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?