In “The Walking Dead” recap, Daryl engages in the fight of his life as the residents of Alexandria defend against an outside invader…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Carol’s thirst for vengeance against Alpha nearly got her entire group killed but in the latest episode of “The Walking Dead,” it was Daryl’s turn for bad decisions driven by emotion to backfire in the worst way possible.
After watching Magda and Connie get trapped in a cave in last week, essentially sealing their fate, Daryl decided to take it upon himself to find a different entrance to the cave so he could attempt a rescue. Of course, Daryl failed to take into account that the most obvious entrance to the cave would likely be guarded by the Whisperers — and that’s exactly who he runs into this week while trying to get back to Magda and Connie.
Elsewhere, Gamma aka Mary finally arrives at Alexandria with a warning for the community about Alpha’s plans and the fate of their friends. The survivors at Alexandria are wary at best when it comes to trusting her but while they are guarding against the potential spy at their front gate,, the group fails to see the blunt instrument Alpha aimed at them coming through the back door.
The latest episode also sees the return of a familiar face, who hasn’t been seen since before the mid-season finale. With that said, let’s get to our recap of “The Walking Dead” titled “Stalker”…
Trust Issues
After everything that unfolded with Dante throughout season 10 — trusting him as a field medic only to find out that he was a Whisperer, who eventually went onto kill Siddiq — it’s understandable that the leadership at the Alexandria Safe Zone would be hesitant to trust another member of that group showing up to ask them to ‘trust me.’
That’s exactly what happens when Gamma aka Mary arrives at Alexandria with a warning that a group of their people including Daryl, Carol, Aaron and Jerry have fallen into a trap in a cave where they have been surrounded by Alpha’s horde. While Father Gabriel appears ready to listen, Rosita has no such desire to trust another Whisperer and she knocks out Mary with a single punch.
After putting Mary into a cell that was previously occupied by Negan and then Dante prior to his death, Gabriel and Rosita question her to the validity of her warning about Alpha, the location of the horde and the safety of their people.
Gabriel is confident that he can spot a liar but in Mary’s case, she’s telling them almost everything but not quite the entire truth. Mary finally comes clean when she reveals that her true purpose is to see her nephew again — the baby that was abandoned at Hilltop by her sister. She also tells them about killing her own sister to appease Alpha and the regret she now faces as a result of her deadly decision.
Now Mary is trying to atone for her misdeeds by helping Alexandria and simultaneously hoping that she can be reunited with her nephew.
While all of this is happening, Alexandria receives a warning from one of their outposts that a small herd of at least 100 walkers is moving towards the community. They have spotted members of the Whisperers in the herd and the group is coming straight for them.
Unfortunately they lose communication with the outpost and Gabriel believes the best course of action will be to take the main security force out to head off the herd before they can make it to Alexandria. Gabriel believes the attack is being summoned because a defector has arrived to give them information.
Little does he know that Alpha had other plans for this distraction as Gabriel leads the best fighters out of Alexandria, leaving behind only Rosita and Laura to guard the community in their absence.
The Outsider
With Gabriel and the main security forces from Alexandria out on patrol trying to find the latest herd sent their way by Alpha, the rest of the community remains largely unguarded.
This was all part of the plan set in action by Alpha after she trapped one group in the cave with her horde and then sent Beta to retrieve Gamma/Mary after she betrayed them. What the members of the Alexandria Safe Zone don’t know is that the Whisperers have found tunnels that lead directly into the heart of the community.
Beta uses the tunnels and comes out underneath a freshly dug grave — the one belonging to Dante — and he makes his way into Alexandria as he seeks to hunt down Gamma. First things first, Beta attacks several members of the community, killing them but leaving them the ability to reanimate into walkers.
Once the dead rise, Beta releases them into the streets where the rest of the community will be forced to deal with the walkers while he makes his way to the jail where Mary is being kept. Like clockwork, the remaining people in Alexandria rush to stop the walkers and it’s like an open door being left for Beta to get to Mary.
He confronts her but Mary isn’t going to go without a fight as she tells him repeatedly that Alpha has been lying to them. The communities are a safe place with walls and people you can trust but he’s such a blind follower that he’s not hearing anything she’s saying. Once he finally retrieves Mary from her cell, Beta gets blindsided by Laura, who points a spear at his throat at tells the ex-Whisperer to run away while she deals with the intruder.
Mary quickly scrambles out of the cell and into an awaiting door left open for her by Judith. Beta eventually gets the better of Laura and he makes his way into the house to continue his search for Mary.
Beta makes his way upstairs to find a locked door — and soon a bullet ripping through, hitting him directly in the chest. It seems Judith knew exactly where her father’s gun was hidden and she knows how to use it.
Sadly while Judith is able to get away with R.J., Mary is once again trapped by Beta after he shows off a bulletproof vest hiding under his smiley face t-shirt. As he begins to lead Mary out to meet her fate, he’s once again attacked — this time by Rosita as she seeks to pay back the Whisperers for taking away her baby’s father.
Rosita manages to get the upper hand but only for a moment until Beta’s size and strength overwhelms her. He carves up Rosita’s arm and just as he’s about to deliver the fatal blow, Mary arrives to save the day.
She puts a knife to her own throat and tells Beta if he kills Rosita, she will kill herself thus stopping Alpha from exacting her own brand of justice back at the Whisperer camp. If Beta spares Rosita, however, Mary agrees to leave with him so long as nobody else gets hurt.
Beta agrees and he pushes Mary back out beyond the walls while telling her that she will soon rejoin her sister in death. Just as they make it out to the main road, Beta smells a trap and he scurries off into the woods as Gabriel and the security forces from Alexandria launch an ambush on him.
Beta’s able to get away but he’s forced to leave Mary behind as she begs for her life while telling Gabriel that she did everything possible to stop his attack on the community.
The next morning, Aaron arrives back at Alexandria to share the news about the cave in and most of the group escaping Alpha’s trap. He says the remaining survivors got separated on their way back to camp, which means we have no idea what happened to Jerry or Kelly or Carol for that matter. Aaron is stunned to see the carnage left in the wake of Beta’s surprise attack but he’s also happy to see that his trust in Mary paid off.
With a lot to clean up, Gabriel decides to send Judith and Rosita along with a caravan to Hilltop. Rosita requires medical treatment for her arm and she leaves Coco behind with Gabriel where she’ll be safer. Before leaving, Rosita finally introduces herself to Mary, who is coming along with them to Hilltop so she can be reunited with her nephew.
We Are the End of the World
As Daryl begins hunting for another entrance to the cave, he eventually tracks a pair of Whisperers leading him right where he wants to go. He soon finds the opening to the cave where he could potentially rescue Connie and Magda but he soon finds another surprise awaiting for him.
Alpha is personally leading her garrison out of the caves and Daryl sees this opportunity as a chance to finally rid them of the leader of the Whisperers once and for all.
When he takes aim at the Whisperers, Daryl manages to kill one and disable another as the zombies surrounding them start chowing down on a meal. Daryl manages to get cut Alpha a couple of times but she doesn’t go down without a fight. Alpha is able to wound Daryl and splash blood in his eyes, which makes his ability to fend off the rest of the walkers along with the leader of the Whisperers nearly impossible. Add to that, Daryl ends up getting Alpha’s knife lodged directly into his thigh, which means he can barely walk as well.
Daryl eventually escapes and makes his way back to an abandoned filling station with Alpha in pursuit but she’s almost just as badly damaged.
The two of them end up in a stand off — both too injured to finish the other one — but Alpha has other plans by calling on the last remaining walkers from the area to finish the job for her. A few zombies stumble inside but pass her up in favor of Daryl, who’s sitting just a few feet away with fresh wounds just gushing blood.
Daryl is able to fight his way out of the deadly encounter but his wounds are so bad that he may not make it any further. The same could be said for Alpha, who is bleeding out and getting tired of hearing Daryl’s taunts about how she betrayed her daughter, Lydia.
Just when it looks like both Alpha and Daryl are going to meet their shared demise, Lydia actually reappears from the shadows. It seems she’s been tracking them ever since fleeing the Alexandria Safe Zone as she tried to make her decision if it was better to go back to her mother and the Whisperers or stay with the survivors.
Alpha sees this as a rite of passage for her daughter as she puts a knife to her chest and begs Lydia to finish the job. Alpha believes this will be the best way to pass along leadership to Lydia but it turns out that’s not what her daughter wants.
Instead, Lydia decides to stay with the survivors, realizing that they’ve made a better life for themselves than the lonely, emotionless existence she shared with her pseudo family with the Whisperers. Despite their frayed relationship, Lydia can’t bring herself to kill Alpha but she does help Daryl escape as she tends to his wounds and takes him to safety.
The next morning, Daryl finally awakens to realizes that Lydia saved his life and she’s decided to return to the community with him. She also explains that no matter how much Alpha has done to her, it’s still her mother That’s why she couldn’t kill her.
Thankfully, Lydia saved Daryl and he will live to fight another day.
As for Alpha, she also survived as the Whisperers found her before she succumbed to her wounds. She awakens to a message from her daughter telling her “you’re way is not the only way.” Defiant as ever, Alpha doubles down on her beliefs while seemingly preparing to launch an all-out attack on the communities.
“I am no longer weak. I am stronger than ever. Our horde will butcher, consume them. Screams will be song to me. We bathe in blood. We are free. We love no one. We are free. We fear nothing. We are free. This is the end of the world. Now is the end of the world. We are the end of the world.”
~ Alpha
It appears Alpha has decided that the stealth attacks to weaken the communities aren’t quite enough and she’s now ready to launch her nuclear weapon. Between the bloody fight with Daryl and watching Lydia turn her back on the Whisperers, Alpha is finished toying with her enemies — she’s preparing to send her horde to lay waste to Alexandria, Hilltop and anyone else who gets in her way.
“The Walking Dead” returns next Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET on AMC
