Friday, November 27, 2015

The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 7 "Heads Up"

You honor the dead by going on.


We see Glenn fall and the zombies pull Nicholas apart with Glenn trapped underneath. Glenn crawls under the dumpster that is surrounded by zombies. The zombies grab at him. He uses his knife to stab them. Zombies start to wander away from the dumpster. There seems to be a sound distracting them. Glenn has only a bit of water in a water bottle. Now it is night time and only a few zombies remain. The next morning Glenn crawls out from under the dumpster. No zombies in site. He drinks the last bit of water and looks for another weapon. He finds a gun. Enid throws a bottle of water down to Glenn. He goes after her. He asks her what she is doing out there. She tells him there is another water bottle in the corner and that he should take it and go. Glenn drinks the water and looks down on a blanket where empty cans litter the floor. He asks her what happened in Alexandria. "What happened is what always happened. People died." He asks if the herd broke through the walls. She says the horn was caused by people and he should go. He asks if Maggie is okay. No reply. He runs through the building looking for Enid. She runs away from him. He chases after her.

Rick walks along the walls of Alexandria. Morgan practices his aikido moves. Rick wants to talk to Morgan. Morgan agrees but doesn't seem happy about it. Rick finds the spot in the wall where the blood seeped through. Rick goes up the watchtower where he finds Maggie keeping watch. She wants to be there to look for a signal from Glenn. He tells her that, "When you go out there, it's never easy it's never simple. It's always a fight. We've come back from harder things, from further away." He tells her maybe they should look for a way to guide the walkers away so the others can come back in a cleared path. She mentions that Judith is starting to look like Lori. Glenn walks down an alley and finds David's body. Zombie David turns to him. Glenn stabs him in the head. He finds the note that David wrote and takes it with him. He heads back the way he came instead of going over the fence. Father Gabriel posts a note on the gazebo that reads "Prayer circle by the solar panels today at 1:00." Rick tears it down. Gabriel puts another note back up. Rick shows Ron how to use a gun. Carl tells Ron he is going to be scared. Rick tells him he has to get the gun up to his eye. Carl tells him he has to be strong enough to wait for your moment. Ron asks to hold the gun. Rick tells him to keep the gun (without bullets) so he can get a feel for it. Ron wants to practice shooting zombies but Rick doesn't want to attract them with the sound. Ron suggest several different ways to practice but Rick isn't having any of it. Ron says he just wants to learn more. Carl says he will and Ron just gives him a dirty look in response.

Morgan walks over to the hospital. Denise opens the door and offers him so oatmeal. Denise offers him help but he hesitates. Rick walks by and asks Morgan to talk. Back at Rick's house Rick tells Morgan about the wolves attacking him at the RV. And that Carol told him that Morgan wouldn't kill any of them. Carol asks Morgan if he let any of the wolves go and he says yes. Michonne says nothing. Morgan says he didn't want to kill people. He asks Rick why he didn't kill him back in episode "clear." Because Rick let him live he was there to help Aaron and Daryl. Maybe if he hadn't the wolves wouldn't have come back. He doesn't know what is right anymore. He wanted to kill the wolves but he also knows that people can change. Because everyone sitting at that table (Rick, Carol, Michonne, and Morgan) has changed."All life is precious. That idea changed me. It brought me back and keeps me living." Michonne says it can't be that easy. But he doesn't want to let go of the idea that all life is precious. Morgan wants to know if they want him to leave Alexandria. No one says anything. Rick asks him if he can make it in this world without getting blood on his hands? Morgan doesn't know.

The burnt out building hit by the truck that is next to the wall of Alexandria is falling apart. Rick talks to Michonne about drawing away the zombies. He wants to use his own people. Michonne says they are in Alexandria together. Catching their breaths right now. Anything else is just excuses. Deanna comes with her plans for the expansion. This will be for Alexandria after this. One way or another there will be an after this. Rosita teaches Alexandrians and Eugene how to use machetes to kill walkers. Rosita notices Eugene isn't practicing. She asks him what he is afraid of. He is afraid of dying. "Dying is simple. It all just stops. You're dead. The people around you dying, that's the hard part. 'Cause you keep living knowing that they're gone and you're still here. What you should be afraid of is living. Knowing that you didn't do everything you could to keep them here." An abandoned diner. A note that reads JSS on a table. Enid sits by herself. She looks out the door and sees several zombies. A bloody hand from behind covers her mouth. It is Glenn. He tells her he is taking her home. He asks why she gave him water. "I had it and you needed it." He is doing this for Maggie. Maggie would not leave Enid behind. She says no and pulls a gun on him. Oh no you didn't, little girl.

Glenn tells her to give him the gun. She tells him to turn around and walk away. He grabs the gun from her. He tells her that half the herd broke off and is headed towards Alexandria. He tells her to lead the way. Rick is reinforcing the wall. Tobin helps him.  Tobin thinks they could build up a brace on the wall. Enid and Glenn come upon to green balloon markers. She grabs the balloons so she can distract the zombies. Glenn tells her there is a helium tank, balloons, and string hidden in the shrubs. Tobin notices the blood seeping through the walls. Tobin tells Rick that he (Rick) scared people when he first came to Alexandria. Turns out Rick was right. Things started to move too fast. "But don't give up on us." Glenn asks who Enid stayed with back home. She refuses to refer to Alexandria as home. She lived with Olivia but she was on her own. Orphaned by walkers. Glenn says he was also probably orphaned by walkers. She responds, "It's just what happens." He tells her that she is scared of losing anything again which is why she says that. Glenn lectures her, "You honor the dead by going on. Even when you're scared. You live because they don't get to. You think your parents wanted you waving a gun around because you're afraid?" She says, "We don't have to talk." Olivia hears a sound in the pantry. Ron knocked some cans over to distract her. He goes to the armory and steals some bullets. Because he is an idiot teenager. No good will come from this.

Glenn and Enid make it to Alexandria. They see it is surrounded by zombies. Enid walks back towards the woods. Glenn tells her stop. "What's the point? The world is trying to die. We're supposed to just let it." Glenn tells her she is wrong. He is not going to let her die. He is no longer doing this for Maggie. He points out that the wall and the houses are still up. They will find a way. Tobin and Rick see someone crossing over the wall on a wire. It is Spencer. Tara and Eugene see him too. The line is slipping. His legs fall of the wire. Tara tells Eugene to have Maggie and Rosita fire their guns from their posts. The line breaks and Spencer falls. Tara shoots at the zombies and Rick pulls Spencer up over the wall with Tobin and Morgans' help. Rick yells at Tara for risking her life for "these people." She flips him off. Rick asks Spencer what he was doing. Spencer was trying to get to a car to drive the zombies away from Alexandria. Rick tells him that he should have come to him with his idea. Spencer counters with, "Would you have listened?"

Morgan walks into the hospital. Denise asks if everything is okay. He says everything is fine. He asks about their stocks of antibiotics. He wants to find out how to dress a wound but doesn't know if it is infected. He tells her he didn't want to get her involved in something she might not want to get involved in. It is not his wound. We see Carol holding Judith on the porch. She sees Morgan and Denise leave the hospital and she follows them. She goes to Jessie's house and asks her to watch Judith. Sam calls to Carol. He still won't come down. He asks if the people that came were the monsters. Did his dad turn into one of the monsters? If you kill people do you become a monster? Killing is the only thing that keeps you from becoming a monster. Carol unlocks the door to the cell and asks Morgan who he has in the cell. Carl walks down the street and Ron follows him. Ron grabs his gun. Michonne looks at the plans Deanna made for Alexandria.
The burnt building continues to crumble. Tara asks Rick and Tobin if they have seen Denise. Rick goes after Tara and apologizes. He asks if she did it because she wasn't thinking about it. She says they are stuck with each other. Deanna thanks Rick for saving Spencer. He tells her what Spencer did was stupid. She says at least her tried. Rick says he could have used the the gap Spencer created and gotten into a a car and led the herd away but he didn't. She asks why. He saved Spencer because he is her son. She replies, "Wrong answer." Maggie looks out and sees the green balloons fly by. She knows is it a sign from Glen. She runs towards the gate. The burnt out tower comes crashing down on the wall bringing it down.




Final Thoughts
- I am so happy that Glenn is alive. I was hoping he would be but I was prepared for the worst. I am hoping he will stay alive a while longer but you never know on this show. They could kill him off by the end of the season.
- I'm glad that Glenn stepped up as a father figure for Enid in this episode. She really needs an adult to fit into that role. Obviously Olivia wasn't the best choice since she didn't seem to notice that Enid was gone after the wolves attacked or act worried over Enid. Who knows if she even noticed all the times Enid went over the walls. Enid needed to hear everything Glenn told her. There is no room for teenage tantrums in the zombiepocalypse. She also needs a reason to live.
- What are we going to do with Spencer? He tries but he really doesn't know what he is doing. He needs to make friends with Tara or Rosita and learn a few things before he tries to be a hero.
- How long before Carol kills the wolf that Morgan has hidden? She already knows of his existence. For the moment he might be safe since she will have zombies to deal with now that part of the wall is down.
- Will we lose a main character when the zombies invade Alexandria? How many Alexandrians will be left by the end of the season?
- Will Ron actually shoot Ron? SPOILER ALERT: In the comics Carl loses an eye when the zombies invade Alexandria. Could they use Ron as a way to have that story line in the show?

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 6 "Always Accountable"

Everybody has got their code

We hear Daryl talking to Abraham and Sasha over the talkies as the herd follows them down the road. They speed up to lose the herd and head back to Alexandria. Out of nowhere gunfire. Several people with rifles shoot at them as they drive through a town. Daryl gets separated from Abraham and Sasha. The gunmen follow them in cars. Daryl bypasses a group of zombies but is followed by a car. Abraham and Sasha get out of the car and shoot the gunmen from one car. Abraham smiles because he thinks they have won. Sasha reminds him that there might be others. Daryl tricks the car that is following him and heads through the woods on his bike. His bike stops and he falls to the ground. Not sure if he is out of gas or if his engine was shot. He lands next to a zombie in a motorcycle helmet.

Daryl pushes his bike through the woods. He passes a burnt skeleton. He drops his bike and tries to contact Sasha and Abraham over the walkie. He looks down at his hand and sees it's covered in blood. He takes off his jacket and we see he has been shot. He hears something and covers his bike with a tree branch and carries his crossbow ready to fire. He stumbles upon two women. One of them says,You found us okay? Here we are. We earned what we took." A man comes up behind Daryl and hits him with a branch. Daryl wakes up at night by a fire with the three strangers. He comes in and out of consciousness. The man says, "Probably just another of the soldiers from the outposts. Probably hates him too." They pack up his crossbow. The next morning he wakes up to find his hands tied. The man points a gun at Daryl and tells him to get up and move. If Daryl doesn't say anything then they won't shoot him. Daryl responds, "I ain't what you think." They walk through the woods. We see more burnt bodies as they walk through the woods. They offer Daryl some water. The man says if the others find them they might give Daryl to them. Everybody has got their code. "You feel you gotta kneel, that's fair enough, we don't." They are meeting up with someone names Patty. More burnt zombies. They talk about how they burnt the forest full of zombies. They thought everyone else was fighting off the zombies just like they were. But they were stupid. Daryl says that they are being stupid right now. The man points a gun at him. He says, "You made a choice to kill for someone else, to have them own you for a roof over your head and three squares. So maybe I'm not considering all aspects here." He wants to know if he is being stupid by not killing Daryl. Daryl says no. He can make a deal and help them. The man says they should never had trusted "You people" to begin with. They arrive at a gated lot with zombies roaming around. Patty is gone. The new plan is to get out of there. One of the girls passes out. Daryl takes their bag that contains his crossbow and runs into the woods. He unties his hands and calls to Sasha again over the walkie. He hears a zombie and tries to pull his crossbow out of the bag. He finally gets it out and shoots the zombie just in time. He looks in the bag and sees a cooler.

Sasha and Abraham find tracks for Daryl's bike. They assume he got away. Abraham says the people that attacked them were waiting to kill someone in particular. Abraham thinks that Daryl went back to Alexandria. Sasha wants to stay and wait for Daryl. They walk down the main road and Sasha writes on a door the word DIXON. She stops Abraham from killing solitary zombie trudging down the street. She says he is smarter than that. She walks into the building. Abraham searches through the building and finds a military uniform handing on a coat rack. He sees a picture of the officer and his family. Abraham finds Sasha sitting on a chair by a room with a zombie trapped inside. She tells him, "Stand watch or sleep. Your choice." Abraham decides to do a little shopping. Sasha lies down on the floor with the walkie next to her. Note on the board where zombie is trapped says: "Proud to have provided value. I pray for the world. Keep going. Stay cheerful. The bites kill." Abraham just wants to kill the zombie. He calls this building their new home. Should they give the zombie a name? She wants to know why he came with her. He replies that she was out of control. She says she is in control now. He says he is also in control. She says that his behavior would suggest otherwise. He says loose ends make his ass itch. She talks about having choices in Alexandria. "Without walkers, without bullets, without sh#$%@ hitting the fan you are accountable for them. I mean hell, you are always accountable. It's just with all that other noise, you people won't notice."

Daryl walks through the woods and finds the people that kidnapped him. He orders the man to drop his gun. He wants to know what is in the duffel. He also wants to know what the man was carving. The man hands him a figurine that he carved. Daryl asks for it. The man gives it to him. Daryl tosses them their duffel back with their stuff. A car comes through the woods. Daryl hides behind some trees. Some men whose faces we can't see come out and tell the people they want what they took and they are going to give it back and pay for the gas and time it took the men to find them. They know the rules. The whittler calls one of the men Wade and says they are not going back. Daryl leads his kidnappers away from the group of creepy men. He gives the gun back to the man. Over a walkie we can hear the following: "Eyes open. Cover your quadrant. Go to alpha channel." They see one of the men walk in the woods. Daryl makes noise so he will come towards them but will have to walk past a trapped zombie. The zombie bites the man. He calls out to Wade. Wade comes and chops off the bitten arm. The girl that passed out earlier is getting a shot from the other woman (insulin?). The man turns to Daryl and tells him that he thought Daryl was with the other men. He asks why Daryl came back after they kidnapped him. Daryl replies, "Maybe I'm stupid too."

Abraham cocks his gun and looks out a window. We see a zombie trapped on the roof of a building. It looks like a soldier. Abraham goes to the military truck and finds some grenade launchers in the back along with a box of cigars. Abraham walks over to the zombie and gets right in its face. The zombie tries to bite him. Abraham shouts at the zombie and eventually backs away. Does he see himself in the zombie? What he could have become if he had not met Eugene and received a mission/reason to live? He walks back to the truck and pulls a cigar out of the box and lights it. He sits in the back of the truck and smokes. The zombie's arm breaks through the pole and he falls to the ground leaving the grenade launcher hanging on the pole. Abraham comes back to Sasha's location with his newly found treasure. He is not worried about Rick and the others. He knows Rick can handle it. They have everything waiting for them back in Alexandria. "The table is set for the rest of our lives. And I hope those years to be long and fruitful, I see that time for me and I've been feeling the urge to make some plays before the great cosmic Pete comes to cut my throat unceremoniously and I rule my last breath."  He would like to get to know Sasha better. Is that one of his plays? She wants to know what makes him think she'll want that. "A man can tell." Is this another new couple for the show?

Daryl asks the man about the people that were following them. As things got harder people got harder. People will trade anything for safety. "Everything. So they got nothing left just existing." Daryl says safety no longer exists and you can't promise that. The girl, Tina, runs off ahead. They find a burnt greenhouse. Carla and Delly. Tina and Honey (the other woman) used to babysit for them. Two bodies lie burnt on the ground. The man says they did this (when they burned the woods). Honey says we did this. The zombies move as Tina goes to lay flowers on them and they bite her. Daryl kills the zombies. Daryl and the man dig graves. Daryl asks the man the "questions" Rick created. He killed a couple dozen but no people. There is no going back from killing people. Daryl tells them about Alexandria. The man just keeps digging. Daryl takes them back to his motorcycle. He will take them back to Abraham and Sasha. He doesn't know if they are alive. He hears the man cock the gun and drops his bike. He realizes the people are up to no good but it is too late. The man points the gun at Daryl and then they take his crossbow and bike. Honey gives Daryl some bandages and says "Sorry." Daryl replies, "You're gonna be." He pulls out the figurine the man carved. He walks through the wood and stops at the zombie he first found on the ground. He walks over to the ground and brushes dirt off of a sign. He pulls some branches and finds a truck for a fuel company.  The license plate read PATTY. He kills the zombie inside. Abraham has put on the jacket belonging to the dead military officer. They hear a truck outside and ready their weapons. They chuckle. We see all three of them driving down the road in Daryl's new ride. Daryl calls to Rick on the walkie. We hear garbled voice say, "Help".

Final Thoughts
-  Who are the men that followed Daryl's kidnappers? I don't think they are Wolves. Unlike the wolves they carry guns and walkies and seem a little more organized. SPOILER ALERT: I think this group could be part of Negan's group from the comic. They recently announced that Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been cast as Negan so it is a possibility we will finally see him on the Walking Dead.
- Honey and her man will most definitely be sorry. Daryl let them treat him like crap, he saved their lives, and offered them the safety of Alexandria and they betrayed him.
- Who asked for help? Glenn? The man who stole Daryl's bike? Wade or someone from his group? Someone back in Alexndria?
- Easter egg: Cherokee Rose by zombie

Friday, November 13, 2015

The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 5 "Now"

  Someday this pain will be useful to you

Deanna climbs a ladder up to the watchtower and looks out past the gates. She looks back and sees some Alexandrians gathering the bodies of the dead. She sees Michonne talking with Maggie and Rosita. Michonne is explaining to Maggie Glenn's plan to start the fire or send a signal if he got stuck. No signal was sent. We hear shouting from outside the gate and sees a zombies approaching followed by many more zombies. Rick is running being chased by the heard shouting for them to open the gates. Michonne and Maggie open the gates. Rick runs in just as the herd arrives. Zombies claw at the gates.

The Alexandrians gather around the walls listening to the zombies outside. Rick tells them half of the herd made its way to them. Enough to surround them 20 deep. He knows they are scared but they are safe for now. The walls will hold themselves together. Will you? The others will make it back and lead the zombies away. They need to keep noise to a minimum and keep the lights out. Ron reaches for his knife. Rick tells them they need to keep this place as quiet as a graveyard. One of the women speaks up and says that Alexandria is a graveyard. Rick acknowledges this with a nod. Aaron speaks up and tells them that the quarry broke open and all of the walkers were headed this way and Rick's plan stopped that from happening. Half of the walkers were led away. He tells them about the trap set by the wolves and that he lost his pack. He says the wolves found them because of him. Deanna walks away. Rick says there will be more to talk about. Tobin calls after Deanna but she just keeps walking.

Jessie goes to her house and carries out the body of the wolf that she killed. She drags it to a pile of dead wolves in the graveyard. She begins to dig. Rick tells her to stop digging. They don't bury killers inside the wall. He tells her they wait. Olivia is having problems with the Alexandrians that don't want to ration their food supplies. They walk past her and get food. Spencer tells them to stop. He says he might have let the wolves in but he stopped the truck from coming in. "Doing this will start us down the road where nothing matters. Where no one else matters. And then we will all look back at this moment, right now, as when we destroyed this place." They all put down the food and walk away. Deanna walks up to him and smiles.

Maggie ties something. Aaron stops as he is walking but when she looks up at him he walks by. He walks to one of the walls where he sees some of the Alexandrians writing the names of the dead. That includes Nicholas and Glenn. He looks back and sees Maggie walking away. He finds her in the armory and asks if she is going out. She has things to lure the walkers away and open up a path. She is gearing up and waiting for dark. He asks wheat happens when she hurts her ankle when she lowers herself over the wall. He says he will help her. He knows a safer way out.

Deanna holds Reg's wedding ring in her hand. She pulls out a map of Alexandria and starts planning things like crops and education. On the bottom of the plan she writes DOLORIC TIBI PRODERIT OLIM (Translation: Someday this pain will be useful to you). She smiles. She hears something break and finds Spencer has broken a glass in the kitchen. He is getting drunk. He stole food from the pantry after he gave everyone that speech. He says one person raiding the pantry is nothing. So why not him? He deserves a reward. The others were right. They will all be dead soon. He yells at her that it is all her fault. Reg and Aiden are dead because of her. They were never really safe there.

Ron stabs his knife into the ground over and over again. Carl asks him if he is okay. He asks Ron if he has seen Enid. She left right before the herd arrived. Ron says she is probably dead. Carl says he will go find her but he needs Ron's help. Ron says that Enid was his girlfriend. That Enid should not have gone and he won't let Carl go. They start to fight but Carl pushes Ron to the ground. Ron says he will tell Rick and they will go looking for Carl and then someone will die. Carl saved Ron's life so now Ron is saving Carl.

Denise checks on a patient. Then she looks at a medical book and slides it across the floor as Tara walks in. Denise tells her the patient is still hasn't woken up and his wound is infected. She doesn't know what to do. Tara tells her she is still here and she patched people up. Denise is so scared about what is happening inside the infirmary that she is not worried about the walkers outside. But she just wants another doctor to come so she can go back to her apartment and finish reading War and Peace. Tara tells her that the patient isn't dead yet. She also adds, "It's not like I don't feel it. Being scared sucks."

Jessie walks past an open window of a house. She walks up to it and sees a zombie inside. It was Betsy (David's wife who wrote the note a couple of episodes back) and she slit her wrists. She grabs her knife and cautiously opens the door. The zombie sticks her head out and she stabs it in the eye. The Alexandrians look at her in shock. She says she didn't want to see the way things really are but this is what life looks like now. "We have to see it. We have to fight it. If we don't fight we die."

Aaron shows Maggie an old sewer entrance that will lead them outside the wall. She wants to go by herself but he won't let her. He needs to go. If Glenn is alive he is either hurt or trapped. If he is dead she doesn't want to waiting for him. She tells Aaron it was not his fault. Aaron says people are dead and he has to live with that. They find fallen ladder. He hasn't been there since the apocalypse started. They get it free and Aaron falls back. A zombie oozes its way up from where the ladder was. Maggie struggles to kill it because it is so decomposed.  Another zombie heads towards Aaron. He kills his zombie and then Maggie's zombie. She tells him he will need stitches and to head back. He says no and they continue.

Denise looks though the medical books and finds what she needs. She takes out some pus from the man's wound and his vitals improve. Rick is on the watchtower trying to contact Daryl and Sasha. Ron climbs up. He tells Rick that Enid used to sneak out and that she is still out there but she knows how to take care of herself. He stopped Carl from going out to look for Enid. He offers to keep an eye on Carl. Rick is still looking for a sign from Glenn. He thanks Ron for telling him. Ron says he thought about what Rick said to him at the quarry and asks if Rick will teach him how to shoot. He takes the bullets out of his gun and gives it to Ron and points to the zombies. Denis walks up to Tara and kisses her. Tara asks, "What is it?" Denise replies, "It's the end of the world." Tara says it is not the end of the world. Denise says that being afraid sucks and Tara smiles.

Aaron and Maggie make it to the end of the sewer. There are still a lot of zombies outside. He tells her they can't. He says she can stay and he will go. She yells, "No, it's over." And it attracts zombies. She tells him how she burnt Glenn's picture because she thought she would never be away from him again. She is pregnant. She believes if she had gone out with Glenn she could have helped him. She doesn't know if he is alive. But he would have signaled by now. She wants to see his face. She will never know what happened and they will both have to live with that. They hug.

Jessie calls to Sam. She made him some cookies. He wants her to bring them up to him. He won't go downstairs. She asks why. "It didn't change up here." She says she is technically upstairs and if he comes to her he will still be upstairs. He says no and goes back to his room. She sets the cookies in front of his room and knocks on the door. Deanna is outside with the food Spencer stole when she is attacked by a zombie. She grabs one of the broken bottles and stabs it in the chest. Then she knocks it to the ground and continues to stab it. Rick runs up and stabs it in the head. The zombie must have been one of the wolves Carol killed. "I want to live. I want to see this place to stay standing." Rick says she needs to lead them. She replies, "What they need is you." She gathers the food and Rick helps her. "What I wanted for this place , was it really just pie in the sky?" "No," says Rick.

Maggie and Aaron stand at the watchtower looking out at the herd. Maggie says she will be right back. She walks to the wall where Glenn's name is written and starts rubbing it off. Aaron joins her and washes off Nicholas's name. He tells her that Aaron works as a name for a boy or a girl depending on the spelling. She smiles.

Rosita stands guard on another tower. Spencer climbs up and tells her that he is her replacement. She tells him he did a good job taking out the truck driver that hit the wall. He tells her he got lucky. Ya, lucky that Morgan arrived. He stands watch and eats some crackers (stolen crackers?).

Jessie looks down at her laundry. Rick comes in to her garage. He tells her that the reason he wanted to wait to bury the dead was because of Glenn, Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham. He doesn't know if they are dead. He wanted the zombies gone. She tells him they could still be alive. "Right here in this moment. This is what it is." He says, "This is what life looks like now." He heard about her speech. She says there has to be a future. She wants him to tell her there is more. He kisses her. Deanna walks up to the front gate and stares at the zombies on the other side. She pounds on the gate. They pound back.  As she walks away we see blood seeping through one of the walls.

Final Thoughts
- I don't trust Ron. He is kind of a weasel. Or just a bratty teenager.
- I'm glad that Aaron told everyone about losing his backpack. Compare that to Spencer taking credit for stopping the truck when Morgan did most of the work.
- This is not how I wanted to find out that Maggie and Glenn were finally going to have a baby.
- I don't think we will get a definite answer about Glenn's fate in next week's episode. Like Maggie, I just want to know if he is dead or alive.
- I'm glad that at least Jessie is starting to realize what needs to be done to survive in this world. Her speech was very similar to one Rick gave in a previous season.
-Maybe the attack by the wolves and her speech will knock some sense into the Alexandrians. Rick and his group really need to start training everyone to fight against zombies and invading humans.
- I'm concerned about the bleeding walls. They can only take so much before they fall.
- It seems like wherever Rick and his group end up death and destruction follow (Hershel's farm, the prison, even Woodbury). Will Alexandria be next?

Thursday, November 12, 2015

The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 4 "Here's Not Here"

The Art of Peace

Now
Morgan speaks to the wolf he met he last season in the woods. He knows the wolf likes to talk and that he wanted everything Morgan had. Well here it is. Every last bit.

Then
"Clear" written on the wall. The crazy house where Rick found Morgan. He is talking to someone. Himself or possibly Duane. A fire consumes the wall that says "Here's not here." while Morgan screams "We weren't supposed to be there! You had the knife! You had the gun! You were supposed to! You know you were supposed to!" He is seems to be referring to the pilot when he had the gun and was going to shoot his zombie wife but couldn't do it. In his mind, if he had killed his wife then Duane would still be alive.

Morgan walks through the woods with a gun and helmet on. He comes upon some zombies and kills them all with the barrel of his rifle. He piles them up in a clearing and sets them on fire. Zombies are attracted by the fire. He kills them. The next day we see he has set up spikes by his fire pit. A zombie with tied hands walks by and he kills it. It joins the pile of dead zombies. He has written the word "clear" on a rock by the fire pit. He walks through the woods. He is being followed by two men. He hides behind a tree waiting of them. He kills one by stabbing him in the neck with his stick. The other man apologizes but he strangles him anyway saying, "You don't." Another fire with bodies. The next morning he grabs the zombies that have trapped themselves on the spikes. He writes "pointless act" on a rock and "here's not here" on another. He marks trees with the letter A written in blood. He walks into a beautiful clearing. He mumbles "You know what it is." He waves his stick around at no one. He hears an animal bleating. As he walks he comes upon some cans tied with string. He steps over them and finds two cabins. One of them has solar panels on the roof. There is a fence and a goat is tethered within. A man tells him to step away from the goat. It does not belong to Morgan. He still is trying to figure out how to make cheese (Is this the cheese maker that taught Morgan how to fight with his stick and not kill things? I think it is). Morgan shoots at the man. The man asks him to put down his gun and invites him to eat. The man says they can work this out  but Morgan keeps walking around the cabin with his rifle. The man gives him one last chance. The man hits Morgan from behind and apologizes.

Morgan wakes up on the floor of a cell in the cabin. He sees a child's drawing on the wall. The cheese maker walks in and asks Morgan's name. Morgan replies, "Kill me." over and over again. The man tosses a book ("The Art of Peace") inside the cell. He tells Morgan his name is Eastman. Eastman tells Tabitha it is okay. Tabitha is the goat. Eastman kills a zombie approaching Tabitha. Morgan eats the food that Eastman left in the cell for him. Morgan mumbles, "It's yours so you take it. It's yours or it's his so you take it. 16 hours in the 19 on the floor. You know what it is." Eastman brings Tabitha inside and places her in a pen he made for her. Eastman says that Morgan shot at him and he fed him so please don't hurt the goat. The next morning we see Morgan looking out the window at Eastman practicing with his stick. Morgan eats and watches Eastman. Morgan says, "16 hours in 19 on the floor." We see Eastman attempting to make cheese. The cheese is terrible.

Eastman tells Morgan he is from Atlanta and a forensic psychiatrist. Now he lives here because of the zombiepocalypse. He asks Morgan what he did or does now. Morgan says he clears. He kills walkers or anything that approaches him. Eastman asks why. Morgan replies that is why he is still here. Eastman calls that a load of crap. Then he gives Morgan his lunch. Morgan snaps off a piece of his zipper. He uses it to cut away at the bars on his window. He stops the minute he sees Eastman coming back in. Eastman tells Morgan that he (Morgan) has PTSD. Morgan tells him about killing the two men. That's what he does. Eastman asks if Morgan has killed a lot of people. Yes, not everyone was attacking him though. Eastman asks if he saves people. Yes. Morgan replies, "Pointless acts. Everybody turns." He noticed a wedding ring and guesses that Morgan had kids and saw them turning. He relives that moment over and over again. Eastman tells Morgan that his body is here but his mind is still there. "There's a door and you want to go through it to get away from it and you do and it leads you right back to that moment. And you see that door again and you know it won't work and you step through that door and it happens again. And you feel it every time. So you stop opening that door and you sit in it. But I assure you one of those doors leads out, my friend." Eastman wants to be Morgan's friend but Morgan says he will kill Eastman because he has to clear. Eastman says we were not built to kill. That is why soldiers come back with PTSD. Killing causes trauma. But we can all heal. "It's all a circle and everything gets a return". He tells Morgan that the cell door is open. He can leave or stay. The door has been open all along. "You stay or you go. Those are the choices. I will not allow you to kill me." Morgan opens the door and runs at Eastman.

Eastman fights off Morgan and tells him to stop. He gave Morgan two choices. Morgan runs to the fireplace to grab a poker but Eastman stops him. They fight and Morgan starts to choke Eastman. Eastman gains control and pins Morgan to the ground. Morgan concedes. The child's drawing lies broken on the floor. It upsets Eastman to see it broken. He looks like he is about to hurt Morgan. Morgan says, "kill me." Eastman stops and tells him he has the choice of the door or the couch. Morgan gets up and walks back into the cell and closes the door. Eastman picks up the broken drawing and opens the cell door but Morgan kicks it shut. Later that night Eastman tells Morgan it was akido that he used to kick Morgan's ass. He tells Morgan about his 5 year old daughter finding him in the garage crying after a hard day at work. His daughter gave him a rabbit's foot for luck . The next day he found a flyer for akido. Morgan asks if his daughter and wife are dead. Eastman says Morgan will need akido if they are going to make it on this trip. Morgan asks where they are going. Eastman doesn't know. He just knows there have got to be more people out there. He turns off the light and bids Morgan a good night. Morgan walks out of the cell and sees that Eastman was repairing the drawing he broke during the fight.

The next morning Eastman talks about the cheese he is making. "There is potential here. Where there's life there is potential." Eastman tells Morgan how he will continue trying to make cheese. He has become a vegetarian but he won't give up chocolate. Goo goo clusters will remain on the menu. He invites Morgan to go on a run with him. When Morgan doesn't respond he asks him to look after the goat. Morgan watches him go. He looks down at the book that Eastman gave him. He picks up the book and on the first page titled "The Art of Peace" Eastman has written: "Aikido means not to kill. Although nearly all creeds have a commandment against taking life, most of them justify killing for one reason or another. In Aikido, however, we try to completely avoid killing, even the most evil person." We hear zombie sounds and the goat bleating. Morgan rushes outside just as two zombies make their way to the goat. He kills one zombie and as he fights the other he hesitates for a moment but then looks at Tabitha and kills the zombie. Morgan takes the zombie body into the woods. He finds a shovel propped up against a tree. He finds a makeshift graveyard. Eastman finds Morgan digging a grave for the zombies and thanks him for saving Tabitha. He says, "Progress." As Morgan goes to put one of the zombies in the ground Eastman stops him and pulls out the zombies wallet. He grabs their IDs and writes their names on grave markers. When they get back he tells Morgan to fix the tomato plants he ruined and hands him a new spear (he took off the pointed end).

We see Morgan digging in a garden with Eastman. Eastman teaches Morgan aikido. You have to care about your opponent and yourself. You have to believe that all life is precious. . . What we've done we've done." As the voice over continues we see Morgan reading in the cabin and practicing with his spear. Morgan voice over " We evade it by moving forward with a code to never do it again. To still accept what we were. To protect everyone. To create peace." Tabitha now lives in the cell. Morgan asks Eastman why he has a cell in his cabin. He built this place before his daughter was born. In his job he talked to many people convicted of terrible things. One patient, Crighton Dallas Wilton, that was up for parole and was very likable. But Eastman saw that he was in fact a psychopath. When Crighton realized that Eastman knew what he was he attacked Eastman. Eastman saw evil in his eyes. He pulls out the rabbit's foot. He tells him the aikido move he used to save himself. He made sure Crighton would never get out but broke out anyway. He killed Eastman's wife, daughter, and son and then surrendered to the police. He only broke out to destroy Eastman's life. He built the cell to bring the psycho there and watch him starve to death. Morgan asks if he did that. Eastman replies, "I have come to believe that all life is precious."

Eastman says they need more gear and should try looking in the islands up the coast. Morgan says he knows a way they can find all they need. We see his old fire pit. Morgan had a bag there with gear. Eastman asks who Morgan lost. He wants to know their names. "Jenny and Duane." Eastman tells him to do forms. Morgan doesn't want to do them there but Eastman insists. They stand up, face each other and Morgan begins to do forms with his spear. Eastman puts him in the proper position and then tells Morgan he will hold a baby again (that came true in Alexandria). A zombie comes out of the woods and Eastman tells Morgan it is all his. Morgan freezes when he realizes it's the man he strangled. Eastman steps in but the zombie bites him on the back. Morgan yells at him "I said not here! That wasn't for you to do! You can't just step in! Tell me how it is!" Eastman says they are going back home, "You are done with this. You made it out." Morgan attacks him and they fight. Eastman beats him and Morgan screams "Kill me!" Eastman drops his stick and picks up the zombie. He places the zombie in his wagon. Morgan says, "I said not here." "That's the thing Morgan, Here's not here."

Morgan sharpens his spear against the rock that says pointless acts. He stalks the woods and finds a zombie. He kills the zombie and we see two people. The man has a crutch. It looks like Morgan is about to attack them but he just stares them down. The woman opens her backpack and offers Morgan a can soup and a bullet and says thank you. They walk away. Morgan goes back to the pit for a spear. Then he runs back to the cabin. He finds a zombie eating Tabitha. He kills the zombie. He carries Tabitha to the graveyard where he finds Eastman. Tabitha figured out the cell door was open and got out. Morgan orders Eastman to sit down and he continues to dig the grave. He notices a grave marked Crighton Dallas Wilton. Eastman tells him that he kidnapped Crighton and brought him to the cabin. He put Crighton in the cell and let him starve to death. It took 47 days. Then Eastman was gone. He was crazy like Morgan. Killing Crighton didn't give him any peace. He found peace when he decided to never kill anything again. On his way to turn himself in he found out the world had ended. Morgan says, "But the world hasn't ended." Progress.

Eastman tells Morgan that his daughter drew the picture on the wall of his house. He put a frame around it. When the apocalypse happened he walked through 30 miles of the dead to get it. It was the scariest and the best thing he ever did. He tells Morgan he could stay in the cabin but he shouldn't because he'll be alone. "Everything is about people." Everything matters. Eastman is ready to die. He has a gun in the lock box. Morgan helps him to his feet. Eastman gives Morgan the lucky rabbit's foot so it will give Morgan luck in whatever he decides to do. Morgan has already decided. We see Morgan doing formations outside. He leaves the cabin with his backpack and spear. We see a grave marked Eastman. Morgan walks through the woods and looks at the rabbit's foot. He stumbles upon the railroad tracks and reads the sign for Terminus. He walks down the track towards Terminus.

Now
"And that's it. Every last bit." The wolf asks if he thinks it can work out that way with him. Morgan thinks it can. The wolf says he is shaking and sweating a little. He lifts his shirt and shows a bite mark. When he saw the pictures of Alexandria he thought there might be medicine. So now he knows he is probably going to die. "But if I don't. I am going to have to kill you Morgan. I am going to have to kill every person here. Every one of them. The children too. Just like you friend Eastman's children. Those are the rules. That's my code. I'd say I'm sorry but you said it, right? Don't ever be sorry." Morgan stands up and walks out of the cell in Alexandria. He hesitates, but then locks the door. He looks back but then he hears Rick screaming "Open the gate!" and runs towards the sound.

Final Thoughts
- I loved the dialogue in this episode. While I wanted to know what happened to Glenn it's episodes like this that end up being my favorite. Just two people talking. I can see this being one of my favorite episodes of the season, maybe even the entire series.
- I liked the use of the prison metaphor. Morgan stayed in the cell because he assumed it would be locked. He didn't even try to open the door. Morgan was trapped in his own mental prison. Like Eastman said he kept going through the wrong door. All he had to do was open the cell door and be free. He needed to find the right door (with the help of Eastman) so he could free himself and stop clearing.
- My sister pointed out that when Morgan arrived at Gabriel's church he place the bullet, rabbit's foot, and a Goo Goo cluster on the altar.
- So how long do you think it will be before Rick or Carol find the wolf in the cell and kill him?
- What does "16 hours in the 19 on the floor" mean?
- What do the blood letter As on the trees mean?