In The Walking Dead recap, Daryl looks for revenge as Rick and Morgan go searching for Carol, who has left Alexandria for good….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It’s one week until The Walking Dead finale, but that doesn’t mean the penultimate episode for season six didn’t leave us all with a lot of questions, a hell of a lot of bloodshed and a cliffhanger that has every Daryl Dixon fan living on the edge of their seats for the next seven days.
This week’s episode showed Carol’s planned exit from Alexandria while Rick and Morgan go on the hunt to bring her back despite her wishes that no one comes looking for her.
Meanwhile, Daryl is still clinging onto the regret he feels over not killing Dwight when he had the chance and now it cost Denise her life as a result. In fact, Daryl was so enraged this week that he went tearing off on his motorcycle as a one man hunting party to track down Dwight and his compatriots to seek vengeance over Denise’s death.
Carol leaving and Daryl going after Dwight not only left them exposed, but it also forced Rick, Morgan, Glenn, Michonne and Rosita to track them down — and they all ran into trouble of one kind of another while leaving Alexandria exposed to the Saviors, who are drawing nearer as each week passes.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of The Walking Dead titled ‘East’….
She’s Gone
As the episode begins this week, Glenn and Maggie celebrate their homecoming with a hot shower while Rick and Michonne share a morning apple to replenish after what we can imagine was a busy night. All seems right with the world until Daryl demands the gates be opened as he roars off into the distance with his motorcycle, crossbow and a hell of a lot of determination to find Dwight and the other Saviors who are responsible for killing Denise.
Daryl’s hasty exit forces Glenn, Rosita and Michonne to arm up and go after him to ensure that he not only comes back alive but he doesn’t get into a situation where there is no escape.
Minutes later, things go from bad to worse when Tobin shows Rick the note left behind from Carol that says she’s left the community and doesn’t want anyone to come looking for her. It seems Carol made her escape during a shift change in security and she took one of the new cars recently captured for Alexandria so she really is gone.
Morgan declares that he’s going to go after Carol and Rick joins him on the journey. How many of these folks make it back alive remains to be seen.
A Force of Nature
Carol barely makes it out of town before she runs into a pick up truck full of Saviors, who don’t pass her by without a hail of gunfire taking out her tires and peeling her off onto the side of the road.
The Saviors inside the truck attempt to question Carol but they also reveal a lot of information along the way — including the fact that they know where Alexandria is and they’ve already scouted the entire community from a distance. Unfortunately for all the ways the Saviors have been smart about plotting an attack against Alexandria, they make a key mistake in underestimating Carol, who once again plays timid for the sake of lowering their defenses.
A moment later, Carol blasts through the truck with a machine gun hidden inside her coat. Carol finishes off another member still alive, but one just happens to get away — something tells me we will see him again.
The important part is Carol has now managed to wipe out at least four more Saviors in one fell swoop after begging for them to just let her go along her way. Carol really wants to practice Morgan’s philosophy that all life is precious but she’s always lived by an even more important motto — kill or be killed.
An undetermined amount of time later after Carol’s latest killing spree, Rick and Morgan happen upon the scene where they find the group of dead Saviors. Carol is nowhere to be found, but it lets Rick and Morgan know that they are on the right track. Rick also comments about the people who keep underestimating Carol and how she is just a force of nature — and this is why she’s so necessary to Alexandria surviving when the Saviors finally come knocking at their front gates.
A Dish Best Served Cold
Daryl’s thirst for vengeance makes his blood run hot, which is the exact state he doesn’t need to be in while hunting for Dwight and the other Saviors who are responsible for killing Denise.
Glenn, Michonne and Rosita are able to catch up to him on the road but it’s clear Daryl doesn’t want anyone interfering with his plans to kill them all. Amidst his diatribe about paying these people back for what they did to Denise, he accidentally convinces Rosita that she should go along with him on the hunt.
Glenn and Michonne don’t agree with the idea and they venture off into another direction to head back to the van to drive back to Alexandria but before they get very far, gun men appear from behind the tree line and a second later Dwight makes his reappearance with a 9mm pointed directly at them.
Daryl and Rosita clearly went the wrong direction if they were looking for Dwight and his men.
One Man Army
Rick and Morgan continue to look for Carol when they happen upon what looks like a horse barn and they spot a walker who looks like it could be their friend. Thankfully, the zombie isn’t Carol but in the distance they spot a person by the barn. Rick demands that he stop moving, but he unknown man says he’s just looking for his horse.
The two men give chase but just when it looks like this passer by is going to catch a bullet, Morgan pulls Rick’s arm down, making him miss.
Morgan asks Rick about his journey to find Carol after he banished her for what she did at the prison when she killed two people who were sick with the flu before burning their bodies. Rick says now looking back he wouldn’t have punished Carol — he would have thanked her.
Morgan then explains to Rick what actually happened with the Wolf he knocked out and captured and how he still abides by the idea that all life is precious. He explains how he kept the Wolf imprisoned while trying to appeal to his humanity and Morgan knows it worked because after the zombies crashed the walls of Alexandria, the man proved his worth. The Wolf kidnapped Denise as a hostage but then did everything in his power to save her before he was torn about himself.
Morgan knows that no one is truly lost and everyone has a chance to come back. That’s why Carol returned to the fold, how Morgan regained his sanity and how everybody deserves a second chance. Morgan then tells Rick that it’s now his mission to find Carol and that he should return to Alexandria without him.
Morgan promises to search for Carol until she’s found but if he never returns, don’t send anybody to look for him because he’s truly gone forever. Rick agrees before heading back to Alexandria minus Morgan and Carol, who are now destined to find each other or never get found again.
You’ll Be All Right
Rick arrives back in Alexandria where he’s greeted by Abraham, who has been on watch ever since he left. Abraham and Rick talk about the emotions they’ve both been feeling lately for a couple of special women and if that makes it that much harder to leave and that much harder to deal with loss.
Meanwhile, Maggie has Enid give her a serious haircut because she says she no longer wants anything to impede her from reacting and stopping someone coming after her. It appears Maggie is turning into Carol following their harrowing experience at the slaughter house a week ago.
The bad news is once the haircut is over, Maggie doubles over in pain as her pregnancy takes a decided turn for the worse.
Back in the woods, the Saviors have Glenn and Michonne tied up, bound and gagged as they plan their next move. Daryl and Rosita approach from the distance, looking to get the drop on the bad guys but Glenn and Michonne both motion towards their friends in the woods like something bad is about to happen.
A second later, Daryl feels a gun pointed at his cheek and Rosita has one on her back. Dwight and the other Saviors got the drop on them but this time instead of missing with a crossbow, he takes a shot at Daryl with his gun as blood splatters all over the screen.
“Hi Daryl. You’ll be all right,” Dwight says to Daryl before shooting him, blood splatters and the scene fades to black as the credits roll.
Daryl got shot but all signs point towards his survival — for now — but we’re quickly learning that the Saviors aren’t just another group of psychopaths on a thrill kill mission. These folks are well trained and judging by the sheer numbers we’ve seen thus far, there’s a lot of them.
And next week we will meet the worst one of all because Negan will finally arrive on The Walking Dead for the first time and if you thought Carol was a force of nature, just wait till you get a load of this guy.
Zombie Bits
— Did you notice the gun that Carl picked up at the start of the episode? It’s one of the weapons captured from the Saviors and it looks like a barbed-wire baseball bat inscribed into the handle. Kind of like Lucille?
— The song that opened the episode was “It’s All Over” by Johnny Cash. A sign of things to come perhaps?
The Walking Dead 90 minute season finale airs next Sunday at 9pm ET on AMC but take a look at a preview below with another look at Negan and his best girlfriend Lucille.
