RECAP: #TheWalkingDead “The Same Boat” [Season 6, Episode 13]

Paula, is on the walkie bargaining with Rick for Carol and Maggie’s lives in exchange for their friend, Primo – the man captured by Rick’s group after they cleared out the Savior’s home base.  The Alexandrian women are bagged and dragged away.  They are being taken to a safe house as Paula radios for help from other Saviors. Paula warns Carol there is no way out, unless she says so. This foolish  woman thinks duct tape will stop Carol and Maggie from breaking free. The Saviors clear “growlers” (walkers) from the facility and Paula dares the two women to try anything, given how hard it has been for her to avoid killing them. As Maggie tries breaking free once Paula leaves, Carol begins hyperventilating, which continues when the captors return. Paula thinks the “cold bloods” are free security in case the “assholes” (Alexandrians) find them before their own people do. Donnie, who was shot by Carol is still asking about Primo. They need him back because he can “fix” the wound.  

Paula is sure that they will be killed, too, if they try to get Primo back. Maggie points out Carol, hyperventilating, and asks that her gag be removed.  They assume that Carol is nervous and weak and want to know how she made it this far. I can’t wait for her to show them. When she holds her rosary, Molly, one of her captors, scoffs that Carol is “one of those.” Paula can’t believe that Carol is afraid to die. Carol tells them she is not afraid for herself and begs them not to hurt Maggie and her baby. They mock Maggie as stupid for getting pregnant. Paula snarkily adds that “children are our future” and “bite-sized snacks” for the dead. She tells Maggie that the point is to stay standing. Maggie responds that the walkers do that, she made a choice. Paula walks into the hallway and disappears Carol becomes upset when Molly smokes around pregnant Maggie and is told that they have bigger problems than second hand smoke. Another captor, Chelle, sides with Carol. Molly tells them they are worse than Evangelical second graders. Colorful. Grossly colorful is the blood-soaked handkerchief Molly holds up to Carol, after Carol tells her the cigarettes will kill her. Molly tells her that they already have. She tells Carol she is a dead woman walking, which, puts them in the same boat.

Paula returns with news that the scouting crew is 30 minutes away. Donnie screams that his arm is on fire and Maggie lets them know that Donnie doesn’t have that much time. He will lose his arm and his life, his nerves are dying. She references Hershel’s lost leg. She tries to talk them into exchanging them for Primo and end the standoff. An enraged Donnie wants to attack Carol for shooting him and is angry when Paula, who wants to hold the women as insurance, won’t at least shoot Carol in the arm. He attacks Paula, is taken down by a duct taped Maggie, and then turns his attentions to Carol, kicking her a couple of times before Paula regains control and knocks him out. While on the ground, Carol notices walkers at the side door. Paula doesn’t appreciate their help and asks Chelle to take Maggie out to pump her for information. Chelle wants to know where they live that Maggie feels so safe having a child.  Chelle tells Maggie that they’ll get to stay alive by producing for her group.  Giving her information will help keep the baby alive.  

In the other room, Paula still thinks Carol is pathetic and mousy, after Carol thanks her for helping her and Maggie. She begins to tell her about Ed. Paula says they are nothing alike, Donnie is just a warm body for her bed, she could kill him in his sleep. She mocks Carol for believing in that “crap” as she eyes her holding a rosary. I see Carol working her hands loose under the tape, while holding the rosary. Carol tells her that faith got her through the death of her daughter. Paula tells her that the good news is that she might be seeing her soon. Back in interrogation, Maggie sees that Chelle is missing a fingertip, taken after she stole gas to go out and find her boyfriend’s body. No use, he was blown up, there was nothing left of him. Seeing the name “Frankie” in a tattoo on her arm, she assumes it is the boyfriend’s name. It was Chelle’s father’s name and she planned on naming her baby after him. The impression given is that the baby is gone and Chelle feels angry that Maggie is safe in her pregnancy. Maggie tells her that she is not planning on dying that day. Chelle isn’t either. Maggie is still not talking. Will Daryl track them and help the Alexandrians take out this small crew or will Maggie and Carol kill them off before the Alexandrians arrive?

Rick finally radios in and asks to make the trade. Shouldn’t Paula wonder how he is able to get a signal if they moved away from the Saviors’ compound? Carol, again, tries to tell them they don’t have to fight.  Molly says that they do since all of her people are dead and they want to know why. A quick thinking Carol says that the Saviors jumped them on the road and tried to take everything. She tearfully tells them that they had to fight back. Molly is buying it and realizes that T’s group (the group Daryl blew to hell) were probably killed while showing off. Paula knows better and asks about the rest of the group. Carol lets the name Negan intentionally slip, prompting Paula to ask what she knows. Carol says that he sounded like a maniac and they had to stop him.  

Molly tells her that they are all Negan. This group is the Wolves, minus the carvings. Carol asks what that means, but no one answers. Paula says that Carol is weak, too weak to stick to her principles, when Carol asks for a cigarette. Carol menacingly mutters that  Paula doesn’t really want her to stick to her principles. Paula either misses it or discounts it as she tells Carol she was once a secretary, fetching coffee and making her boss feel good about himself, reading inspirational email to feel good about herself. She goes on about being stuck at work, in D.C. with her boss, as all of the important people were evacuated, first – instead of being home with her husband and four girls. She killed her weak boss, before his weakness led to her death. She stopped counting the blows when she hit double digits, because she stopped feeling guilty by that time.

They exchange barbs about which of them lives with a band of killers. Carol tells Paula she is the one afraid to die, and she will die if she doesn’t work things out with Rick.  She asks Carol if she will be the one to kill her and Carol responds that she hopes not. At the next transmission, offering to make the trade, Paula finally realizes that there was no static and that Carol’s people must be outside. Carol assures her that Rick is a man of his word, he wouldn’t kill them just because her people would do the same. Their people are 10 minutes away so they stall. Carol finishes sharpening the cross from the rosary and cuts herself loose. She finds Maggie, who is cutting herself loose in another room. Maggie refuses to leave the small band alive.  She loosens Donnie’s tourniquet, to let him bleed out, but he was already dead and turning. They leave him tied near the door before he fully turns. Molly is bitten by Donnie when she re-enters the room, and is brutally finished off by Maggie.

Chelle and Paula remain, but they decide to leave. As they head out they see walkers piked near the door to keep them in and the others out. Paula walks up and Carol tries to give her a chance to run, but Paula feels she’s already lost too much, including what she’s given up and had to do to survive. As they fight, Chelle calls out to Paula.  Maggie grabs her and  their fight becomes potentially deadly as Chelle slices at Maggie and lands a cut at her abdomen, seemingly only getting her shirt. Carol ends it with a shot to Chelle’s head. Paula, who is down, but not out, laughs, realizing Carol conned her. She wants to know if Carol was ever really afraid and of what. Carol was afraid she would have to kill her, and does, pushing her on one of the pikes, as a walker begins devouring Paula, face first.

It’s too late. They won’t make it out before Paula’s people arrive. Carol confesses she could have killed Donnie and they would have been safe. Maggie doesn’t want her to think or talk about it. Carol lights one last cigarette, and uses it to light Paula’s people on fire as they enter the kill floor, covered in gasoline. Maggie puts the walkers down on the way out, including walker Paula. The women are met by their community while leaving. Daryl holds Carol, Maggie tells them that are all dead and breaks down, telling Glenn she can’t do it any more.

Facing the group, Primo lies and says he is Negan. Rick shoots him. Carol’s hand becomes bloody as she grips her cross while watching.

Three episodes left and this show gives no signs of slowing. It’s getting dark.

 

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