The Walking Dead – Stalker

By: Kelly Kearney

After last week’s cave in trapping Connie and Magna beneath the rubble, a distraught Daryl goes on a mission to find another way to save his friends. What he finds is way more than he bargained for. Meanwhile, Alexandria gets a visitor and Alpha causes a distraction that brings chaos to the community.

Alexandria Has a Visitor

Rosita (Christian Serratos) awakens from a chilling nightmare that found knife wielding Beta (Ryan Hurst) leering over a sleeping Coco. Nightmares aren’t out of the ordinary for new mom Rosita, but this one wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities and she is shaken. Luckily, a new visitor at the gate gives the worrying mom something else to concentrate on, mainly Alpha’s (Samantha Morton) trap and their missing friends. According to Gamma (Thora Birch), who stands outside the gates of ASZ, she has knowledge of their friends whereabouts and claims her leader Alpha set a trap they all fell into. Father Gabe (Seth Gilliam), who is fresh off his most recent Whisperer kill, doesn’t trust the woman and asks her to prove herself by admitting to her motives for turning on Alpha. Gamma goes into the story about her sister and her nephew baby, Adam, who was taken in by the late the Tammy and husband Earl. This tough truth is enough for Gabe to allow Gamma inside their gates to map out where their friends are being confined. But first Rosita winds up a massive fist to the face just so Gamma knows they’re not so quick to trust her.

Later a concussed Gamma wakes in Negan’s (Jeffery Dean Morgan) old cell with Gabe and Rosita doing their best good cop-bad cop impersonation. Both demand truth, which leads to Gamma admitting she killed her sister to prove her loyalty to Alpha. The admission goes a long way towards Gabe trusting Gamma and he, along with the rest of the council, start planning a two-party rescue to find Daryl (Norman Reedus), Carol (Melissa McBride) and the others. Rosita, who has been struggling with freezing during fighting, voices her concerns along with Scott (Kenric Green) and Laura (Lindsley Register) about their lack of faith in Gamma. Gabe, who has really become a dark horse in this story, tells them there’s nothing to fear stating, “If we can break her, we can break others.” It will be by torture from the sounds of it. Gabe has traded in confession for pulling teeth and cutting off fingers to get to the truth. This bothers Rosita, who thinks Gabe is just hoping for a fight and in the process might be putting her daughter’s life in danger.

Meanwhile, Gamma is cooling her heels in the cell when Judith (Cailey Fleming) shows up to chat through the window – the same window where she spent her free time getting to know Negan. Gamma winds up telling Judith her backstory and even confides in her enough to reveal her true name, Mary. Judith listens to the story of how Mary and her sister got involved with Alpha and says, “You met the wrong person first. If you’d met my parents first, you wouldn’t be in that cell.” Judith always sees the best in people and Gamma is no different. Unfortunately, it’s too late for that and Gamma is now stuck between a community that would happily kill her for some payback and her own clan that will surely kill her if they know she turned on their Queen.

DARYL VS. ALPHA

As the two rescue parties gear up for the search, Gabe gets an alert via walkie-talkie claiming Alpha’s herd is headed towards Alexandria. This puts a snag in their rescue plans, forcing Gabe to make the choice to ask Rosita and Laura to stay behind and protect the community’s gate while he and the rest fight their way to Daryl and company. Rosita agrees because after that nightmare and her new mom fears she would rather stay close to her daughter. Gabe kisses Rosita goodbye and hands her his hat in what seemed more like a final kiss goodbye than your average departure.

While the rescue teams are leaving the gates, Daryl is tracking his way through the woods looking for another entrance to the fallen cave. He spots some Whisperers and then Alpha leading a herd of walkers away from what looks to be another cave exit! Connie (Lauren Ridloff) and Magna (Nadia Hilker) might have some hope after all! That hope fades when Daryl and Alpha come face to face. The two engage in an all out bloody take down that leaves Daryl squinting through veil of blood thanks to a massive gash over his eye. The two enemies trade endless blows with Alpha taking the upper hand by driving a knife into Daryl’s leg – the wound leaving him crippled at the feet of Alpha’s herd. Just when it seems like Dixon might be the next Whisperer victim, he manages to crawl his injured body to a gas station and hide from the hungry herd. Alpha is also not doing so great post-fight. She got as good as she gave and starts to hobble her way over to the gas station to finish Daryl off once and for all. As she makes a loud banging to attract her herd, Daryl is blind fighting them off and forced to remove the knife she planted in his leg. Once the blade is out, the blood starts pouring and it’s likely it nicked an artery. Daryl starts losing massive amounts of blood and becomes weaker by the minute.  Alpha, covered in blood and lying beside him, isn’t doing much better.

The Night of the Beta

While his Queen is fighting what could be her very last battle, Beta was tasked with the mission to bring Gamma home. As night falls, his plan kicks into motion. With the rescue crews out of Alexandria and a small group of fighters protecting the gate, it’s obvious that the herd was a distraction. With everyone’s focused on what’s happening outside the gate, Beta slips in undetected. His method was something straight out of a scene from the Night of the Living Dead. From a freshly dug grave (probably Dante or Cheryl’s) Beta’s hand bursts through the dirt as he climbs his way out of the burial site. There was a hidden tunnel underneath the grave and it was no doubt set up by that infiltrating liar Dante! Once he brushes the grave dirt off of his leather coat, Beta makes his way to the jail cell, slaughtering anyone in his path. When he finally finds Gamma, he orders her out of the cell. Gamma tries to tell him about Alpha’s lies, but Beta is too far gone in this cult mentality and completely ignores her. Instead, he demands she come with him and that’s when Laura shows up and tries to stop him with a spear to the throat! She orders Gamma to leave and get help, but things get out of hand and Beta smashes the former Savior into the cell doors, killing her instantly.

Luckily for Gamma we see Judith lead her to safety inside her house, but Beta follows closely behind. When he gets to the bedroom door where they’re hiding, Judith blasts him with a gunshot to the chest! Gamma, Judith and little R.J. (Anthony Azor) take off running and it’s a good thing they did because Beta was wearing a chest plate and that bullet never even pierced the skin! Unfortunately, Beta manages to grab Gamma before she can escape and that’s when Rosita shows up just in time to relive her nightmare from earlier. The two start fighting and in the commotion Gamma gets the upper hand. She places a knife to her own throat knowing Beta can’t let her die without angering Alpha. Its enough for him to let Rosita and Coco live, knowing his mission and his ultimate survival depends on Gamma living to meet her Whisperer fate.

Call Me Alpha

With Gamma now calling the shots, she and Beta leave Alexandria for the Whisperer camp and that’s when they run into Gabe and gun toting crew. The reverend had already figured out the big plan was to distract Alexandria with the herd in order to free Gamma. He holds the gun on them both, but Beta manages to get away. Gamma somehow convinces Gabe that she saved many lives by luring Beta away from their community. The reverend must believe her because no tongues or fingers were lost and Gamma gets an escort back to Alexandria.

Over at the gas station Alpha is delirious from blood loss and Daryl is too but tries to remain in control by forcing his nemesis to talk about her daughter. He tells her she drove Lydia away because she never loved her the way a child needs to be loved. This truth ignites a small spark in the half dead woman and she crawls towards Daryl asking, “What did you say?” Before she can make it all the way to Dixon we see Alpha collapse and that’s when Lydia (Cassady McClincy) shows up! It’s not clear if this sighting is a delusion or not, but Alpha does her best to remind Lydia why she bailed in the first place. She tells her daughter that they are the same and the Whisperers are just waiting for her to kill Alpha and take her place. She all but begs Lydia to end her life while also reminding her that she isn’t her mother, she is her Alpha. Instead of finally ending her mother’s miserable life, the young girl runs to Daryl and helps him to safety. She never came for her mother. She came for Daryl. He was the one person who showed her kindness and tells Alpha the people of ASZ are “Not perfect. Just human. That’s all I ever wanted. It’s what you never gave me.” With that she leaves her mother to her own fate.

The next morning Alpha wakes up to no Daryl and the realization that Lydia was not a delusion after all. In fact, Lydia left her message as proof of her existence, “Your way is not the only way.” When Alpha’s Whisperers find her, she seems to be really riding that crazy train, more so than usual. She rambles on about bathing in her enemies blood and how she’s stronger than ever, even though she can barely stand up and is laughing like a lunatic. Over and over she recites her Whisperer creed and it whips her followers up into a frenzy.

Back at Alexandria we watch Rosita leave Coco with Gabe as she heads to Hilltop to get her Beta inflicted wounds cared for. Along for the ride is Mary (A/K/A Gamma) who shakes hands with Rosita and the two make peace. I guess when you put your life on the line for someone, all past feuds are resolved.

As the episode ends, we find Daryl in the woods with Lydia. It seems she helped patch him up and while he looks rough he will survive. The archer asks the young girl how she found him and Lydia admits she’s been watching him for a while. When he asks if she killed her mother, Lydia responds with a question of her own, “If it was your father, could you’ve?” He knows the answer because no matter how abused you are, if you are decent and have a sliver of hope left in your heart killing won’t fix what they’ve done. Daryl knows the confusing nature of surviving abuse and doesn’t blame Lydia for not being able to take Alpha out. Unfortunately, that means she’s still in control and the Whisperers are sure to be gearing up for an all-out war!