'The Walking Dead' recap: We fight or we die
Spoiler alert! The following contains spoilers for season 6 episode 5 of The Walking Dead. You can read the recap for episode 4 here.
The Walking Dead is such a violent, action-heavy show that episodes that take a step back, that check in with the characters or set up future plots, can feel jarring. When people's guts are being literally ripped from their bodies on almost a weekly basis, a series of small conversations seems kind of dull by comparison.
Unfortunately, whereas some "table setting" episodes like this can also be well-crafted in and of themselves, "Now" was a slow, sloppy entry into this season that slammed on the brakes and hardly advanced either character or plot. Glenn's fate remains uncertain, Carol and Morgan were strangely absent and the zombies were almost lazily unthreatening (despite now coming in a covered-in-excrement variety). You know it's an off episode where the best moments come from two of the most minor characters (Tara and Merritt Weaver Denise FOREVER). We only have a few episodes left until the mid-season finale, so here's to hoping that the show uses that time more wisely than it did this week.
Homeward bound
After being left in a broken-down RV surrounded by a horde of incoming walkers two weeks ago, Rick defies-the-laws-of-physics Grimes has escaped his fate by doing ... something. The episode opens with Rick running in his own twisted version of Chariots of Fire towards the Alexandria gate, horde at his heels. A few things about this: 1) We are supposed to believe Rick got out of the RV because he's Rick, 2) Did he or did he not just lead that horde straight to Alexandria? and 3) Don't open the gate your crazy people you could let the horde in with him.
But since Rick is our fearless leader and can do no wrong, he makes it into the gate in the nick of time and the walkers proceed to pound on the doors. A slightly vindicated Rick gives a motivational speech to the frightened Alexandrians. They WILL move the horde! Sasha and Abraham and Daryl and Glenn and Nicholas WILL return! The wall WILL hold! IT'S GOING TO BE FINE GUYS OK?
Motivational speechifying was the name of the game this week as we were subjected to so, so many over the course of the episode. First Rick goes in with his tired speech, then Aaron decides to take the blame for everything because he maybe led the Wolves there or something (Aaron, you're the least awful person here, calm down), then Deanna's annoying son stops people from eating all of their remaining food (these people are THE WORST).
Meanwhile, Maggie I-can-always-find-Glenn Greene is planning a little getaway over the wall to try to answer the question the world has been asking since Nicholas put a gun to his head: Is Glenn alive or what? Aaron, continuing to be the only decent person in this place besides Glenn or Maggie, stops her from jumping off the wall into the waiting horde and suggests they take a handy secret passageway sewer tunnel to get out instead, a plan that absolutely cannot fail.
This is the way the world is now
Did we mention how annoying Deanna's son is? Because that guy is really, really annoying. After showing a single good quality earlier in the episode by stopping the "run" on the food storage, what's-his-name is now getting smashed and breaking glasses (he should be more careful, it's not like they can go to IKEA to get more), because everybody is going to die or whatever. Poor, poor you.
Meanwhile in the Dawson's Creek section of Alexandria, Carl and Ron (who is nearly UNRECOGNIZABLE without his emo hat) are feuding over Enid. Because not even a zombie apocalypse can kill teen angst. Enid is gone (and she may or may not be on Team Wolf, but that remains to be seen) and Carl I'm-good-at-putting-other-people-in-danger Grimes is all set to go and find her. When Ron points out that Carl's disappearance would cause Rick and several other people to go look for him, and that someone would probably die, Carl looks back like that's the first time he's ever thought such a thing (ugh, Carl). Thankfully Carl listens to his emo friend and saves us from that particular subplot, but not from one where Ron and Rick bond over shooting practice. Why did the show think another annoying teenage boy was the answer here?
And as far as the rest of Alexandria goes, the citizens of this idiot-magnet town find themselves needing YET ANOTHER motivational speech when Jessie kills a stray walker in someone's house (and it's literally the weakest zombie kill in the history of the show, she basically pushed it to death). Jessie explains to these people yet again that they have to fight or die, that the world is just like this now, that they've been sheltered inside these walls. It would have been a really great moment for her character if we hadn't heard this speech several times before from several different people. So this time around it was just boring. And also the speech just is one more reason the goodwill for the Alexandrians is starting to run out. If they're not getting what the world is now they never will. And they will die in it.
Tell me there's more
Off on their journey to find Glenn, Maggie and Aaron hit the sewers (which, like on a certain vampire show we love, are large enough to walk through and do not appear to smell). The pair discover that, surprise, surprise, there are some really disgusting sewer zombies trapped in there, which gives Aaron an opportunity to show off his skills and Maggie and opportunity to show off her angst. When they get to the end of the line, only to discover that the horde has already blocked the exit, the extra-devastating reason behind Maggie's pain is revealed: She's pregnant. Aaron, like the true good guy he is, comforts her, and eventually the two even go and erase Glenn and Nicholas' names off the wall of the dead. But what does this mean for the fate of our favorite former pizza delivery guy? Well it's not clear. Either he is dead and the show is going for an even bigger gut punch, or he isn't dead because even this show couldn't do something so cruel. To be honest, I lean more towards the former, but that may just be because I learned long ago not to hold out hope for anything on this show.
Speaking of hope, Deanna still wants to hold onto the hope that Alexandria can survive as a community. The almost-cracked leader spends most of the episode wandering around in a daze, furious city-planning, and stabbing the heck out of a walker with a broken bottle but completely ignoring his head. In a role-reversal, Rick ends up giving Deanna a steadying talk, reminding her to lead her people. I personally would have told her to step aside for a more stable and rational person but I do not have Rick's great wisdom. Or his taste in romantic partners, considering he ends the episode by macking on a woman whose husband he killed mere days ago (oh, Jessie). Good work, Rick. Glad you can find love in the time of zombies. Now how about you start hacking away at that zombie horde at the gates? They're not going to stab themselves in the head.
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