The Walking Dead – Squeeze

By: Kelly Kearney

Picking right up where the mid-season finale left off, Carol’s desire for revenge lands her and her friends in a deadly trap. Now they have to crawl their way to freedom through the tight corners of a cave while steering clear of the gnashing jaws of Alpha’s hungry horde. If only Carol had listened to her best friend and fought for their future instead of the pain from her past. Meanwhile, ex-Savior leader and current new Whisperer recruit Negan is offering his new Queen his personal experience on power grabs and crumbling dictatorships. It takes a failed King with no Kingdom to spot the mistakes which threaten the Whisperer colony and trusting the wrong person could lead to their demise. With our heroes trapped and fighting for survival and Alpha distracted by Negan and his charming advice, this dark and explosive mid-season premiere left many fans terrified, heartbroken and, after one particular “romantic interlude,” physically ill.

Trapped…

Trapped in a dark cave with walkers grabbing at their feet we see Carol (Melissa McBride), Daryl (Norman Reedus), Magna (Nadia Hilker), Jerry (Cooper Andrews), Kellie (Angel Theory), Connie (Lauren Ridloff) and Aaron (Ross Marquand) are exactly where Alpha (Samantha Morton) wants them. In fact, the bald Queen of the Cosplaying Dead glares down at the panicked Alexandrians from her perch above. When she’s spotted, Carol unleashes a scream that can be felt from the bowels of the earth and Alpha just smiles knowing she, for now anyway, has won this battle.

Outside the cave the Whisperers are ordered to make sure Alpha’s captors do not break free, meaning there must be a way out and it has to be safer than Daryl’s plan to play leapfrog over the pit of zombies. One by one he leads his group across the sea of dead to the other side of the cave where he hopes to find an exit out of this dark and dangerous disaster. During the commotion there’s a couple of close calls. Kelly slips on one of the rocks and twists her ankle and Jerry almost loses his balance and lands in the deadly walker pit. Thankfully, everyone survives but things are becoming increasingly difficult no thanks to Carol, who suffers from severe claustrophobia and flies into a panic. At first she tries to play down her fear, but Daryl (who knows her best) remembers her issues with tight spaces from way back during their time at the CDC. He does is best to calm her down and understand why she keeps putting herself and others in danger. Since it appears the group will be there for the night…day? We have no concept of time or how long they’ve been in this cave, everyone decides to rest while Daryl attempts to talk sense into Carol. The two start talking about her unchecked rage, “I don’t just want to kill Alpha,” she says, “I want her to regret everything, beg for forgiveness, and then I want to kill her.” Suffice it to say, Carol eats, sleeps and breathes revenge for what Alpha did to her son Henry. Daryl understands why she’s desperate for payback but doesn’t get why she would risk her life and the lives of her loved ones for it. He especially doesn’t understand why she refuses to rely on him while risking it all for a taste of revenge. He begs her to start thinking of herself, all the people they’ve lost over the years and wants her to instead focus on their future. “We fight for our future. We don’t fight for revenge,” he says. Carol reluctantly agrees to stop taking so many risks because, to be honest, Daryl is at his wit’s end with worry over her. And as much as she hates Alpha, she cares about him and doesn’t want him to worry. Unfortunately, hate and revenge leads us to choices we wouldn’t normally make.

As the two have their emotional cuddle and cry, Jerry spots an arrow on a cave wall that he thinks might be the Whisperer’s version of an exit sign. Looks like there might be a way out after all.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer…

With the Alexandrians cooling their heels in her zombie cave, Alpha finds Beta (Ryan Hurst) to tell him the news. Not only did she trap the enemy, but she thinks they might have known where her horde has been hiding thanks to some scouts who crossed her borders. To let her people know she isn’t happy they let the enemy slide in undetected, she orders Gamma (Thora Birch) to the border to tighten up security.

The following morning Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) approaches Alpha during a woodsy bathroom break and offers her up some advice on traitors and how trust can lead to her downfall. He’s been keeping his eye on Gamma and thinks it’s possible the young woman closest to Alpha is the same one feeding her secrets to their enemies. Her post is at the border, so who better than Gamma to lead Alexandria to Alpha’s ultimate weapon? This truth doesn’t sit well with Alpha who shoots down his theory by way of a knife blade to his manhood. With that leg crossing threat, she tosses Negan into the Whisperer’s out house leaving his little Negan intact but the rest of him covered in filth. As brutal as her response is, something about what Negan said stuck and the wheels in that bald head begin to turn.

Back to the cave! Daryl, Carol and company make their way through the twists and turns of the tight crawl spaces with the latter melting down in a paralyzing panic that makes their escape all the more difficult. Even Connie chips in to calm Carol down by signing, “U R OK,” into the palm of her hand. Carol is not the only one in a panic. Jerry winds up getting stuck in one of the tight spaces with walkers grabbing at his feet. It’s a close call, but Daryl summons the strength of Hercules to pull Jerry free. Luckily, he wasn’t bit. He just has zombie teeth marks in his boots, but it was a very close call and it’s all thanks to Carol who still hasn’t learned her lesson. The minute everyone is relieved Jerry made it out alive Daryl notices our favorite wild card is missing! Apparently, during their cave crawl Kelly spotted a supply of dynamite that Carol must think is the answer to her prayers. How do you unseat a Queen? By destroying the one thing that guarantees her power: that massive zombie herd.

Clothes off, Mask on…

Speaking of Alpha, she’s had time to let Negan’s suspicions about Gamma sink in and tells Beta they might have a traitor in their family. He promises to find the woman in question and if she betrayed their Queen, death is what’s in store for her. Alpha tells him to stand down because that’s not how this tribe works. If Gamma is the traitor, he is to bring her home and to leave the punishment to her and the rest of the Whisperers. From the sounds of it, the punishment might end in a cannibalistic feeding frenzy.

As Beta slinks off to find Gamma, Alpha orders Negan to get walking and keep his eyes forward. He assumes she’s about to finish what she started with the blade and starts rambling on about his Savior accomplishments as she orders him to strip bare. Once he’s in the buff, she tells him to turn around and SURPRISE she’s naked too! Only, she kept her mask on and is now ready to repay him for his Gamma intel. It’s been a long time since Negan laid down with a woman and he asks her if she plans on keeping the mask on. Of course, she does and this seems to be a test that Negan has no plans of failing. Not only does he admit that her rotting skin mask isn’t a turn off, but in fact a bizarre turn on! The two start kissing, and it leads to perhaps one of the weirdest and most gag inducing sex scenes on television. There is not enough bleach in the world to cleanse the taste of rotting corpse sex from Negan’s mouth, but he seems to be into it and so does Alpha if the pep in her step later is any indication.

A broken promise leads to a broken heart…

After that interlude of sexual horror we head back to the cave where Carol once again ignores Daryl’s worries and takes off to use the dynamite to take out the horde. As she’s reaching to place the explosives on the platform above the herd, she slips and almost goes careening down into the pit of walkers! Just in time Daryl swoops in for the rescue, but he’s even more exhausted and terrified over his bestie’s constant reckless behavior. Tearfully, Carol wails about Alpha taking her son and wanting to end Alpha’s reign. Again, Daryl gets it but doesn’t want her to die for her revenge and his concerns are right in the mark because that’s when tragedy strikes. The dynamite slips from the ledge where Carol planted it and it explodes, risking a cave in and trapping them all once again! Everyone hustles to make it out of the exit with Jerry doing his best Hodor impression by holding the up the crumbling ceiling supports long enough for everyone to get out. Everyone that is except for Magna and Connie, who hang back to fight off some approaching cave zombies. As the two women take out the remaining walkers another explosion goes off and the cave collapses trapping them both inside and underneath a mountain of rubble. Outside the cave Kelly screams and Daryl frantically tries to dig through the boulders for a rescue. When it’s obvious the cave in is too massive to dig through alone and the sounds of the explosion would attract walkers for miles, Kelly tells Daryl to stop. They need to be alive to save Connie and Magna and they won’t be if they stick around and wait for the walkers to arrive. Angry and devastated he looks at Carol and points his finger at her, as she falls apart. Sobbing and grabbing at him she begs Daryl to blame her for killing the woman he cared about. Even after all she’s done, he still can’t take his rage out on her. This interaction between them is heartbreaking and the pain between them electrifies the air almost as if their despair is so tangible you can reach out and touch it. Daryl is simmering with rage, but he knows Carol is broken and beating her down won’t fix things. He might have been right about the risks she’s been taking but he can’t bring himself to berate Carol knowing her history and what she’s been through. Instead, Daryl pushes her to the side and tells the others to go home while he searches for another entrance to the cave. He’s not giving up and as he walks off into the woods alone while Carol’s anguish consumes her. This friendship, at its core, was seeped in trust and loyalty, so watching it crumble before his very eyes leaves Aaron stunned and Carol lost without anyone to turn to. Actions have consequences and anyone near Carol will wind up paying the ultimate price in this quest for revenge. It’s unfortunate Connie and Magna had to suffer for her to learn that lesson.