The Walking Dead – Ghosts

By: Kelly Kearney

Sleep deprivation can cause horrifying hallucinations that can lead to a serious lapse in judgement.  In this episode Carol has traded sleep and nightmares of the past for vengeance against Alpha and her Whisperers.  Things get worse when Alpha decides to punish Alexandria for crossing her borders with an onslaught of walkers at their gates. Carol is at the end of her rope, forcing Daryl and Michonne to question if a life at sea is better for her sanity then stalking the woods hunting the woman who killed her son.

49 Hours at War

In what can only be considered an editing masterpiece, Alpha (Samantha Morton) flexes her muscles and shows the survivors what they are facing when they disobey her rules. Every hour, for two days straight, waves of walkers descend upon the gates of Alexandria leaving the inhabitants battle wary and overwhelmed. The dead attack from all sides and the nonstop hourly onslaught is relentless. Our survivors put up a good fight while taking shifts to deal with the dead on their doorstep. In the end, the entire community is beaten down and furious. Eventually, newly crowned Whisperer Princess Gamma (Thora Birch) appears at the gates with a message from her leader. Alpha has requested a meeting at the border and Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) have no choice but to accept.

Alexandrians regroup to discuss Alpha’s request, but the tired residents can’t agree on their next move. The meeting at the pikes implies the walker attack was coordinated by Alpha, but Lydia (Cassady McClincy) questions if her mother is responsible. If Alpha wanted them dead, she would send the entire horde to destroy them. This hourly fight seems out of character for her. Eugene (Josh McDermitt) pipes in with some optimism and wonders if the fallen satellite and the fire could have attracted the walkers to their location. Either way, the people are divided on what they should do next. The remaining highway men, now with a female leader, wants revenge for their two friends who landed on Alpha’s pikes. The stressed-out survivors want justice, but Michonne reminds them that attacking The Whisperers would mean dealing with their horde. According to Daryl they have tens of thousands of walkers just waiting to be unleashed like some weapon if mass destruction. Alexandria has no way to fight those numbers and Michonne is not willing to risk their entire community over a bloodthirsty and badly planned out assassination plot. Until they can come up with an idea on how to diffuse Alpha’s bomb, Alexandria must play by her rules.  With the meeting over, the survivors split up into three teams to deal with the continuing attack. Gabriel (Seth Gillum), Eugene and Rosita (Christian Serratos) lead one group to defend the north entrance of Alexandria while Aaron (Ross Marquand) leads a team to protect the south gates. After two straight days of fighting many of the survivors have been injured and their capable soldiers are declining in numbers. Gabriel steps in and forces Aaron to take Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) with him and neither of them are very happy about it. Lastly, the third group of fighters are led by Daryl, Carol (Melissa McBride) and Michonne as they head off to the pikes to meet with Alpha while everyone else stays behind to protect Alexandria. Carol, who has been struggling since she returned from her life at sea, is seen popping some kind if mystery pills and packing a gun in her back pocket. She still hasn’t dealt with the death of her son Henry and, given the chance, she would happily shoot Alpha dead. Horde be damned! She’s definitely not thinking clearly and it’s probably due to the fact she’s refusing to sleep. Those peppy pills keep her awake and away from the nightmares of her son’s head on a pike.

“I Feel Nothing…”

With no other choice than to work together, Aaron and Negan tag team fight a pack of walkers that meandered out of the woods and through some very poisonous hogweed. One of the dead almost takes Aaron out, but luckily Negan found a crowbar nestled in the brush and saves the man’s life. Getting a bad Lucille vibes from his newfound weapon, Aaron demands he drop the crowbar and the two men get into a heated discussion about how Negan became the bat wielding psycho that led to so many deaths. Aaron is angry and still hasn’t forgotten about Negan’s role in his husband’s death. He wants answers, but the truth is harder to swallow than he thought. Negan explains that in this world the weak are often taken out by the strong. If one does not protect their home and family, sooner or later someone will come along and take both from them. At that Aaron loses it because Negan is basically saying it’s his fault Eric died because he couldn’t protect him. He lashes out because, if that is true, then Negan is also responsible for the death of his wife. Before the two men can take their anger to the next and deadly level a walker attacks Aaron. Negan uses his crowbar and strikes the zombie down but not before the hogweed growing out of the zombie’s body blinds Aaron. Through his blurry vision he sees Negan running away, something that Aaron mentioned earlier would be a blessing for everyone. Alone, blind and knowing more walkers are headed his way, Aaron runs towards a cabin where he assumes he can hide until his sight is restored. There he finds Negan, who again manages to rescue Aaron from a blind walker assault. The two make tentative peace as Aaron rests and Negan watches guard until it’s safe to head home.

Meanwhile, night has fallen at the border as Carol, Daryl, and Michonne drop their weapons and wait for the woman of the hour to appear. Carol stands in front of pike that held her son’s head and Daryl questions if she is okay, but how an she be? This is the first time she’s been back to the pikes and on no sleep she is truly struggling. She barely gets to process her emotions before Alpha and her pack wander out from the foggy darkness. We quickly learn that Alpha knows they crossed her border three times – once during the winter, once when Aaron attacked the walkers on the bridge and once when the satellite crashed on her land. For breaking her rules they will have to pay, but Alpha is feeling merciful and promises it won’t be with their blood. Instead, she is moving the border and taking their hunting land, something that ticks Carol off because she never supported the border rules to begin with. She yells, “This is bulls*it,” and her outrage gets Alpha’s attention. She turns to Carol and demands the angry mother show her some respect or at least fear her. After all, this is the woman who took her son’s head and controls a massive horde but Carol fears nothing. In fact, she admits, “I feel nothing at all.” That is until Alpha mentions how Henry cried for his mother as she removed his head and that does it for Carol and her patience. She pulls out her hidden gun and tries to take a shot at the woman, but Daryl manages to grab her arm, knocking her aim off. Carol is a wild card and Michonne pleads with Alpha to forgive their friend because she is a grieving mother. Surprisingly, Alpha agrees and says, mother to mother, she understands and will let the outburst go. At that she lifts one of the pikes out of the ground and tells them all to run because this is her land now. They do as they’re told but, on their way back home Carol spots three Whisperers lurking in the woods and opens fire on them. Michonne and the others search for the three but find no evidence they were ever there. Is Carol hallucinating? Is the lack of sleep and constant pill popping messing with her head? Daryl seems to think so when the group takes cover for the night in rundown school and he finds Carol is not really coping with life on land. While the two sweep the school for walkers, Carol spots a textbook and sees herself and all the children she lost on the cover. They haunt her as she hears their cries echo trough the halls. Daryl notices her mind is elsewhere and keeps a close eye on the usually strong woman.

Once the school is safe and the group decides to rest for the night, Carol offers to take first watch since she has no interest in sleeping. Daryl sits with her and tells her a story about his meth head father who thought he ran over a woman in the street only to realize he was hallucinating from lack of sleep. Carol snaps at him and says, “Daryl, I am not your meth head trucker father,” which might be true, but the fact is sleep deprivation can cause hallucinations. These caffeine pills Carol is taking to avoid her dreams of Henry are causing more issues than bags under her eyes and Daryl wonders if she wasn’t better off at sea. Especially after she apologizes for insulting his trucker father and a confused Daryl says, “My father wasn’t a trucker.” Was that entire story a hallucination or was it a dream? Nothing is as it seems.

As the group sleeps Carol sets her alarm and heads off for another search through the school. She spots Henry (Matt Lintz) bleeding from the neck and that’s when total terror unfolds. Inside the school’s gymnasium Carol gets swept up in a trap that dangles her upside down and over what she thinks is a walker. Swinging her knife the curious zombie bobs and weaves out of the away of her blade. She quickly realizes it isn’t a walker, but a Whisperer and they brought friends! At that point dozens of walkers enter the gym and Carol starts screaming for Daryl and shooting her gun at the threatening group. In her frenzy she manages to cut herself down from the trap, but lands on her own knife and the blade snaps off into her arm. Bleeding and in pain, Carol summons her inner warrior and fights her way through the swarming nest of the dead, killing every last one of them. She stands among the sea of dead and that’s when the alarm goes off. Daryl runs in to find Carol standing on a table in an empty room, alone and bleeding. Where are all the dead walkers? Was this another hallucination?

Happy Dreams of Better Days…

With Carol hurt, Daryl and Michonne carry her home and call for Siddiq (Avi Nash) to help. He, along with new doctor Dante (Juan Javier Cardenas), work to remove the blade and stitch Carol up. A problem arises when Siddiq’s PTSD is triggered by all the blood, sending him hurdling through the memories of Alpha and the pikes. He can barely help Carol, so Dante takes over while Siddiq leaves to catch his breath.

As morning comes the 49 hours of walker attacks stop and Rosita and Eugene are exhausted. Worried about her daughter, Eugene is overly occupied with protecting little Coco’s mother, but Rosita doesn’t want or need his protection. In fact, she reminds him that she was the one who taught him to fight and she is more than capable of taking care of herself and her daughter. Besides, it’s not his job to protect Coco. He isn’t her father, even if he’s been playing Three Men and a Baby with Siddiq and Gabe. This reality check leads them to the topic of their relationship and Eugene admits he’d always hoped their friendship would turn to romance. No mater how many times Rosita friend zones him he never gives up. Finally, she gets its through his head that they can only ever be friends, which hits Eugene like a sledgehammer to the heart. In what has to be the worst thing you could ever say to a person, he admits their entire friendship was just a way to get into her pants! He leaves her to go lick his wounds and passes by Siddiq, who is still struggling from the night before. Luckily, his new buddy Dante is there to offer him some advice and a few laughs, none of which really fix the situation but do lighten the doctor’s mood.

Back inside her home Carol is safe and resting from her ordeal. Finally, the woman gets some sleep. She dreams of a happier time where she and Daryl are living together, presumably married if the wedding ring on her finger is any indication. The day is bright and Daryl is at the stove cooking Carol breakfast, but our girl can’t eat eggs and toast without jam. Reaching into his wallet Daryl hands her money to go buy some from the store and just as she’s about to leave Henry appears at the table. The happy family setting ends when the alarm chimes in and Carol wakes to find a concerned Michonne waiting for her in the kitchen, sans breakfast. She informs Carol that there was no evidence of the three Whisperers ever existed anywhere other than inside Carol’s head. She wonders if perhaps it was only a delusion brought on by trauma and sleep deprivation. Insisting she knows what she saw, Carol ventures outside to find Daryl smoking a cigarette and relieved to see her up and about. She asks him if he believes her and of course he does. She may have been hallucinating conversations and dead people, but he knows better than to question is BFF. As the episode draws to a close we find out Carol isn’t as crazy as everyone thinks. In the woods, laying in a pool of blood from a bullet hole to their abdomen, we see a Whisperer die and then turn into a walker! Carol was right, there was Whisperers watching them and she shot one! Now that skin freak turned zombie could be the Trojan horse that brings Alpha’s group down!