RECAP: The Walking Dead “No Way Out” [Season 6, Episode 9]

I am still flummoxed, trying to understand how Abe, Sasha, and Daryl are in a tanker, with a cab full of weapons, driving down roads that were unsafe, before, and are so easily captured by Negan’s bunch of biker goons. Shouldn’t they have their hands on the trigger of all of those big weapons at all times? Now, says the head goon, they are going to be forced to drive back home so that Negan’s men can see where they live. They are impressed with the tanker and the guns. The head goon threatens to kill them when Abe asks who Negan is, after being told not to ask questions.  Sasha tries to stop the head goon, getting into a bit of a tiff with Abe. It is a delay tactic. Just as the head goon decides he will kill them, there is an explosion. DAMN IT ALL! This is why I love #TWD writers, most of the time. Daryl has taken out the henchman sent with him to search the tanker and uses the RPG to take out the rest of them.  

Abe tells the dead pile to “nibble on that” referencing the head goons’ earlier comment that if you have to eat shit, don’t nibble on it. Bite, chew, swallow, repeat.. it goes down quicker. The scenes from Alexandria, and Sam’s freak out, have me nibbling and big gulping on the realization that I wouldn’t mind, at all, if Jessie lost both of her kids. Sam is at least quiet, for now.  Father G steps up and offers to take Judith with him to his church, vowing to keep her safe so that Rick, Michonne, Jessie, her sons, and Carl can make it to the quarry, get the vehicles left there, and lead the walkers away. Unlike Sam, baby Judith is still and quiet while Father G gets her through the wall of walkers.  

Tara wants to go after Denise, but Rosita tells her there is only one gun and the streets are covered with walkers. She reminds her that the Wolf needs Denise so he won’t hurt her. They check on Carol, Eugene, and Morgan (who is just coming to, only to realize that Denise was taken). Oddly enough, the Wolf is hiding with Denise – so much for believing the world belongs to the walkers.  

Glenn and Enid are in the church, with the doors locked, which makes me wonder how Fr. G and Judith will get inside. Glenn is hoping loaded guns have been hidden inside. No such luck. The search turns into a philosophical discussion between Enid and Glenn about him dragging her back and stating that running is how you lose people even after they’re gone.  He tells her that the people you love made you who you are and you lose that when you stop being you. The part of them you carried with you is gone when you go. He talks about his parents, Dale, Hershel, Andrea, Tyreese (I’m adding T-Dawg!). He tells her that her parents are still there because she is. Outside, the wolf wants Denise to run with him to the tower. Back inside, Enid tells Glenn that she is going back outside to rescue Maggie with him, and that she’ll go on her own if he leaves her. She finds the guns hidden in the church and takes the prayer cloths to tie together for Maggie to use to climb down from the platform..  Outside, the Wolf tells Denise that she was right, he wasn’t born the way he is, that he changed.  Now he wants to help her change.

It is nightfall and the walkers are still prowling the city. Rick’s group is making its way to the edge of the city. Sam is flipping out hearing Carol’s voice about the monsters eating him up while he is still alive. He freezes when he sees a walker child, presumably an Alexandrian. Sam’s whining  draws walkers to him and he is devoured. The moment is surreal and you don’t know if it is really happening. Jessie screams while holding Sam’s hand and she is next. Was that real? Rick is beside himself. He begins flashing back to Jessie’s smiling face. He composes himself before the walkers attack him, too.

Ron remains silent watching his mother fall. Carl is grabbed but Rick cuts the hand of the walker who has him. They think they are clear when Ron grabs the gun Carl dropped in the scuffle and trains the gun on Rick. I don’t think I have actually ever wanted to throw up in the middle of this show, before. I do now.  Michonne runs her blade through him and Ron fires. The walkers turn on Ron and devour him as well. HORROR! Carl has been shot, through the eye, and falls to the ground!  A grieving Rick grabs him as a frantic and grieving Michonne slices a path through the walker crowd.

 

Rosita, Morgan, and Eugene are still back at the house. Eugene comes to the realization that sooner or later they have to fight their way out. Rosita doesn’t believe that he will fight, even in the end. Outside, the Wolf is trying to convince Denise that there is no hope in fighting and that it is safer “out there” than it is behind their walls. She has found her courage and is standing up to him. He still pushes her to leave, to try to make it to the ladder and over the wall. In the process he is bitten and Denise offers to save his life if he takes her to the infirmary. Back inside, Morgan tries talking to Carol and brings up Sophia and Ed. When did Morgan ever meet Carol’s family or how did he learn about them? Carol doesn’t want to hear his small talk and tells him that he save the wolf for himself, not for the group.  If it was for the group he would have killed him. She tells Morgan that she should have killed him (Morgan).  He foolishly tells her that she couldn’t do that.  He doesn’t know Carol. 

Denise and the Wolf stop at one of the houses near the infirmary and she ties off the Wolf’s arm.  He is shocked that he didn’t keep going since the ladder was clear. She tells him that it’s possible that he has changed. As they make their way toward the infirmary, Carol, from a balcony, shoots the Wolf.  He still fights to help Denise as he is going down, yelling at her to GO!, as Carol calls out the same thing to her. Denise makes her way inside the infirmary, where Aaron and others are hiding. Rick, Michonne, and Carl make it to the infirmary where Denise begins work.  Rick flips, and in a fit of rage, takes out his axe and goes outside to kill walkers. It is an unbelievable sight. Michonne is aiding Denise in saving Carl, but is trying to break free to go help Rick. She runs to his side as soon as she can.  

The Alexandrians hiding in the infirmary are inspired and join them. Soon, the Alexandrians hiding  in their homes run out with weapons and join the walker-slaughter. Father Gabriel keeps his word and keeps Judith safe, inside, with the parishioners who are seeking refuge. He asks one of them to hold her and keep her as he heads out with a machete. He tells them that they have been praying for God to save their town and it will be saved because He has given them the courage to do it themselves. Carol, Morgan, Tara, Rosita, and Eugene go out to fight…. oh yes, you read that right. EUGENE! He tells Rosita, who warns him to stay, that no one clocks out, today. Morgan apologizes, and then ends the “save a walker” campaign. He puts them down.

 

At the guard tower, Glenn sacrifices himself to save Maggie. WHAT!!!!! I can’t with this show, I can’t!  Just as Glenn goes down, AGAIN, there is a rapid machine gun fire that is like music to the ears.  Sasha and Abe are on the wall mowing walkers down.  They use the tanker to take Maggie and Enid down from the shaky platform. Daryl unloads fuel into the nearby pond  and sets it on fire to draw the walkers away. They walk right into the pond, to their doom. The Alexandrians (old and new) aren’t done with them and keep fighting, keep killing, keep defending their home.  In the daylight, there are bodies everywhere, mostly walker.  

The Alexandrians are tired, worn, but not defeated.  They have a home, again.  Michonne holds Judith, while in the infirmary.  Rick is with Carl and tells him that he was wrong about the people behind the walls.  They learned and he didn’t think they could.  He saw what they (we) could do when working together.  He wants to expand the walls and find more people. He sees Deanna’s vision and knows it is possible.  He sees a new world, one he hasn’t known since before waking up in the hospital, and he wants to make it a reality for Carl, if he would just wake up.

Just then, Carl squeezes his daddy’s hand.  Uh!  the writers pulled out all of the stops, today. Every episode plays as if it could be the season’s end. Season six goes down in the books as the best, for me. If you were losing hope, this episode should restore it.  Until next week #TWDFamily.

 

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