The Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 16 "Conquer"

Everything has a return.

An abandoned car in the middle of the woods. Morgan sleeps inside. He makes himself breakfast. A man walks up to him pointing a gun. He says the food looks good. He says hi to Morgan and Morgan says hello back. Morgan tells him he can lower his gun. He doesn't appear to be scared by the man. He asks the man why he has a W on his forehead. The man tells him about wolves being killed off by early settlers to the area. The wolves are back now. Morgan's reply, "Everything has a return." The man says he likes talking to Morgan he only gets to meet new people once every two weeks. He and his group go looking for people.

They find camps and take everything. As Morgan goes to eat the men tells him to put his cup down. He wants it. He wants everything Morgan has. Morgan asks if he can keep a little to stay alive. The man says he is taking Morgan too and Morgan won't be exactly alive. The local tribes thought the first people were wolves turned into men. Morgan offers to give him everything but he won't allow the man to take him away. The man tells Morgan, "Just be still." Another man tries to attack Morgan but Morgan uses his stick and new found Jedi fighting skills to kick their trash. A zombie comes up and Morgan tries to shoot it but there are no bullets in the gun so he kills it with his stick. He wipes off the stick. He then places both of the men in the car and honks the horn. He takes a rabbit's foot hanging from the rear view mirror.

Rick wakes up from sleeping on a mattress on the floor. His face is bandage. He chuckles to himself. Michonne asks him what is so funny. She was there all night. He says it is like the train car. After everything he is still there. Deanna wanted him there to calm him down and Rosita patched him up. Michonne wants to know what he is doing. Pete was put in another house. She is upset that he didn't tell her what he was planning. He said he couldn't tell her about the guns because she wanted this place. She says, "We had to stop being out there." Glenn comes in with Carol and Abraham. When Michonne asks him where he got the gun Carol chimes in that he must have gotten it from the armory (conveniently leaving herself out of the secret plan and continuing to play innocent Carol in a way). She says he was stupid. Rick just looks at her and then plays along. Glenn announces that Deanna is having a meeting that night to discuss what happened. Carol thinks that the purpose of the meeting will be to try to kick Rick out. She tells Rick that he needs to say that he was worried that someone was being abused and that no one was doing anything about it. He took the gun to keep Jessie safe. He needs to tell them the story they want to hear. That is what she has been doing since she arrived in Alexandria. Michonne asks why. I love Carol's response, "Because these people are children and children like stories." Abraham asks what will they do if they still want to kick Rick out. Carol says they still have knives and that is all they need to use against the people of Alexandria. Rick's plan if things go bad is to grab Deanna, Reg, and Spencer and threaten to slit their throats if they don't give them the armory. Once they have the guns it will all be over. Glenn asks if this is what Rick wanted. Rick says he hit his limit and screwed up. "And here we are." Rick goes back to bed and the others leave.

Maggie looks out the window at Father Gabriel. She looks at him with anger and disgust. Reg calls to her and they go to meet with Deanna. Maggie came to discuss the meeting. It won't work if they send Rick away. She tells Deanna that she made the decision to let Rick and his group in after talking to them and to put the decision of Rick's citizenship in the hands of a bunch of scared people is bad leadership. Deanna says she will be the one to make the final decision. Maggie says they have lost much more than the people of Alexandria. Reg chimes in that Michonne stopped Rick. Maggie walks off and Reg follows her. He tells her that cavemen were nomads and all died. "Civilization starts when we stop running. . . When we stop sending people away from the world and each other. That's what I'm going to tell her. That's what I am going to tell everyone."

Sasha walks outside of the fence. She takes a dolly with her. She puts a walker on it and caries it into the woods where she has dug a whole and filled it with dead zombies. She slips in when she tries to pull the last zombie in. She then lies down amongst the zombies and looks up at the sky and closes her eyes. She is at rest.

Daryl and Aaron are on the road looking for recruits. They follow someone's tracks. Aaron tells Daryl once they find someone they will set up the mics and listen until they know. Daryl asks if they send people away and Aaron says yes. Early on they kicked out three people (two men and a woman). The leader was a man named Davidson who was strong and smart. They didn't work out. Aaron brought them in and saw them out. They drove out far and gave them a day's worth of rations and left them. Daryl asks if the three people left of their own volition. and Aaron said they had their guns. They had all the guns. The three didn't have a choice.The moral of the this story is he who has the guns has the power.

Carol wakes Rick up. She says what happened last night was good. Now everyone will think that Rick has been found out and no one will suspect that she has some guns. She gives Rick a gun. He asks her why she didn't want to tell the others that she had more guns. She didn't tell them about the guns just in case. Rick doesn't want to lie anymore. She points out that he told the others that he didn't want to take Alexandria and he doesn't want to lie. "Oh Sunshine, you don't get both."

Daryl and Aaron watch a man in a red poncho. They see the man rub wild leeks on his face. Daryl says it is used to keep mosquitoes away. Rick walks down the street and says hi to Tobin and some other men. He walks past Deanna's house and they just stare at each other. We see Nicholas spying on Glenn. Maggie tells Glenn she is going to try to talk to everyone before the meeting to try to solve the situation. Glenn tells her he loves her. She says she will work things out. Glenn sees Nicholas climb over the fence and follows him.

Spencer lets Father Gabriel outside the wall. Gabriel wants to go on a walk and the only protection he needs is the word of God. Rick arrives home and tells Carl that he is to stay home during the meeting.  Carl says that this is now their home. These people need them. They will die without them. Rick tells him he might have to threaten one of them and kill one of them. Carl tells him, "You should tell them so they can hear you." (In other words, talk to these people without waving a gun in their faces). Rick doesn't know if they can listen to him. Carl wants him to try.

Aaron and Daryl lost sight of the man in the red poncho. They stand outside of a canned food warehouse. Daryl says if they stop for the food then they are giving up on finding the man. Aaron says they are 50 miles away from home and they saw bad people the other night. Daryl says, "That's why we ought to keep looking for the good ones." Aaron says they will find more people and when they do they will need to feed them. They kill the few zombies in the parking lot and make their way to the warehouse. They find several trucks. Aaron pulls off an Alaska license plate from one of the trucks. He is sure they will find the man again. Daryl pulls open one of the doors and all of the doors to the trucks open and zombies with Ws on their heads come spilling out. They are surrounded. They struggle to stay away from the zombies. Aaron loses his bag. They eventually make their way into a car in the parking lot. Now they are trapped in the car surrounded by zombies. Daryl suggest they look for something to black out the windows so the zombies won't see them. He hopes that in a few hours something will walk by and distract the zombies so they can make their escape. Aaron finds a piece of paper in the car that reads, "Trap. Bad people coming. Don't stay." They look at each other and even Daryl looks freaked out.

Pete sits in a dark house by himself. Someone knocks on the door. He opens it and Carol comes in with a casserole and tells him he needs to check on Tara. He tells her to get out. She pulls out her knife and tells him she could kill him. She can and will and no one will believe she did it. She presses the knife against his face and says they will believe he tried to hurt her. She tells him to come at her. He just stands there. She tells him he has a chance. He's here and his wife is there. "You're a small weak nothing. And with the world how it its you're even weaker. . . maybe you don't have to die." Then she tells him she wants her dish back clean. He talks to himself, "This isn't my house."

Glenn follows Nicholas into the woods. He sees a dead zombie. He hears a branch snap and Nicholas shoots him in the shoulder. When Nicholas goes to where Glenn was standing Glenn is gone.

Rick checks in on Jessie. He notices her black eye and says it happened when she tried to stop the fight. He says he is not sorry he fought with Pete and starts to walk away. She tells him not to turn around. He was right. Pete sees them talking outside the window.

Daryl chuckles to himself. He tells Aaron he came out there because he felt stifled in Alexandria. "Even now, this still feels more like me than back in them houses. That's pretty messed up, huh?" Aaron tells him that he tried. Daryl says he had to try but Aaron says he didn't. He watched Daryl go off by himself and find the barn and when the storm hit he led his group to safety. That was the deciding moment for Aaron. That's when he knew he had to bring Rick and his group back with him to Alexandria. He tells Daryl that he was right; they should have kept looking for red poncho man. Daryl didn't give up. Daryl pulls out a cigarette and tells Aaron he will go out and distract the zombies so Aaron can make a run for it. Aaron says it was his fault. "It wasn't a question. And this ain't your decision. It ain't nobody's fault. Just let me finish my smoke first." Aaron says no. They fight together. "We do it together. We have to." Daryl nods and agrees. They get ready to go and then someone outside of the car kills a zombie. Aaron opens his door and there is Morgan fighting zombies off with his stick. All three of them make it out and they close the gate. Aaron thanks Morgan. He introduces himself and Daryl. Daryl asks him why he helped. Morgan replies, "Because all life is precious, Daryl." Aaron invites Morgan to come back with them. Morgan says thanks but no thanks. He is lost and pulls out his map and gives it to Daryl to find directions. Daryl sees the note that Abraham wrote on the map to Rick. He just looks at Morgan.

Father Gabriel comes upon a walker eating someone and whistles as he walks toward it. He tells the walker he is ready. The zombie walks toward him. Gabriel fights it back. He grabs the noose around the zombies neck and uses it to decapitate the zombie. Then he bashes the zombies head in with a rock. He walks over to the man the zombie was eating who is still alive and he bashes the man's head in with the rock. Then he cries.

Abraham goes to visit Tara. Rosita answers the door and tells him to come in. Abraham doesn't want to once he sees Eugene inside but Rosita assures him that Eugene is asleep. As soon as Abraham sits down she makes noise so that Eugene will wake up. Eugene tells Abraham that Tara saved his life and also got him to see that Abraham got them to Alexandria. All Eugene did was lie and get someone with strength and heroism to apply their talents. He thanks Abraham and apologizes to him. Abraham also apologizes for beating him unconscious. Eugene says he doesn't need to apologize.

When Father Gabriel comes back Spencer asks if he can talk with him about Aiden's death. Gabriel agrees to meet with him. Spencer asks him to close the gate. Gabriel doesn't even look as he closes it and it bounces back open. He didn't even try to lock it.

Nicholas runs though the woods and stumbles upon another zombie. He shoots it and Glenn comes out and starts punching him. The two of them fight. A zombie approaches them from behind. Nicholas runs and the zombie gets on top of Glenn as we see another zombie approaching.

Michonne goes to get Rick. Rick confesses to her that he, Daryl, and Carol stole the guns. He and Carol still have guns. They lied to her because they didn't know how she would take it or what she would do. He offers her his gun. She asks, "You think I'd try to stop you?" She did hit him over the head. That was for him, not them. He was afraid she would have talked him out of it. She says, "You don't need them here. I don't need my sword. I think you can find a way, we can find a way. And if we don't, I'm still with you. Something's gonna happen. Just don't make something happen." He offers her the gun again but she gives it back to him. We hear Bob's voice. It is the last conversation he and Rick had before Bob died. Bob telling him this is the nightmare and nightmare's end. Rick tucks the gun in the back of his pants. He looks out the window and sees the gate is open. He closes it and notices there is blood on the handle. He follows the trail of blood. Rick runs along the wall. Rick pulls out his knife. He finds a zombie and kills it. Two more zombies come at him. A zombie has Rick pinned to the ground and he slowly kills it by shoving his gun in its head.

At the meeting everyone is standing around. Maggie wants to wait for Glenn and Rick to come. Deanna starts because it is already dark. She wants to talk about what Rick did and said (he had a gun and threatened them). Michonne speaks on Rick's behalf. She says everything that Rick did was to keep his family safe. He wants to keep the people of Alexandria safe. "Who he is, is who your gonna be  if you're lucky." Carol speaks on Rick's behalf and tells everyone that he saved her life numerous times. She keeps playing the role of innocent/weak Carol "People like me, people like us need people like him."Abraham tells the people that they don't know the crap that is out there but Rick does. Maggie tells everyone how Rick is a father and a man with a good heart who feels the things he does and has had to do. Rick started their family and they can't stop it they don't want to. They want to be a part of that family too. Deanna tells the group what Father Gabriel told her the day before. She says that Rick demonstrated all the things that Gabriel warned her about. Jessie says that since Gabriel isn't here that all Deanna is saying is quoting someone else. She asks if she taped this conversation. Deanna doesn't answer the question. Maggie leaves.

Father Gabriel walks into the church and finds Sasha sitting inside. She tells him she came there because she doesn't know what to do. She is losing her head. She asks if he can help her and he says no. Sasha tells Gabriel she thinks she wants to die. He tells her she doesn't deserve to be there so why wouldn't she want to die. "The dead don't choose but the choices you made, how you sacrificed your own . . . Bob was mutilated, consumed, because of your sins." He tells her Tyreese doesn't deserve to be there neither does she. Sasha and Gabriel fight for her gun. Sasha points the gun at Gabriel. Maggie comes in and gets the gun out of her hands. Sasha cries and Gabriel says Maggie should have let Sasha shoot him. They all died because of him. Maggie takes his hand says, "They did." She helps him up.

Nicholas walks through the dark woods alone. Glenn comes out of the dark and attacks him. Glenn tells Nicholas that Noah is dead because of him. "I tried to tell you how it is, how it has to be and you try to kill me?" Glenn points Nicholas's gun against Nicholas's  head. Nicholas says he was scared and he doesn't belong out there. Glenn tells him to shut up. He screams and pulls the gun away from Nicholas. Glenn helps Nicholas walk back to Alexandria.  Tara wakes up.

We see the man in the red poncho with his hands tied behind his back. He is with the two men that Morgan fought at the beginning of the episode. They take him to the food warehouse where Aaron and Daryl got trapped. They slit his throat and say, "Welcome home." From inside one of the trucks music plays and lights flash. The zombies make their way back inside the trucks. We see one of the men has found Aaron's bag and is looking at the photographs of Alexandria and its citizens.

As Tobin shares with the group how he wants his family to be safe everyone looks up as Rick walks in covered in blood and carrying a zombie. He throws the zombie on the floor. He says there wasn't a guard at the gate and the gate was open. Spencer tells Deanna that he asked Gabriel to close the gate. He didn't bring the zombie in it came in on its own. They always do. "The dead and the living, because we're in here. And the ones out there they'll hunt us. They'll find us. They'll try to use us. They'll try to kill us. But we'll kill them. We'll survive. I'll show you how. You know I was thinking how many of you do I have to kill to save your lives? But I'm not gonna do that. You're gonna change." He wishes that what he'd said sooner all the things he said the previous night. "You are not ready but you have to be. Right now, you have to be. Luck runs out." Pete comes up yelling, "You're not one of us!" He has Michonne's katana. Reg tries to stop him and as he pushes Reg away he accidentally slits his throat with the sword. Deanna cries as she holds Reg. Pete insists it is Rick's fault. Deanna turns to Rick and says, "Do it." Rick turns around and shoots Pete. Rick looks up to see Morgan standing there with Aaron and Daryl.

Final Thoughts
- I totally thought that Sasha was going to die in this episode. It felt like the writers had been leading up to her death over the last few episodes. This episode even started off with her lying down in a pile of zombies looking at peace. She admits to Father Gabriel that she is out of control. I thought her was going to shoot her.
- I wonder what Morgan is thinking when he sees Rick covered in blood shoot Pete.
- What event in Morgan's life since the episode "Clear" caused him to focus and become so zen. Lennie James said something happened to Morgan to cause this change and I hope we get an episode on that event in season 6.
- Lennie James also said that Morgan honked the horn to make sure no zombies were around before he left the men. I thought Morgan had honked the horn to attract zombies to get his revenge on the two men.
- Is Davidson (the exile from Alexandria) the leader of the wolves?