The Walking Dead Recap: Them

Season 5/ Episode 10/ AMC This week’s episode of AMC’s The Walking Dead, entitled “Them,” was a lot like a regular check-up with the doctor. Not all that desirable, but ultimately necessary. We catch up with our survivors as they’re dealing with the deaths of both Beth and Tyrese. They’re running low on food, water and the will to go on. For the first time in a while, they’re presented to us as a group of vulnerable, relatable people and not the deadly, hardened soldiers we’ve come to know them to be. Out of the entire group, the three that are the most outwardly shaken by the recent tragedies are Maggie, Daryl and Sasha. The episode starts with Maggie mourning the loss of her younger sister, the last living person she knew before everything went to hell. But in a world where everything is trying to kill you, you don’t get much time to yourself. Daryl battles the temptation to revert back to the man he was when we met him five long seasons ago. The man that silently walks off into the woods doing who-knows-what to survive (apparently that includes eating worms). Sasha displays a blinding rage after the loss of her lover, then her brother, that parallels the same anger we saw in Tyrese after he suffered a similar loss.

The group seems to get more exhausted as the day goes on, with a herd of walkers following so closely that they could probably hit them with a rock. Along the way, Maggie struggles to fight a feeling of helplessness and Glenn supports her through what may be th…