PREVIOUSLY ON: The Walking Dead – Season Six, Episode Three (“Thank You”)

First Aired October 25th, 2015.

Rick (played by Andrew Lincoln) and his group run toward Alexandria while trying to keep ahead of the walkers that are following the horn straight to town. Daryl (played by Norman Reedus), Abraham (played by Michael Cudlitz) and Sasha (played by Sonequa Martin-Green) lead the rest of the heard away.

Rick tells Michonne (played by Danai Gurira) and Glenn (played by Steven Yeun) not to go out of their way to save the others because they will slow them down, their conversation is secretly overheard by Heath (played by Corey Hawkins). While clearing walkers ahead of their path, one Alexandrian gets spooked and fires his gun, wounding Scott (played by Kenric Green) before running away. Another member of the group, David (played by Jay Huguley), is bitten and he bonds with Michonne over their shared experiences of loss and newfound hope. After not having luck finding a working car on the road, Rick goes ahead on foot find a way to stop the herd and the group turns to Nicholas (played by Michael Traynor) as their guide to get back. They find walkers devouring the man who left them behind and when more walkers pour into the area they duck into an abandoned pet store. Glenn volunteers to set a building on fire to distract the walkers and Nicholas partners up with him. Annie (played by Beth Keener) and Scott, the injured members of the group ask to be left behind, but Heath refuses to abandon his people.

The season’s slower pace in terms of time (this is episode three but still the same day as episode one) works great for giving maximum emotional impact for everything that’s happened so far. Everything that Rick said about the Alexandrians is true but the real problem is his contempt for their ignorance is very clear. Heath and the others are where Rick’s group was back in season one; they won’t adapt overnight as much as Rick wants them to. Michonne would have been a better choice for relating to the Alexandrians because she can connect with them like she did with Bruce. If it were Glenn or his son in Annie and Scott’s position, Rick wouldn’t think twice about doing everything he could. Michonne is willing to put her life on the line to save them and give Bruce a chance to see his wife before his inevitable death regardless if they are strangers to her. She’s also willing to help these people adapt to survive whereas Rick can and will let them die to protect his original group. Sure they have all been together much longer but they all live in Alexandria now and Rick has to start treating them as members of his group as well.

Michonne and Heath get into an argument about what Rick said and Michonne rips into Heath for having led a relatively easy life in Alexandria compared to what she and the others went through. While out trying to set the fire, Glenn and Nicholas hear gunshots from Alexandria and realize something is wrong. Michonne kills a few hidden walkers in the pet store and the noise draws the walkers outside right to them, with the herd not far behind. They have no choice but to fight their way out to catch up with Glenn, Annie falls behind and is devoured while Bruce dies as the group climbs over a fence to escape the herd. Glenn and Nicholas find the store they planned to burn already burned down and while running from the herd get trapped in an alley. They are forced onto a dumpster to escape the onslaught of walkers and a despondent Nicholas shoots himself. Glenn is knocked into the herd by Nicholas’s body and is devoured by the walkers.

Heath was right to be mad about what Rick said but he is crazy to think he’s as experienced as Rick or Michonne because he went on a few supply runs, I loved watching her cow Heath with her list of traumas. Bruce and Annie weren’t major characters but their deaths left an impact; it was the first time Heath was forced to watch people he cared about die. I was thrilled when Nicholas chose to kill himself but that turned to horror when he literally dragged Glenn with him. Glenn went through all that trouble making Nicholas a better man (and it worked slightly) but in the end Nicholas still died a coward. The real heroic thing would have been to sacrifice himself to give Glenn a fighting chance. There’s fan speculation that Glenn isn’t dead because Nicholas fell on TOP of Glenn and the walkers were eating his corpse. That is a stretch but Glenn is one of my favorite characters so I’ll take it if it means he comes back.

Rick waits at a crossroads to use the RV to lead the herd back away from town and is suddenly ambushed by an armed Wolf, one of the few Morgan (played by Lennie James) let escape. Rick kills the Wolf after a brief struggle and the several more who approach the RV, but the gunfight leaves the RV disabled. The episode ends as the walkers close in on both Alexandria and Rick’s RV. Morgan not only let those Wolves escape but they managed to arm themselves, Rick is going to be pissed when he finds out. It’s ironic that they started the series as friends only to end up rivals because of their different outlooks on post-apocalypse life. It took a while but the walkers have arrived. Of course its slim pickings in Alexandria since the Wolves purged have the town.

Quotes & Thoughts

“Have you ever been covered in so much blood that you didn’t know if it was yours, or walkers’ or your friends’? Then you don’t know.”

After watching most of his friends die and get covered in their blood, I think Heath might know a little more now.

“Good luck, dumbass.”

Glenn calling Rick a “dumbass” like he did in the pilot should have been a clue that Glenn was heading for trouble.

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