#TheWalkingDead Recap: Rick and Pete Duke It Out In “Try” [Episode 15]

It is the evening of the return from the failed run. Deanna and family are playing what appears to be Aiden’s CD. Carol is watching Judith sleep, on monitor, while making a tuna casserole – which she leaves at Deanna’s door.  Sasha watches as a walker approaches the gate. Inside, Deanna burns Carol’s note as Spencer and Reg watch, the casserole is still on the doorstep. Sasha takes out the walker at the gate. While out recruiting, Daryl is killing a walker and Aaron notes there are more around than there used to be…Daryl points out that something other than walkers are out, as they see a light in the distance. The opening scene is dark, aesthetically and emotionally. Deanna’s ever present smile has been replaced by an angry (more than mournful) scowl.

It’s still evening and Deanna is watching the taped interview of Nicholas explaining what happened at the warehouse.Glenn chimes in from a different location.  Nicholas claims that he wanted to save everyone but Glenn wanted to leave Aiden and Tara and that Glenn tried to free himself in the revolving door when he (Nicholas) was left with no choice but to push back and save himself. Deanna seems to doubt his story, especially when he fails at explaining how they all came back together. Nicholas wants the survivors gone, because they’re not like them. We learn that Glenn has been telling his side to Rick, who tries to convince a guilt-ridden Glenn that they are not answerable to the Alexandrians. Glenn tells Rick “we are them, now.” Noah believed in the place. They have to make it work.

When Glenn walks away, Carol and Rick begin talking. We learn that Jessie put a bolt on the inside of Sam’s closet and tells him stay in until morning when things are bad. Once, Sam found her passed out on the floor. Carol tells Rick that she knows he cares for Jessie, she can see how he looks at her. Later, as Rick is staring off into the darkness, Pete makes the mistake of walking up to him. Rick tells him to keep walking and as dark as it is, Pete can see that Rick means it. He slinks away, saving himself from the bullet in the gun Rick is cradling. Too bad the doc from Grady Memorial didn’t join the #TWDFamily. Pete would have been put outside the gates, yesterday.

The next morning, Michonne (who is clearly distraught about Noah) joins up with the unrecognizable Rosita to look for Sasha – who apparently was out all night.  Walking through the woods, Rosita notes that they’ve all felt so much loss, out there, but Michonne seems to feel more lost now that they’re inside. She reminds her that she didn’t bring her sword with her (Michonne has only a pistol) and that’s saying something – indicating that she might be adjusting more than she thinks. Inside the camp, Rick is passing on his condolences to Deanna, who is standing before Aiden’s and three other graves. He wants to discuss Pete, but Deanna cuts Rick off by telling him she’d hoped it would get better. She reminds angry Rick, who can’t believe she knew, that Pete he is a gifted surgeon who might be saving Tara, right now.  Rick suggests forced separation or death if Pete won’t leave Jessie. Deanna says exile, since they don’t kill people, Rick tells her that Pete could become a problem on the other side of the wall. She tells Rick she wouldn’t kill him, she would just send him away, too. She still thinks she has control of the community.

In the woods, Michonne and Rosita realize that Sasha is hunting walkers, and shooting them in the backs of their heads. In another part of the woods, Enid, who is in hiding, tells Carl to stop following her and go back. He won’t and she steps out of nowhere. She ignores his danger warnings and refuses to go back. He wants to know what she does out there when she remarks, the same thing as you, and they talk off running in the woods, like deer. She tracks and knows the woods like Daryl. She could be his kid! This girl is clever. When they see a walker, she sets a timer throws it in a different direction and they talk off running.

Glenn has a “come to Jesus” talk with Nicholas and lets him know that the deaths of Noah, Aiden, and the four before them are on him and he’ll have to live with that; poignant since Nicholas was just cleaning the blood out of the back of the van. He tells Nicholas that people like him weren’t supposed to make it, but walls around Alexandria went up just in time. Glenn tells Nicholas that he is not going outside those gates again. Nicholas asks Glenn who the hell he thinks he is and Glenn responds that he is someone who knows exactly who Nicholas is. Glenn is not moved by his argument that he has been protecting the place since before they all arrived.  Glenn tells him he is not threatening him, but saving him.

The deer have stopped running, Enid tells Carl they are supposed to be out there, and how running makes her feel better. Carl reminds her that his memories of being in the forest are different, She remembers having some rough experiences. When Carl asks why he scares her, as she said earlier, she tells him that she doesn’t know.  She grabs her mother’s knife from her bag and carves a stump, until they hear a herd coming and hide in a hollowed out tree. Carl touches her hand and draws back. “Cool,” she says, “You’re afraid of me Sasha as if he has either stored a gun of his own or recovered Rick’s gun.

Michonne and Rosita arrive in time to see Sasha take out a small herd, because she’s sick of playing defense, she says. Just then a larger herd approaches and Michonne and Sasha are shooing while Rosita uses her knife. They are lethal!  Sasha says she doesn’t need help when Michonne who has been flashing back to her time in the woods with her pets, tells her that she’s not doing it for her. When Sasha runs out of ammo, she grabs her blade, falling shortly after. She flips when Michonne saves her telling her she doesn’t need help (talk about being shortsighted). She tells Michonne and Rosita that no one can help her, stating that things worked out for Michonne. Sasha seems to feel guilty for telling Noah he wasn’t going to make it.

Daryl and Aaron find a camp strewn with walker limbs. A naked woman appears to have been tied to a tree and left for walkers to feed on. She has turned. Daryl puts her down. Rick stops by to see Jessie and lets her know what he knows. He tells her it has to stop. She admits he got help when it happened, before the fall. He tells her he’s not going to let her be hurt. She wants to know what he’s doing, he has a home for his children to worry about, She’ll be ok.

He leaves and looks at the normalcy around him and gives a “screw it” look. He goes back to tell her about Sam wanting a gun and that her life is like being “out there.” You fight or you die, he tells her that he can keep her and her boys safe, all she has to do is say yes. She asks if he would do the same for anyone else and he says no. She gives him his answer, “Yes.” Pete walks in, drunk and suspicious.

When he tells Rick to leave, she tells Pete to leave. Pete loses it and a fight breaks out and soon enough both men come through the window. Jessie is hit by Pete when she tries to break it up. Carl has even less luck stopping his father and is also thrown to the ground. Rick is choking Pete out when Deanna’s voice telling him to stop gets through to him.

Rick makes the mistake pulling a gun and letting them know that not only are their ways wrong, but have gotten others killed and will get the rest of them killed. He talks about how his group knows how to do what needs to be done– as we see Sasha killing a small herd pounding away at the wall. He talks about needing to control who lives there, pointing to Pete but Deanna’s comments that she agrees makes it clear she thinks he is the problem. Jessie looks more afraid of Rick than she ever has looked afraid around her husband. Rick is covered in blood and ranting. Carl looks embarrassed. Carol looks proud/amused. Sam, hiding behind her, looks confused. The ranting ends when Michonne, who apparently truly is Rick’s better half, knocks him out.

Somehow, all of this will be resolved in time for the season ender – a 90 minute episode.

 

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