The Walking Dead Recap ‘Spend’: These Are Not Good People

In The Walking Dead recap, Rick and the survivors find out a strange way of how Alexandria treats those in trouble and another member of the group meets their demise….

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

When the survivors made it to the Alexandria Safe Zone it served as a slice of hope in an otherwise abysmal world, but it was clear from the very first run Glenn went on with the leader’s over privileged son that the people in this town had no idea what it was like to make it outside of their walled in community.

The people in Alexandria felt safe and secure because there were 20-foot high walls on every side of this quaint little town, but rarely gave a though about what it would take to maintain it and even less of a notion what it means to truly protect it. That’s not even discussing why the people in Alexandria were looking to find new residents — it’s apparently because they don’t entertain the idea ‘no man left behind’.

Several stories converge in this latest episode titled ‘Spend’ as a few of the survivors find out how Alexandria reacts when walkers attack and a few others discover the pressure cooker currently occupying at least one house inside the walls. And finally a new member to Rick’s group turns on the rest in an attempt to ‘warn’ the people of Alexandria just what’s in store now that they’ve allowed the coyotes to have free range of the chicken coop.

With that, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘The Walking Dead’ titled ‘Spend’:

The Normal Life

The survivors are starting to settle into a somewhat normal routine called life inside the gates of Alexandria. While last week showed Rick getting his constable on, this latest episode focuses in on some of the other members of the group finding out how work will treat them while becoming more and more a part of the community.

Darryl’s brief appearance this week is riding out of the front gates on his new motorcycle along with Aaron in his car as they begin efforts to find new members to bring back to Alexandria. Abraham is now part of the construction crew tasked with gathering building materials to help extend and strengthen the walls of Alexandria.

Eugene finds a purpose as a technical advisor to help the town in a moment of need when the solar panels that give the town electricity break down and they need his help to find micro inverters to get the power back on. As much as he doesn’t want to go along, he’s forced to ride on a supply run along with Aiden and Nicholas as well as Glenn, Tara and Noah. Aiden says a heartfelt goodbye to his parents before going back on the road again and this serves as another not so subtle reminder that bidding farewell this way pretty much seals your fate down the road.

Speaking of Noah, he’s looking at another job down the road already after a morning oatmeal breakfast with Reg where he discusses his desire to learn how to build things. Reg (for those that may not remember) is Deanna’s husband and the architect responsible for helping to build the walls around Alexandria in the first place. Noah wants to pick his brain on how to build things so he can help out down the road. Reg knows this is a good sign because that means Noah is looking at Alexandria as a long term solution and not another community just waiting to be overrun by zombies.

As a gift, Reg hands Noah his journal where ‘he writes everything’ as a way to document what’s going on in the zombie apocalypse and a way for the newcomer to jot down all his new learning lessons as he becomes an apprentice in the architecture business. Unfortunately by the end of this episode, Noah doesn’t even get to pretend to be an architect before that long range planning and hope bites him on the ass (and neck and face and, well you get the point).

Carol is still rocking the cardigan like nobody’s business but she has a visitor today as little Sam comes calling and asking for more cookies. This little guy apparently doesn’t get scared out of his mind when the short-grey haired lady threatens him to be eaten alive by zombies if he tells his mother that she stole some guns. She’s ready to shut to door on him, but Sam convinces her that he can steal some chocolate if Carol will bake him some cookies. She agrees and off he goes to find the supplies. This kid really wants some fucking cookies.

And then there’s Rick — who just happens to be walking by Jessie’s place while she cleans up the remnants of her owl sculpture (you know the one Rick broke two weeks ago). Apparently this thing was doomed since jump street, but now it’s been completely trashed. Rick decides he’s going to play cop and look into it because what better does he have to do that day?

Unfortunately he comes up empty when asking around town, but he does get a visit from Jessie’s husband Pete, who shows up three sheets to the wind with a beer to share with the new constable. Rick politely declines before Pete stumbles over a few more words and sentences on his way out the door while poking the bear and asking about the former sheriff’s dead wife. Pete promises that he’s going to be friends with Rick because they don’t have any other choice. Well Rick has a choice but more on that later.

Zero Days Without an Accident

At the construction site, Abraham is starting to acclimate himself to his new job and crew as just another guy helping to build some walls. Tobin is the man in charge as they gather supplies and materials to begin construction on an expansion of Alexandria.

Before the group can get everything together, a pile of walkers come out of the woods and descend upon the workers after one of them leaves to go pinch a loaf. Tobin and the rest of them start to fight off the zombies as best they can, but as numbers start to increase it looks like the native Alexandrians are ready to run for the hills. Things go from bad to worse when the lookout — seated high above and perched on top of a bulldozer — gets dropped to the ground when one of the men trying to shoot the zombies accidentally hits the hydraulics instead. She’s trapped and no one is going in to save her — except for Abraham.

He goes HAM on all the zombies with guns, chains, sticks and pretty much anything else he can get his hands on. Abraham even allows a smirk to creep across his face because killing zombies is his business and brother, business is booming. He saves everybody from certain death while also realizing just how bad things in Alexandria could have gotten considering he just saw their game plan in action — when someone gets into trouble and things are looking dire, run away and it’s every man or woman for themselves.

When the dust settles, Abraham is feeling like a million bucks and he agrees to watch over everybody while they finish the work they came to do before sun down.

Back at camp, Tobin reports to Deanna and Reg and tells them the news. Abraham not only saved their lives but he took over the construction site and gave them the security detail necessary to get the job done. Tobin tells the leaders at Alexandria that Abraham should be the new man in charge of this job detail because he’s not only brave enough to make sure no one dies, but he’s got a leadership quality that just begs for work like this. Deanna and Reg agree and Abraham joins Rick as another man of authority in Alexandria.

Worst Supply Run Ever

Aiden, Glenn, Nicholas, Tara, Eugene and Noah head off to a local town to find the micro converters to get Alexandria’s power up and running again. Instead of acting like an entitled douchebag, Aiden actually listens to Glenn this time as they head to the warehouse to find the necessary electronics but not before properly checking to make sure there isn’t a herd of zombies ready to attack as soon as they get inside.

The sweep proves fruitful — the zombies are either outside or locked behind a secure gate inside the building. Eugene and Tara go to find the micro converters while he whines about already pulling his weight by convincing the group to go to Washington D.C in the first place while extolling his virtues once again as the biggest coward to ever walk the Earth. Tara says he still needs to do a lot more and start to man up at some point.

Everything’s going well until of course it isn’t.

A walker appears wearing body armor and a riot mask just like Glenn owned once upon a time and starts lumbering towards Aiden. He puts bullet after bullet into the zombie but he just keeps coming. Finally, Aiden fires a round into its leg to put the zombie on the ground before firing off rounds to try and finally kill it. What Aiden doesn’t notice and Glenn is a split second too late to warn him about is the military man who died and came back to life still had a live grenade on his belt and one of the bullets nails it and blows everything to smithereens.

Aiden gets launched into a broken shelf where he’s impaled by two different implements. Tara gets knocked down and she’s bleeding profusely from the head and the mission to save them all is now up to Glenn and Noah because Nicholas is a gigantic coward as well, who is ready to run back to the van and just get the hell out of Dodge (no pun intended).

Thankfully, Glenn strategizes a way to get everybody to safety as Noah swoops in to save Eugene and then they help get Tara back to another room so they can tend to her. Eugene knows Tara won’t survive for very long without actual medical assistance and Glenn figures out that despite Nicholas’ willingness to leave Aiden for dead, he’s actually alive but still impaled on the shelves after the explosion.

To make matter worse the big bang sent every zombie within hearing distance towards their direction.

Glenn and Noah try to save Aiden, but to no avail. He’s stuck with metal and wooden rods shooting through his shoulder and leg and there’s no way they can pull him free. Before Glenn leaves, Aiden tells them the way they’ve always done things in Alexandria in the past. Whenever someone was in trouble, under attack or seemingly cut off, the people would just leave them behind no matter what the odds were that they could actually be saved. Glenn’s horrified but it starts to make sense to him now because Aiden also confesses that the people in his last supply group that were killed didn’t get eaten because they panicked — it’s because he did and in his rush to run away, they were sacrificed.

Meanwhile, the zombies start to break into Eugene’s room with Tara and he finally decides this is the moment where he will pull his weight. He tosses Tara over his shoulder and kicks open the door before firing off round after round, taking out at least two zombies before reaching the van with his injured friend. For a moment, you could almost see Kenny Powers merge with Arnold Schwarzenegger and it was beautiful.

Back inside, Glenn and Noah get trapped in a revolving door with Nicholas on the other side of them. The three men are barricaded on each side holding the door closed with their feet as the zombies begin piling in to try and get to them.

Eugene mans up yet again when he pulls up in the van and starts honking and playing dubstep music as loud as the stereo will go (the only use for this kind of music even in a post apocalyptic universe). A bunch of the zombies give chase, which opens the door for Glenn, Noah and Nicholas to escape. Once again Glenn is the man with the plan, but he forgot he has a gigantic coward on the other side of the door because as soon as he allows Nicholas enough space to grab a gun and save them all, the Alexandrian just makes a run for it. At the same time, the opening in the defenses leaves enough space for the walkers to break through and get to Noah.

The poor guy gets dragged out of the revolving door by his legs as he begs Glenn ‘don’t let go’. Seconds later, Noah is ripped apart, from shoulders to mouth to neck, in one of the most gruesome deaths on ‘The Walking Dead’ to date. To make matters worse, Glenn is still trapped on the other side as he watches his friend get eaten alive just inches away from him. As Noah is torn to shreds, the journal Reg gave him falls out of his pocket and the first page entry shows the only thing he ever got to write down — ‘this is the beginning’.

For Noah, it’s his end.

Eugene is trying to make his escape but Nicholas heads him off at the pass and tries to steal back the van and return to Alexandria. Out of nowhere, Glenn shows up and blasts Nicholas before throwing him in the back of the fan. They head back to town down two members of the group including the leader of Alexandria’s son as well as Noah, who leaves us after only joining the show earlier this season.

These Are Not Good People

Early in the episode we find Father Gabriel at the makeshift church the people of Alexandria have put together hoping he would serve as the new pastor in town. Gabriel is still struggling to find sense of this world and he ends up tearing the Bible apart because maybe the words just aren’t giving him the answers he seeks any longer. His moral conundrum is only worsened when he finds a basket of strawberries left for him by one of the people in Alexandria with a note attached welcoming him to town.

Gabriel can’t take it anymore and he races off to Deanna’s house to make a confession.

Alexandria is a paradise and they’ve allowed Satan to slip right through their front doors. The devil in this case is Rick Grimes and the rest of the survivors. Gabriel speaks about the horrible atrocities he’s witnessed as part of their group and he believes Rick and the others will end up doing the same thing here in Alexandria as they’ve done everywhere else. Wherever Rick and his survivors go, death will certainly follow close behind.

While Gabriel is making his ‘confession’, he doesn’t see Maggie in a close by room snooping on his every word. Needless to say she’s shocked at what she’s hearing and maybe it’s time they reconsider this guy as part of the family.

Before Deanna can make any decisions, a shriek is heard in the distance and while we never see it, safe bet is the supply van has returned.

Across town at Carol’s makeshift bakery, little Sam is trying to get to know her through a series of questions about her love of cooking. She shuns him at every turn until he finally asks why she took the guns. Carol explains that the guns were necessary because you never know when trouble is lurking around the corner and they needed the weapons to make sure they were always safe.

Sam then asks Carol for a gun of his own. She finally opens up and realizes that Sam is the one who broke the owl sculpture in a moment of rage and the gun he wants so badly is for his mother. Without actually saying the words, Carol figures out the reason Sam is clinging to her side is because he wants to get away from home and he needs to the gun for his mother Jessie because Pete aka his father is an abusive drunk.

Carol pays them a visit and one very brief encounter with Pete tells her everything she needs to know. She lived in Jessie’s shoes for years and was never able to break free of her husband’s never ending cycle of abuse.

Carol decides it’s time to take this matter to the constable in town to allow him to handle what she believes is a very serious domestic violence issue.

She tells Rick that Pete is hitting Jessie and Sam and he has to stop it. The only way to stop it? “You’re going to have to kill him,” she says as if there is no other alternative. Rick doesn’t necessarily flinch, which means in that moment — no matter how fleeting — he’s starting to think this doesn’t sound like such a bad plan after all.

Father Gabriel may be a rat, but he may not be wrong either.

Only two episodes to go this season so make sure to tune into the next episode of The Walking Dead on Sunday night at 9pm ET/PT.