carol’s note. Worried and a bit enraged, Rick marches to the gates, prepared to go out and bring her back. At first, Sasha starts complaining that she has been on shift for quite some time and needs a break, but that is not Rick’s concern at that moment. Tobin notices that one of the cars outside the gates is missing, probably taken by Carol. No one had seen Carol leave, which means she snuck out and found a way to not be caught.

 

Morgan (Lennie James) agrees to go out and find Carol, but Rick advises him that he is not going alone. They will both go out and find Carol, together.

 

“Someone’s gonna get hurt.”

 

Carol is driving down the road in the vehicle she took from Alexandria. It’s rather noticeable with wooden stakes poking out through the windows. On her drive away from Alexandria, she runs into men in a pickup truck, who immediately shoot at her vehicle, flattening the tires and stopping her from going any further.

 

As she sits there in the car, looking at the gentlemen on the pickup truck, one of them starts to interact with her, telling her to get out of the car and put her hands up. Carol, seemingly not having a weapon on her, gets out of the now broke-down vehicle. She pleads with the men to not shoot her, to which they mock her a little bit, trying to question why people always believe the worst of them.

 

The one gentleman who has been talking to her this whole time introduces himself as Hero (Daniel Newman), then asks Carol her name. But Carol is a quick thinker and makes up a story how her name is Nancy and she’s from Montclair. Some carefully placed waterworks, she starts pleading with the men that they don’t have to do this. But Hero is not deterred.

 

Like his former Saviors, he asks for the location of Carol’s camp (after noticing that her car looks like one from the community), and that she take them to Alexandria so that they can use her as a bargaining chip. Carol keeps pleading that they don’t have to do this and that she doesn’t want to see anybody hurt. Yet Hero keeps persisting that someone will get hurt, thinking it will be “Nancy” and the Alexandrians.

 

Next thing, rapid gunfire ensues and it appears that all men on the truck have been shot down. Carol’s cleverly crafted sleeve gun in her jacket has taken out the men. She grips onto her rosaries that she found in the episode “The Same Boat”, hoping to not have to kill further. But the driver gets out of the truck and comes after her, to which she uses one of the wooden stakes on the car to impale and kill him. She takes his gun and attempts to check out the truck for more weapons.

 

There, she sees everyone else incapacitated, but someone moving behind the truck. It is Hero, the man who had initially tried to take her hostage. He tries to flee but she shoots him down, then flees on foot.

 

“We have a lot to do.”

 

Back in Alexandria, Enid (Katelyn Nacon) is in the pantry, holding a jar of pickles in her hand. Maggie comes into the pantry, as she is looking for something to eat while she goes on guard. With Glenn, Michonne, Daryl and Rosita outside of the walls, she knows that she needs to step up and help protect the community.

 

Enid hands Maggie the jar of pickles, but advises her that she needs to go home, put her feet up, and rest. Maggie tries to protest but Enid will have none of it. She is going to take Maggie’s shift of guard duty because it’s more important that Maggie take care of the baby and not stress herself in any way. Reluctantly, Maggie agrees to hand over the reins to Enid and lets her take the shift.

 

“You didn’t have to come.”

 

Rick and Morgan are in the car outside the walls of Alexandria, hoping to find Carol before it’s too late. While together, they start discussing where they believe Carol may have gone. While it’s possible that she could have gone back to Negan’s compound to finish the job, her tire tracks point East, while Negan’s compound is West. Morgan notes how Rick has changed, and points out that he himself knows that there is no right in the world, but he refuses to let the wrong things take him under. Morgan sees that Rick is slowly allowing the wrong to do that to him.

 

Cut back to the truck of slain men, aside from the driver, one older man in the cab of the truck is also alive. He gets out of the truck, sees Hero slain on the ground, and goes to hide in the brush as Rick and Morgan are coming up to the cars. But before he goes to hide, he tells Hero to just let go, just die.

 

As Rick and Morgan come up, they see Carol’s abandoned car and all the men she took out. With Hero on the ground, Rick interrogates him as to the whereabouts of Carol before he kills him. Rick then notes that the men were Saviors and both men speculate what happened, as there is a lot of blood all over and they’re not sure whose it is. But Rick is proud of Carol, seeing that she did this to the Saviors while she still could.

 

Both men then believe she went out into the field to keep heading East, so they try to follow her tracks, knowing that in going after Negan’s compound, something bigger has started to happen. As they leave, the man that was hiding in the brush comes out and upon looking on the ground, finds Carol’s rosaries. With the rosaries in hand, he sets out to follow Morgan and Rick on their search.

 

“So you think it’s your fault?”

 

Rosita, Glenn, and Michonne pull up to the train tracks and site where Denise was murdered. Rosita knows that this is where Daryl would start, as he is carrying the burden of her death for not killing Dwight (Austin Amelio) sooner. Obviously, Rosita proves right as Michonne uncovers Daryl’s bike in the brush. While Glenn and Michonne don’t believe that he should be out here and that he has no clue as to what he’s doing, Rosita knows that Daryl needs to do this and that he can’t sit by and do nothing.

 

Cut to Daryl in the woods, hoping to track down Dwight. Unfortunately, Glenn, Michonne, and Rosita catch up to him. Daryl is now pissed off, because he wanted to do this alone. Dwight was the man that had tied him up before and taken him hostage, and even after that, Daryl tried to help him. Daryl is mad that he didn’t kill Dwight when he had the opportunity and continually beats himself up for it. Because now, with Dwight still out there, Denise was murdered with Daryl’s crossbow and that’s on him.

 

Glenn and Michonne try to reason with Daryl, because he’s their family and they don’t believe he’s going after Dwight for the right reasons. It’s not for the good of the community, but rather for Daryl to get justice. Glenn knows that if Daryl continues on this path, things are going to go bad, and pleads that they return to Alexandria. But Daryl refuses, knowing that he needs to do this and right his own wrong. As he goes off, Rosita follows him, leaving Glenn and Michonne to return to Alexandria. Unfortunately, as those two attempt to walk back to the car, they are surrounded by men. Namely, Dwight’s group has found them.

 

“People can come back, Rick.”

 

Rick and Morgan continue their search for Carol. In the field, Morgan knows that they’re on the right track as there is blood on the ground. They’re not sure how badly Carol is hurt but they know they’re close. Morgan then starts to ask Rick about what happened at the prison, when Rick had sent Carol away for killing Karen (Melissa Ponzio) and David. Morgan wants to know if the same situation had happened now, would he do the same thing? Rick has now changed his mind on the prison, saying he would thank her, because she was just trying to protect her family.

 

Morgan accepts Rick’s answer and in turn reminds him that people can come back from the darkness. There is a way. (Morgan alluding to his own personal journey after losing his wife and son.) Both men then see a farm, and a figure in the distance that looks like Carol. When they get up close, they find that it is just a walker that looks like her, so they take it down. But they’re close. The trail of dead walkers lets them know that Carol has been here.

 

As they make it onto the farm, they see a man running. Cautiously, they try to ask him to drop his weapon, but he escapes and releases a small herd of walkers onto Rick and Morgan, leaving them to fend for themselves. After taking care of all the walkers, including one that almost took out Morgan, Rick is ready to go after the man that ran away.

 

“I let him live.”

 

Morgan is eager to stop Rick from going after the man, who they determine is a potential Hilltop community member based on his weaponry, especially since Rick tells him he doesn’t take chances anymore with people he does not know. It is here that Morgan finally admits his part in keeping one of the Wolves (Benedict Samuel) captive when they invaded Alexandria. Morgan still believes all life is precious and while Rick’s face is one of shock and horror, he lets Morgan continue.

 

Because Morgan had let the Wolf live and kept him captive, while Denise tended to his medical care. Carol found out and tried to intervene. From there, the Wolf ended up knocking out Morgan and Carol, taking Denise hostage. But the Wolf changed, because in the end he ended up saving Denise’s life. In turn, Denise was able to save Carl’s life. As Morgan put it, he let the Wolf live and in turn, Carl got to live.

 

Morgan advises Rick to return to Alexandria and allow him to go find Carol. And after Morgan assures Rick that he will return once he finds Carol, Rick then shares with Morgan that Michonne did eat one of his protein bars (in Season 3) when they had returned to where Rick was from for extra guns and supplies. Morgan smiles, admitting that he knew, and both men head off in separate directions.

 

“You afraid to go back to it?”

 

When Rick returns, Abraham and him have a talk. Rick is told that Michonne is still out there and that she’ll be back in a bit, since they had to go after Daryl. Yet the real conversation is when Abraham asks Rick how scared he is about being in a new relationship after losing it to the zombie apocalypse. Both men had wives and children, and both lost their wives. But now they’re ready to start over in their new relationships.

 

Enid is summoned to Maggie and Glenn’s house, where Maggie asks Enid for a favor: she wants to cut her hair. Enid agrees to help and the audience now sees Maggie ready to face the world. The short hair getting to be her time to change with the world. The happiness of the short hair is short-lived, as Maggie then doubles over in pain. There are complications with the pregnancy.

 

“You’ll be alright.”

 

Glenn and Michonne are tied up, in the forest. Daryl and Rosita find them, with Daryl signaling for Glenn to be quiet. But Glenn is not quiet, as he starts screaming for Daryl and we’re not sure why. When Dwight comes up behind him with a gun pointed, it is obvious that this was a trap. Daryl’s need to find Dwight has placed him right into Dwight’s hands. Rosita is ready to surrender, but as Daryl turns to face Dwight, we see a shot, followed by blood splattering across the camera. As the camera fades to black, we hear Dwight say to who we assume is Daryl: You’ll be alright.

 

The Final Verdict:

 

Okay, that ending had me absolutely IN KNOTS! But first, let’s talk about Carol. I like Carol, I really do. But her need to run off and figure herself out has me angry. And why? Because her absence might actually jeopardize the other members of her group. In telling them she can’t kill for them anymore, she will get them killed. Yet I still like her storyline. I think her moral dilemma and crisis of conscience is the breakthrough that she needs in order to grow. She’s been this killer for so long and after seeing what it did to other people, she’s not sure how to proceed. If Carol keeps on killing she may stop feeling. But if she stops feeling she can survive. There’s no happy ending to this. Carol will make a choice and not all of us will be on board with it.

 

The music selection also chosen for this episode was quite fitting. I had to look up the song that was playing at the beginning of the episode, and learned that it was Johnny Cash singing “It’s All Over.” I felt that this was a clever little way for the writers to assure us that while we’re watching these somewhat safe, easy moments, they’re not going to last. There’s something brewing in the air.

 

Which brings me to Rick and Morgan. Their storyline created this beautiful dynamic that we have been missing. These two characters have had minimal interaction in six seasons, yet we see their progression. Morgan went from having some moral compass, to going absolutely insane, to regaining a moral compass, and ultimately learning how to balance the kill v. be killed scenario. Morgan has not had a group to rely on, and has endured that loss on his own. He lost his wife. He lost his son. And along the way, he lost himself. This is why he needs to find Carol alone. Because he understands the journey she is on.

 

Rick, on the other hand, has gone from being somewhat compassionate, to ruthless. In a way, he has become the new Shane. It was obvious when Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge) was still alive, as he pursued a married woman and wanted to take on the role of the man in her life. Now, he embodies the killer instinct like Shane, not allowing anyone that is not part of his family to live. His negotiation skills are limited, his compassion is waning. And if he loses another person close to him, like Carol or Michonne or his children, I fear what he’ll do.

 

The moment between Abraham and Rick was quite touching though. In Season five, we learned that Abraham had a family (wife and two children) that were hurt emotionally and physically by other men before Abraham found them and effectively ended those men. In turn, not able to deal with the repercussions, Abraham found his family had committed suicide. And while Abraham found comfort in Rosita for a while, he now seeks a deeper connection with women. He found that in Sasha and this bitter love triangle is going to end badly. I fully expect a Sasha/Rosita showdown.

 

Rick also lost his wife as Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) gave her life in Season three to have their child, Judith. Both men have suffered such a loss and now, even in times of major conflict, are finding love again. Their understanding produced such a sweet moment of reflection on where their journey has brought them. And especially, how those feelings terrify them.

 

Also, my heart is in my throat for Glenn and Maggie. Maggie, who keeps trying to be that warrior and fighter, is learning that she needs to pick those battles. Enid brings out a motherly side in her, and offers help that Maggie never realized she needed. But it’s nerve-wracking seeing Maggie in pain, and knowing that Glenn is in severe danger at the hands of the Saviors.

 

Finally, as a fan of Daryl, I’m sure most Dixon fans were screaming at their television (like me). Daryl’s need for justice has put him in a precarious predicament, one that none of us saw coming! We’re not sure whether Dwight has killed our favorite archer, or whether he has taken him out so that he can’t fight back, or even killed someone else completely. What we do know is that Daryl has become vengeful, almost reckless. He feels responsible for the death of Denise, almost reminiscent of how he felt about losing Beth (Emily Kinney). Daryl has come a long way in his emotional growth, but this emotional growth is blinding him to reason. His guilt is starting to break him down and those are the types of choices that could potentially bring him to his demise. (I really hope not. Daryl’s character has so much more to do and to learn before they kill him off.)

 

So here we are, dear readers! Next week, it’s time for the season finale and the dread and excitement in hearing these few words: “Hi. I’m Negan.”