On this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, “Swear”, we catch up with some stragglers — namely Heath and Tara — who we haven’t seen since the end of Season 6. Not gonna lie, I totally forgot about them. Let’s see what they’ve been up to, shall we?!

“Swear”

We’ve got two unknowns hanging out on a beach. They’re casually chatting while walkers lay trapped in the wet sand on the shore. WAIT. One of them is not a walker (or a bobber, as they call them), it’s Tara! The little kid (and by little I mean like, 12-13?) wants to kill Tara, despite the fact that she’s, you know, still human. The woman she’s with tells her she won’t let her do it, but the little brat insists. She says they’re supposed to kill her, and she wants to. Older lady holds strong, though, and asks if she’s going to snitch. Bratty brat brat tells her that she’s not a snitch, but she won’t be helping her out, either.

Oop there’s Heath. Looks like this is actually a flashback. He and Tara are in an RV on the supply run they went on right before Negan’s slaughter.

Heath has lost all hope and thinks there is nothing to be found anymore, all of it is gone. The food, the ammunition, the medicine — all of it has been scavenged. Tara is trying to tell him that they can’t give up, people are counting on them, but he’s trying really hard to find a way to live with what they had done to Negan’s people. Before Rick and the group got there, Alexandria truly had no notion about what it was like outside of those walls.

He refuses to keep spinning his wheels looking for supplies that aren’t there. They go back tomorrow, with or without what they came for.

Oh, okay, back to the present now, I suppose, because Old Lady from the beach is back. She dragged Tara to a shaded part of the beach and leaves her lovely beach house to go check on her.

Gene Page/AMC

Tara is breathing but still unconscious. Old Lady leaves some water and other supplies next to Tara’s comatose form and goes to leave when she hears something in the distance.

Oooo, we find out Tara was not comatose, however, and simply feigning it while Old Girl was around. She lifts herself up to hydrate and tries to keep an eye on Old Girl to see what she’s up to.

I know this probably isn’t the first thing on her mind, but waking up on a beach has got to be preferable to slogging through the damp, sweltering forests of Georgia.

Old Girl walks away and Tara goes into stealth mode and follows her. I imagine Old Girl knows what’s happening, though. She seems quick like that.

Also, still not sure where Heath actually is at present.

Oh wait, it looks like she’s in a rain forest. That may actually not be better than the Georgia woods. But there is an ocean that comes with this package, so it automatically wins.

Tara has found this precious little beach village and is fairly stunned to find that it’s rather bustling, for what it is. Everyone appears to be thriving, and there are people on guard, and it all just feels very “together.”

She comes upon a clearing in which a group of women are making clothes and young girls appear to be forging ammunition. Is this like, Valhalla? Or the Amazonians?

A little clicker sound can be heard in the background, and the women all scatter to the armory to suit up. They are a well-oiled machine, and it takes Tara several minutes to realize that they’re aiming their rifles at her. So many minutes, in fact, that they nearly shoot her straight through the head.

She runs off with a spray of bullets following her and comes face-to-face with one of the Amazonians. Tara takes her down and hits her in the face with the butt of her own gun, and she turns to run. Bratty brat brat cuts her off, though, but Old Girl stops her from killing her. Oh brat’s name is Rachel. Of course it is.

Gene Page/AMC

Old Girl tries to talk everyone into putting their weapons down, as the entire clan is upon them now, but their leader comes up and orders her to back away. It doesn’t matter that Tara simply washed up on the shore — they kill intruders, period.

Okay, another flashback with Heath. They come to a road block and climb it to see if the cars and RV on the other side have anything to offer them. Heath throws a glass bottle into the mix to try and awaken any walkers that may be lurking. They don’t see anything but come across a couple of cement trucks that have been abandoned. Tara tries to jostle out a duffel bag filled with goodies when Heath spots an enormous number of bullets on the ground. She gets overrun by walkers when the mound of cement dust avalanches and that motherfucker Heath leaves her. Leaves her! What a little bitch, honestly.

We’re back in the present with Tara and the Amazon women, and their leader is starting to interrogate her. She’s handcuffed to a radiator and not in the mood to answer their probing questions. She explains that, when they were overtaken by walkers, she jumped off a bridge and was taken by the current to wherever they are. Oh and Old Girl’s name is Cindie! Cool.

They leave Tara to try and brainstorm what to do with her since, normally, they would have killed her by now.

It’s nighttime when one of them comes back to retrieve her. She’s leading her out into the dark and takes her into a house where Beatrice (the lady she rifle-whipped) is setting the table, and Cindie is also there. They’re going to really get to know each other over a nice fish stew.

Gene Page/AMC

Tara is scarfing down some serious fish stew. While Tara is woofing it down, leader lady tells her that she’d like for her to stay. They say, if they find Heath, he can stay, too. She’s surprised by this, because there are no men to be found, and she says so. Leader lady tells her that they all died in a skirmish with another. Literally, all the dudes are dead. That’s why they almost just killed her — everyone dies on sight now, thanks to their past experiences. They’d probably be happy to have some fresh man meat like Heath around. Someone needs to help repopulate their group, right?

Tara tells the Amazonians that she has her own community that she wants to get back to. She tells the ladies that she and her group have done their own heinous things in the name of survival, and maybe they could work together and help protect each other. Leader lady agrees to send a scout to check out Alexandria and see what it’s all about.

Tara is getting ready to set off with the Amazons, and I think I hear her say that Leader Lady’s name is Natania? Idk but we’re going with it. Also, I don’t believe for one second that Cindie plans to just sit in her tent sulking. She will sneak out and join them, I’m sure of it.

Tara, Beatrice and the other lady are trouncing through the woods when they spot a walker. Tara ducks down to see what made the sound and feels immediately threatened. Wise, wise woman. She runs to offer to kill the walker, and, as she does, she feels their intent on her back and ducks before they’re able to shoot her. Natania had this planned all along — what a witch! That’s why she wouldn’t allow Cindie to tag along.

Tara is able to take Beatrice down, but Beatrice gets her gun back. Tara begs her for her life, but Beatrice tells Tara that there’s nothing left for her. If the Saviors know about Tara’s people, then they are all dead. The Saviors are the ones that killed all of their men, and every boy over ten. Beatrice tells her that they fled in the night to get away, and that she will never allow anyone to lead The Saviors to where they are now. She tells Tara she’s sorry and cocks her gun, but Cindie comes out of the shadows and saves her.

Gene Page/AMC

Tara is able to get away, but Cindie catches up to her and makes her to swear never to come back and to never tell anyone about their camp, no matter what. Tara tells her that she would never come back to that place, since, you know, they all tried to kill her several times.

Cindie gives Tara a pack filled with food and water, then tells her that she’ll take her to the bridge. Cindie is solid people for sure.

Tara and Cindie reach the bridge where Heath just bounced, and I kind of hope he’s dead. I mean, honestly, there’s just no room for cowards like him in this world.

Tara is getting ready to make a mad dash and tries to talk Cindie into leaving, but she tells Tara she didn’t get her all the way here just to let her die now. She’ll go with Tara and cover her along her path.

They find much more than they bargained for, however, as the tarp comes down, and they see a literal shit-ton of walkers pour out from where Heath and Tara last met. They manage the dead, though, and Tara gets through safely.

Tara’s having another flashback now, and we find that Heath didn’t actually abandon her; he came back to help her, and we don’t know if he got away after she fell off the bridge. Okay, I take it all back. Sheesh. They do love to toy with our emotions on this show, don’t they?

We do see a pair of broken glasses, though, and she sees some semi-fresh tire tracks that she hopes were from him.

Poor Tara is trekking through Georgia all alone when she comes upon an unexpected general store. It actually has a good amount of booty left, though I’m not sure how entirely useful it will be. It is useful for shelter, however.

Tara digs into her lovely dinner of salt perch, eyeballs and all, with hope in her heart. She has herself a good night’s sleep and makes the rest of her way back to Alexandria on foot. She comes back expecting a warm welcome, but, when she sees Eugene, she can tell just by looking at him that something awful has happened.

Rosita catches her up and is begging Tara to tell her somewhere to go, tell her that she found a place where Rosita could go and escape the torture of Alexandria and Abraham and all of the terrible things that have happened. But Tara is good on her word and does not tell her about Cindie and Oceanside, and the episode ends.

Okay, couple of things about “Swear”:

– A whole episode about Tara, really?

– Where TF is Carol!? I mean okay, I know where she is, but I want to see her, damn it!

– No Rick, Negan or Daryl? PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT.

– I really do not think this is the last we will see of Cindie or her Amazons.

– While I am a wee bit upset that this was just an entire episode about Tara, this was the first episode where I legitimately liked her. Perhaps her character will develop more now that there is room for someone else to step into a leading role.

Until next week, Deadheads!

Catch up on the last season of The Walking Dead on DVD or Blu-Ray.