In The Walking Dead recap, a major reveal, Rick still can’t find a way to trust the Alexandrians not to screw up and Morgan has to answer for his new policy….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It was just about the worst kept secret in all of television but Glenn is alive!
The episode opens this week with the same shot episode 3 titled ‘Thank You’ ended with Glenn falling to the ground, Nicholas on top of him and a horde of walkers feasting on somebody’s insides. It turns out, Nicholas’ warm guts were just the distraction Glenn needed to climb underneath the dumpster and stay there long enough until the walkers finished their dead body and then spanned out away from the fenced in area.
There’s no exact time given for just how long Glenn was stuck under that dumpster, but given his desperate search for water both during and after he was there, it seems it was more than just a day or two. Glenn crawling out from under the dumpster let out one big collective sigh from all The Walking Dead fans who were so disappointed that he died.
It’s not necessarily a good thing that The Walking Dead — a show built on the concept that anyone can go at any time — that certain characters begin to feel untouchable. Sure, Rick is that way because he’s the constant and the real central focus of the story but what about Glenn? Carol? Maggie? Daryl? At some point, The Walking Dead is going to be forced to off a lead character but maybe Glenn was just a test?
There’e a very famous bad guy coming to The Walking Dead soon and chances are he’s going to make a memorable entrance. Maybe Glenn’s ‘death’ and resurrection were a testing ground to see just how many fans would watch and then stick around for more?
Something to think about going forward.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of The Walking Dead titled ‘Heads Up’…..
He’s Alive!
So following Glenn’s miraculous survival from the horde of walkers all trying to get at him, he pops out to a fairly empty alley until a shout is heard from the rooftops — ‘heads up!’ — as a bottle of water comes flying down towards his head. It’s Enid — she escaped Alexandria before the horde arrived there and ended up on the outskirts of town and just happened to be nearby when Glenn got out from under his dumpster of hell.
Glenn chases Enid down through some buildings while trying to gather what happened back at Alexandria after he didn’t make it back. Did the walls hold up? Did the horde arrive? Was Maggie OK? Enid’s not interested in giving answers as much as she wants to just get out of there. She did her good deed for the day and gave Glenn some water, but that’s about as far as she’s willing to go. JSS (Just Survive Somehow) after all, remember ?
Enid is convinced that humanity has reached it’s extinction and the world wants to die so why not let it?
Glenn refuses to play that game with Enid and he eventually tells her that the only way to honor the dead is to keep on living. The dead only know one thing after all — that it is better to be alive. Glenn finally convinces Enid to follow him back so they can findi their friends and family in Alexandria.
So the two of them make the long walk back and along the way they find the balloons that were left as a marker for the cars leading the zombies out of town before the plan got shot all to hell. Enid takes the balloons and makes a few more from a helium tank near buy so they can use them as a distraction — or as Glenn is probably thinking as a way to let Maggie and the others know that they are alive since his flare gun is out of commission.
One side note — If Glenn made it out on his own, who was on the walkie-talkie last week asking Daryl, Sasha and Abraham for help?
Rebuilding from Within
The walls are holding up for now but as Rick notices the trickle of blood coming through one tiny hole, he realizes that something needs to be done to secure the area or as the walkers continue to gather, things are only going to get worse.
He tries to come up with a plan along with Michonne where they somehow get outside the walls and past the walkers to a car where they can then lead them away in a pack just like the original plan at the quarry. Michonne wants to include some of the Alexandrians but Rick still doesn’t buy that they are ready to deal with this. He saw a slew of them get killed out on the road and he’s convinced that putting them in charge of anything right now would be like surrendering to a death wish.
Elsewhere in town, Rick tears down some prayer circle meetings put up by Father Gabriel cause fuck that guy and then he decides to teach Ron how to shoot a gun. Ron is anxious to learn but probably not all that happy that Carl is standing over him, trying to coach along with his dad. It’s clear Ron still harbors ill will towards Carl but he’s excited to learn about shooting.
Actually, Ron is so excited to learn that he goes to the armory and steals some bullets to load the gun. The next time we see Ron he’s following behind Carl and there’s never been a clearer picture that he’s absolutely going to learn how to shoot by shooting the boy who stole his girl. Ron is either going to shoot Carl or he’s going to try to shoot Carl. Mark that down right now.
While Rick is still skeptical that anybody from Alexandria is worth a damn, Deanna has her spirits up and she’s sharing plans on a new expansion she wants to enact once the walls have been cleared of all the walkers. She wants to grow vegetables and other goods that will help Alexandria flourish, but Rick is much more concerned about the here and now.
Rosita is attempting to help the adaptation and evolution of Alexandria happen a bit faster by training some of the local townspeople how to swing a machete the proper way without getting it lodged in a walker’s head. I’m sure that can be damned frustrating. Unfortunately for all her effort, it’s Eugene who can’t quite focus while he hears the walkers outside the wall scratching and clawing to find their way in. Rosita eventually admonishes Eugene to either pick up the blade and be a man or just wait for those things to get through to kill him.
Eugene walks away with his tail between his legs but Rosita’s tough love might be the only thing keeping him alive right now.
Later, a bit of Rick’s faith is finally restored when Tobin offers to help Rick secure the wall with some wooden planks he’s building as reinforcement. Tobin admits that when Rick first arrived looking like he was allergic to soap and shaving, that they were all scared of him. In reality, Tobin realized that they should have been more scared of what was outside those walls because no one inside really had any clue until Rick and his people arrived.
Just when it looks like Rick is turning the page, he sees Spencer climbing across a ravine with a grappling hook directly above a pit of walkers. Rick, Tobin and Tara all try to save him but the line is giving way and he’s now dangling overhead like a snack just waiting to be eaten. Finally, Tara opens fire on the walkers surrounding him while Rick, Tobin and eventually Morgan pull him up by the rappelling cord.
Once he’s back to safety, Rick asks Spencer what the hell he was trying to do — he was trying to get outside, start one of the cars and drive off with the walkers following him in tow. It’s the same plan Rick had except Spencer, who wasn’t ready to do it yet, tried. Rick is irate but later apologizes to Tara for suggesting she screwed up by saving Spencer rather than risking her own live by leaning out over the tower to get a better shot not to mention the gunfire could have drawn all the walkers to that one spot, thus potentially risking a fissure in the wall from pressure of so many zombies clawing in one single space.
Eventually, Rick apologizes to Tara for his outburst and she tries to explain that this is no longer us versus them. They are all one big community and if they are going to survive they have to look out for everybody. Deanna also offers up her thank you to Rick for saving her son and while he’s not exactly looking for gratitude, it’s clear that he’s (somewhat) moved by the gesture after showing a slight crack of humanity in that otherwise gruff complex he’s been carrying around lately.
All Life is Precious
Morgan is called in for a tribunal of sorts with Rick, Michonne and Carol and asked about allowing the Wolves to escape Alexandria with weapons instead of killing them. This is particularly important because they attacked him at the RV when he was trying to stop the herd from getting back to Alexandria. Thanks to the Wolves taking out the RV, Rick was forced to run back with the zombies following him.
Morgan explains his Eastman philosophy — all life is precious — and how everyone is worth saving. Rick and the others don’t agree, but Morgan tosses a couple of examples at them where life was already too precious to sacrifice. Case in point — Morgan tried to kill Rick when he discovered his loft a couple of seasons ago. Morgan wanted him dead, but Rick knew that Morgan was worth saving so he left him alive. Morgan also explains how if he hadn’t saved Daryl and Aaron back at that car at the end of season 5 that the Wolves may have never made it to Alexandria in the first place. So which would have been worse? The Wolves never showing up and just allowing Daryl and Aaron to die?
Morgan eventually gets around to the big question — do they want him gone?
The consensus for now is that he’s worth keeping around, but Morgan is clearly on thin ice with the group. Things only get more complicated when Morgan convinces Denise to help him out with some antibiotics for the Wolf he has caged underneath one of the abandoned houses.
When Carol spots Morgan trotting out of the infirmary with Denise in tow (to get antibiotics to his captured Wolf), she realizes something is rotten in Denmark. Carol decides to follow — after dropping Judith off with Jessie and telling her son Sam some more of her new age wisdom that includes the only way to know you’re not a monster is by killing — and she eventually ends up at the house where Morgan has the Wolf stashed.
Just as Morgan is about to leave, Carol shows up at the door and wonders who he has locked in that cell inside?
Another Brick in the Wall
Maggie has been stationed at one side of the wall almost hourly ever since Glenn left and didn’t come back. Rick tries to get her down but she explains that when Glenn comes back, this is the direction he’ll be coming.
Maggie’s hope is finally justified when out of the air everyone in town sees a group of green balloons float in the air and they all know at that moment that Glenn is actually alive.
The elation of that feeling is short lived, however, because the church that had been serving as a watchtower that got plowed into by the truck with the horn that started this whole mess in the first place has been crumbling and falling apart ever since. Finally after weeks of teetering, the tower finally tumbles over and falls through the wall.
Seconds later a sea of zombies begin pouring into Alexandria and Rick is going to find out in a hurry if these people are ready to fight or like the rest of the world, just letting themselves die.
Watch a preview of the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead below
