The Walking Dead – Guardians

By: Kelly Kearney

This week Henry acts without thinking and gets more than he bargained for. The smitten teen takes off after Lydia, but doesn’t get very far when he’s captured by Alpha’s right-hand man and taken hostage. Now, Daryl and Connie have to come up with a plan to rescue Henry while avoiding the herds of walkers that surround the Whisperer’s camp. Meanwhile, Michonne is dealing with the aftermath of Negan’s escape while simultaneously losing control over Alexandria thanks to Ezekiel’s fair. Leaders have to make tough choices for the good of their people and in “Guardians,” Michonne and Alpha are both put to the test by some of their own.

Lies and Rule Breakers

In a terrifying exchange between mother and daughter, Alpha (Samantha Morton) pushes Lydia (Cassady McClincy) to reveal what she learned about Hilltop from inside her jail cell. Instead of telling the truth and risking Henry’s (Matt Lintz), Daryl’s (Norman Reedus) and the other’s lives, Lydia lies and downplays the fire power and supplies behind the community’s walls. She admits they have some meager farm land and a few guns, but nothing that could take down Alpha and her group. When asked if they had any trade with other communities Lydia ignores what she learned about the Kingdom and tells her mother that the do not. After witnessing Daryl’s resistance to handing Lydia back to her mother, Alpha asks the teenager why the archer was willing to fight for her. “Did he touch you,” she asks and Lydia swears that he did not. She claims she played nice to get information and asks her mother if that was the reason she broke her own rules and came for her. Alpha gets in Lydia’s face and says, “That’s a stupid question,” as if she is mother of the year and actually cares for her daughter.

Over at the Alexandria Safe-Zone, Michonne (Danai Gurira) lashes out at Siddiq (Avi Nash), Aaron (Ross Marquand) and Gabe (Seth Gilliam) during a council meeting over Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) escape and the upcoming fair. She is livid about Aaron, Eugene and Rosita fraternizing with The Kingdom and Hilltop, which she thinks caused Jesus’ (Tom Payne) death. They ignored her rules, ones she insisted on to keep them safe. Aaron fires back that he does not regret meeting with Jesus, even though his friend died, because now they know about this new group and how much of a threat they are to the ASZ. Siddiq goes a step further to question their head of security on her refusal to attend the Kingdom’s fair. He mentions that they saw Carol (Melissa McBride) and the Kingdom is struggling and the fair is a great way to help their friends get back on their feet. He puts Michonne on blast telling the group that she spoke for all of ASZ when she refused Carol’s invite. Gabe freaks out about this because the charter says they share equal power and Michonne had no right to speak for them without holding a vote. Michonne shoots down the fair topic saying the road to the Kingdom is not safe and she won’t risk her people, even if it helps Carol and the Kingdom. Ezekiel (Khary Payton) has no interest in giving up the throne and joining ASZ, something Michonne says she can get behind. She lets them know that they can hold as many votes as they want on the topic, but she will veto it every time. Siddiq asks, “What does it mean for Alexandria, if we survive and the Kingdom falls?” She replies, “It means Alexandria survives.”

After the tense council meeting, Gabe goes home to find Rosita (Christian Serratos) waiting for him and their tension must mean he knows about the baby. Rosita tells Gabe she forgives him for struggling over the news that Siddiq is the baby’s father and she loves him regardless of his bad mood. She hopes he can see that they can still be a family, one that includes Siddiq, who is apparently fine with all of this now that has no romantic interest in Rosita.

Beta!

Back to the Whisperers and things do not look good for Henry. After tracking Lydia and her group down, Henry’s caught spying by Alpha’s enormous second in command, Beta (Ryan Hurst)! This long haired, bearded, flesh wearing giant grabs Henry and flings him up against a tree like a flea. He tells Alpha the kid is alone, but he’s been following them since Hilltop. Then, Beta puts Henry in an arm hold as Alpha promises that the man will break both his arms and legs unless he tells Alpha why he’s there. Henry makes the terrible mistake of admitting he came for Lydia. Only she’s not happy to see him after she lied to her mother about her Hilltop experience. After calling him stupid, Lydia punches a shocked Henry in the face! So much for teenage love. Bring on the angst! Alpha chooses to take Henry hostage saying, “Where there’s one, there’s more.” She knows Lydia lied or at least downplayed the details of Hilltop’s capabilities and she’s not about to engage in conflict until she has the whole story, epecially since she’s heard mutterings from some of the Whisperers about putting her own people at risk to rescue Lydia.  Alpha gathers her group and leads them to their heavily populated camp where she interrogates Henry.

Over at Alexandria, Gabe crosses paths with Eugene (Josh McDermitt) whose been working overtime to convince the pastor to forgive Rosita. “You’d be a damn fool to let her go,” he says and Eugene knows this because the woman is the love of his life. The brainiac even went as far as to create a statistics report proving that Gabe and Rosita can have a positive outcome if the pastor is cool with creating a modern family with Rosita and Siddiq. Eugene is trying to be the bigger man and put his friendship ahead of his crush. He even gives Gabe a pair of stretch pants for the pregnant woman’s “ever growing bread basket” as a sort of peace offering. After all, what pregnant woman is going to turn down leggings in the apocalypse? Eventually, Gabe takes Eugene’s advice and decides to stay with Rosita while also accepting Siddiq as the child’s father.

“Welcome Home”

Michonne finally has a one-on-one with Negan and the two trade barbs over why he left the ASZ only to return to his cell the following day. Negan, who is almost flirty with his subtle threats, mentions that he was in her house but decided to leave rather than lie in wait. Michonne has no time for friendly chitchat and gets right down to business. She accuses him of coming back because he’s a coward that couldn’t cut it beyond the walls. He left ASZ a big dog but came home a wounded one with his tail between his legs. Negan admits that the world has changed about as much as he has and maybe Michonne could change, too. Maybe she could learn to trust him enough to let him help her with keeping the community under control. He’s heard their complaints through his cell window and offers her his leadership expertise. Just like Rick thought, he can be more than their prisoner. He can have a purpose and could be helpful to her and the community as a whole. He pleads with the woman to consider it but, instead, she orders for his cell window to be sealed and storms off to talk to Judith about why she’s been hanging outside his cell. The answers she gets from her daughter are hard for Michonne to swallow. Judith (Cailey Fleming) likes Negan and sees him as more than just a murderer. In fact, he’s one of the few adults in the ASZ that actually listen to her. Shocked, Michonne thinks Judith is being naïve and insists he’s the same man he’s always been…dangerous. Judith goes to her room but not before she leaves her mother with a question to ponder. If Michonne could change so much after her losses, why couldn’t Negan?

A Challenge for Power

Elsewhere, Daryl, Dog and Connie (Lauren Ridloff) are hot on the trail of Henry, who at the moment, is watching Beta skin a walker for Lydia’s new mask. While watching that gore-show he’s also listening to Alpha explain The Whisperer’s ways. It’s all about adapting to their surroundings. The strong survive and the weak become walker food. They’ve managed to evolve so their kind can thrive in this new world ruled by the dead. Her speech gets interrupted by a disgruntled couple, angry over the fact she broke her own rules. She sacrificed two of their members for Lydia and that cannot be ignored. A challenge for the Alpha role is how this works, but the current leader isn’t about to give up her reign without a fight. Alpha laughs in the man’s face as Beta grabs him, pressing a knife to his throat. Then, Alpha accuses his girlfriend of plotting against her and when the woman turns her back Alpha takes a razor-sharp wire from around her wrist and wraps it around her neck. In one quick and bloody yank, Alpha cuts the woman’s head off, hands it to her boyfriend and then stabs him in the gut! No wonder she is their leader! This woman is a complete savage! After the beheading, the challenge is over and Alpha remains the queen of her people.

Chaos, Death and The Fair

Back at Alexandria, the Judith talk must’ve had an effect on Michonne because it’s not long before she’s knocking on Aaron’s door with big news. If the council wants to vote on the fair she won’t veto it. The community agreed to a charter and she won’t stand in the way of their budding democracy. The next thing we see is a brooding Michonne sitting in a barn as all of Alexandria packs up for the big fair. The vote to save the Kingdom is a “yay” and Michonne and Aaron both hope they won’t regret it.

With the final minutes winding down in the episode complete hell breaks loose when Alpha decides to test Lydia’s loyalty by ordering to her kill Henry. If the she refuses then Beta will kill them both. These are not choices and Lydia realizes this. That’s why she takes a knife from her mother and just as she’s about to plunge it into Henry a walker herd bombards the camp courtesy of Daryl and Connie! Not only were these two tracking Henry, they were also rounding up walkers and leading them right to Alpha’s camp. The scene is total chaos with the Whisperers losing many of their own to the herd gnashing, gut ripping teeth. Distracted by the total carnage unleashed in her people, Daryl and Connie manage to rescue Henry and Lydia from Alpha thanks to the walker skins they wore to blend in! The Whisperers aren’t the only ones able to adapt to their surroundings as Daryl and Connie are fast learners and beat Alpha and her people at their own game!