Walking Dead - Consumed Recap

What was touted as ‘The Adventures of Carol and Daryl’, ultimately turned out to be a relatively slow moving and serious episode focusing on identity and rebirth. Not gonna lie, I thought this episode was a serious bummer.  I'm not blaming it on the lack of action, but given the themes of ‘Consumed’, I now truly believe that something horrible is going to happen to Carol.  Soon.

Fire and smoke became important symbols in this episode, connoting specific life altering moments in Carol’s recent life.  There has been a great deal of focus on Carol in the first half of Season 5, and I can’t help but think that she’s doomed. 

The episode is punctuated with Carol flashbacks, filling in small gaps of time for the viewer.  We begin as Carol drives away from Rick, exiled after killing Karen and David back in the first half of Season 4. (Side note – This happened over a year ago for us, but in WD-time it’s only happened a few weeks ago.)  Carol drives out onto a main road, and allows herself a brief moment of grief, sobbing at her steering wheel.  She collects herself and then drives into a small town, setting up shop at a small law firm.  Settling in for the night, Carol clutches her gun tightly to her chest.

The next morning Carol gets up and sets to work creating a makeshift camp.  As she hangs plastic bags from the windows as rain catchers, she glimpses a plume of black smoke rising in the direction of the prison.  Panic on her face, she hops to it.  She gets in her car and flies down the road.  As she approaches the prison, a blazing inferno is reflected in her windshield.  Damn, they totally could’ve used Carol.  Would she have taken the Governor out?  Probably. There’s a good chance things may have gone another way in that situation if Carol had been there.  Rick has terrible timing. He’s kind of the worst sometimes.

Now we know how and why Carol came back.  Just about a day after the exile.  She wasn’t on her own for very long at all, and even though Rick shut her out she remained loyal to all the people there and rushed to their side when she saw danger.  If Carol’s only thoughts were for self-preservation, she would’ve stayed as far away from that situation as possible.  But she didn’t. 

Back in the present, we pick back up with Carol and Daryl as they pursue the mystery car.  Daryl notes that the car is running low on gas, and Carol suggests that they run the car off the road.  She’s kind of like a wild card here.  She has definitely proven herself to be a bold risk taker, but in this case she’s not thinking too far ahead.  That is what makes her and Daryl such a great team.  

As the duo soldiers on, the camera pans back to show us a brief shot of Atlanta at night.  It is eerily black, silent, and foreboding in the distance. 

The white cross car stops at an intersection, and Carol and Daryl park their car and watch from a distance.  A passenger gets out, and Daryl asks, “Is that a cop?” with a bit of surprise in his voice.  (Side note – its interesting to note that Daryl doesn’t say its someone ‘dressed like a cop’, he immediately assumes that the person is a cop because of the uniform.  Those societal mores are powerful, and Dawn of the Walking Dead knows it.)

A walker starts to claw at the car window, potentially giving up their position.  Both Carol and Daryl stare at it with disgusted indifference, like “be cool, dude, just be cool.”  

After pulling what appeared to be random debris off the road, the cop passenger gets back in the car, and the car drives away.  Daryl tries to turn the key, but it’s a no go.  Carol says she knows a place they can “hole up”.

They make their way into a building as a small contingent of walkers starts to wobble down the city street like the lamest Thriller video knockoff ever.  As they make their way into the building, Carol finds a key ring on a body lying in the hall.  They barricade the door and make themselves at home.  Daryl asks Carol what the place is, and she explains that it’s temporary housing.  She and Sophia came there before the world fell apart, but they didn’t stay. 

Carol flops on the bed next to Daryl and the two have a heart-to-heart about their lives and what it means to have an identity in this new world.  They both seem to agree that they’re trying to start over, and trying to still believe that what they’re doing matters.   Daryl asks Carol what she would’ve done if he hadn’t shown up at the car earlier, and Carol says she doesn’t know.  But we know.  Gareth and the Termites would’ve grabbed her and made a delicious feast out of her lady leg.  (Side note - It’s kind of interesting that as this conversation takes place, the rest of our gang is hard at work taking out the Termites.)

There’s a noise out in the hallway, and they go to investigate.  Two walkers press up against the frosted glass.  A large, adult sized body appears next to a smaller body, presumably a child.  Carol goes to take care of it, but Daryl stops her, telling her she doesn’t have to do it.  The next morning Carol wakes up to see a fire burning outside.  Daryl has covered the bodies with sheets (definitely Beth’s influence) and is burning them.  Carol gets a sad but hopeful look on her face, and thanks Daryl as they watch the curls of black smoke rise into the sky.

In many ways, this scene echoes the themes of not only this episode, but Daryl’s trajectory on the show as well.  It’s no coincidence that following the scene at the shelter, the episode cuts to a flashback of Carol blankly staring at a cloud of white smoke in the distance as she and Tyreese bury Mika and Lizzie’s bodies.  Recall that that smoke is from the moonshine shack that Daryl and Beth burned down so that Daryl could leave his life as an abused and neglected child in the past.  In burning the bodies at the shelter, Daryl is very likely trying to help Carol move on from her abusive past much in the same way Beth helped him.

Ever since Mika taught Carol how to identify if a fire is still burning from afar in The Grove, white versus black smoke has been a recurring and symbolic theme in Carol’s life.  The white smoke from the shack is the only smoke in the episode from a fire that has burned itself out, indicating something is over, done, reborn.  Daryl has been reborn, but the smoke from the fires started in Carol’s past is never seen as ‘white’, indicating that she has been unable to resolve her issues and move on.  The black smoke from her past, via the flashbacks, clearly haunts her and her self-doubt is definitely still burning.

After the walker bonfire, the duo leaves the shelter and stalks the deserted streets of Atlanta.  For some reason, the streets have an overwhelming amount of loose cardboard strewn about.  They make their way through an open parking garage into the ‘Skybridge’.  Someone is watching from the garage.

They get up to the bridge, and encounter an odd tableau.  The hallway seems to have been a camping site for a small group of survivors.  It appears as if they were all stabbed to death, and then entombed in sleeping bags and tents in order to immobilize the bodies once they reanimated.  Is it a trap?  A deterrent? Or maybe it’s just a gigantic piece of performance art?  Is Banksy still alive in the apocalypse?  Maybe Daryl is Banksy.  Woah.  Anything is possible in the WD world I guess.

They make it to the end of the hall, but the door is loosely bolted.  Carol and Daryl both shimmy through the small opening to find an upscale office that looks to be untouched.  They look out onto a scorched landscape, surveying the territory.  Again, they have a cryptic conversation about evolution of self, and starting over.  Carol seems to want to tell Daryl about what happened with the girls, but then thinks better of it. 

Daryl spies something in the distance.  It’s a van, marked with a distinctive white cross, stuck in the safety rails of an overpass.  They load up on water, and take a moment to look at the piece of art in the office.  Daryl says the abstract piece looks like, “a dog sat in paint and wiped his ass all over the place.”  Carol disagrees, and says she likes it.  I’d hate to think what Daryl might say about a Pollock painting.  Yikes. 

Care Bear vomit?  Liquefied walker?  P.S. I want Daryl Dixon to interpret all abstract paintings forever and ever please and thank you. P.P.S. There should be a web series, ‘Carol And Daryl Go To MoMA’.  I’d totally watch that. 

As they shimmy back out of the bolted door, Noah grabs Carol’s rifle and holds them at gunpoint.  He asks Daryl to lay down his crossbow, and apologizes to them.  As he escapes, he says, “I’m sorry about this.  You look tough, you’ll be alright.”  Noah slashes into the tents, releasing the walkers from their vinyl cages.  Carol reacts immediately, shooting a walker, and then takes aim at Noah as he flees down the hall.  Daryl sees this and quickly whacks Carol’s arm down toward the floor. 

They start to exit the building, and Carol quickly scrambles to justify what she did. She sums up her motto of self-preservation as she says, “If I’m going to hell I’m making damn sure I’m holding it off as long as I can.” Daryl protests a bit, frustrated with her outlook on the situation.  Carol grabs Daryl’s bag, and a book titled ‘Treating Survivors of Childhood Abuse’ falls out.  They lock eyes for a moment, and Daryl snatches the book away. 

Unlike Carol, Daryl is trying to deal with his past, instead of using it to fuel his future.  He is taking the opportunity for rebirth seriously, as a chance to evolve emotionally and spiritually, and not just survive. 

On the other hand, Carol is simply trying to survive and help those close to her survive as time passes.  This is illustrated with a flashback to the prison.  Carol stands over Karen and David’s bodies as they burn.  Columns of black smoke pour into the air.  What Carol has done in episodes past seems to be in the service of protecting others, not necessarily herself.  She’s still carrying the regret of inaction from her previous life, and is constantly in fight mode, counting only on herself, not permitting herself to rest even when she has others to support her.  She hasn’t learned how to balance the fight with flight yet, and this is causing her some serious stress.

We return to the present as Carol and Daryl approach the abandoned van with the white cross.  Carol wants to go in first because she’s lighter and the van is unstable, front end dangling off the side of the bridge, but Daryl shrugs her off and hops in.  They successfully ID a stretcher in the van as originating from Grady Memorial Hospital, but a horde approaches, boxing them in.  They wordlessly slide into the two front seats and as they brace for impact, Carol reaches for Daryl’s hand on the dashboard.

In defiance of physics, the van lands squarely on all four tires, like a cat.  Walkers begin to rain from the sky, landing with hard thunks on the windshield and roof of the van.  As they walk away, Carol is clearly injured, and Daryl holds her up. 

They continue their mission, staking out the situation from an abandoned building adjacent to the hospital.  As they munch on a lunch of stale chips, Daryl strikes up a conversation.  He presses Carol for information on how he’s changed since they met.  She says, “It’s like you were a kid.  Now you’re a man.”  Daryl then asks her to assess herself, and how she’s changed.  Even though Daryl did her a solid and tried to burn away her past at the shelter, Carol can’t seem to shake who she was ‘before’.  She ruminates on her life with Ed, saying that she kept praying for something to happen, and it didn’t. 

Carol goes on and talks about her life since then, speaking about her metamorphosis in stages, seeming to reference the things we’ve seen in the flashbacks of the episode and how they’ve changed the core of who she is.  “Who I was…she got burned away, and I was happy about that.  And at the prison I got to be who I always should have been, and then she got burned away...everything now just consumes you.”  Daryl looks at her with kindness in his eyes and reminds her, “we ain’t ashes.”

Just then, Noah fumbles with something down the hall.  Seriously, kid?  Out of all the buildings in all of Atlanta, you pick this one?  The one CLOSER to the place you’re trying to run away from?!  But I digress….Noah is battling a walker as Carol and Daryl approach.  He tosses the walker at Carol and she falls to the ground.  Daryl helps Carol and then pursues Noah, tackling him and trapping him under a gigantic bookcase as a walker starts to wriggle in through the door.  Noah pleads for help as Daryl shakes a stale cigarette out of a found pack and coolly lights it. 

Daryl refuses to help, saying, “Nah, I already helped you once.  It ain’t happenin’ again.”  Noah’s probably pretty confused here, as he didn’t know that Carol had a bullet with his name on it, but no matter.  For some reason Carol’s on his side now.  As the walker gets closer, she joins in asking for Daryl's assistance.  As the walker lunges for Noah’s throat, Carol grabs her knife.  She’s about to stab the walker when an arrow slices through the air, piercing the walker’s skull. 

Back in the past, Terminus burns, thick black smoke swirling in the distance as Carol sheds her camouflage. 

Carol and Daryl help lift the bookcase, and Noah thanks them profusely once he’s free.  He goes to the window, and says he has to go because the people at the hospital are following him.  Daryl’s eyes widen at the mention of the hospital.  “You see a blonde girl there?!” Noah’s eyes widen in kind, “Beth? You know her?!  She helped me get out, but she’s still there.”

The trio starts to exit the building when Noah trips and falls.  Daryl stops to help him up, and Carol sprints ahead into the road.  A station wagon screeches up, slamming into Carol.  Her body flies up onto the windshield and then crumples to the ground.  Daryl has a freak out, as Noah holds him back, explaining that the people at the hospital “have machines” and that they will help her.  As the cops load Carol onto a stretcher, Noah says, “We can get her back.  We can get Beth back.”

Daryl asks, “What’s it going to take?”  Noah notes that the group at the hospital has guns and people, and Daryl responds, “So do we.”

Noah and Daryl escape the city in a truck.  Noah looks at Daryl with an odd look on his face.  Daryl stares, determined, into the distance, the face of a man on a mission.

Some ramblings:

- I just simply couldn't care less about the scene where Carol and Daryl are lying on the bed.  They’re just close, ok?  They’re never going to make out, and I don’t want them to.  This is my final and only thought.  They're soulmates at a deeper level.  Also, no one ever seems to brush their teeth.  Gross. 

- Daryl’s actually one of the gentlest souls on the show at this point, and by being here with Carol he was spared from being a part of the Termite Massacre back at the church.  I can't help but think that his separation from the group at this point in time was intentional.  Same with Carol, but I think that her method of killing would be more akin to Michonne's rather than Sasha, Rick or Abe's.  She's a gentle soul too, only capable of fight when something is at stake.  Unlike some of the others, she's not in it for vengeance. 

- Obligatory Biblical reference of the episode seems to be the Mary on the dash of the van.  Very glad we didn't have to listen to any scripture this week. Thanks for that, WD writers. 

- The last two episodes reminded me of the storytelling on LOST.  Flashbacks focusing on a single character within a larger episode for the sake of character building.

- I really do think that something terrible is going to happen to Carol by the mid-season finale.  For some reason I'm holding out hope that it's amnesia, and not her death.  She got whacked pretty hard by that car, and an amnesiac episode followed by a 'rebirth' may possibly be what this episode is pointing towards.  I don't care if it's too 'Days of Our Lives', any story line that lets Carol Peletier live is okay in my book.

Walking Dead - Four Walls And A Roof Recap

What I learned this week: Bears are capable of eating their young, Glenn found some leadership balls, and a church in the apocalypse is just four walls and a roof.  Hey, that’s the name of this episode!! 

From what I understand from the twitters and the reddits, this episode brought some fan favorites from the comic to life.  However, it also continued to bring up the question of humanity for our survivors.  Rick kills the Termites, not out of some larger purpose to keep the world safe, or even to keep his group safe, but primarily out of revenge.  It looks like he’s almost starting to enjoy doing it.

More importantly, our group is once again fractured after a brief moment of reunion.  Admittedly, things are more exciting when they’re separated, but this time it was by choice.  Maggie and Glenn take up with Abe and Co on their journey to save the world, and both Carol and Beth are both still MIA at the end of the episode.  And who the eff is with Daryl at the end?

But let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

The episode opens where the last one left off.   Gareth is basically acting like an idiotic Bond villain.  He openly discloses all the Termites motivations as he continues to chomp away on his Bob drumstick.

Gareth rambles on, continuing to justify his actions by talking about bears.  Apparently if bears are in a situation where they’re about to starve, they will eat their young first.  Except, um, that’s not the situation here Gareth.  Never mind.  God this is the most boring monologue ever.  Until Gareth mentions Carol, who he calls “that gray haired Queen Bitch”.  Amazeballs nickname for Carol, Gareth.

Apparently Gareth is the foodie of human flesh.  He breaks down his theories of why women and pretty people taste better.  Ew.  File that under ‘Cooking Tips I Will Never Use, Ever’.  Bob inexplicably starts to cackle.  All the Termites think he’s lost it, but in reality Bob has a secret.  He says, “You idiots!  I’ve been bitten you stupid pricks!  I’m tainted meat!  TAINTED MEEEATTTT!!!”  The Termites start to panic, and Gareth tries to smooth things over by coolly saying, “we cooked him, we’re going to be fine.”  Guess we can rule out Health Inspector or Professional Chef as possible past careers for Gareth. 

In the meantime, Sasha, Rick and Tyreese have started searching for Bob in the woods.  They note that Carol and Daryl are also missing.  Inside the church, Sasha pulls a knife on Gabriel and confronts him about the situation.  Rick pulls her away and morphs into full cop interrogation mode.  (Side note - It’s odd, but I can’t help but notice here that these two men are the individuals who most identify with their professions from the life before.)  Gabriel sobs and gives his lame confession.  When the shit hit the fan, he locked his parishioners out of the church, and let them be eaten by walkers.  Pretty bad under normal circumstances, but in the grand scope of things in the WD world it’s relatively innocent.  He’s a weak man, and Rick looks at him the way someone might look at a puppy who’s piddled on the rug. 

Glenn peers out a window, and sees a body lying on the grass outside.  In a world with no streetlights, I don’t see how this is possible, but maybe Glenn has super sight.  Sure, that’s probably it.  Anyways, the body is a one-legged Bob.  They go to retrieve him, and as they retreat back inside, the camera pulls back to reveal a large ‘A’ emblazoned in blood on the side of the church.

They bring Bob in, and he tells them the whole horrific story, including the part about Carol and Daryl driving off.  The group wants to give Bob pain meds, but he refuses, saying, “save them” as he shows them his gnawed off shoulder.  A Terminus nibble, it ain’t.  Sasha winces as Bob passes out.  Gabriel gallantly offers the sofa in his office, and Tyreese leans down to scoop Bob up. 

Abe starts to lay down the law.  He says, “Time for a reality check.  We all need to leave for DC right now.”  Rick opposes this thought, saying that they’re not leaving Carol and Daryl behind.  As the situation escalates, it is clear that Rick and Abe are from two different schools of anger.  Abe is more explosive and loud, whereas Rick is quiet and full of simmering rage. 

As things escalate and threaten to get physical, Glenn interjects.  Tara has a moment and says she has an idea.  If the DC gang stay and help she’ll go with them after the situation is handled.  Abe considers and then counter offers by saying he wants the Glaggie duo in the bargain.  Rick says no.

Abe growls at a reluctant Rosita and Eugene to come join him.  As they start to walk out the door, Rick goes into control freak mode saying, “you’re not taking the bus.”  “Try and stop me,” counters Abe, and the two men advance on each other.  Glenn gets in between the two of them again, and quickly proposes a deal.  “You stay and help us, and we’ll go with you.”  Rick says no, but Glenn quickly counters by saying it’s not his decision to make, standing up to Rick as an individual.  Abe agrees to stay for a half day.  

(Side note – Is Rick trying to instigate a fight with Abe?  Why does he care about the bus? Abe has openly admitted that he likes to fight, but Rick is still trying to hold his ground as a rational man who only uses violence in extreme situations.  Why is Rick poking him?)

As Sasha tends to Bob’s wounds, he’s still focusing on the positive.  She wonders why he didn’t tell her about his bite sooner, and he makes a lot of sense as he says, “I knew when I told you it would become all about the end.  And I really liked the middle.”  His sentiments are so sweet, so simple, and so true.  Bob, why are you making Sasha and us love you even more?  This is hard enough as it is.  How selfish can you be? **Weeps into sweater**

The remnants of our gang plot their revenge.  Sasha says that she wants to go with the rest of the crew, and exact her vengeance on the Termites.  After this declaration she goes to tend to Bob, and Tyreese follows her.  He implores her to stay with Bob, and to take this opportunity instead of going on the murder spree.  Tyreese goes on to encourage Sasha to forgive the Termites, and she’s incredulous.  She says, “What the hell is wrong with you?  You think we have a choice?”  Tyreese says, “Not all of us.  Just you.”  It seems incredibly important to him that his sister retains her humanity, but she’s all like naaaah, I’m good.   

Half the gang leaves the church in the dead of night.  The camera pans over the church sign in the dark of night.  Nothing happens.  For awhile. Ummmm, is my DVR on pause?  Did my cable freeze?  Op!  Wait! We’re back!  Another group of people starts creeping down a well-lit path to the church.  It’s the Termites.  They silently enter the front door.  

As Gareth slowly makes his way up the center aisle, he rattles off the names of all the people who are still there like any good horror villain should.  He specifically mentions “Martin’s good friend Tyreese”, and I can’t help but smile a bit.  Oh, Gareth, you might just be the most charming cannibal psychopath since Hannibal Lecter.

Gareth goes on to say that he knows Rick and Co walked out with the majority of the guns.  The Termites wander around the front of the church and wiggle the knob to the office.  Gareth tries to appeal to Gabriel by saying, “How ‘bout the priest?  Father, if you help us out, we’ll let you walk away from this.”  Unlikely that Gareth would follow through on that promise, but I’m surprised that ole Gabie didn’t jump at the chance to get away. 

Just then, Judith starts crying.  Damnit!  Kid, you had ONE JOB!

The Termites hone in on the location and prepare to unhinge the door, when a sniper silently takes out two of their group.  Gareth starts to protest, still thinking he has the upper hand when Rick cocks his pistol and…SPLAT!  Gareth’s fingers explode in a firework of pain.  Damn, Rick!  This Gareth guy never shuts up, and this turn of events somehow makes him even chattier.  He tells Rick he’s not going to beg….and then proceeds to beg.

Beautifully backlit and framed by stained glass windows, Rick looks at Gareth with dead, determined eyes.  Gareth tries to save his people by saying, “we will never cross your path again.  I promise you.”  Rick tilts his head and says, “you’ll cross someone’s path” as he fingers a red handled machete.  “Besides.  I already made you a promise.”   

And oh does he deliver on that promise.  Rick violently hacks into Gareth’s skull with the machete, over and over again; evoking memories of the time he went all feral on the Goon Squad last season.  Abe, Sasha and Michonne take out the rest of the Termites in an equally brutal manner – in particular Sasha goes all stabby stabby on Martin, finishing the job that her brother failed to do back at Terminus.  Tyreese looks on with a horrified hang dog stare in his eyes. 

Then, a wonderful thing happens.  Michonne surveys the damage.  She catches a glimpse of her sword in a Termites backpack.  Slowly, she unsheathes it and….she is back.  Framed from below, she holds the katana aloft like a badass superhero ninja.  YESSSSSSSS!!!!  It’s not just any katana. It’s HER katana.  Back in it’s rightful place.  That thing is damn near magical.  Dear WD writers, Thanks for listening.  Love, Rainey.

As I do my ‘the katana is back’ happy dance on my couch (best sung to the tune of ‘Backstreet’s Back’), Gabriel peers out and surveys the damage to his church.  He gets his first glimpse of how much humanity has changed since everything started.   He says, “This is the Lords House.”  And Maggie, the preacher’s daughter, coldly responds, “No.  It’s just four walls and a roof.” 

The gang has a little ‘Bob Voyage’ party, and they all say their goodbyes.  Bob asks that Rick and Judith stay behind.  He thanks Rick in a rambling but beautiful way.  He emphasizes his hope for humanity, saying, “What I said yesterday, I ain’t revising it.  Nightmares end.  They shouldn’t end who you are.”  To his credit, Rick does appear to be genuinely listening, and taking this in.  He still wants to believe he’s a good guy, and that he can come back.  On the other hand, he’s starting to become very comfortable in the role of vigilante cop. If this nightmare of a world did somehow end, would Rick be able or willing to give up that power?

Bob fades in and out of consciousness.  When he wakes in the morning, he is smiling, and Sasha asks, “So what is it, the good that comes out of this bad?”  Bob doesn’t get a chance to answer as he passes out.  He has presumably died because Sasha sobs for a moment, and then draws her knife.  Intuitively Tyreese comes in and tenderly takes the knife from his sister. Sasha leaves the room, and Tyreese slides the knife into Bob’s temple, doing what Sasha could not. 

(Side note - There’s an interesting parallel here between the two siblings.  Tyreese could not kill Martin, but Sasha is able to do so with brute force.  However, when it comes down to a more delicate, humane task, Tyreese steps up.  He is the new ‘voice of morality’ on the show, and given the WD track record with moral voices, it is likely only a matter of time before he starts to adapt or dies.)

A bit later, Sasha constructs a cross of twine and sticks.  She is wearing Bob’s jacket.  Abe hands Rick a map as they leave with Glenn and Maggie in tow.  For such a heavy moment on the show, there is very little fanfare.  The couple looks sadly at the group and Abe and Rick nod slightly at one another. 

As the bus rolls away, Rick unfolds the map.  A loooooong red line indicates the path Abe and Co intend to take.  A note from Abe on the bottom:  “Sorry I was an asshole.  Come to Washington.  The new worlds gonna need Rick Grimes.”

That night, Michonne stands watch.  Gabriel comes out to join her because he can’t sleep.  Honestly, who can blame him?  They chat for a minute about the horrors they’ve experienced, and Michonne gives him a bit of friendly advice.   There’s a rustle in the bushes, and Michonne instinctively draws her sword (YAY!) as scaredy-cat Gabriel shifts himself behind her, and immediately pops back inside.

As Michonne approaches the tree line, Daryl reveals himself.  Michonne gets a huge grin on her face, which quickly fades when she asks, “Where’s Carol?”  Daryl grimaces for a moment and then calls back to an unidentified person in the woods.  “C’mon out!”

END CREDITS.

What?  Huh?  Who is it?  WHERE IS CAROL???!?  Scenes from next week promise to reveal where Beth is, but who are we kidding?  We care WAY more about Carol than we do about Beth at this point in time.  What would we do without our gray-haired Queen Bitch?

Some thoughts before I go:

- Favorite needlepoint in the church: ‘Stupidity is also a gift from God, but one mustn’t misuse it.’  Not sure who this is referencing in the episode, or if it’s just a bit of visual comic relief, but I enjoyed it.

- The cinematography in this episode is gorgeous.  I don’t read the comic, but a few of the shots looked like they were lifted right from the cells of a graphic novel.  I was struck by how effective the shot of Rick was, as he was framed by the stained glass in the moments before killing Gabriel.  Also, the shot of Abe, Rick and Glenn standing in a row in the church aisle earlier in the episode was beautifully composed.

- We never do get to find out what consumption of ‘tainted meat’ does to the Termites.  But I guess we don’t have to worry about that, as our gang won’t be eating any people in the near future.  At least I hope not.

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?