Ep 508 “Coda”: Mid-season finale

Bob is running from walkers and trying to get the restraints off his hands.  Rick catches up to him and asks him to stop, but he won’t so Rick runs him over.  Bob asks for help and tells Rick he’s crazy.  He says he couldn’t stop because he didn’t really know Rick and that he would like Rick to take him back to the hospital because he thinks his back is broken.  Rick says it’s too late, he can’t turn back now and he shoots him in the head.

 Father Gabriel decides he must go to the elementary school to see if the Termites really did cook Bob’s leg and eat it.  He finds a bible with the name Mary B in it, then gets upset and throws the make-shift grill with Bob’s rotting foot on it.  The walkers inside break through the glass doors and go after him so of course he runs back to the church, but the walkers are hot on his tail so he can’t sneak back in.  He has to call for help.  Michonne chops through the barricade on the door and lets him in, but the church also gets overrun with walkers so they run to his office and get out through Father Gabriels hole in the floor.  As more walkers pour into the church, we get a close-up of the quote at the altar, “He who eats my flesh will have eternal life.”  They barricade the walkers in the church from outside.

Rick and Daryl discuss their next move and talk to the two cops they have left.  The woman (Shepherd) says she will lie for them about Bob’s death and will help them get their people back.  Meanwhile, Dawn is trying to reach them because she heard the gunfire from Rick shooting Bob, but of course isn’t getting an answer.  Dawn has a heart to heart with Beth over what happened with Hanson and says she did what she had to do for everyone there to survive.

At the church, the barricade they put up is about to be busted by the walkers, when all of a sudden a bright red firetruck appears carrying Abraham’s group.  Glenn tells Michonne that Eugene lied about he cure and Michonne tells them that Beth is alive in a hospital in Atlanta and that Rick and the others went to go get her so they decide to go help Rick. 

Dawn tells Beth she is a cop killer, but she protected her from the others by lying about what happened with Gorman.  Unfortunately, one of the other officers overhears and lets them know he is there.  He threatens Dawn and says its time to make a change.  She pulls her gun and tells Beth to leave.  She says they are there to protect people, but all he does is beat old men and laugh about raping girls.  He knocks the gun out of her hand and they fight.  Beth tries to help, but he knocks her back.  Finally Dawn gets the advantage and pushes him back and Beth pushes him down the elevator shaft.  Later Dawn finds Beth in Carol’s room and brings her some food.  Beth says she knows Dawn used her to get rid of Gorman and the other cops.  Beth says she will get away like Noah did.  Dawn says he’ll be back, but Beth says he won’t.  Dawn tells her she knows that Beth knows Carol and they can be a part of what they are doing there.  Carol wakes up.

Sasha and Tyrese are on a rooftop.  She is mad at herself for believing Bob.  Tyrese confesses that when he was alone with Martin he didn’t kill him like he said he did.

Rick stops another cop car and tells them he wants to exchange two cops he has for Beth and Carol.  They ask if Noah is with them and he says yes.  They ask where the other people in Rick’s group are.  As a walker approaches Sasha shoots it with her sniper rifle and Rick says “close”.  They make the exchange, but then Dawn asks for Noah back.  Rick and Daryl say no, but Noah says he’ll stay.  Beth hugs him and Dawn says she knew he’d be back.  Which pisses Beth off so she stabs Dawn (yay!), but Dawn shoots her in the head and then Daryl shoots Dawn in the head.  It almost turns into an all out gunfight until Shepherd gets everyone to stand down.  She says it should be over because Dawn is dead.  (Dammit, they just told Maggie Beth was alive.)  They offer to let the group stay at the hospital, but Rick says there is no way and that he’s taking anyone else who doesn’t want to stay there.  As they are leaving, Abraham and the others arrive.  They are exiting the hospital and Maggie is crushed when she sees Daryl carrying Beth’s lifeless body.

End credits…

After the credits we also get another glimpse of Morgan.  He arrives at the elementary school and then the church.  After he prays at the altar for a minute he finds the map to DC that Abraham gave Rick with the name “Rick Grimes” written on it.

Damn, I was yelling at the TV scream for Beth to stab Dawn, but I was not expecting Beth to get shot in the head.  Poor Maggie!  It will be a long wait until February.  I have no idea where the show is going to go now.

Until February!  Unless I can’t wait and start theorizing before then.

Ep 507 "Crossed"

 

This episode is a perfect foundation for the mid-season finale next week.  We got to see where all 3 of our groups are.  Beth tries to help Carol, Rick gets a plan together to save Beth and Carol and Father Gabriel struggles with the loss of his church.

Noah and Daryl obviously made it back to the church and tells everyone what has happened to Beth and Carol.  When Rick talks with Michonne he has hesitations about leaving Judith and Carl to save the two women she tells him he can stay and she will go.  He says he owes Carol too much though and he has to do this.  They tear up the church from the pews to the pipes from the organ to fortify the church while Father Gabriel looks on in horror.  Rick, Tyrese, Sasha, Daryl and Noah leave on the rescue mission while Michonne and Carl stay behind with Judith and Father Gabriel.  After the rescuers leave Father Gabriel looks around at the remnants of the inside of his church.  He notices the blood soaked into the wood floor from the slaughter of the Termites just a few nights before.  He tries to remove it in a Lady Macbeth “out damned spot” kind of way.  Carl gives him a choice of weapons because he tells Father Gabriel he has to learn to defend himself.  He picks the machete, but then gags and says he needs to go to his office to lie down.  After a while Michonne checks on him and tells him she knows how it feels having all of this horror on his doorstep, but they will make it through.  He tells her he is fine. He closes the door and we see that he is plying the wood floor up in his office.  Once he gets a few boards up he crawls under the church and out the side.  Unfortunately he gets a nail caught in his foot, but pulls it out.  He gets to the woods and is attacked by a walker.  He pushes her down and is going to smash her head in with a rock, but notices she is wearing a cross so he wusses out and runs off.

At the hospital, Beth overhears one of the male officers asking Dawn why they are wasting resources on the woman they brought in the other day that they hit with the car.  Beth gets mad and points out that the man wastes energy charging his dvd player every day.  Dawn tells the man to pull Carol off the machines and see if she makes it on her own.  Once he’s gone, Dawn tells her she killed the woman.  She should’ve kept her mouth shut.  Then she gives Beth the key to the medicine cabinet and tells her she needs to find a way to save the woman.  Beth consults Edwards on what drugs she should give Carol to help her out and he guesses that Dawn gave her the key.  She doesn’t confirm and he finally tells her to give Carol epinephrine.  She devises a plan with an older orderly who pretends to choke while she grabs the drugs.  She sneaks in to see Carol later, gives her the drugs and tells her she’s there with her.

Eugene is still out cold and Abraham is still on is knees.  Glenn, Tara and Rosita go to get water from a stream and Maggie stays behind to watch the boys.  She creates a tent for Eugene so he is protected from the sun and talks with Abraham.  She asks if he wants to die now and he said he thought he did, but now realizes he doesn’t.  We hear grumbles from Eugene.  We don’t get to see him, but Maggie tells him not to move and that he will be okay.  She doesn’t start screaming so I guess he doesn’t try to eat her and may still be human.

Glenn and the girls get to the stream only to find that it is murky and dirty.  Rosita shows them how to filter it, a trick Eugene taught her.  Glenn notices that the water is rippling and says there are fish living in the stream.  They locate some netting from a jacket and catch some fish while Tara finds a yo yo in a leather backpack.  Tara thinks they shouldn’t be mad with Eugene for using the once skill he had to stay alive during the apocalypse.  Glenn doesn’t care why he did it, but seems to come around once they catch the fish and head back to Maggie and the others.

Rick and the others in Atlanta spring a trap by having Noah shoot a gun and letting the cops think he is by himself.  They spring the trap and catch two cops, but another car shows up.  They shoot out the tires of the other car and run to find it abandoned around the corner.  There are also burned up zombies stuck to the asphault from when the government blew up the city in a last ditch effort to stop the zombie takeover.  Daryl sweeps for the last guy who surprises him and knocks him to the ground.  Daryl grabs a walkers head, pulls it from his body and uses it against the cop.  Rick comes up then and puts a gun on the cop and looks like he might shoot him until Daryl snaps it out of him.  They take their 3 prisoners to an abandoned warehouse.  One of the cops tries to tell the group that there is dissension in the ranks at the hospital.  They do not like Dawn and she knows it so she will not trade for them.  She keeps arguing until one of the guys says Rick is right and if they play it right Dawn will bargain for them.  He and Rick have a long conversation about Dawn and how she thinks.  While Sasha is nearby he reveals that his name is Bob (yup, something ain’t right there I can feel it.)  Rick, Tyrese and Daryl leave with the other two cops while Sasha stays with the new Bob.  When they are alone he seems upset.  She checks on him and he tells her he saw a guy he used to know out there.  Dawn trusted the guy (Tyler) and sent him out to help evacuate the people from the hospital.  Bob says he wished it had been him, but after seeing Tyler burned into the ground he realizes he was lucky and wishes he could do something to put him out of his misery.  Sasha says she can help him and asks where the guy is.  Bob says he can point out the guy if they go outside, but Sasha says there is no need for that because she can shoot him for the window.  They go in another room and Bob points him out from a window.  He stands behind her while she goes to the window to shoot.  (I really don’t trust this, it just seems too coincidental and she’s so vulnerable right now!)  Once she aims to shoot, he rams her and runs as she falls to the ground.

I’m really not surprised that happened.   I just had a feeling about that guy.  What will Rick do now, especially if new Bob gets there and tips Dawn off about them?  Looks like the final standoff is next week.  Will we get a conclusion or be left hanging until February?

Until next week!

Episode 506 "Consumed"

TWD Ep 506 “Consumed”

QUICKLOOK:  Daryl finds out where Beth is, gets Carol out of her funk and into a gurney and makes a new friend.

Carol and Daryl are after the car with the cross.  Daryl thinks they should tail them and see if they are a group and how strong they are.  After they get into the city they run out of gas and lose sight of the vehicle so they find somewhere bunk for the night.  They know the people must have a camp in the city somewhere close.  They are staying in a shelter that Carol once stayed in with Sophia for a day and a half.  The next morning Carol wakes up to find Daryl burning some walkers that were outside the night before.  With the new day they head through the city to see if they can find where the group is that has Beth.  They go through a parking deck to a sky bridge, but someone is following them.  Noah perhaps?  Carols asks why Daryl hasn’t asked her what happened after she met up with Tyrese and the girls after the prison.  He says they are starting over because that’s what they have to do.   They see a van with the same kind of crosses on it.  When they go to leave, Noah gets Carols gun once she pushes is through the chained door. He uses it against them and takes Daryl’s crossbow as well.  He apologizes as he leaves and unleashes walkers on them.  Carol shoots at him with a pistol, but Daryl stops her.  They run after him, but they are locked in.  Daryl drops his bag to see if he can find a way out.  He gets the door open and Carol picks up his bag.  A book about surviving child abuse falls out that he had taken from the shelter.  He grabs it from her and puts it back in his bag with nothing said about it.  Once they find a way out they make it to the van they saw earlier with the same crosses on it.  They go inside to check things out even though the van is hanging half way off the bridge.  A bunch of walkers surround them.  Before they get out to fight Daryl sees GMH written on a gurney.  Carol says it might be Grady Memorial Hospital.  They try to fight the walkers, but are overwhelmed and have to climb back and lock themselves in.  They get stuck in the ambulance so they buckle up before the walkers push them off the bridge.  They make it down okay as all of the walkers that were after them plummet down as well.  Carol is pretty beat up and Daryl is upset with himself for getting them in the situation.  Carol tells him they are three blocks from Grady so Daryl thinks they should find a place to scope it out.  Somehow they run into Noah again who is fighting his way out of a walker situation.  Daryl knocks him under a bookshelf and gets back their weapons.  Noah begs for his life, but Daryl wants to leave him there to the walkers.  Carol decides to save him.  I’m thinking this was Daryl’s plan all along to show her they can save lives.  They get him out from under the bookshelf and Noah says he has to go because they will be looking for him.  They ask if he’s seen a blonde and he asks if it’s Beth they are looking for.  They run to the next building,

but Noah falls.  Carol runs ahead outside and the car with the crosses on it hits her.  Daryl tries to go after them, but Noah says they can help Carol because they have equipment and medicine.  He says they can save Carol and Beth later.  Daryl asks what it will take and Noah says a lot because they have guns.  Daryl says, “so do we”.  They get a truck to take out of the city.   End credits…

There were also a lot of flashbacks tonight for Carol.  One to when Rick banished her and the next day when she saw the prison burning.  Then one where she burned Karen and the other guy that were sick with the flu at the prison.  And the last where she and Tyrese buried Lizzie and Meekah where Carol noticed the smoke coming from the prison was no longer black, but was now white.

End credits...

So I’m thinking next week we see Daryl come back to the church with Noah and get help from Rick and the gang to get Carol and Beth out of Grady.  Hopefully another action packed episode where Michonne can use her sword and kick some ass.  Grady’s going down!

.

Ep 505 "Self Help"

QUICKLOOK:  Abraham walks a fine line between reality and craziness, Eugene’s hairstyle is a big topic of conversation and he reveals a big secret.

The trip on the bus doesn’t last long.  Something bursts or explodes and the bus goes air born landing on its side with plenty of walkers around.  The group decides to fight their way out because the engine is on fire and it won’t be long before the bus goes up in flames.  Eugene can’t take the violence and guts around him until one walker almost gets Tara.  Once the walkers are dead, Maggie tries to retrieve the first aid kit from the bus, but it is already engulfed in fire.  Abraham is insistent that they continue the mission and after a brief talk with the group they decide to walk until they find new transportation.  They hole up in a bookstore for the night and Abraham thanks Glenn for sticking by him after the bus crashed.  Abraham decides to go to bed, but gets some booty from Rosita before going to sleep.  Tara catches Eugene watching them having sex.  She thanks Eugene for having her back earlier and he confesses to sabotaging the bus by putting glass in the fuel line.  She gets upset because he almost killed everyone, but decides to keep his secret after he reveals that he believes he’d be dead if he didn’t know about a cure.  That is his only value to any group because he has no other skills.  Tara tells him it’s not true and that he definitely shouldn’t tell any one else what he did to the bus and she makes him promise to never do it again.  The next morning Rosita and Abraham argue.  She thinks they should stay at the bookstore until they heal and rest up a bit, but he won’t have it, so they go back out.  They find a fire truck that has some trouble starting because human remains are stuck in the engine.  It also happens to be holding a door closed to keep in a slew of walkers.  As the others stab the attacking walkers in the head, Eugene heads to the top of the truck and uses the hose to kill them.  They start off again and after a few miles the fire truck gives out and they must continue on foot.  They come to a field covered in walkers.  Everyone thinks they should find a detour because there is no way they will make it through, but as usual Abraham wants to press on.  At this point even Rosita isn’t on his side.  He flips and grabs Eugene while Glenn and the others try to stop him.  Finally Eugene admits he lied and he is not a scientist.  (I had this inkling he would be a fraud!  Especially since he told Tara that was his only value as a member of the group.)  He says he believed DC would be the best place to survive so he manipulated people into getting him there.  Abraham is pissed and punches Eugene three times until Eugene passes out.  The others stop him and Rosita threatens to pull her gun.  Finally, Abraham walks off while the others try to revive Eugene.  I don’t think he’s going to make it because Abraham did a number on him.  His brain has to be mush.

We also got some backstory on Abraham in this episode.  He had a wife and kids and after the outbreak happened he was taking care of them in the back of a store.  He kills some men (not sure if they were walkers or if they were alive) with canned goods.  Full of adrenaline he calls for his wife Ellen.  He finds her and the kids and they are horrified by his appearance and scared of him.  He is covered in blood and has been in soldier mode which they have never seen before.  The next morning he wakes up to find his family gone.  Ellen left him a note asking him not to look for them.  He eventually finds Ellen and the kid’s dead and half eaten.  He decides to shoot himself in the head until he hears a man yelling for help.  It is Eugene.  Abraham kills the walkers and then continues to carry out killing himself, but Eugene tells him he knows how to get a cure and needs to get to DC.

End credits…

Only 3 episodes left until the winter break!  And next week we get to see what Carol and Daryl are up too.  It seems like they are planning how to infiltrate the Grady group instead of going in with guns blasting.   I wonder if we will get to see where Rick and the other part of the group are and how they are fairing.

Until next week!

Ep 504 "Slabtown"

QUICKLOOK:  Beth's downtown at Grady Memorial and is indebted to some strange people.  Maybe Terminus wasn't so bad, at least Gareth was cute. 

We finally get to see where Beth has been taken.  She is in Grady Memorial hospital in Atlanta with a group of officers, one doctor and some people they have managed to save.  Their leader is a woman police officer named Dawn.  They tell Beth she was alone when they saved her and she owes them a debt.  She is to pay off the debt by assisting the doctor.  She meets the officer who “saved her.  His name is Gorman and he is creepy.  We also find out that you must pay for everything you use there including the food you eat.  She brings the Dr. Edwards his dinner and talks to him for a while.  He seems like a nice guy.  She also meets a young man named Noah who is sort of like Dawn’s personal assistant.  She befriends him and he shares his story of how he got there.  He was brought in with his father, who didn’t make it.  He tells her his dad was strong and would’ve fought against the people there.  He believes they think he is weak, but he says he is not and he plans to escape.  A multitude of injured people get brought in the hospital throughout the episode.  One was a man who had jumped out of an apartment building to escape walkers.  Dawn is insistent that Dr. Edwards must save him after one of the officer’s whispers something in her ear.  Dr. Edwards does a sonogram and finds out the man has a punctured lung.  He stabs him to let some of the blood and fluid out and stabilizes him, but the man has internal bleeding and may not be able to be saved.  Then a woman that was already there received a bite mark from a walker somehow.  She’s wheeled to the room by Dawn and Gorman who tell the doc they will need to amputate her arm or she will turn.  Beth freaks out a little, but they tell her they need her to hold Joan down.  They saw off her arm and after they get her cleaned up, Dr. Edwards takes her down to the bottom floor of the building to she Beth walkers are always outside.  Then he takes her to the top for some air and to tell her his story.  He was a doctor there and when the crisis broke out Dawn was charged with helping him evacuate the patients.  They are safe and taken care of there and everyone contributes and it’s better than being alone outside in the city.  He tells Beth to call it a day after she gives the man Trevor 200mg of Clozapine.  She grounds up the meds and mixes with water and collects it in a syringe.  She gives the man the dose and Noah comes in to check on her.  Then the man goes into a seizure and dies.  Dawn comes in and starts demanding an explanation.  Noah covers for Beth and tells her he was cleaning and accidentally hit a chord.  They take him from the room and beat him up.  Beth tells Dr. Edwards she gave the man the right medicine and he just seized and she’s not sure why.  She tells the doctor she gave him clozapine just like he said, but he says that’s not the medicine he told her to give the man.  It was because I re-watched the earlier scene three times to be sure.  Beth gets upset for having had something to do with the man dying and Noah getting beat up.  Afterwards Dawn comes to visit Beth and tries to encourage her to eat so she will be strong.  Beth tells her she didn’t want to owe them and more than she already did.  Dawn tells her if she doesn’t eat she will become weaker and need more medical help and will never get to leave.  Dawn also confides in Beth that she thinks the nightmare won’t last forever and that things will go back to the way they were so everyone has to do their part around there.  Beth is in her room and looks for the lollipop Noah gave her.  It’s gone, but Gorman comes in licking it.  He forces her to taste it, but fortunately the doctor comes in.  He tells Gorman to leave her alone.  Gorman says she should be his.  The doctor tells him she isn’t his and he won’t get Joan back either.  He says he will because Dawn won’t stop him.  Immediately after this, Beth tells Noah she wants to go with him.  He works to keep Dawn distracted while Beth looks for an elevator key in her office.  When she looks for the key she finds Joan dead in a pile of blood with scissors in her hands.  She finds the key, but Gorman walks in.  He says he won’t tell on her if she has sex with him.  She concedes at first, but hits him with a bowl of lollipops knocking him to the ground for a freshly turned Joan to feast on.  She leaves the office, but is stopped by Dawn who asks if everything is okay.  Beth says she saw Joan and Gorman going into her office looking for her.  Noah and Beth open the elevator shaft and Noah lowers Beth down with sheets tied together, then he goes to climb down.  He gets grabbed by a walker through one of the elevator doors and falls to the bottom in the pit of bodies so Beth jumps down to him.  They make their way through the dark basement, but are attacked by a few walkers.  Beth shoots them and they get to the door.  Once they get out into the sunlight Beth is overrun with walkers.  Noah keeps running and gets away, but Beth is caught by one of the officers.  Dawn asks Beth who she thinks she is and Beth tells her no one is coming for them and that Dawn has done all of this for nothing.  Dawn knocks her out.  Doctor Edwards is tending to her wounds and she tells him she knows Trevor was a doctor and she knows that’s why he had her kill him.  He admits to it and says they would’ve kicked him out or possibly killed him so he did what he had to too stay alive.  Later she takes some scissors to kill the doctor, but some officers come in with a victim on a stretcher and Beth sees that it is Carol.

End credits…   

So is there really something wrong with Carol or have they just become smarter now than to blindly walk into a situation again like they did at Terminus?

See you next week!

Ep 503 "Four Walls and a Roof"

QUICKLOOK:  Bob's gone, Daryl's back and so is Michonne's sword.

 

Gareth and the Termites are still enjoying their “ka-bob”.  Gareth tells him the Termites left the marks on the trees so “they could find their way back after”.  I’m assuming back to their old life.  He says they were giving people a choice as to whether or not they could be the butcher or the cattle.  They also apparently think women taste better because they have an extra layer of fat for child-bearing.  He tells Bob they are going to kill and eat all of his group.  Bob cries so hard he starts to laugh.  He calls them idiots and tells them he’s been bitten so he is tainted meat.  They freak out, but Gareth tells them they’re fine because they cooked the meat.

At the church, Sasha is worried about Bob, but Rick and Tyrese think he may be with Carol and Daryl.  She knows they are being watched.  She interrogates Gabriel who swears he has nothing to do with their missing friends.  Rick asks Gabriel what he did to the woman at the food bank and why he will “burn for this”.  As theorized, he locked the doors and didn’t let people from his congregation in once shit started hitting the fan.  He wouldn’t open the doors because there were so many of them so he stayed in the church and heard them being attacked.  They hear whistling outside and find Bob lying in the grass.  They bring him in the church and fend off the walkers.  There is a bloody “A” marked on the church which is the same as the train car the group was kept in at Terminus.  Bob’s still alive and he tells them Gareth took him and ate his leg.  He also tells them that Carol and Daryl drove off in a car.  He shows them the bite he got at the food bank.  Sasha asks why he didn’t tell her before.  He says it would have become all about the end and he was enjoying the middle.  Abraham wants to leave for DC right away. However Rick says they can’t leave yet without Carol and Daryl.  Abraham is afraid of the clear threat to Eugene.  He and Rick fight over the bus, but Glenn intervenes and says they need each other.  Tara says she will go to DC tomorrow if Daryl and Carol aren’t back, but Abraham wants Glenn and Maggie as well.  Glenn says if they stay and help them then he and Maggie will go as well.  Sasha wants to go attack the Termites with Rick.  Tyrese tries to talk her out of it, but she wants revenge and she wants Tyrese to put Bob down once he dies.

Viewing note:  Here’s the thing, they just left all of the other people unguarded, so now the Termites could attack the church.  Plus, the Termites have all those walkers locked up.  What are they going to do with them?  Hopefully Rick and his team turn back.

As Rick’s group leaves, we see Gareth and the others arrive at the church.  Gareth tries to lure what’s left of the group out, but they are not budging.  He has a choice between two doors, but before he does anything Judith starts to cry.  Martin starts to shoot at the door hinges, until a shot comes from behind them.  Rick is back and he shoots off part of Gareth’s hand.  The Termites surrender and Gareth tries his hardest to charm Rick into sparing him saying they will never cross paths again, but Rick says he’ll cross somebody’s path and try to do the same thing to them.  Then he pulls out the machete with the red handle and reminds Gareth he made a promise he’s about to carry out. He kills him with the machete while the rest of the group kills the others.  And, Michonne gets her sword back!  Gabriel comes out and is a bit disturbed at what happened.  He says this is the Lord’s house, but Maggie says, “No, it’s just four walls and a roof.”

The next day, everyone says their goodbyes to Bob.  He asks for Rick to stay with Judith for a few minute and thanks Rick for taking him in and showing him there were still good people out there.  He also reiterates to Rick he still believes what he said the day before.  “Nightmares end, but they shouldn’t end who you are.”  Sasha comes back in the room with him.  He is dreaming and smiling.  He wakes up and she asks him why he is smiling.  He says he dreamed of her and she was smiling at him.  She asks him “what is the good that comes from this bad”, but he’s gone.  She grabs the knife to finish him off until Tyrese opens the door and asks her to give him the knife and leave.  He does what he has to do.  Abraham and the others prepare to leave.  He gives Rick a map with the route they plan to take to DC and they all promise to meet up again.  After they leave Rick looks at the map, which says “Sorry I was an asshole.  Come to Washington.  The new world’s gonna need Rick Grimes”.

Rick helps Tyrese dig Bob’s grave and asks what happened to him on the way to Terminus.  Tyrese says it killed him, but Rick says it didn’t.  At the end of the episode, Michonne is outside talking to Father Gabriel about how the voices of his congregation will never stop.  She hears something in the trees and when she goes to look Daryl comes stumbling out.  She asks where Carol is and he tells someone to come out as the screen goes to the credits. 

End credits…

I guess we’ll find out who he’s with next week.  He seems a little out of sorts, so I wonder where they were and what they saw.  I’m a little sad that the Termites are dead.  They were definitely creepy bad guys, especially since they were cannibals.  And I’m glad Michonne got her sword back and Rick got to keep his promise with the machete.

Until next week!

Ep 5.2 “Strangers”

QUICKLOOK:  Father Gabriel’s hiding something, Daryl and Carol may have a lead on Beth and if Gareth eats you, it’s not personal.

Terminus is still burning.  While Glenn and Maggie take a moment to hug each other, Rick talks to Tara.  He says he knows she didn’t want to be there with the Governor, which is why he tried to talk to her.  He says Glenn told him how she saved his life.  She says he saved hers and Rick says “that’s what we do”.  They fist bump, so I guess everything is cool.

Tyrese tells Carol that some of the others knew what Carol did at the prison and they have accepted it.  Tyrese will tell the others and get them to accept it as well, but Carol says they don’t have to.  Tyrese tells her they do.  He then says they don’t need to tell the others about the girls.  She asks why and he says he just needs to forget it.

As they walk down the tracks a walker approaches and Michonne says she’ll take care of it.  She reaches for her sword and laughs because of course it is gone.  She takes the butt of the gun and smashes the walker’s head in.  Abraham walks by Rosita and tells her “that right there is why we’re waiting for our moment.”  (Hmm, what does he need to say other than they need to get to Washington?  Is there some other secret we don’t know about?)

Rick and Carol have a heart to heart.  He tells her he owes her everything.  She gives Rick his watch back and he tells her he saw them kill the kid.  He tells her he sent her away to this because of what she did and now they are joining her.  He asks if she will have them and she says yes.  Daryl and Carol sit in quietness until Carol says she can’t talk about it.  She just needs to forget.  He says okay.  Daryl hears something, but then thinks it was nothing.  It was someone though because the audience sees the shadow of someone.  The next morning Daryl goes to look for tracks and doesn’t find any.  He has shared his suspicions with Rick.  He knows someone is following them and watching them.

Bob and Sasha seem to be exclusive now.  They even have their own little game.  Abraham talks to Rick about getting a car and heading back North towards DC.  Rick is telling everyone to keep close, but not the reason why.  All of a sudden they hear screams.  Rick is hesitant, but Carl pushes him to go help whoever it is.  They come upon a priest who is up on a rock trying to not get eaten by walkers.  Once the walkers are killed they get him down.  After he tosses his cookies he thanks them and tells them he is Gabriel.  They want to know if he has weapons on him and he says he doesn’t need them.  God is his weapon.  He says he called for help and it came.  He asks if they have a camp and he says he has a church.  Rick tells him to hold up his hands while he frisks him and asks him the three important questions you must answer to be a part of the group.  He says he hasn’t killed any walkers or people because the Lord abhors violence.  Rick asks what he’s done because he knows everyone’s done something.  Gabriel says he is a sinner, but he only confesses them to God. 

As they head to the church Rick asks if he had been watching them.  Gabriel says he keeps to himself because people are dangerous, but he hasn’t been watching them.  The church is Saint Sarah’s Episcopal Church.  Rick wants to look around first instead of blindly walking in with Gabriel.  Gabriel seems to be copying the bible.  He has run out of the canned food that he has.  (There are choir robes, can they please all put them on and sing?)  After Rick and a few others check out the church they let everyone else know it’s safe.  Abraham says there is a short bus out back that doesn’t run, but he can fix it and Father Gabriel says he doesn’t want it.  He asks Rick if he knows what’s at stake and as Rick looks at Judith he says he does.  Michonne says they need to take a breath and get supplies.  As they all file into the church they tell Abraham that they want to go, but they’re not going anywhere until Rick does.

Rick wants to know how Gabriel managed to stay there so long and have so much food.  They had a food drive right before everything happened.  There is only one place nearby that he hadn’t scavenged from because there are walkers.  Rick decides to go.  They leave Judith with Tyrese.  She and Tyrese have bonded and he says he will do anything for her.  (Aww…)  Rick thanks him for it and then tells Gabriel that he will be going with them as well.  He’s not to keen on it, but Rick doesn’t care.  Rick tells Carl he doesn’t trust Gabriel.  Carl doesn’t understand why.  Rick says he could have friends so he and Tyrese need to stay alert.  Rick tells Carl he is not safe, no matter how many people are around or if they think the area is clear, it takes one second and it’s over so never let your guard down.  Carl says that they are still strong and they can still help people, they don’t have to hide.  Rick says Gabriel is definitely hiding something.

Bob talks to Rick and Rick tells him he’s not sure if they are going to Washington.  Bob tells him he understands, but Abraham will get there and the real world will come back.  He can’t let himself get too crazy or he can’t go back.  Rick tells him this is the real world, but Bob says it’s a nightmare and they end.  Washington will happen. 

Carol and Daryl get water.  He says he knows she doesn’t want to talk about it, but wants to know if she is okay.  He says she can start over.  She saved them.  They see a car and Carol checks it out.  It won’t start, but it has jumper cables in the trunk so Carol says they should keep it there for backup.

Tara and Maggie keep watch outside a gun store while Glenn checks inside.  They hear something and he comes out.  They ask if he ran into a walker, but he just fell.  He tells them he found three silencers.  The rest of the group gets to a food bank.  Gabriel says that’s the last place left with supplies.  They go inside and like Gabriel said there are walkers stuck in a hole if the floor in three feet of water.  The water came in through holes in the ceiling.  They have to get by the walkers so they decide to use shelves to barricade them into a corner.  Gabriel is freaking out, but Rick says he’s coming with them all the way.  They corner the walkers and start taking them out.  Gabriel watches and starts crying and runs away, but can’t get out.  Rick sees him and tells the others they have to get him.  They push the shelves down on the ones that are left and kill the last few that they can.  One almost gets to Gabriel, but Rick saves him. 

A walker grabs Bob from under the water, but Sasha helps him kill it.  Gabriel tells Rick he’s sorry he panicked.  Rick says he thinks Gabe knew the woman when she was alive.  They clean out the food bank.  On the way back, Rick asks Michonne if she misses her sword.  She says it wasn’t really hers in the first place.  She just found it somewhere and practiced with it.  She says she misses Andrea and Herschel, but she doesn’t miss the sword or what her life was before.  When they get back to the church Rick finds Carl outside looking at something.  He found knife marks by one of the windows as if someone was trying to get in.  Then he shows Rick where someone etched in the words “You’ll burn for this.” 

That night they enjoy a good meal.  Abraham proposes a toast to the group and calls them survivors.  Then asks if that’s all they want to be or do they want to take back the world.  Eugene tells them there is an infrastructure that will get them through pandemics where they can be safe and start over.  Rick says they’re in.  (What about Beth?)

Tara tells Maggie that she was at the prison with the Governor.  She didn’t know who he was or who they were and she didn’t want to lie to Maggie.  Maggie hugs her and tells her she’s one of them now.  Rick talks to Gabriel and thanks him for his hospitality.  Rick tells him he knows he’s hiding something and he doesn’t care what it is, but these people are his family and if what he’s hiding hurts them he will kill Gabriel. 

Carol goes back to the car and runs into a walker.  Daryl followed her and asks what she’s doing.  He goes to take her back, but the car that took Beth rides by so they get in the car and go after them.  Bob is standing outside of the church listening to the group be happy for a moment.  He starts to cry and someone hits him.  He wakes up later to see Gareth.  He tells him he’s not dead “yet”.  Gareth says they didn’t want to hurt them before, but they had to.  They took away their home though, so now they have to hunt.  He tells Bob that nothing that is about to happen to him is personal.  Bob looks down to see that his leg is gone and Gareth puts a piece of cooked meat in his mouth.  He tells him he tastes much better than they thought he would.  And we see Bob’s leg and foot cooking on the fire.  And the guy that Tyrese thought he killed last week, still alive…

It also looks like the lady in the food bank may have been Gabriels wife.

End credits…

Ep. 5.01 “No Sanctuary”

We're baaaccckkk!

 

QUICKLOOK:  The Termites are cannibals, Rick and Carl reunite with Judith and Carol is one badass motherfucker!

We open with a flashback of the termites.  They are locked in a dark room listening to screams of their companions.  One man (I think his name is Alex) says they never should’ve put up the signs telling people to come to Terminus because they led the bad people there.  Gareth pops out of the corner and says they were trying to do a good thing.  Alex asks if those are the bad guys outside “what are we then Gareth?”

Cut to Now:  After they catch everyone up on how they got there, our crew get busy in the train car ripping things apart to use as weapons and trying to devise a plan when the Termites come to the car and tell them to stand up against the wall.  Rick and crew get ready to attack, but are caught by surprise when the top opens and they throw in a can of gas to knock them out.  This obviously isn’t the Termites first rodeo.

Through Rick’s hazy vision as he’s being dragged off, we see some Termites cutting up a dead man and 3 bins marked, feed, clean and dump.  Rick, Darryl, Bob and Glenn have been grabbed along with four other unknown men.  They are placed before a long silver trough with their hands zip tied together and their mouths gagged.   The two termites cutting up the man stop and come over with a bat and a big knife.  The batter swings a couple of times, working on his aim.  The first man at the trough is the blonde hippie guy that Carol and Rick met when he banished her.  He looks at Rick with desperation, but there is nothing Rick can do at that moment.  Finally the batter steps up, hits him in the head to stun him and the other guy slits his throat pushing him back over the trough to bleed out.  They move on to the next and the next, finishing them off all the way until Glenn, who is lined up first from our group.  Glenn watches the blood flowing down the trough into the drain and probably needs to change his pants right about now. 

Just as the batter goes to stun him Gareth walks in.  He needs to know the two guys shell counts from the round up.  See, Terminus (as we’ve seen) looks all cozy and welcoming, until you figure out what they are.  That’s when the gunfire starts and you get thrown in a train car.  They have to keep up appearances though, so they can’t have shells lying around.  The first guy gives his count, but the second doesn’t remember because it was his first round up.  Gareth tells them they have time to be messy now, but they need to dial it in by sundown. 

Bob tries to talk through his gag and get Gareth’s attention.  Gareth removes it and Bob tells him they don’t need to do this.  They have someone who knows how to stop the virus they just have to get him to Washington.  Gareth tells him they can’t go back and re-gags him.  Then Gareth decides to ask Rick why he took a bag into the woods and didn’t come back with it.  He’d like to know what was in it.  Rick says they should go out together and he’ll show him.  After Gareth puts a knife to Bob’s eye Rick confesses that the bag is full of guns and a machete with a red handle, which he will “use to kill” Gareth.  (Kind of looking forward to that moment.)  While all of this is going on, Rick has taken a piece of sharp wood from inside his sleeve and has been working on getting free from his ties.  As Gareth re-gags him we hear gunfire and then what seems like a bomb that makes the whole place shake.

Carol, Tyrese and Judith are getting close to Terminus.  She says she will get both of them there, but she won’t stay.  Some walkers come up and Tyrese asks Carol to kill them.  He just can’t do it yet.  She tells him he will have to be able to.  She kills the one, but a whole herd is coming.  They start to run, but hear gunshots so they stay hidden.  Because of the gunshots the walkers seem to fall in line and walk on the train tracks, straight to Terminus. Tyrese isn’t so sure about Terminus any more since they don’t know where the gunshots came from, but Carol says it will be okay. 

Some guy is setting off fireworks and talking on a walkie. He tells the woman on the other end that he knew the chick with the sword was going to be a big deal and he wants the kids hat once they bleed him out.  He gets a gun to the head from Carol who tells him they are friends of the chick with the sword and the kid and they aren’t buying his bullshit.  He tries to tell them Michonne and Carl attacked them and that they are the only ones who showed up to Terminus.  Carol doesn’t by it.  The guy says they set up the fireworks to lead the walkers away, but Carol tells him he fucked up and a whole heard is heading to Terminus. 

Carol leaves Tyrese and Judith to watch the Termite and she leaves with a plan to go see what Terminus really is.  She covers herself with zombie guts.  The Termite asks Tyrese if the baby is his and if the woman is his friend.  He tells Tyrese he’s a good guy and that’s why he will die today.  It could all be okay though because Tyrese could take the baby and the car and just leave.

Carol gets to Terminus in time to see the Termites rounding up Rick, Darryl, Bob and Glenn.  She pulls out a gun, but sees a herd of walkers so she blows up one of the tanks.  Which is the bomb that interrupts Gareth from killing Rick et al.  Burning walkers attack the Termites and Carol strides in with them.  Gareth goes to see what’s wrong while Rick cuts free and kills the two butchers.  They enter the drying room with cut up bodies hanging and getting prepared to serve.  They grab what weapons they can find.  They need to get by the walkers, but Glenn says they need to let the people in the other train car go.  They do, but they free some crazy guy that ends up getting attacked by a walker and killed by Darryl. 

Carol walks into a room where all of the unlucky peoples possessions are kept.  She finds Ricks watch and Darryl’s crossbow.  Unfortunately, we did not see Michonne’s sword.  She then enters the candle room and comes across Mary.  Mary has a gun pointed at her and Carol acts like she will surrender, but uses her gun to shoot Mary instead.  Mary tells Carol that this place used to be a sanctuary, but people came and raped and killed them and laughed.  So they fought back because you can be the butcher or the cattle.  Carol asks where her friends are and leaves Maggie to get eaten.  Outside, Rick gets a hold of the machine gun and lays some Termites down for dinner. 

Back at the cabin, Tyrese gets distracted and the guy gets hold of Judith and threatens to snap her neck.  He makes Tyrese go outside with the walkers.  We hear all kinds of noise and more and more walkers until suddenly it gets deadly quiet.  Tyrese barrels in and kicks the Termites ass until he’s dead.

While they are still trapped in the train car, Sasha asks Eugene what the cure is and he says it’s classified.  He says he was part of a team that used diseases to fight diseases and he knows how to kill everyone on the planet, so he wants to use that knowledge to kill the walkers instead.  Rick frees them and they go to the woods to retrieve the bag of guns.  Carol walks up.  She and Darryl hug, then Rick asks if she did all of that and hugs her.  She tells him to come with her because she has Judith.  They decide to go away from Terminus although at first Rick wants to go back and finish them off.

We see another Termite flashback where the men are taking women and Gareth decides they are either the butcher or the cattle, and they won’t be the cattle any more.

Rick wipes outs the sanctuary sign so that others won’t go there.   

End credits...

After the credits role, we see our old friend Morgan from seasons 1 and 3.  He follows the marks Darryl left to where the guns were buried and follows it.  Hmm, what’s he up too?  And doesn’t he look more sane than we last left him?

BTW, Mary is Gareth’s mom and Alex was his brother.  Alex was the poor guy on the table when Rick and the others were taken into the butcher room.  What could’ve happened for him to end up on that table?

Until next week!

Ep. 4.16 "A" (Season 4 Finale)

We open with a flashback of the group’s time back at the prison.  Glenn, Maggie and Rick have come back from a run.  Herschel is there to greet them and Carl still has his gun.  Rick takes a cane from Carol and starts killing fence walkers.  Then we are in what I assume is the present.  Rick is covered in blood sitting against an old Bronco alone. 

Michonne, Rick and Carl are in search of food.  While checking their hunting snares, Carl asks if they are close to Terminus.  Rick tells him he thinks they are.  Carl asks what they will tell the people there.  Will they lie about the people they’ve killed and the things they’ve done or will they tell the truth.  Rick doesn’t exactly answer him, but tells Carl they will them who they are.  Carl then asks who exactly are we. 

Quick flashback to Herschel waking Rick up one morning.  It’s early and he wants Rick to help him with something.  He tells Rick he won’t need his gun because it will just get in the way.  Cut back to the present where Rick, Carl and Michonne find an old Bronco where they camp for the night.  Carl sleeps in the truck while Michonne and Rick talk by the fire.  Rick thinks Terminus will be a safe place with a system.  Michonne is not so sure and wonders if the whole thing is “legit”.  They hear something in the woods, but nothing happens so they let their guard down.  Rick wonders if Terminus will let them in and Michonne reminds him the Governer took people in.  Rick concedes that they won’t know anything until they know.  So hopefully it will turn out okay.

All of a sudden they have guns to their heads.  It’s Joe and his Claim Gang.  We don’t see Daryl with them.  Joe tells Rick “you screwed up asshole”.  He says today is a day of reckoning and Rick’s going to get what he deserves.  Apparently it’s New Years Eve (if not for real then it is in Joe’s head) so Joe starts to count down the final seconds to blowing Ricks head open, when Daryl appears out of nowhere and tells him to stop.  Rick and Michonne look at Daryl, but no one says anything.  Daryl tells Joe they are good people and they are going to let them go.  Daryl tells Joe to kill him instead.  Joe says Daryl is a liar because he called Rick good people but he can’t be because Rick killed their friend.  The gang starts beating up Daryl and Carl gets pulled out of the truck with a knife to his neck.

Rick begs the men to just take him because he was the one who killed their friend.  Joe tells him how things are going to take place.  First, they will beat Daryl to death.  When they are done with him they will start on Michonne, then Carl, and then he will shoot Rick in the head.  Then they will be square.  Rick tells them to let Carl go.  Then he knocks his head backwards against Joe.  The gun goes off and Joe staggers back.  Rick starts going through some sort of crazy thing in his mind.  Will he snap back into defense mode Rick after he’s been a farmer for so long?  After a beat he gets up and goes after Joe.  Joe gets him down for a minute, but that just wakes up the beast in Rick even more.  Michonne sees her chance to attack her captor.  Rick bites a chunk out of Joe’s neck, Michonne shoots Tony in the head and then Rick stabs the guy who had Carl.  Michonne holds Carl while Rick stabs the guy repeatedly and we get a close up of Carl with a Norman Bates kind of look in his eyes.

Flashback again to Rick and Herschel, Herschel thinks they should start farming and catching the wild animals to tame them.  He wants Rick’s help and he wants Rick to teach Carl.  Rick is hesitant at first because he thinks he’s needed to help defend the prison and go on runs.  Herschel says they have a chance to make a life and make things better.  Flash forward to the present where we see Rick sitting by the Bronco.  Michonne is inside with Carl who is asleep.  Daryl helps Rick clean up.  He tells Rick he and Beth were together and that she is gone.  He met up with the gang, but he didn’t know how bad they were.  Daryl says he was going to leave the gang while they were attacking Rick, but then he saw who it was that the gang was going after.  He feels responsible.  Rick tells him he’s not responsible and that Daryl is his brother.  Daryl tells Rick anyone would’ve done what he did to the guy the night before, but Rick says a normal person wouldn’t.  He says he has to do what he does to keep Carl safe.

They decide to enter Terminus from the woods since they don’t know who the people there are.  They split up to come in at different directions and Rick asks if Carl wants to go with him, but Carl picks Michonne.  While they are walking,  Michonne tells Carl how Andre died.  They were at a refuge camp.  People were giving up.  She was coming back from a run and saw that the fences for the camp were down.  She found her boyfriend and his friend.  They had been high.  They were bit and she let them turn, then she took out their teeth and tied chains around their necks.  It kept her safe from the walkers.  She says she was gone for a long time, but Andrea, Rick and Carl all brought her back.  She tells Carl he doesn’t have to be afraid of his dad.  Carl says that he isn’t who Rick thinks he is, that he is a monster too. 

Rick buries some guns in the woods just in case they need to get away.  They crawl over the fence and go inside.  They find the room where they are broadcasting the message on the radio.  They meet a guy named Gareth.  He wonders if they are there to rob them, but Rick says they want sanctuary.  Gareth is going to take them to be welcomed, but first he has to see all of their weapons.  After they pat them down they give them back their weapons.  They take them to get something to eat.  Rick asks why they let people in and the guy says it makes them stronger.  Then Rick notices a chain hanging from the guys belt loop to his pocket.  He grabs the guy and pulls it out.  It’s the watch Herschel gave to Glenn.  Rick pulls his gun and asks the guy where he got the watch.

Back to the prison where Patrick is playing with legos.  Rick had grabbed them on a run for Carl, but he wouldn’t touch them.  He was too busy cleaning his gun.  Rick realizes Herschel is right.  He asks Carl to come help him with something.  Carl grabs his gun, but Rick tells him to leave it because it will only get in the way.  Back to the present and the standoff between Terminus and Ricks group.  The guy says he got the watch off of a dead person.  Rick sees someone wearing the riot gear and Gareth says they got that off a dead police officer and Maggie’s poncho off of a clothesline.  The Terminus people start shooting and all hell breaks loose.  They try and find a way out, but are blocked in.  They pass a bunch of fresh skeletons.  They hear people calling for help and get into a room filled with candles.  They get out and almost to the fence, but they are surrounded.  Gareth makes them drop their weapons and go into a rail car where they find Maggie and Glenn and the others.  Rick says they are going to be pretty stupid when they find out they screwed with the wrong people.

End credits…

So, Terminus is bad.  Who saw that coming?  Probably a lot of us.  I’m getting a strong cannibalistic vibe from these people.  Thank God Rick pulled a gun on that guy before they could eat whatever was being barbecued.  Plus, when they were running they ran right by a pile of fresh skeletons still covered in blood, but not a drop of meat left on them.  So, Terminus is a creepy, cannibalistic cult… (?)  That’s how I’m calling it for now.  I guess we have until next October to let our conspiracy theories crowd the internet.  Well until next fall…

#thewalkingdead