The Walking Dead – The Lines We Cross

By: Kelly Kearney

Season 10 of “The Walking Dead” kicked off with a fiery boom! As the modern world gets further away from the survivors’ view, unexpected problems pop up… or maybe crash down to earth in a flaming ball of space technology. With no one manning our space intel, a satellite falls from the sky and with it a forest fire erupts that forces our favorite heroes to cross Alpha’s border to save everyone’s lives. How long can ASZ and the newly named Kingtop be able to respect the borders they agreed to? Not long if Carol has any say in it.

Training Day

In what was one of the best season openers of the series we find Aaron (Ross Marquand) leading a heavily armed group of fighters on the beaches of Oceanside. With their medieval style shields and weaponry, the ASZ troops are practicing their field fighting and their line formations are impressive. Training is made easier thanks to a rusted-out ship full of walkers. Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and Jerry (Cooper Andrews) man the ship’s door and allow a few of the dead to wander out at a time as moving targets for the fighters. The front line of defense is protected by shields and the archers, spear throwers and sword fighters do the killing. They all work together like a well-oiled machine, with everyone having a job that showcases their war skills. Even Judith (Cailey Fleming) gets a place in the lineup, taking after her mother as she cuts down walkers with her katana. The troops are ready for whatever threat they will face, but for now they are safe as long as they abide by Alpha’s (Samantha Morton) borders.

After the war games they all set up camp on the beach at Oceanside. Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) chat about what a good idea it was to bring everyone for a training day, including the kids. Young R.J. (Anthony Anzor), Judith and Jerry’s offspring seem to be having the time of their lives collecting seas shells and enjoying their beach day. That is until Judith finds a Whisperer mask in the sand – a reminder that Alpha and her skin freaks are always watching, even if nobody has seen them in quite a long time. This sets off fear that a threat is closer than they all thought and Aaron is ready to call for a total community lock down. Michonne overrides his panic and keeps the communities on high alert. She fears a lock down could do more harm than good and cause an uproar in their peaceful homes. She thinks the mask could have been washed up on the beach and doesn’t necessarily mean the Whisperers are back. Instead of lockdown Michonne gathers a group to go look for any signs of the masked enemies. She and Aaron go on horseback in one direction while Alden (Callen McAuliffe) and Luke (Dan Fogler) take off in another with Magna (Nadia Hilker) and Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) searching in another.

While looking for Whisperer clues Aaron wonders out loud about who the true villains of this story are. “Are we the good guys,” he asks Michonne because over the years they have learned that what is good for some can be deadly for others. Michonne doesn’t care if they are the bad guys in the Whisperers story as she only has the deadly pike line up to see that Alpha isn’t one of them. As the two are debating good vs. evil, Aaron spots some walkers on a nearby bridge and he jumps off his horse and goes on the attack. During his deadly fury he manages to cross Alpha’s border and almost gets killed by an overwhelming onslaught of the dead. Michonne swoops in to save him and then rips him about taking such a reckless chance. Aaron is tired of playing by the rules and being the good guy. His husband is gone, Jesus is dead and now so is his Mr. Nice Guy persona. He wants to strike the Whisperers first instead of waiting for Alpha to unleash her ultimate weapon. “Nice never got me anywhere,” Michonne fires back, “but smart did.”Aand Aaron is definitely not playing smart if he is tempting Alpha to use her horde. For now, they agree to disagree and meet up with Yumiko and Magna who uncovered some clues. They found a campsite littered with dead bodies and a skin hanging out to dry. Even more concerning is this skin was found on their side of the border, proving that Alpha is not sticking to her own rules.

Bird Wisdom

The group heads back to Oceanside with Michonne warning Aaron not to set off a panic in the community when he radios Gabriel with the news. Speaking of Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), he’s still with Rosita (Christian Serratos) who just had her baby. Now, along with Siddiq (Avi Nash), she has three wannabe daddies for her daughter. Eugene (Josh McDermitt) is documenting the baby’s growth, perving on her feeding times and ordering around Siddiq as if he is the leader of this Three Men and a Baby reboot. Siddiq doesn’t seem bothered by Eugene’s meddling since he’s silently suffering from PTSD after Alpha’s pike ordeal.

Elsewhere, we get a peek at what Lydia (Cassady McClincy) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) have been up to and both are trying to find their place in this new and often unwelcoming place. Lydia is learning to use a staff while Negan is the ASZ’s resident janitor and part time farmer now that he’s on work release from his cell. When Lydia mentions that they’re on alert because of a Whisperer mask he tells her to watch her back. Considering who her mother is, Lydia takes Negan’s warning to heart. According to him “people are putting on their shitting pants” now that the Whisperers are back and he tells Gabe that the fear could be the community’s undoing. He calls it his “bird wisdom,” which is just his way of saying he’s been a spectator these last few years and has seen how the ASZ reacts to a threat. Division in the ranks of leadership and how each chooses to handle it could lead to chaos. Nobody loves chaos more than Negan. After years being bored in lock up, he is practically giddy over some lively entertainment. Those skin freaks are certainly worth a front row seat to whatever hell awaits them.

Back to Michonne, she revisits her earlier conversation with Aaron and reminds him, “We have to choose to be the good guys, even when it’s hard.” She leaves him frustrated to go find her kids and what she overhears the two discussing brings tears to her eyes. Judith is telling her brother the story of the brave man who died on the bridge and cue the Rick Grimes feels! The teary mother scoops her kids up into a hug just as she spots a flaming streak across the sky. A satellite just crashed down to earth and everyone in all the communities witnessed it.

It’s A Pirate’s Life for Carol

After a quick chat between Kelly (Angel Theory), who is apparently losing her hearing, and her sympathetic sister Connie (Lauren Ridloff) we see Daryl and Dog walking towards them. The smile on the usually grimaced Daryl’s face means he’s coming out of his shell and making friends. He’s even learning American Sign language, something Connie laughs about when she jokes he signs with a southern accent. Their friendly banter gets cut short when Daryl spots Carol (Melissa McBride) waiving from a boat docking on the beach. Ezekiel is there to help his ex-wife off her boat, but their interaction is awkward and Carol pushes him aside to get swept up in an embrace by Daryl. “Did you miss me,” she asks as Daryl lifts her off the ground in a crushing hug. The two walk off together, happy to be in each other’s orbit after months of being separated.

The two are in their own little world with Carol filling Daryl in on her life at sea. The hard work has kept her mind off of Alpha and for Carol, who always isolates herself after a tragedy, her time at sea seems to have had a positive effect on her. Her good mood changes when Daryl tells her they found a mask and asks if she wants to join Michonne on a search for more Whisperer clues. She declines because she is only at Oceanside until the boats are ready to set out again. Instead of joining the search, she and Daryl go out for a ride on his bike so the two can reconnect. With the wind whipping through her long locks, she urges him to go faster through the woods until they eventually come to a clearing. Side by side, they take out a few walkers while working together to hunt for some food. Carol is just about to shoot a deer when Daryl stops her because the animal is over the border. Carol has no respect for Alpha’s boundaries, especially when the deer could feed two hundred of their people. She leaves the meal and walks off in a huff, angry that the woman who killed her son is still calling the shots. “Its just as well I left,” she says, but Daryl disagrees and asks her to come home. She jokes, “I’m a sea dog, man. Why don’t you get off my ass before I put you on yours.” He unwraps some food and offers it to her while making a crack about his best friend spending her life on a boat. She laughs at the term “best friend” and asks, “What are we? Ten? Should we have matching bracelets now?” Daryl knows she’s trying to change the subject by making fun of him, but being together at the ASZ is all he wants. Instead of home she asks him to join her at sea, but a life in cramped quarters is not for him. He has an even better idea and asks her to run away with him saying, “Take the bike and go. There must be people out there like us.” What he means is people like them that are living life and not waiting for the next fight. He wonders if fleeing to New Mexico is the answer and when Carol asks, “What’s in New Mexico?” He jokes, “People who weave bracelets,” and hands her a braided symbol of their friendship.  Whichever way you see these two, as best friends or more, one thing is undeniable – they’re meant to fight through this world together. As friends, as family, as partners or whatever their connection is a lifelong one and they are both better for it. Their talk gets cut short when they also see the streak of fire cascading down from the sky.

Lines We Cross

Daryl and Carol join all the survivors in helping to put out a forest fire from the tech invasion from space. Everyone is throwing buckets of water onto the flames while Carol, Daryl, Michonne and a few others take out walkers attracted to the commotion. It’s slow motion fiery bloodbath with the group finally managing to neutralize the fire and stop the onslaught of the dead.

Michonne orders everyone to move out of the area in ten minutes, but first they have to help Eugene collect anything from the satellite they could use. Aaron tells Michonne that crossing the border to put out the fire was the right choice for everyone, even the Whisperers. Michonne doesn’t care about what is good for them, just the safety of her people. That’s when she notices Carol and Daryl are missing. We find the two friendship bracelet bound buddies standing on a rock cliff looking down at an empty valley. It looks like Alpha’s horde is gone and the two decide today is not the day to run off to New Mexico. In fact, Daryl tells her they need to stay now and if he has to destroy the boats to force her home than he will. He walks off and leaves Carol, who happens to spot Alpha sauntering out of the woods below her. The two women stare each other down in what can only be the beginning of a war between these Queens. Carol is on Alpha’s side of the border, not that she respects those rules. The silent glaring between the two can only mean one thing…A WAR IS COMING!