Season 6/ Episode 5/ AMC
This week’s episode is when the group starts to become whole again after splitting up to take on the herd of walkers in the quarry. It starts off with Deanna working her way up to the top of the wall to visit her late husband’s memorial and get a bird’s eye view of things. She sees Michonne telling Maggie that Glenn got left behind and spots Rick running towards the gate. He’s being followed by a group of walkers and even throws his body into one that was blocking his way before making a mad dash to the finish line.
By this point, there are enough walkers surrounding Alexandria to stack up on the walls 20 deep (in Rick math). He takes it upon himself to motivate the others by saying they’re safe, that this half of the walkers will get lured away like the rest and all the missing people will come back. As he starts to lose the crowd, Aaron interrupts and reminds everyone that the walkers were coming regardless, but Rick got half away. Then he confessed that the Wolves most likely found Alexandria when he got caught in a trap with Daryl at the end of last season and he left his backpack behind. At a loss for words, Deanna walks off from the group.
Jessie adds the body of the Wolf that tried to hill her to the growing pile of bodies and starts to dig her a grave until Rick reminds her that they don’t bury murderers inside the walls. She looks around and points out that they don’t really have a choice because they can’t go outside. So Rick suggests they wait until they can.
Back at the pantry, Olivia, the same woman who was in charge of the armory, is also in charge of the food. You know, the one who hid in a closet in a room full of guns and didn’t think to grab one? Well, now the people of Alexandria are determined to grab any food they can so they can at least not be hungry in what they imagine to be their last days. They (verbally) force their way in and start to stock up on canned goods until Spencer intervenes. The residents try to ignore him and blame him for leaving the gate open in the past. He owns up to that, but also reminds everyone that an 18-wheeler would’v likely crashed through their walls if he hadn’t shot the driver. The residents reluctantly put the food back.
Aaron walks around the neighborhood and sees the residents writing the names of presumably dead residents on the wall, ending with Nicholas ad Glenn. He looks back and notices Maggie, who could see the memoriam, packing up. He follows her to the armory and figures out her plan to make it out and go look for Glenn. But he lets her know how many things could go wrong and why it isn’t wise. But she reminds him that there’s no way he could stop her. Instead, Aaron lets her know he’ll help her and show her a safer way out.
Deanna’s in the middle of an existential crisis after the loss of her husband and the growing risk outside of the walls, but has an epiphany and starts drawing up plans for what Alexandria could look like one day with crops, livestock and more. She looks up in pride and hears a glass break. She goes to the kitchen to discover a drunk Spencer. It turns out he only forced everyone to leave the pantry so he could raid it alone and raise less suspicion. He admits that even he thinks they’ll all be dead soon and blames Deanna for giving everyone a false sense of security instead of acknowledging the real risks in the world. Spencer storms out after Deanna starts to pack up the food he stole to take back.
Carl asks Ron if he’d seen Enid. The tension in this love triangle gets more tense every episode. Carl offers to go over the wall to save Enid, but Ron lets him know he won’t let him go to rescue his girlfriend and the two get in a fight after Carl tries to walk off. Ron says that he’ll tell Rick if Carl goes and that’ll eventually lead to someone’s death after more go out to find him and Ron considers this his way of saving Carl’s life.
Back at the “houspital,” Denise reads up on how she could help Scott. After she gets frustrated, Tara walks in to check on her and remind her that she’s doing good and trying to help. She reminds her that everyone’s afraid and leaves her to try and find a way to help Scott.
Jesssie walks by a neighbor’s house to find that she’s committed suicide and already turned. Jessie opens the door and kills her, then telling some of the onlooking Alexandrians how she’s finally come around to seeing things as they are.
Aaron takes Maggie to a tunnel that will lead them to a sewer so the can get past the walkers. Maggie explains that she’s going to find Glenn for closure. If he’s alive, he’ll need her help. If he’s dead, she’ll need to know. Aaron tells her that he also feels the need to go to make up for the deaths his mistake caused. After moving some debris from a hole, two walkers covered in “mud” (we’ll call it that for now) wake up and attack them both. They both almost die, but Aaron is able to kill them both. Maggie tries to send him back after he hits his head until Aaron reminds her that he just saved her life, twice. He tells her to lead the way and they keep going on their journey through the sewers (which look nothing like they did in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).
Denise reads something in a massive textbook and is able to draw some kind of ooze out of Scott’s wound. His mile-a-minute heart rate instantly drops to a relatively normal pace because “tv logic.” She walks out and kisses Tara. The two debate on whether or not it’s the end of the world and Denise admits “being afraid sucks.”
Ron goes to tell Rick that Enid went over the wall and Carl almost went after her. After finding out that Carl is still at home, Rick decided to teach Ron how to shoot, against Jessie’s wishes.
Back in the ninja turtle-less sewers, Maggie and Aaron find an exit, but it’s quickly covered by walkers. Maggie accepts that she won’t be able to go and find Glenn after all because all of the walkers waiting for her. She regrets burning his picture a couple of seasons ago because she thought they’d always be together and admits that she just wants to see his face but probably can’t. Oh, and she finally admits that she’s pregnant. But that shouldn’t be a surprise because I told you that like four episodes ago.
Jessie brings her son some cookies but only meets him halfway up the stairs. He’s too terrified to go downstairs because that’s where the world’s changed. He won’t even meet her halfway up the stairs and goes off to his room. She leaves them at his door and walks away.
Deanna walks through Alexandria and replays her conversation with Spencer in her mind when a walker walks up and attacks her. She uses a broken bottle and repeatedly stabs it in the chest – that’s admittedly as high as she could reach. Now look, I’m all for letting out your frustrations on something that can’t even feel it. But do that after removing the threat! Deanna stabbed the walker in the chest 25 times – I counted – while it never stopped trying to eat her. It took Rick to run up and stab it in the head and explain that it was one of the Wolves that Carol killed and couldn’t find.
Deanna then tells Rick she wants to live. Rick tells her that she needs to lead her people and she responds by saying what they need is him.
Maggie and Aaron stand on top of the wall and look out over the area. Maggie walks off to wipe Glenn’s name off of the wall while Aaron does the same for Nicholas. Not sure if this is a bad omen for Glenn’s fate because we KNOW Nicholas is dead. Aaron drops a hint to Maggie and says that Aaron/Erin can be a good name for a girl or boy.
Spencer walks up to a crying Rosita to relieve her of wall duty. She thanks him for taking out the truck driver. While standing alone on the wall, Spencer eats some of the food he stashed away from his personal raid.
At the end of the episode, Rick walks in to open up to Jessie about his own doubts. He’s worried about everyone that’s still outside the walls and he wishes everything was better. The two talk about hoping that there’s still potential for more in the world as they share a kiss in the open garage.
Meanwhile, Deanna may be losing it because she went up to the gate that’s holding off the walkers and got them excited just to walk off acting as if she accomplished something. The last frame shows blood leaking through a small hole in the walls, possibly warning us that the walkers will eventually break through.
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