The Walking Dead - S5E10 - Them

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Previously on The Walking Dead, ‘What Happened and What’s Going On’

This on-the-road episode deals with grief felt by Daryl, Maggie, and Sasha. Daryl has bottled up his feelings, refusing to talk about them, and takes every opportunity he can find to break away from the group. Maggie’s mourning looks a lot like not being able to muster up any kind of fucks to give. When she’s not half-ass killing walkers, she’s downright forgetting to kill them. But Sasha has no problems there. Her grief looks a lot like anger and she racks up the most kills of the episode - putting herself and the group in danger to get a few of them.

And on top of everything else, they’re about 60 miles away from D.C. and going without food or water for almost two days. The rest of the group tries to help and counsel the other three, but it’s hard to do when everyone is just so beaten down and hangry.

Gummy Worms and Frog Legs

While Maggie is off alone crying, Daryl is digging through the damp soil and eating worms. Sasha comes across what looks to be a dried out creek that’s littered with dead frogs. She’s kicking dirt over one when Daryl and Maggie walk up. A silent head shake is all it takes - no one has found any food or water.

They head back to the rest of the group - who haven’t found any either. Maggie wonders how much longer they have. Not till D.C. as Sasha first thinks, but just in general. How much longer can they live like this?

And to make matters worse, their last vehicle has run out of gas so they’re hoofing it with walkers trailing behind them. They’re weak and tired so they allow the walkers to follow instead of trying to fight them. It’s been three weeks since Atlanta and Rick tries to get Daryl to talk about it, but Daryl is Daryl. He opts to go off into the woods in search of food. Carol insists on going with him.

Carl gives Maggie a broken jewelry box, which no longer plays music. And Gabriel tries to make small talk with her about how hot his collar is. Maggie shuts down all chit-chat about religion and reminds Gabriel that he was all about bitchassness when people needed shelter. In other words, you don’t get to talk to me like we friends and like you didn’t punk out and let people die. Welp.

We Are Not the Same

Sasha has had about enough of the walkers following them and wants to take them on. Michonne points out that Rick was right: they’re too weak. Sasha claims she can take them on alone. Michonne offers her a seat. She reminds Sasha that Tyreese was angry too after losing Karen and it made him stupid. Basically, she calls Sasha stupid. Sasha is like, “You don’t know me!” Sasha and Tyreese are different, were different. Michonne is like, “Yeah, that may be. But you’re still acting stupid like he was.”

Off in the woods, Carol gives Daryl Beth’s knife. Beth saved them both, she says. Carol doesn’t allow herself to feel loss, not anymore. But Daryl is different and she tells him he will let himself grieve. Then she gives him a completely maternal peck on the forehead and Caryl/Darol shippers lost their damn minds on Twitter.

Ditch and Run

The rest of the group has decided to deal with the trailing walkers because, I mean really, you kinda have to at some point or you’ll never be able to rest or even scavenge for supplies. The plan is to allow the walkers to get close and then push them into ditches on the side of the road. They’re also able to simply dodge out of the way to accomplish that. And all is going well until Sasha goes Rambo and decides to engage them instead. As Abraham says, “The plan got dicked.”

The others now have to fight as well and Michonne tells Sasha to sit her ass down. She doesn’t listen and because of her stupidity, Rick is almost bitten and she accidentally slices Abraham on the arm. When the dust settles there’s a face-off between Michonne and Sasha, which ends with Sasha storming off ’cause she ain’t want none.

They find a wreck on the road and Daryl goes off again into the woods, saying he’ll circle back. This time, he makes Carol stay put. Maggie finds a walker in the trunk of one of the cars and it’s clear she was a kidnapping victim. Maggie shuts the trunk without killing the bound and gagged walker. When she tries to open it again, she can’t. Glenn stops her from shooting the lock. He opens the trunk, kills the walker, and then leaves the door open. Nice touch.

In the woods, Daryl finds a half-eaten deer carcass and a dead body. He decides to rest.

It’s a Man Eat Dog World

The group is resting on the side of the road when Daryl returns empty-handed. Abraham must have found some liquor in one of the cars ’cause he’s getting turnt.

Wild dogs (that used to be domestic dogs) appear and Sasha calmly takes them out with her gun. Without saying a word, Rick begins to break branches for a fire. And that, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, is how our group came to eat dogs. Noah doesn’t know if he can do it. Even though Tyreese died because of him and tried to help him, he can’t honor that sacrifice by eating dog. Nope. Sasha tells him to just eat and not think. Or don’t. She don’t give a fuck.

The way Eugene was chewing, I’m gonna go ahead and say he’s eaten dog before. Gabriel is finally broken and takes off his collar and burns it.

Back on the road, Glenn offers Maggie water. She doesn’t want it. She does want to talk about Beth and how she thought Beth was dead before until Daryl told her otherwise. And then she was able to imagine Beth out there alive. Seeing her dead is a totally different story and now she doesn’t know if she wants to fight it anymore. Glenn reminds her that giving up is not who she is.

Sasha tells Abraham that drinking liquor will only make it worse. He’s like, “No. You going off like an asshole is what will make it worse. You’re with friends so how about you chill the fuck out.” Sasha got enough friends and doesn’t consider Abraham one of them.

Glenn offers Daryl water, but he doesn’t take it. Instead, he goes off into the woods and finds a barn. He sits outside of it and lights up a cigarette. Then he finally cries. I’d cry too cause you know those cigarettes are stale as fuck.

Here Comes the Rain Again

The group finds a bunch of bottled water in the road with a note, ‘From a friend.’ They want to drink it, but they’re not completely stupid. Well, Eugene is and starts to be the guinea pig until Abraham slaps the water right out of his hands. It starts to rain and the group is so relieved. Gabriel apologizes to God for throwing his collar away - even though there were rain clouds earlier and Rick said it would rain eventually, I’m sure Gabriel sees this as divine intervention. They place their empty bottles on the ground to collect the rain, but it’s raining really hard and there’s thunder and lightning. Daryl tells them about the barn he found.

Inside the barn, Rick talks about kids growing up in this world. He used to feel sorry for them, but now he thinks they have it easier than adults. For them, it’s a matter of the world being all they know while adults have the burden of remembering how it used to be. Michonne insists that this isn’t the world. There has to be more, better. Rick is like, “Until we see otherwise, this is our reality.” And THE LOOK Michonne gives him is every.damn.thing. Rick is all, “Yes, dear.” And changes the subject to a story about his grandfather, which is just an excuse for him to say they’re not The Walking Dead.

Then we have a short grammar lesson:

Daryl: We ain’t them.

Rick: We’re not them.

Daryl: Like I said, we ain’t them.

 

Heavy-Handed Teamwork

Then we have the most heavy-handed scene in the show’s history, but I don’t mind. As the storm picks up, Daryl sees walkers approaching the barn. He tries to secure the door and pushes against it. He’s joined by Maggie and Sasha at first, and the rest of the group. It’s dark except for the flashes of lightning and their feet slide in the mud as they use their bodies to stop the walkers from entering. Yes, it’s a bit much to drive home the fact that everyone is needed. They are stronger together than apart. But it looked cool so I’ll allow it.

The next morning, Daryl gives Maggie the music box. He fixed it by cleaning out the grit from the gears. They talk about how strong both Tyreese and Beth were. Then Maggie wakes up Sasha so they can go watch the sun rise together. The tornado sent those walkers flying and they’re strewn about, impaled on shit. Gruesome.

Who Dis L.L. Bean Looking Motherfucker?

Maggie and Sasha bond over the sunset and Maggie’s insistence that they both can make it. She tries working the music box, but turns out Daryl didn’t fix it. Then a stranger named Aaron appears. He’s clean, looking like an LL Bean catalog come to life. As the girls point their guns at him, he claims to be a friend. He wants to talk to their leader, Rick. He has good news. The music box picks now to work.

Shoot him in the kneecaps, girls! Let him know you mean business. He don’t need knees to talk.