The Walking Dead – Hunted

By: Kelly Kearney

All we know about the Reapers is what Maggie told us: “They hunt at night, they are a tight-knit group of trained killer and you won’t see them coming until it’s too late.” Well, this week they prove Maggie right when her group, who set off to recapture Meridian from the masked invaders, gets separated after a surprise attack by this new threat. Meanwhile, back at Alexandria rations are low, and the people are too hungry to work around the clock patching up the community’s walls. Against Aaron’s wishes, Carol gathers a group of women to head out in search of their lost horses. Without their main mode of transportation finding food on the outskirts of their land is impossible. With a little teamwork and some natural intuition, Carol, once again, proves she will do whatever it takes to save her people, even if it puts her at odds with one of her dearest friends.

On the Hunt

After their group is attacked by the Reapers on the road leading to Meridian, Daryl (Norman Reedus) takes off after Dog while Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and the others fight their way to a safety. Cole (James Devoti) is instantly cut down by a flying Reaper blade, Elijah (Okea Eme- Akwari) takes off running, Gabe (Seth Gilliam) winds up with his hand staked to his leg and everyone else scatters into the woods, separated and alone. Maggie manages to make her way to an apocalyptic looking mall and, after setting noise traps on the entrance doors, she has a terrifying encounter with a Reaper in the shadows of a stairwell. Luckily, she is familiar with their signs and predicted the group would be hunting her. On reflex she tosses the masked killer over the stair railing and down to his death. Too bad he wasn’t the only killer lurking. When Maggie finds an injured Alden (Callan McAuliffe) hiding in the mall the two of them are attacked and it looks like it’s the Widow’s final dance with death, until out of nowhere Negan swoops in to save them both! An explosive end to the mall Reapers, but Negan’s big boom also inflicted a pretty nasty wound in Alden’s abdomen. It doesn’t look good for the former Savior turned Alexandria hero, but Maggie isn’t about to leave Alden behind to die. She orders Negan to help her half-carry Alden out of the mall and back on the road to Meridian. Negan, who from the start has been accusing Maggie of risking everyone’s lives on this personal quest for revenge, makes his feelings known about dragging an injured man through the woods and into battle. Maggie isn’t interested in his concerns and the trio continues on until they find Agatha (Laurie Fortier) fighting off a pack of walkers while trying to protect an injured Duncan (Marcus Lewis). It is clear Duncan only has moments to live and, after he makes Maggie promise to keep Agatha safe, she has no other choice but to drive a dagger into his brain to keep him from turning. Her people are quickly dying off – another clue that Negan was right about this dangerous mission, but they have no time to mourn the dead since they have a community to save. Too bad death seems to follow Maggie because, after a brief argument with Negan where she accuses him of being incapable of changing when he wants to bail on the mission, a group of walkers corners them and a fight breaks out. Alden cannot fight, so Agatha, Maggie and Negan do the bulk of the take downs. In the confusion and chaos Agatha gets bit on the arm and the walkers swarm her! Maggie failed Duncan, she failed Cole, Elijah is nowhere to be found and now she has failed Agatha too; not to mention her promise to keep the woman safe. It looks increasingly like Negan was right, not that Maggie would ever admit it. She even goes as far as to attempt to save Agatha, in a moment of panic, but Negan pulls a screaming Maggie away as the pack devours her friend. All of the fighters Maggie brought to Alexandria are either dead or missing, which doesn’t bode well for her skills as a leader. As the walkers dine in Agatha, we see Maggie, Alden and Negan manage to escape to a church where they can hold up and rest until they can figure out their next move. It is abundantly clear the injured man is in no shape to continue on. Negan tries to get Maggie to see that Alden is putting them at risk and slowing down the mission, and even Alden agrees, but she won’t listen. Alden practically begs Maggie to leave him behind and instead of listening to the man she lashes out at Negan who is basically her whipping boy and enemy bait at this point. Snapping, she blames their entire situation on him and his team up with Alpha. If he had not joined her in burning down Hilltop, they would not need to sack Meridian in search for food. While all that might be true, it doesn’t change the fact Maggie has a choice to make and Negan reminds her of it when she is done tearing into him. Since she was the chosen leader, a position she constantly reminds Negan and the others of whenever they question her leadership, she needs to quit the blame game and lead! So, she does just that and reluctantly chooses to leave Alden in the church with a bit of food and a weapon promising to come back for him if they survive the Reaper fight. With the door barricaded shut, the unlikely duo exits the church with Negan winding up his crowbar like a Lucille reboot and striking down any walker blocking their path. This twosome will have to work together if they have any hope of defeating the Reapers, finding food and bringing Alden home to his son, Adam.

Carol the Provider

While Negan and Maggie fight through their issues on the road to Meridian, Carol (Melissa McBride) is back home in Alexandria fighting her own battles of guilt and starvation. The people of Alexandria are hungry and tired and without fuel in their bellies the arduous work of rebuilding the town is unrealistic. Since the Whisperers and their horde cleansed the surrounding lands of all food they could gather and animals to hunt, the community will have to go out much further than their legs can take them before nightfall. For a successful scavenge they need their horses, but unfortunately they all ran off when Alpha’s pack descended on the town. Now getting them back is Carol’s main priority and she is planning to take a search party out to find them and bring them home. Aaron (Ross Marquand) doesn’t support this idea and is more concerned with putting the walls back up and plugging any holes that walkers or enemies could waltz on through. The community is vulnerable and they need to secure it before she takes four capable bodies out on a hunt they might not return from. Carol argues with her friend that without the horses there is no food and without food there will be no strength to do the challenging work of raising the walls. They agree to disagree as Carol, along with her new sidekick Kelly (Angel Theory), Magna (Nadia Hilker) and Rosita (Christian Serratos) take off in search of the runaways.

When they finally track the beasts down they try lassoing them, but the horses aren’t feeling it and take off into the woods again. The group of women follow closely behind until the come across one of the horses torn to shreds on the river embankment. Kelly loses it; they are hungry, desperate and running out of hope. Carol just continues to stay focused and determined to find them. Rosita reminds her that the day is quickly turning to dusk and they cannot keep up the search for much longer. Carol brushes off her concerns and continues on with Kelly, who at this point sees Carol as her mentor. The others, while not happy they might be taking another risk, decide to follow closely behind. Guilt over the cave-in and the subsequent war that destroyed two communities seems to drive Carol, but so does her endless need to keep her loved ones safe. Magna, who is a leader herself and is ready to call it quits for the day, understands Carol’s need to provide, not to mention, make up for her mistakes which Magna almost died from. She notices how hard Carol is trying to juggle numerous tragedies and still keep moving forward, so Magna decides to bury her anger in a truce-hug. Carol, who (let’s be honest) was probably expecting another one of the woman’s left hooks, falls into the embrace like she was starving for forgiveness, as well as a bit of affection.

With the hug lightening the mood, everyone heads out further into the woods. On the trek Rosita opens up to Carol about a recurring dream she keeps having about Abraham. She cannot hear what Abe is trying to tell her before he dies from a bullet to the head, not a blow from Negan’s bat. But it feels like a warning and she cannot shake it. Carol tells her to keep listening and she will figure it out. It is a nice moment between the two women, but it is even more so for Rosita and Abe. The show has done a wonderful job focusing on Maggie’s pain over losing Glen, but never gave Rosita her moment to mourn – nor has she had much interaction with Carol, someone she has lived with and fought beside for about a decade. These little moments point to the relationships we don’t normally see on screen but are left to the viewer’s imagination, and they do a solid job of reminding us of the years these people have lived, loved and lost, together. Carol offering advice and mentorship to the other women in the community makes sense; like Kelly once said in Season 10, she is the only one who can do what she does and this time what she does works because they found the horses! The women lead the runaway horses into a pen at a local dairy farm Rosita knew about, but they still cannot lasso them for the long trot home. Kelly, who is basically a horse whisperer and perceptive to equine emotions, notices the lassos are what scares them and if they drop the ropes the horses will be agreeable. Of course, it works because Kelly was clued into their vibe and wisely picked up on the fact the horses wanted to come home, just on their own terms.

Benevolence Leads to Sustenance

After Aaron tossed cold water on the horse mission, Carol and the others walk into Alexandria with their heads held high and the animals following suit, but the day isn’t over yet. As Carol heads to the barn Magna catches up to her and asks that she stop giving Kelly hope about finding her sister. Magna, like Carol, wants her people to heal and Kelly cannot do that if the woman she looks up to most keeps filling her head with false hope. Carol nods like she understands where Magna is coming from and heads off to the barn where she makes the difficult choice to slaughter one of the horses for their meat. Kneeling down on the dirty floor with the horse’s head in her lap, Carol strokes the tired mare and calms it as tears cascade down her face. It’s a bloody job that nobody else could do but Carol because in those spaces is where this woman shines. Putting everyone else above herself and always doing what needs to be done to keep her family safe, regardless of the risks, might have put them into this current mess but has also gotten them out of far more than even she could probably count.

As she sits and contemplates how she is going to blood let this trusting animal, Aaron walks into the barn and the two share a silent acknowledgement of tears and pain followed by resolve. Carol grabs a bucket to catch the blood draining from the horse’s neck while Aaron sits with her and the dying horse like a supportive friend, but also as a man who respects a woman who will eat the world’s pain just so it will never touch her loved ones. Rosita has this realization too when she sees a grief-stricken Carol washing her bloody hands while everyone else is holding onto horse meat and the satisfaction of a full belly. It is easy to blame Carol and Negan for the tragedies that befell Alexandria, but without her willingness to do the dirty deeds nobody else was brave enough to do, Alexandria would have burned long ago.