The Walking Dead – For Blood

By: Kelly Kearney

A storm unleashes heavy winds and rains on the barely standing walls of Alexandria. Having survived on horse meat and hard labor, is no match for the storm that takes down their patched-up walls and ushers in a threat the community is not prepared to fight. Elsewhere, Maggie and Gabe managed to sneak into Meridian with the help of their Whisperer inspired horde tactic, and Daryl is there to slyly help them out right up until his cover is blown in an explosive moment that will change closes a chapter on his past with Leah and open a new, and far deadlier one. So, lets dive into this finale, because he cliff hanger will keep us guessing until the show returns in February 2022!

Follow the Leader to War!

The episode opens on the horde gathered outside the gates of Meridian. Right away Leah (Lynn Collins) notices something is off with how they’re acting because they don’t seem to be traveling like they normally do. Daryl (Norman Reedus) knows this is Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) doing and tries to brush off her. Daryl says seen them act like this before and offers to head out into the trenches and lure them away, but Pope (Ritchie Coster) sends out Reaper Wells (Robert Hayes) instead to be the pied piper to these “rotters.” Things don’t go as Wells’ had planned when he starts casually killing walkers and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in a skin mask sneaks past the dead and stabs him in the stomach. His screams unleash a hungry mob who tear him apart. His ensuing silence on the walkie talkies tell Pope his suspicions were correct; Maggie is driving that horde. It was something he assumed the minute he saw hungry wandering pack and he used Wells to prove it. Leah is furious when she realizes the man, the leader, the father figure that she trusted let one of their own die to prove a point. Pope puts the blame on God’s will, but Leah points out it wasn’t God’s decision to send Wells out to his death – it was Pope. The two go back and forth, but Leah catches the vibe that Pope is circling the drain of psychosis and heading right into a mindset even she’s never seen him in. You do not question God and it certainly seems like Pope thinks that’s his new title. It’s unnerving for her, and for Daryl who keeps his eyes on both of them while also watching the herd for any signs that his friends are okay, especially when explosions start pushing the dead back from the walls. Unbeknownst to Daryl, the Reapers had the fields around Meridian rigged with land mines and, as he watches walkers get blown to smithereens, he knows his time is running out to save his family. It’s in this moment he sets his own plans into motion when he spots Maggie and Gabe (Seth Gilliam) separating from the horde and creep their way to the back walls of the community. On an ordered sweep of the perimeter from high above Meridian’s look out perch, Daryl distracts a fellow Reaper from spotting his friends with a smoke and small talk. As the guy struggles with the lighter Daryl pounces; stabbing the guy and then tossing his body over the walls. This clears a path inside and right to the food shed he conveniently left unlocked. Once inside we briefly get clued in to how wasteful the Reapers are with the food they don’t eat before Maggie instructs Gabe on where to find a hidden gun she left behind before the Reapers drove her out. The disgruntled pastor has been assigned a sniper escapade while she deals with a way to distract the Reapers until the final kill shot. At this point the masked villains have no clue their enemies are lurking inside the walls, not until Maggie hotwires a truck and drives it right through Meridian’s walls creating an opening for the horde to pour in. While the streets fill up with the dead, Gabe uses the rifle he found to start plucking off the Reapers and walkers in the streets. Things are going well with Maggie’s plans, but not so much for Negan and Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari) who both take some shrapnel from the land mine explosions. Negan manages to help Elijah up before the walkers can snuff out the two interlopers, but after realizing his sister is dead, just like all of his friends, Maggie’s last standing warrior is really struggling to stand on his own two feet. Negan, undetected, manages to get Elijah to a safe spot at the side of the battle just as Pope orders up the heavy artillery. The Hwacha, or so they have named it, is some sort of small multi-rocket (possibly pf the supped-up bottle variety) launcher. While he and one of his underlings leaves the look-out to get the weapon of mass destruction, Daryl knows this is his last chance to test the metal Leah’s made of. He decides its now or never and reveals the truth about his relationship to Maggie and the group and how they are hiding in the horde because they’re all starving. They’ve come for the food Leah and her family stole from them, and now she has a choice: help him save his family and come with him back to Alexandria or…Well, he never gives her an or because he assumes the person he knew from that cabin is still the person looking back at him now. Daryl prides himself on seeing the good in people, but this time he was peering through rose colored glasses because he didn’t want to face the truth about Leah and who she is; maybe who she always was. Leah doesn’t get a chance to respond because Pope is back with the Hwacha, which is impressive in size and boom-power. Pope orders one of his Reapers to ready the fuse while Daryl looks pleadingly at Leah to join him and stop this madness before anymore people die. That includes her own because Pope orders the fuse lit before his Reapers can make it back to safety. Leah questions this and begs Pope to reconsider, but he screams “God will protect them!” Sure, like Wells? Leah isn’t buying this holy shield Pope thinks will magically drop from the sky, but he has gone full extremist-Kool-Aid-nightmare and tells her the Lord is now speaking through him. Oh yeah, he has lost it big time. In order to save her family Leah takes out her knife and drives into Pope’s neck! Daryl jumps to take out the only other Reaper on the platform before he can kill Leah the traitor, which doesn’t sit well with her at all. Family comes first for Leah and Daryl ruined it when he lied to her and, even worse, killed her people. She sees his betrayal as unforgivable and radios her surviving men the news about Pope but blames his murder on Daryl. She has painted a target in his back and instructs her men to kill him in sight. Daryl is stunned by her quick turn to brutality and hops off the walls of Meridian just as Leah orders the Hwacha fired up. She’s going to kill everything in their path, but Dixon most of all.

The Walls Come Crumbling Down

Meanwhile, in Alexandria the storm pummeling down on out group is a real issue for their already damaged walls. Aaron (Ross Marquand) wants a group to go out in the wind and rains to secure the community’s barrier and right away Carol (Melissa McBride) volunteers to be the fixer. Connie (Lauren Ridloff), who just got home from her harrowing adventure with Virgil (Kevin Carroll), immediately signs she wants to go with Carol proving the friendship between Daryl’s favorite people is still solid and the cave-in didn’t change a thing. Carol offers Connie a grateful “thank you” and Kelly (Angel Theory), along with Aaron and Magna (Nadia Hilker) all decide to brave the storm. Both Gracie (Annabelle Holloway) and Judith (Cailey Fleming) beg Aaron and Carol to take them along, but the two adults know what’s best for the kids. Judith’s job is to keep the other children calm through the thunder and Virgil along with Rosita (Christian Serratos) will stay behind to make sure they’re safe.

It isn’t long before the winds knock down one of the walls and walkers start to filter in to Alexandria. They’re crowding the porch, pushing at the doors and tearing at the boarded-up windows. One of them manages to grab little Gracie when she isn’t paying attention, but Virgil and Judith tag-team take it out before the girl can suffer a bite. It was a close call and it has Gracie shaken and leaning on her brave best friend. She tells Judith she envies her bravery, but Little Ass-kicker admits she isn’t always that way. She’s afraid all the time but uses that fear to be a better warrior. It’s something her mom taught her and as Virgil listens to Judith soothe her frightened friend, he tells her Michonne would be proud of her. This sets off a series of emotions written all over Judith’s face because she hasn’t heard from her mother in a very long time. Virgil puts her mind at ease when he tells her that isn’t true, Michonne exists in everything Judith and R.J. do. It’s a touching moment between the newcomer and the daughter if the woman who showed him mercy when he didn’t deserve it. The talk is enough to dry her kid tears and ready herself for a battle head, which comes to their door like a flurry of teeth!

DO Not Mess with Rosita!

Rosita takes one look at the growing threats outside the house and decides it is now or never. With a makeshift bat in her hand, she plays Louisville slugger with the rotting meat bags on the porch. She goes full beast mode, knocking them all out with the ease of any action hero protecting her family. When she rushes in the door dripping wet and full of fury she announces the obvious, “Stay away from the windows!” Aye-Aye, Captain Kick-Ass! Unfortunately, Rosita’s hard work doesn’t hold the herd of walkers off for long because just as she orders everyone to hide upstairs the door flies of the hinges and the dead walk inside! Everyone makes it to the second floor except Gracie, who is nowhere to be found. Judith can’t leave her bestie in the lurch, so she searches the house until she finds her in the flooded basement. The water from the streets is pouring in through the windows and it’s knee high with no signs of it stopping anytime soon. Judith yells for Gracie to follow her upstairs, but just as they are heading up a walker cuts them off at the pass! Now, the two girls are trapped in a flooding basement with a walker and no way out! Where is Aunt Carol and what is going on with that blasted wall?! Is Daryl and friends going to get out of the Hwacha’s line of fire? Could they make it home in time to see it all gone and their family dead too? Can Maggie’s group drive Leah and what’s left of her crew out of Meridian for good? So many questions! Find out the answers to all of them in 2022 when the final season of The Walking Dead returns for part two!