Well Deadheads, we STILL don’t know about Glenn; and based solely on the previews from last week, I don’t foresee us really learning anything this week, either. However, it looks like it will be a Daryl-heavy episode, and I think we can ALL use one of those. Who will be held accountable?
We pick up with Daryl, Sasha and Abraham finally hitting the 20 mile mark with the horde of walkers and turning off to head for home. During their turnoff, though, they find themselves being shot at by some cars in pursuit. Daryl crashes his bike while another car continues after Sasha and Abraham. Daryl tries to get on his way but finds himself face-to-face with some walkers on his bike. He gets away unscathed, but an SUV is still on his tail.
Having a bike is quite an advantage, though, and he’s able to hide in the woods and shake his assailants. Or so we think…
He finds what seems to be a temporary respite and takes a load off. Did he get shot? I dunno, but a helmeted walker is lying right next to him, but he looks pretty… wasted… so Daryl doesn’t see him as an immediate threat and resumes his little siesta.
Daryl is alone in the woods and this makes me jumpy. I HATE it when one of the group is alone for any reason, but when he’s clearly injured in some fashion and trying to tote a bike around with some angry drivers in the vicinity, my anxiety starts to get real.
Okay yes, Daryl was shot. In the arm, it appears. Arm or not, without attending to that, he won’t last too long on his own. Especially not now that he’s hearing someone trouncing around in the woods.
He hides his bike and grabs his crossbow and goes to find whoever is pursuing him. Two ragtag hoes distract him while their male companion creeps up behind him and knocks him out with a blunt object.
He comes to with a gun in his face. The guy tells him to keep quiet and he won’t kill him. So Daryl of course runs his mouth. He’s still alive, though. So that’s a plus.
The woods they’re traveling through are charred and burnt. This trio are separate from the ones that were pursuing them, apparently. They claim to be reasonable people. We’ll see about that.
The charred ground is apparently their former home. This guy doesn’t seem to understand that holding a gun to Daryl’s head is not something that he is particularly threatened by anymore. Dude asks Daryl if he’s being stupid to let him live. Daryl tells him no, but that he’s got someplace to be. He offers to make a deal with flannel guy and help him out, and flannel guy says, “You’re one of them, aren’t you?” Is “them” the Wolves? Wouldn’t surprise me. They seem to be the big bad (pardon the pun) threat at this time.
They come to their destination and see that it’s overrun with zombies, and the person they were coming to collect is gone. The young girl with them collapses and Daryl takes this opportunity to grab the bag of supplies and weapons and make a run for it. He gets to a pretty decent hiding place and tries to take a load off. But before he really can, a tree/moss walker thing catches his scent and comes after him.
Daryl finally loosens his crossbow from the satchel and kills the walker, but when he looks back at the bag he sees an insulin cooler. So the young girl is a diabetic and needs that to live. Fabulous.
Because Daryl is Daryl, I think it’s safe to assume that he’ll go back and return it.
Sasha and Abraham have gone back to the town to see if they can find Daryl. Their walkies aren’t working, but we already knew that after Rick’s unsuccessful attempt at contact. Sasha doesn’t believe that Daryl went back to Alexandria without them, but Abraham points out that he already left them once. She counterpoints that he came back and that they need to make sure the tracker can find a way to track them.
They go to explore an insurance agency, and Abraham as a suuuuuper awkward glance with some sort of armed forces uniform. Sasha is chilling and looking at a walker that is locked in an office. Sasha swears that he can’t get out, and she goes to take a snooze while Abraham snoops about.
Abraham is waxing poetic and Sasha calls him on his bullshit. I’m going to be real honest, I kind of hate Abraham. And I’ve started to hate Sasha, too. Sooooo if they both died, I wouldn’t be too terribly sad. That’s not how this show goes, though. Kirkman kills all the ones we love while the ones we hate get to live far longer than they should. Every day is opposite day in the zombie apocalypse.
We are back with Daryl in the woods. He has come back to the trio to offer up the cooler and the rest of whatever is in the bag. He goes to run off when he hears a truck driving through the burnt brush. These are clearly the people the threesome are running from. They say again that they “earned what they took,” and some hick tells them they’re going to pay for what they took. The girl tells him that his rules are batshit and flannel says they’re done kneeling and they won’t be going back.
Daryl goes to help them hide and ends up luring one of the attackers straight into a walker trap. The snack hollers for the leader (Wade) and asks him to cut it off. His lower arm, that is. He does. Then they leave the woods and flannel’s trio and Daryl unscathed.
Abraham is checking out an army truck and finds himself some serious firepower, as well as some fine cigars. He’s clearly having some military nostalgia and gets literally into the face of a walker being all weird and creepy and like, baiting it? With his own flesh exposed he is just fucking with this harbinger of death. I find myself wishing he had been bitten. I am so over all his bullshit. Like he’s the only one that’s had it rough since the dead took over the world. Please. Get over yourself.
He makes his way back to Sasha and he tells her that he knows everyone in Alexandria is fine thanks to Rick. He tells Sasha that they could stay where they are… with walls, air conditioning and safety. Then he tells her that he wants to build a life with her. Gotta say, I did NOT see that coming. At all. They seem so oddly matched. But whatever. If they leave the group to strike out on their own, maybe we won’t have to hear about them anymore.
We’re back with Daryl and his stragglers. They’re giving a bit of insight into their background. They come up on a crispy house filled with the corpses of some people they knew. Tina, the young girl, goes to lay flowers by them and I just know that… YEP. They are still “alive” under there and she slips and gets a bite taken out of her face.
Daryl asks flannel Rick’s questions. How many walkers have you killed? How many people have you killed? He gives the right answers and Daryl invites them back to Alexandria. Flannel doesn’t really answer him, but we see him following. Daryl makes a grave mistake and turns his back on the treacherous bastard and they rob him of his bike. What a bunch of fucking assholes. They apologize as they leave him in the dust. I hate them both and I want them dead. They took his crossbow! His crossbow! I mean COME ON.
He’s Daryl, though, so I’m not too terribly worried. If anyone can survive alone in the woods, we all know it’s him. Especially when the brilliant man finds a business stamp under some growth on te ground and finds himself upon a fucking fuel truck. A FUEL TRUCK.
Karma is a real thing, people.
He drives up into town in the truck to collect his friends and they make their way back to Alexandria. Abraham is looking far too content in the truck, making me think that it’s almost a certainty that something is about to go down. Daryl tries to get through on the walkies again and hears just one word in response: “Help.”
EEK. Okay, so no. Still no word on Glenn. And yeah, that’s terrible. But I was so damn happy to get some legit Daryl time that I didn’t care so much this time. I was feeling very deprived. Though I still wish Abraham and Sasha would’ve just stayed behind. Sigh. Can’t win ’em all.
Until next week, Deadheads!
