Walking Dead - Strangers Recap

The episode opens on a plume of black smoke.  Terminus still burns in the distance.

As our gang treks through the woods we check in with various pairs throughout the group.  Maggie and Glenn smooch.  Awwww.  Tara and Rick share a heart-warming moment as he welcomes her into the group, despite her involvement with the Governor.  They make it official when Tara reaches out her fist to Rick for a ‘pound’, and Rick returns it with a smile.  Awwww times two.

We catch up with Tyreese and Carol as they fill their water bottles at a stream.  Tyreese is adamant that the group accepts what Carol did to Karen and David back at the prison.  Carol isn’t too concerned about their acceptance.  Tyreese goes on to say that he doesn’t want to tell the rest of the group about Lizzie and Mika.  He says, “I need to forget it.”

The group approaches a walker.  Michonne says she’s got it, reflexively reaches for her sword and smiles when she realizes it isn’t there.  I’M NOT SMILING! TERMITES YOU HAVE COMMITTED A CRIME AGAINST WD HUMANITY!!! YOU HAVE STOLEN MICHONNE’S SWORD!  That sword was practically a character on the show, and now it’s gone.  Since Michonne is still badass Michonne, of course she’s able to handily dispatch the walker with the butt of some non-descript gun, but c’mon.  It’s not the same.  Dear WD writers – Please ‘find’ a katana for Michonne.  Soon.  With love and thanks, Rainey.

Here's one.  It looks sharp, and it will do the job.  Just give it to her already.
You're welcome.

It’s Carol and Rick’s turn to catch up.  They’re basically equals at this point, with Rick having committed some murder in the past few days away from the prison as well. In their time apart, Rick seems to have realized some things that Carol already knew.  Survival is paramount, and self-preservation is key.

Carol hands Rick his watch that she picked up for him at the Terminus Gift Shop.  Rick offers Carol her watch back, but she declines with a shake of her head.  That watch represented a life with her abusive husband Ed, and she is totally not that person anymore.  Rick seems incredibly remorseful and humble as he apologizes for sending Carol away.  He says, “I sent you away to this, and now we’re joining you.  Will you have us?”  Carol smiles and nods slightly.  Rick smiles back and says, “Thank you.”

That night, Carol and Daryl sit watch.  Daryl keeps stealing glances at Carol, like she’s some sort of exotic animal, when Carol finally says “I don’t want to talk about it...I just need to forget.”  Daryl asks why, but just then an inconvenient rustle in the woods interrupts their heart to heart.   Oh rustles in the woods, without you everything would be so straightforward in the WD world.

(Side note – What is it exactly that Carol needs to ‘forget’? Since most of our gang saw Carol last she killed Karen and David because they were sick in body, Lizzie because she was sick in the mind, and the Termites because they were just plain old sickos.  The group is grateful for her role as savior at Terminus, but can they forgive her actions at The Grove?  Tyreese is hell bent on giving himself a case of Lizzie amnesia, and Carol seems to be respecting his choice, so the rest of the gang may never find out. But they probably will.  Because, you know, drama.)

As the gang’s walkabout continues, Daryl reports back to Rick about someone watching them in the woods the previous night.  There were no tracks, but he felt a presence.  It could be ghosts Daryl, duh.  99% of the world’s population is dead.  Ghosts are totally in the realm of actual possibility.  Rick totally doesn’t think of my ghost theory, and immediately tells the rest of the group to tighten up their formation.  

We check in with Bob and Sasha as they engage in some adorable banter.  They’re playing a game where he turns every negative she can throw his way into a positive.  They smooch a few times, him saying “one more” after each peck.  Awwwww times three.

In the distance, the group hears a call for help.  Carl wants to go help, so they do.  A man who appears to be a priest is stuck at the top of a large rock outcropping, several walkers clawing at his legs.  Daryl, Carol and Michonne take out the offending walkers with expert precision.   The priest slinks down off the rock, wide eyed at the sight of our battle-ready gang in front of him.  He promptly vomits, composes himself, and then introduces himself as Gabriel. 

Rick starts in with the three questions.  Gabriel says he has killed no walkers and no people.  Why?  Because the Lord abhors violence.  Rick is dubious, and asks, “What have you done?”  Sensing the tense nature of the situation, and always the practical thinker, Michonne interrupts this line of questioning and says, “you said you had a church?”

The group follows Gabriel through the woods to his church.  Rick sends in a small team to case the joint, and each explorer encounters different religious iconography.  Daryl sees some sort of wooden tableau of the Last Supper, Carol lingers over a table full of Bibles, with one handwritten page open to THOU SHALL NOT KILL. 

Glenn searches an office, walls papered with children’s drawings of the ‘burning bush’.  The basic story of the Burning Bush can be found here and it’s deliberate inclusion in this episode cannot be ignored.  The long and short of the story is that the Lord spoke to Moses through the Burning Bush, asking him to shepherd the Israelites away from danger.  More on this later.

Once the recon team returns to the rest of the group outside, Abe approaches Rick, saying he wants to fix up a small bus out back so the group can head north in the next day or so.  Michonne and Rick say no - they want to rest and gather supplies.  Abe stands, slightly defeated at the entrance to the church, as the rest of the crew pass by him.  Starting with Glenn, the rest of the survivors pull a ‘Rudy’, throwing their proverbial jerseys in with Rick.  Each of them tells Abe in no uncertain terms that they go where Rick goes. 

And then this song plays in my head….Thank you Sister Act.

As they make camp in the church, the group asks Gabriel how he survived.  He explains that everything went down just at the end of the churches annual can drive.  Since he ran out he’s scavenged every place in the area except one because there are about a dozen walkers there.  Rick gets together a team, and Tyreese happily offers to stay back and watch the baby, making his role as Judith’s babysitter official. 

Before Rick leaves, he has his obligatory once-per-season discussion with Carl about the state of affairs.  Rick makes it very clear to Carl that they are not safe, ending his speech with, “Never let your guard down.”  As wise as those words may seem, Carl gently suggests to his father that their group is strong, and that they have the ability to help others.  It’s odd because Carl seemed to be going cold hearted after Lori died, but now after the fall of the prison and Terminus he is becoming one of the positive thinkers in the camp, playing the role of Rick’s remaining humanity and conscience.  And as annoyed as I generally am by Carl, this moment is truly touching and uplifting.

On the water run, Carol and Daryl chat.  He says, ok, maybe Carol doesn’t want to talk.  But is she ok?  She says, “gotta be.”  Daryl is clearly in awe of what Carol did, staring at her in that weird way again as he says, “you saved us, all by yourself.”  They approach a sedan, and Carol checks it.  A little too conveniently, the keys are still in the ignition and there’s a fully operational charger in the trunk.  Carol says they should leave it there in case “things go south at the church.” (Side note – Ok Carol, how do you propose to fit 14 people and one baby in that sedan, hmmmm?  WD clown car?)  Daryl says that Carol can start over, and she says she wants to.

On the ammo run, Tara and Maggie wait outside a gun store for Glenn.  There’s a commotion inside, and the two women raise their weapons and ask Glenn if it was a walker as he steps back outside.  Glenn says yes, but then sheepishly admits that he tripped over a mop.  Teehee.  However, he found three silencers tucked inside a mini fridge.  Glenn declares, “Rule Number One of Scavenging:  There’s nothing left in this world that isn’t hidden.” Upon hearing this, Tara gets a screwed up look on her face, probably remembering her own ‘hidden’ secret.  Both Glenn and Rick know, but they haven’t told Maggie….yet.

On the food run, the group enters the Food Pantry.  There’s a gaping hole in the floor, the hardwood rotted out due to a gaping hole in the ceiling.  The walkers wade around in a waist deep basement swimming pool.  Bob says that it smells like if “a sewer could puke”.  Ugh.  Grossest swimming pool ever.   Sasha quickly comes up with a solution to contain the walkers, by utilizing the metal shelves as a shield.  Rick agrees.  Yay Teamwork!

The group splashes down, and starts to take care of the walkers.  Even though Gabriel is in a sweet spot, protected by the Grimes gang, he panics and tries to flee when he spots a walking skeleton outfitted with glasses and a floral dress.  Gabriel becomes cornered against a concrete wall, golden sunlight streaming down on his face and torso, his arms spread in a ‘t’.  This continues the spate of blatant religious iconography in this episode, but Gabriel is certainly no martyr.  Rick comes to his rescue just in time, smashing the walker’s skull in. 

Once the coast appears to be clear, Bob wades over to a floating box.  Just then a genderless sponge of a walker roars out of the water.  Bob tussles with the form, bobbing underwater for a moment before he’s able to impale it on a pole.  Wide eyed, Sasha asks, “Bob, are you ok?!” He averts his gaze and responds, “I’m fine now.”  But Bob doesn’t look okay…

As they wheel their bounty away from the pantry, Michonne and Rick talk.  They chat about her sword. She says she, “found it in the beginning…it was just me and them out here all day every day.  I don’t know what that was, but it wasn’t life.”  She goes on to say that she misses Andrea, she misses Hershel, but not “what was before.  I don’t miss that sword.”  MICHONNE, I MISS YOUR SWORD!  PLEASE FIND ANOTHER ONE!!!

Upon returning to the church, Rick finds Carl.  While everyone was away, he did some exploring, as Carl is wont to do.  He found scratches at the windows of the church, and a carving on the back of the church that says, ‘YOULL BURN FOR THIS’.   Carl succinctly sums up the situation by saying, “It doesn’t mean Gabriel’s a bad guy for sure, but it means something.”

That evening, they all feast on canned goods and Communion wine.  Abe gives the speech he’s been itching to give for days.  “I see survivors.  Each and every one of you has earned that title.  Is that all you want to be?”  He lays out his pitch.  Help Eugene get to D.C., restart their lives.  Abe appeals to Rick’s sense of fatherhood, and the group’s sense of wanting a happy, normal future, saying they can rebuild for the little one.  Judith coos, and Rick says she’s in.  “She’s in.  And if she’s in, I’m in.  We’re in.  Lets do it.”

The mood turns a bit more celebratory.  Our gang now has a sense of direction and purpose.  In a way, Abe, with his fiery red hair is like the proverbial ‘Burning Bush’, appealing directly to ‘Moses’ Rick, encouraging him to get his disciples to safety.  Am I reaching?  Maybe, but the inclusion of the Burning Bush on the walls of the church in this episode is definitely saying something to this effect. 

Amidst the celebration, Sasha kisses Bob and gets up to hold Judith.  Bob says, “wait, one more”, and she leans back down to give him another smooch.  A morose Bob then wanders out the back of the church.

Tara goes to reveal her secret to Maggie.  She admits to Maggie that she was at the prison, and that she was with the Governor.  Throughout this exchange, Maggie’s eyes are thoughtful and teary.  She looks at Tara and says, “You’re with us now” and hugs her tightly.

Gabriel’s in the back, and Rick thanks him for his hospitality.  The mood quickly turns however when Rick gives him a stern warning.  “You’re hiding something…these people are my family.  And if what you’re hiding somehow hurts them in any way, I’ll kill you.”  Gabriel looks at him, eyes wide.  Did Rick just threaten to murder a priest?  The answer is  - Yup.  Sure did.

Looks like Bob isn’t the only one who’s snuck away, as Carol jumpstarts the sedan she and Daryl found earlier in the day. Daryl approaches, and asks what she’s doing.  Clearly trying to leave the group, but why, Carol?  Why??!?!  However, in the grand WD tradition of external sources interrupting character expository, a car whizzes by.  And lo and behold, it HAS A WHITE CROSS ON THE BACK!  Daryl uses five words to explain to Carol, “They got Beth!  Come on!”  This can only mean one thing.  Road trip! 

Back at the church, Bob stands in the woods and stares through a window at the merriment unfolding inside.  He begins to wander away into the thick of the woods and starts sobbing against a tree.  All of a sudden someone rudely interrupts his private moment by bashing him over the head. 

As Bob comes to, we see the world from his blurry POV.  He catches foggy glimpses of Rando (I knew that SOB was still alive!), a fire pit, and then Gareth’s smug and shiny face.  Bob is leaning against some sort of stake, and he is forced to listen as Gareth attempts to justify his actions.  His speech is juxtaposed over cuts of our gang happily feasting away on canned food and drinking holy wine. 

Gareth finally gets to the meat of his confession, literally and figuratively.  He says, “It didn’t start that way.  Eating people.  It evolved.  It had to.  Now we’ve devolved.  Into hunters.” He gives Bob the worst ‘I told you so’ in history, as he says that it’s cosmic justice that it’s Bob they got. The camera pans back to expose Bob's full body.  Well….not his entire body.  He's only got one leg.  The other….is on the BBQ.  As Bob starts to whimper, Gareth takes a juicy bite out of a hunk o’ Bob.  Ew.  Gross. 

And people everywhere who were still naïvely left wondering what exactly the Termites were doing with all that slaughterhouse equipment after the most recent episode all get their due.  The rest of us go….oh, yeah…..but can you really show that on television?!?!

Some thoughts before I go:

- It sort of makes sense that after the ungodly experience our survivors had at Terminus that this episode would center on reaffirming their faith in humanity, as well as add a dash of hope back into the equation.

- Bob totes magotes wasn’t going into the woods for a casual stroll.  He was sneaking away, possibly because of a bite from the swimming pool walker earlier in the episode.  But why wouldn’t he tell his new love Sasha?  And will eating the flesh of a person who has been bit turn the Termites into walkers?  Wow, that’s a sentence I thought I’d never write….

- Where is Morgan?  Damn you teaser trailer people, you set us up for a big ole disappointment last week.  

- Looks like Daryl and Carol are on a mission to find Beth, but in a world with no cell phones, will they be able to reconnect with the group once they find her?  P.S. - A world with no cell phones is totally horrifying to me. 

- What’s up with Gabriel?  Will he come clean about his secrets?  Will Rick have to kill him?

Walking Dead - No Sanctuary Recap

So, welcome back to the world of ‘Dead’.  And what a welcome wagon it was.  Carol is now a bonafide superhero, most of our gang has reunited, and the last two seconds of the show blew our minds. 

Before we get to all that though, this week the episode was an action-packed delight, bookended by brief horrific glimpses into the world of our Termites as they were being actively robbed of their humanity in the not-so-distant past.  Quite a deal of backstory was revealed to us.  Here’s what we learned:  Terminus was actually a place of sanctuary at one point in time, but then horrible men came and took advantage of the situation, gleefully raping and pillaging their way through the community. But the Termites fought back.  Following their successful revolution against the baddies, their PTSD addled minds told them what the world needed them to do - become cold-blooded cannibals. 

I have a feeling we are going to see more of the Termites backstory as the season progresses.  As Scott Gimple mentioned on Therapy Hour (aka: Talking Dead), our heroes have also done some pretty heinous things to ensure their survival and a reckoning may be coming for them as well.  Given the generally triumphant tone of this episode, I’m feeling that a reckoning is coming, fo sho.  If history has taught us loyal viewers anything it’s that the WD world is never at peace for long.

However, let’s get back to the episode at hand.  In the present, the action picks up right where we left off – in the train car.  Clips of dialogue are interspersed with shots of our gang prepping what little resources they have for battle.  A belt buckle becomes a Wolverine claw, and the chain of Hershel’s watch is put to use as a makeshift saw.  When we first see Rick he’s using the chain to jimmy a shard of wood paneling free from the side of the car.  The crew moves like scrappy ninjas, and all definitely earn points for amazing DIY weapons.  Sasha asks if they’ve seen Tyreese (no), and Daryl fills them in on what happened with Beth.

The Termites come and sneakily blast our gang with some sort of knock out gas from above.  We follow Rick’s perspective as he is dragged from the train car and into the bowels of Terminus. 

From Rick’s hazy POV, we enter a sterile room.  A body appears to be getting sawed apart on some sort of operating table, Dexter-style, sans plastic wrap. 

(Side note – Dexter Morgan would totally be alive in the apocalypse.  I have no doubt.  Dexter writers, you can totally make up for that abysmal series finale by convincing Michael C. Hall to cameo as Dexter in an episode of Walking Dead.  Please?  Pleeeease???? #kthxbai)

Bob, Rick, Daryl and Glenn are placed on their knees before a sparkling clean stainless steel trough.  Hippie Sam (yes folks, that is the kid who Carol and Rick encountered early on last season!) is on the far end.  Two goofy looking Termites, who’ll we’ll call ‘Tweedle Swing’ and ‘Tweedle Slash’ expertly position themselves behind Sam, thwacking his skull and then slitting his throat in rapid succession.  A viscous river of blood creeps down the trough, slowly sneaking toward our boys.  This is a tremendously disturbing sight, and for the first time we see Daryl with a look of genuine panic on his face.  However, Rick has an ace up his pant leg, and by ace I mean a giant shard of wood.  As Rick shimmies the shard free, Gareth walks in and interrupts the Tweedles by asking about their shot counts from earlier in the day.  During this exchange, Bob gets Gareth’s attention and tries to reason with him, but Gareth’s not buying the redemptive tale that Bob is selling. 

However, Gareth does turn his attention to Rick. He gently pulls the gag out of Rick’s mouth, and asks him about the contents of the bag buried in the woods.  Rick is cagey about it until Gareth threatens to skewer Bob’s eyeball, prompting him to comply with an answer.  Rick says there are guns in the bag, along with a machete that he plans on killing Gareth with.  Gareth gives Rick a wan smile, and then shoves the gag back in Rick’s mouth.  The Tweedle’s resume their work, Tweedle Swing’s bat poised to strike our sweet Glenn’s noggin when…..

BLAMMO!!!!

Huge explosion rocks the slaughterhouse.  Cue credits.  This ep wins hands down for most intense intro ever. 

Elsewhere in time, Carol, Judith and Tyreese approach Terminus.  A walker ambles out of the woods, and Tyreese says he can’t kill it because he’s not ready yet.  I wonder, because of Lizzie?  He wants to honor Lizzie’s memory or something?  I don’t quite get it, but the happenings in 'The Grove' were certainly a traumatizing experience for all of us, so I’ll let Ty have a pass on this one. 

Carol slams her knife into the walkers rotting skull, taking him down to the ground.  I’ve always admired the commitment that Carol dedicates to her walker kills, throwing her entire body weight into her weapon, ensuring that she makes her actions count.  She looks up only to see a herd coming their way.  They hide as the herd travels blindly down the tracks, moving toward the distinctive noise of gunfire at Terminus.  As they emerge from the brush after the herd has passed, Carol and Tyreese decide that they still need to press on to Terminus for answers.  

Cut to an unidentified rando setting up fireworks near a shed as he cheerfully radios to Terminus.  Hearing key pieces of his conversation, Carol sneaks up and puts her gun to Rando’s temple, saying, “We’re friends with the chick with the sword and the kid with the hat.”   Rando insists that they are only holding the “samurai and the kid”, but Carol knows better than to believe him.  They tie him up and toss him in the shed.

Carol rapidly formulates a plan, gathering a bunch of supplies from the shed and turning to walk out the door.  Tyreese begins to stop her, saying, “Carol, how are you going to do this?”  She responds in a resigned whisper, “I’m gonna kill people.”

Once Carol leaves, Rando is free to mess with Tyreese’s head.  He asks about Judith, and then attempts to humanize himself by sharing a bit about his past.  “I used to watch football on Sundays.  I went to church.  I know I did, but I can’t picture it anymore.”  Rando nonchalantly snaps his gum like a truck stop waitress, as he asks why Tyreese hasn’t killed him yet.  He’s pegged Tyreese for a good guy, a guy who saves babies, a guy who hasn’t had to get his hands dirty yet.  And he’s 100% right. 

Meanwhile, a woman who has had metaphorical ‘dirty hands’ time and time again is literally dirtying her hands with walker guts and mud.  Moving with purpose, Carol creates an invisibility shield as she coats a cloak with walker guts, and then proceeds to smear mud on her face. 

As Carol creeps through the woods, I get a strong feeling that ‘Carol Camouflage’ may be a super popular Halloween costume this year.  So simple, yet effective!  She peers through the perimeter fence in time to see a bound and gagged Rick being dragged away to an unknown location.  A gas tank in her sights, she slips undetected to another portion of the fence and proceeds to set up shop. 

The herd approaches the Terminus gates, and Carol calmly sets her plan into action.  She shoots at the propane tank, creating a hole.  As the gas starts to hiss out of the tank, Carol lights a firework.  The resulting sparks detonate the tank in short order, creating the explosion that we heard earlier in the episode, and a horde of flaming walkers advances on the Terminus compound.

BOOYAH CAROL!  YES!  She has come to save the day with a vengeance.  But just you wait, her work here ain’t quite done yet….

Walkers continue to advance in droves on the front entrance of Terminus.  Carol seamlessly integrates herself into the horde until it becomes apparent that snipers are taking down some of the walkers.  She sidles into a doorway for protection and handily takes out two of the snipers before she shuts the door and enters Terminus.

Back at the checkpoint shed, Rando continues his chat with Tyreese.  Tyreese makes the mistake of saying, “nobody’s gotta die today”, to which Rando responds matter-of-factly, “if you believe that, then it’s definitely going to be you and the kid.”

In the slaughterhouse, Gareth leaves the Tweedles to supervise our four boys.  Tweedle Slash panics and says that he wants to go out there to help, but before Tweedle Swing can make a case to stay, Rick jabs him in the neck with his wooden shiv.  In two strides he is by the remaining Tweedle’s side, and stabs him in the neck too.  Bye bye Tweedles, we hardly knew ye.  The camera pans to the man on the carving table, who is revealed to be Alex, Gareth’s brother.

As the guys flee, they enter a makeshift drying/carving room, complete with nausea-inducing hanging torsos.  They all arm themselves with various weapons and start to form an exit strategy.  They peer out onto the courtyard and see a train car with someone screaming for help locked inside.  Glenn insists that the group takes the time to free them.  He says, “We have to let them out.  That’s still who we are.”

They open the latch to the train car, and a bedraggled bearded man with a crazy tattooed face charges out.  He starts to maniacally scream, “We’re the same!  We’re the same!” as he grabs Glenn and invades his personal space.  Glenn shoves him aside, and Tattoo Face gets chomped.  So much for doing the right thing.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again –  Kindness gets you nothing in the WD world. 

Rick moves to a better vantage point, and takes out one of the gun-toting Termites.  He uses the gun to wound the remainder of the Termite walker extermination crew, and leaves them to be chomped by the walkers that continue to flood the compound.  

Still inside Terminus, Carol enters a curious room that resembles a post-apocalyptic pawnshop.  Entire folding tables are piled with a variety of items, including boots, weapons, watches, and a table full of well-loved stuffed animals and toys, indicating that children have definitely been at the mercy of the Termites.  Ugh.  She grabs Daryl’s crossbow and a watch that she seems to recognize. 

Carol’s not-so-guided tour of Terminus continues as she stumbles into the cult-y graveyard creep out room.  Carol starts to make her way across the floor, when Mary storms in.   The two women tussle but Carol quickly gains the upper hand.  Carol trains her gun on Mary’s face, and Mary starts to vomit out the story of Terminus, focusing specifically on what seems to be the motto of the place, “You’re either the butcher or the cattle”.  That would look great crocheted on a pillow. 

Disinterested in what Mary is selling, Carol asks her where the men from the train car are.  When she gets no response, she coolly trains her scope on Mary’s leg and fires.  Mary writhes in agony for a second, and then composes herself as she bids Carol to point the gun at her head.  Carol hesitates, asking Mary about what Terminus actually is.  With an indignant cackle, Mary tries to explain the creed behind Terminus ending with, “…we’re still here.”  Carol stares at Mary, slowly backing away, and says, “You’re not here, and neither am I.”  She opens the outside door to the walkers, and slinks past them in her invisibility cloak of gore.

Over in the shed, Rando realizes that he has the element of surprise and grabs Judith.  Tyreese slides over his weapons as asked, and then Rando insists that he go outside with the walkers.  With a guttural war-cry, Tyreese complies and shoves himself outside.  Rando listens from inside as the walker snarls reach a fevered peak and then suddenly stop. 

Rando walks tentatively towards the door when, POW! Tyreese charges through the door and body slams Rando to the ground, placing a knife to his throat.  (Side note – What happened to Tyreese’s hammer?)  Rando tells him to do it, just kill him.  Tyreese pummels Rando in the face while howling, “I WON’T!!!”  “I WONNN’T!!!!” over and over again like a wounded animal.

The remainder of our crew is still stuck in the train car.  Sonia asks about the cure, and after some prodding Eugene eventually provides them with a line of impressive sounding jibberish that really means nothing.  The best I can gather is that they he intends to use another disease to fight the walker disease?  Fire with fire? Just as everyone starts to figure out that Eugene is basically spouting nonsense, Rick and Co open the train car and the group goes feral.  They slash, club and claw their way through the courtyard, clearing a path through the walker herd and to the fence.  As they escape, Rick takes out a sniper and appears to clip Gareth’s side, but doesn’t kill him.  I have a feeling he’ll be back.

We are treated to a shot from above as Terminus burns.  This brings to mind all of the other communities that we have seen collapse throughout the series.  Where is home?  In a world absent of a distinct ‘home’, is home truly with the ones you love?  The people you can trust?  While the Terminus crew appears to have gone cold on everyone, including one another, our gang is truly a family.

The crew follows Rick out into the woods, and he and Daryl unearth the bag of guns.  Abe questions what they’re doing, and Rick states that they’re getting supplies so that they can pick off the remainder of the Termites.  Rick has clearly learned his lesson by being merciful to those who had wronged him in the past.  Lesson learned: You can’t leave those who have scorned you behind.  However, Abe, Glenn, Rosita and Maggie disagree with this philosophy and say they should just skedaddle.  As the group discusses the matter, Carol slowly approaches them and the issue becomes moot. 

SOB SOB SOB.  HAPPY TEAARRRS!!!  Daryl and Carol!  I’M SO HAPPIIIEEEEEEEE!!!! 

After the everything-I-wanted-it-to-be reunion between Daryl and Carol, Rick walks up, dumbstruck, seeing her for the first time since he exiled her.  As he tentatively approached her, he asks, “Did you do that?” then embraces her and says, “thank you.”  Hopefully now he sees that Carol Pellitier is a valuable asset.

Carol leads them to the shed where Tyreese and Judith are waiting, and we get Joyous Reunion Part Two.   Tyreese and Sasha hug, and here go my happy tear waterworks again as Rick and Carl are reunited with baby Judith. 

Once everything calms down a bit, Tyreese explains to Carol what happened with the walkers, and how Rando had his hands around Judith’s neck.  Carol instinctually advances on the shed, but Tyreese gently stops her, saying, “No, he’s dead.  I had to.  So I did.  I could.”  Carol nods.

(Side note – This kid is totally not dead.  Despite the fact that I have serious doubts about Tyreese’s abilty to kill, Rando did not appear on the ‘In Memoriam’ montage on Talking Dead.  He’ll definitely be back.  Probably with Gareth, that “asshole that he survives with.”)

Rick looks towards Terminus and says, “I don’t know if the fire is still burning”. Carol says, “it is,” with no explanation, but we all know how she knows.  Thank you sweet Mika, your Survival Tips live on in your absence!  Rick concludes that they should move from the scene immediately, and they do.

As the group makes their way down the tracks, Rick scoops up some mud and smears it on a Terminus sign so that it reads, ‘NO Sanctuary”.

Credits roll.  I am giddy with happiness and delight.  I am so satisfied that I don’t even care that future episodes will probably be cloaked in horror and sadness.  I wait to watch the scenes from next week and begin to settle in for Talking Dead.

BUT WAIT. 

A figure approaches the ‘No Sanctuary’ sign.  The figure turns, and removes a black mask to reveal…..MORGAN!! ZOMG MORGAN!  He brushes a cryptic carved symbol in a nearby tree with his fingertips and then continues silently into the woods.

Best.  Episode.  Ever.

Some thoughts before I go -

- When Rando talks to Tyreese about his ‘past life’, how he went to church and played football, I remembered how much I love these moments.  In past episodes, my interest was piqued when we found out that Glenn was a pizza delivery boy, and that Michonne had a little boy.  Last season finding out what Daryl did ‘before’ was such a hard earned moment that an entire episode was spent on the reveal.  It’s interesting to have some context as to whom these people are and how they’ve developed and changed since the world collapsed.  Who benefits from the situation?  Who survives?  What needs to be sacrificed for survival?  Oddly enough the plot this season revolving around the Termites appears to be focusing on the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of the trauma they experienced, but, alas, not who they were before the actual end of civilization.

- I truly hope that the WD writers aren’t just being teases with the shot of Morgan.  Please reintegrate him, and soon.

- Where is Beth?

- We can add ‘cold bodies’ to our ever-growing list of synonyms for ‘walker’ thanks to Rando.  However, my personal favorite is still ‘reanimated corpses’, used to great effect by Abe in 'Us' last season.  Frankly, that one is going to be hard to top.

Walking Dead - 'A' Recap

The episode opens with a flashback to the old halcyon prison days.  Rick, Maggie and Glenn return from some sort of recon trip, and Hershel is there to greet them with open arms.  As far as I can see, this scene has no other purpose except to make me weep with sorrow that Hershel is gone.  I miss him so much.   The focus skips ahead in time to Rick slumped next to a truck with flat tires.  He is coated in blood and twitching, staring blankly off into the distance.

Another skip in time brings the viewer back to the ‘present’.  Rick, Michonne and Carl make it clear that they are hungry, hungry hippos and they all go to check the traps that Rick set earlier.  Rick earns a Survival Tip Bonus Point by teaching us viewers how to effectively set a snare.  Carl rambles on about what they will tell the people at Terminus, and asks the existential question, “who are we?”  Just as Rick starts to contemplate this age-old query, they hear screams in the background. 

Carl dumbly sprints off to help, gun in hand.  Rick grabs him and pulls him back as they witness a walker chomping into the man’s face like one of those life sized gummi bear from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. 

The Grimes gang proceeds to get the eff out of dodge.

Flashback - Hershel wakes Rick, asking for some help.  Rick asks what time it is, and Hershel twirls his mustache and replies, “It’s time to make the donuts!”  No, just kidding.  He says, “I never know what time it is anymore.  Ever since I gave Glenn my watch it’s always ‘right now’ to me”.  Beth dutifully scoops up Judith, leaving Rick free to hang with Hershel. 

Back in the present, Mich, Carl and Rick head down a road, and encounter an abandoned truck from the first scene in the episode.  A walker who appears to have melted into the ground is clawing at the air, and Mich dispatches of it.  It’s a mercy kill, and I can’t help but think that crazy Lizzie wouldn’t approve. 

As night falls, the Grimes trio polishes off their meager dinner and speculates that there’s another day’s travel until they reach Terminus.  Michonne starts to wonder if the whole Terminus thing is legit when an immediate threat presents itself. 

A gun cock is heard, and a snub nose appears at Rick’s temple.  Denim Joe warbles, “Oh dearie me.  You screwed up, asshole…..today’s the day of reckoning sir.”  Joe babbles on about how happy he is that he’s found ‘New Years Eve’ and he starts counting down when our hero Daryl appears out of the darkness to stop Joe. 

YESSSS!!! Reunited and it feels so good!!!! 

(This is how I feel, don't be judging my feelings, ok?)

But before the first few notes of Peaches & Herb hit the air, Joe says, “You’re stopping me on eight Daryl.”  Daryl proceeds to stand up for his friends, says they’re good people and he says if they need blood, that they should take the blood from him.  Joe is not a fan of this option.  He says, “This man killed our friend, and you say he’s good people, that’s a lie.”  “Teach him fellas, teach him all the way.”  The Goon Squad viciously pummels Daryl, and I scream at the TV, barely noticing as the fat goon pulls Carl out of the car. 

Joe growls, “We can settle this, we’re reasonable men.  First we’re going to beat Daryl to death, then we’ll have the girl, and then we’ll have the boy.  Then we’ll shoot you and we’ll be square.”  Carl flails around for a knife that is literally within his reach as he squirms around and whines like a bitch.  Rick gets a crazy twitch in his face, and snarls, “Let him go” as he wings his head back, slamming Joe right in the schnozz.  Rick appears to get the high ground for a second, but Joe regains his composure and kicks Rick on the ground.

Joe, ever the daredevil, goads Rick into getting up.  They tussle for a moment, and Joe gets Rick in a hold.  “What the hell are you gonna do now, sport?” 

What’s Rick going to do?  He’s going to go Mike Tyson all over your neck, son!  Rick chomps a big juicy bite into Joe’s neck, brutally ripping out his jugular, and the remainder of the Goon Squad puts their marauding on a hard pause.  It’s kind of like when Zach Morris used to freeze time in Saved By the Bell, only, not.  If memory serves, I don’t think Zach ever killed anyone using only his teeth at Bayside High….

Unfreeze!  Carl continues to be pathetically useless as he lies on the ground whimpering.  Michonne, the polar opposite of Carl, actually acts on the opportunity and grabs Tony’s gun, popping him one in the face. 

“Let the boy go!”  Daryl’s in on the action now as he stomps a goon in the face.  Rick grabs Joe’s knife and advances on the fat one who attacked Carl.  He literally guts him like a wild animal, and then stabs him repeatedly, far beyond a reasonable number of times.  Let’s just say a crazy number of times.  An insane person number of times.  Michonne holds Carl who watches this stabby show with dead, angry eyes. 

Flashback - Hershel talks about the horses and feral pigs.  Oop.  Guess the flu was Hershel’s fault.  Oh well.  He’s telling Rick that he needs to put down the gun and pick up a shovel.  It’s time for Farmer Rick to come out and play, for the sake of his son.  And as much as I miss Hershel and loved his rosy worldview, the previous scene with Rick and the Goon Squad shows exactly why Rick needed to stay his combative, cautious self.  The recent theme of the show seems to be that there is no room for soft people in this world.  There is only survival.

Back to a bloodied Rick slumped next to the truck.  Michonne cuddles a sleeping Carl inside, brushes his hair back from his head.  Once again I silently compare Michonne to Lori.  No way would Lori have been able to do what Michonne did.

Daryl approaches Rick with a bottle of water, encouraging him to wipe the blood off his face.  He extends the bottle to Rick saying, “you can’t see yourself, he can.”  Daryl goes into a brief synopsis of where he’s been since the Great Prison War.  He explains that he didn’t know who the goons were.  He says he got out with Beth, but now she’s gone.  Oddly he doesn’t give too much more of an explanation regarding Beth’s whereabouts, and Rick doesn’t press him for one.

Daryl continues to explain why he had pledged membership in the Goon Squad, and Rick goes all Good Will Hunting on him.  “It’s not on you, Daryl.  Hey.  It’s not on you.”  Daryl silently takes that in, and nods.  He then tries to repay the favor by justifying Rick’s actions from the previous night.  Rick says that even though his actions were brutal, the only thing that matters is keeping Carl safe.

They walk down the tracks, Rick asks Michonne if she’s ok.  She says she’s ok, and she knows he’s ok because she’s ok.  That’s some circuitous logic, but it brings a half smile to Rick’s mangled face. They approach a Terminus sign, indicating that they are close.  Rick theorizes that they should be cautious and travel through the woods.  Good call Rick.  Ummmm, why didn’t Abe think of that?

The Grimes Gang cases Terminus, stealthily sneaking up to the chain link fence.  Carl chooses to wander the perimeter with Michonne instead of his father, prompting Michonne to ask why.  When Carl is cagey about his answer, she tells him the story about how she lost herself after her son Andre died.  She went on a run, and left Andre with her boyfriend.  When she came back, the fences had been breached and Andre was gone.  She goes on to let Carl in on the zombie pet origin story.  She says, “I was gone for a long time.  But then Andrea brought me back, your dad brought me back.  You did.”  She says that Carl doesn’t need to be afraid of her or Rick.  Carl mumbles some crap, realizing that he has to be tough, says “I’m not what he thinks I am.  I’m just another monster too.”  Please Carl, please dear god I beg of you.  Show us this monster.

Rick buries a large bag of weapons in the woods.  He tops it off with his iconic sheriffs’ pistol, and zips the bag, nodding to Daryl as he says, “just in case.” 

The group scales the fence, creeping stealthily across the tracks.  As they sneak in the back, a woman repeating the mission statement of Terminus over a radio frequency can be seen, as well as a small group of sign makers. The Terminus-ers stop what they’re doing, and look at our gang.  A skinny man asks, “you here to rob us?”  Rick responds, “No, we wanted to see you before you saw us.”  Skinny dude introduces himself as Gareth and welcomes them to Terminus. 

Gareth asks them to lay their weapons down.  The Terminus-ers (Terminus-ites? I feel like I’ve heard them called Termites before so I’ll go with that from now on) pat them down for any other weapons, and then hand them back.  Apparently satisfied with what they see, Gareth leads them to the proper ‘welcome wagon’ entrance. 

Up front, Martha Stewart Mary is at the grill, giving them kudos for coming in the back door.  Rick looks around, and spies the poncho and the riot gear.  As Alex hands Carl a plate, Rick smacks the plate out of his hand.  Eyeing Alex’s pocket watch, he grabs Alex by the neck, and twists his gun to Alex’s head.  Michonne, Daryl and Carl react as one, pulling their weapons without asking, trusting Rick implicitly.  Rick does his best Christian-Bale-as-Batman impression as he rasps, “Where did you get this?”

Flashback – Cutie Patrick plays with Legos on the ground.  Enjoy it while you can, Patrick.  Life is short.  Further in the cellblock, Carl is fixated on reassembling his gun like a budding psycho, juxtaposed by Beth innocently playing with Judith on the stairs.  Oh Beth, where are you?  Rick approaches Carl and says, “I need your help with something.”  He gestures to Carl’s gun, saying,  “Leave it behind.  Itl’l just get in the way.”

Back at Terminus the standoff continues.  Alex says hes got this.  He explains that he got the watch, “Off a dead one.  I didn’t think he’d need it.”  Gareth further digs into the lie, saying that they got the poncho off a clothesline.  He calmly talks to Rick for another moment, stating, “What’s there to say, you don’t trust us anymore.”  Gareth closes his opened hand into a fist, signaling for the snipers to go into action. 

Uhhh the snipers are terrible.  They spray the concrete at the Grimes Gang’s feet, liberally wasting bullets.  The gang runs through the bowels of Terminus, trying to escape.  They race through what appears to be either a shooting range or a training ground of some sort, old rusted out cars and boxes littered with bullet holes.  As they attempt to flee, the camera briefly pans over a blue tarp covered with bloody and picked over carcasses.  The un-guided tour of Terminus continues as the quartet bursts into a creeptastic room with candles, and the words ‘NEVER TRUST, WE FIRST ALWAYS’ painted in bold black paint on the walls. 

As they run out into the outer courtyard our gang is surrounded.  Gareth says, “drop your weapons, now.”  Carl’s mouth is agape.  They drop their weapons.  Gareth uses sweet nicknames for each of the characters as he directs them toward the train car marked ‘A’.  He calls Rick the ‘Ringleader’, Daryl the ‘Archer’ and Michonne the ‘Samurai’. Carl doesn’t get a nickname.  Probably because he’s super lame.   Gareth instructs them to go in to the train car in order.  Rick opens the door. 

They pile into the train car.  On the other side of the dark car, Glenn emerges, then Maggie.  She breathes,“You’re here.”  Bob and Sasha.  Tara and Abe etc.  Rick looks at Tara with a bit of confusion.  Maggie says, “They’re our friends.  They helped save us.”  Daryl is immediately accepting and says “now they’re friends of ours.” Abe adds, “for however long that’ll be.”  Rick looks at Abe and simply says, “No.”

Flashback - Back to the prison farm.  The makeshift Grimes/Greene fam tends to the earth.  Rick says that they’re going to have to get Carl a new hat.  “There’s a new sherriff in town” and puts the hat on Beth.  An optimistic Hershel says, “It can be like this all the time.”  Sorry, Hershel.  Wrong.

Back in the train car, we see the opposite of the idyllic prison farm.  Rick says, “They’re going to feel pretty stupid when they find out” Abe asks, “Find out what?” The camera slowly pans over all the faces (Rosita is noticeably absent), rapt in attention at Rick as he responds, “They’re screwing with the wrong people.” 

Bojack Horseman - 5 Reasons Why

With very little fanfare, the new comedic series ‘Bojack Horseman’ dropped on Netflix a few weeks ago.  Bojack (voiced by Arrested Development’s Will Arnett) is a washed up sitcom star living in a palatial mansion in the Hollywood hills.  For funsies, he also happens to be a horse.  His feline agent, and sometime girlfriend Princess Carolyn (Amy Sedaris) and his live in slacker buddy Todd (Aaron Paul, playing what I like to think of as a happy-go-lucky Jesse Pinkman) enable Bojack to live in an alcoholic haze until, like in all good comedies, hijinks ensue. 

Since I pressed ‘play’ on the first episode, I have been obsessed.  You should be too.  Here’s why.

One - The closing theme of the show will inhabit your dreams.  Written by the indie rock band Grouplove, this original ditty will worm its way into your brain and pop up at odd times, but in a pleasantly enchanting way.  After watching the credits a handful of times, I guarantee your brain will be playing that shizz on repeat. 

Two - Not only is the closing theme quite good, but the opening theme from Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney is also pretty fantastic.  Paired with an extremely watchable intro, the sax-heavy opening theme is a groovy tune that kick-starts each show with a little verve and sass.  Also, extra bonus for Mad Men fans, some awesome person out there created an opening theme flip-flop for your amusement.  I’m not a Mad Men fan per se, but the following videos are definitely worth a peek. 

Mad Men with Bojack theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmxIWjH0umo

(Strike that, reverse it.) 

Bojack with Mad Men theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK1Otf5zbrg

Three – Were you ever curious about what happened to MTV’s resident bespectacled pessimist Daria?  I may be reaching, but the likeness between Daria and Bojack’s Diane is uncanny.  Diane (voiced by Allison Brie) is like the grown up version of Daria – if Daria traded her combat boots and ho-hum pleated skirt for a pair of form fitted jeans and some smartly heeled boots.  Maybe it’s the parallel green jackets speaking to me, maybe it’s the glasses, but if Diane’s name was Daria I would totally buy that Daria moved to LA and became a writer after a stint on an MTV reality series. 

Four – Thanks to the ‘all episodes drop at once like a long ass movie’ Netflix format, Bojack has a continuous plot instead of a series of self-contained episodes like most other cartoons.  The story is absorbing and much like most shows about Hollywood, includes some very meta twists and turns.

Five – Delightful vocal cameos abound.  Most of these actors seem more than enthused to play send-ups of typical Hollywood tropes such as Angelica Huston’s dry, monotone network executive, and Stanley Tucci’s closeted creator of a family-friendly sitcom.  Naomi Watts is particularly delightful as “Naomi Watts”, playing herself as a neurotic, high-energy version of herself that brings to mind her wonderfully zany performance in ‘I Heart Huckabees’.  Other notable contributors include Melissa Leo, Stephen Colbert, Olivia Wilde and Wallace Shawn.  Inconceivable!