The Walking Dead Recap: ‘Alone’ [Episode 13]
The show opens on Bob’s backstory – a man alone in the world, having joined two separate groups who failed to make it. His face tells the entire story. He is as broken as is possible, and remain human. Standing behind a tree, waiting for a herd of walkers to pass without giving himself away – all ties back to last week’s episode and its theme: hang on to hope. Clearly Bob has his own Hershel-style mantra, fighting tooth and nail to survive – although it’s not clear if his fight is out of habit or if he cares to live. Bob is approached by Glenn and Daryl (pre-fall of the prison) and tells them that it doesn’t matter who they are, he’ll go with them, I get it.
Fast forward and Bob, Sasha, and Maggie are standing in the fog, surrounded by walkers. Our survivors are able to hear them approach, without knowing how many there are or how close they are. During the battle, Bob is bitten – but thankfully the bite is on the bandage covering a prior wound. He will live – and unlike before, it’s clear that he is happy about that.
SACRILIGE! Beth is holding Daryl’s bow and is in the woods closing in on a walker whose gun she hopes to take when, of course, she’s caught in an old trap. Daryl to the rescue! Walker dead. Beth free. It’s amazing that she was a pillar of emotional strength, last week, and is a puddle of need, this week. Last week Beth commented that she knew that Daryl saw a “dead girl” when he looked at her. Sorry, but I see it too, folks.
Maggie, Bob, and Sasha finally find the “Terminus” sign and decide to head there to look for Glenn. Sasha is none too pleased that Maggie stopped them from moving on and now wants to head back to “Terminus”. Last week, I expressed my displeasure with Glenn and Maggie for their painfully selfish act – but I have to admit that in their shoes, I would have been tempted to do the same. Both may have saved the groups they are with by leading them to sanctuary.
Darryl and Beth finally make their way to a huge, well kept, plantation style funeral home. Someone has been giving the walkers funerals – including, using make up to cover the scars and it triggers Beth’s “Greene Genes”. She gives the speech about them once being human and that she’s touched someone cared. There is food and comfort at the funeral home, oddly enough. There is even a piano which Beth plays while singing. I’m sure hungry walkers appreciate the assist. Where the hell is Lizzie when you need her? Daryl spends the night sleeping in a coffin – it’s the most comfy bed he’s slept in, in years, he states.
Our trio is in trouble. Maggie walks away in the middle of the night (leaving them with one less defender, I might add) writing a note in the dirt asking them to not put their lives at risk for her. A little late? While on her own search Maggie tangles with a walker – knocking it down and gutting it to check for remnants of Glenn (I can only imagine). Remember when you weren’t supposed to allow the blood of a walker to touch your skin?
This week’s scenes are shifting quickly: I have a feeling that Bob is our new flawed moral leader – optimistic and clinging to small miracles. He tries to get Sasha to do the same. Daryl carries Beth to breakfast when they find that the noise that interrupts them is a stray dog – shy of the human form, it runs when Daryl approaches. By evening, Bob and Sasha are listening to the hissing of walkers. It dawns on me that Sasha’s anger at Maggie may be that Maggie holds on to her faith that Glenn is alive. Sasha has given up on her brother, Tyrese. Painful. Bob tells her that Tyrese would have headed for Terminus.
The same evening: Daryl tells Beth that maybe they should stick around – warmly indicating that she has humanized him. Daryl, hears the dog bark and plans to give it one more chance – he opens the door. MISTAKE! It’s a herd of walkers. Sending Beth out the back window and down the road to safety, he fights his way through the huge herd. He arrives down the road just in time to see Beth being driven off – by someone from Terminus? By the person tending to the home? By a random (dangerous) stranger? What the hell!?!?!
Daybreak: Bob and Sasha continue on, as an exhausted Daryl continues down the road to try to find Beth. His search leads him to the same tracks the others have taken. Bob tells Sasha he will not join her in her plan to stop at a set of buildings they find before reaching Terminus, abandoning the search for Maggie. He kisses Sasha, who returns the kiss. She reminds him that he doesn’t have to be alone. He responds that he won’t be.
Luckily for Maggie, all alone, Sasha is looking out the window of her intended fortress when she sees Maggie on the ground with walkers approaching. The women fight and kill the herd of walkers. I like this new theme emerging of Zombie Apocalypse = survivors killing zombies off by the dozens!
Daryl is approached by a new group, the leader we’ve seen before. It’s the group from which Rick, Michionne, and Carl narrowly escaped. Out of the frying pan, into the fire?
Bob, is again, alone, just as we saw him in the beginning of this episode. Fortunately, Sasha and Maggie manage to catch up to him and he smiles. Hey, I just want you to know that it’s ok for adults to cry. I almost did. Need one more reason to boohoo? Glenn’s group finally finds the Temrinus sign. I am spent!
I’m an exasperated soap fan who keeps hanging on – waiting for the daytime I once loved to return to its former glory! Hey, it doesn’t hurt to have a dream. I learned to love soaps thanks to my wonderful mother and grandmother. I’ll always have fond memories of daytime, most especially of ‘Another World’, my first stoap love. The ever great, but sadly defunct, daytime shows like Ryan’s Hope, Search for Tomorrow, The Doctors, Loving, and many others keep a special place in my heart, as well.