The Walking Dead - S5E15 - Try

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Previously on The Walking Dead, ‘Spend’

Mix Tapes and Mistrust

While Deanna, Reg, and Spencer sit around listening to one of Aiden’s run mix CDs, Carol is at home baking a Sorry Your Asshole Son Died tuna casserole. Sasha is up in the tower looking sleepy as fuck. And a walker with lots of fresh blood on him comes walking up to the gate like he lives there.

Carol drops off the casserole with a knock and run, Deanna burns the condolence note and leaves the casserole on the porch, and Sasha shoots the walker in the head.

That perfectly sets up the tone of the rest of the episode, and probably the bit of the season we have left: Everyone inside is so busy fighting and not trusting each other and the only one paying attention to the real threats is fifty shades of PTSD.

Daryl and Aaron are out at night and Daryl takes out a walker. Aaron comments there are more walkers around than usual. And they’re not running into any people. Not so fast. Daryl spots a small light in the distance.

Interview with a Liar

Nicholas lies, as we thought he would. Deanna watches a recording of him explaining what happened when Aiden was killed and he blames everything on Glenn. Meanwhile, Glenn tells Rick what happened, and admits he wanted to leave Nicholas, but he didn’t. Because they need to make it work.

Sam pulls away from his mom on their porch as Carol watches from her house. Rick joins her and she says Sam told her his mom put a bolt on the inside of his closet so he could hide in there when his dad was being the absolute worst. One day, he found Jessie knocked out after a fight. She doubles down on the Pete Needs to Die plan. Why does she care, Rick asks. He knows why. Ed was Pete. And she knows why he cares because she’s seen Rick talk to Jessie. You know, she has witnessed maybe two conversations out of five, and none of those included the kiss. *deep eye roll*

Rick walks off into the night to battle with his inner Shane. He stands near a gazebo and a pond with a toy boat and red balloon floating in it and I’m like, “Jesus fucking Christ! How nice is this place?”

Pete comes stumbling over and Rick tells him to walk away while palming his gun on his hip. Pete is confused, but not so drunk that he doesn’t walk the fuck away.

People Skills

The next morning, Michonne lies on the bed looking like she really don’t wanna go to work. She looking like you do when you wanna quit your job, but you start remembering how much money you have in your savings account, and you’re like, “Let me take may ass in there and leave early.”

Rosita comes in and says Sasha was in the tower all night. Abraham relieved her, but she went off and no one knows where she is, but Rosita has an idea. Oh, and Tara is in stable condition.

Michonne and Rosita head out into the woods - Michonne with a gun; Rosita has a knife - looking for Sasha. They find evidence she’s hunting walkers and keep following. As they walk, they talk about how weird it is for Michonne in Alexandria. She feels like she’s been asleep. Rosita tells her - much like Abraham told her - it’s okay for it to feel weird, but it’s also okay for her to be comfortable and happy in Alexandria.

Deanna stands at four graves, which look really fresh. Certainly they’re not Noah’s or Aiden’s. Maybe they’re the four who died on the previous run before Rick and company arrived? Or maybe they’re symbolic and it’s where they go to mourn whenever someone dies outside the gates. Either way, Rick approaches and tells Deanna he’s sorry for Aiden, but they have a Pete problem. Deanna already knew Peter was an abuser, but she was hoping it had gotten better.  Then they argue about what to do: kill him or exile him? Do they not even consider he’s their only doctor? A surgeon who has saved lives? Rick says no. Deanna points out she wouldn’t kill him and she’s not killing Pete.

Welp.

Glenn warns Nicholas he’s not to go outside the gates on any runs because he’s a Grade-A fuck up. He already has five deaths on his shoulders. There will not be more. Nicholas takes it as a threat because 1. he’s an asshole and 2. it kinda sorta is, but Glenn says he’s trying to save Nicholas.

Later, Nicholas digs up a can in the woods and reveals the gun Rick had stashed in the blender.

Lovely. Just fucking lovely.

Standing in a Tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G

Carl can’t track for shit and Enid calls him out for following her poorly and noisily. Again. When a walker approaches, she tosses a wound egg timer to distract it. This gives her and Carl a chance to sit against a log and talk about how she scares him (“I don’t know why. You just do.”) and how they’re supposed to be out there so they don’t forget how fucked up everything is. This kid went to the Rick Grimes School of Looking at Life.

When more walkers approach, they hide in a tree trunk. Enid whispers to Carl, “This is their world. We’re just living in it.”

And Carl’s just trying to get a nut! Hey-oh!

This girl apparently took a class in the Lizzie Way of Looking at the ZA and got an A+. There’s a pretty good chance Carl popped a boner in this scene. Enid’s happy to point out it seems like Carl is scared of her, too.

Michonne and Rosita find Sasha. There’s a small herd of walkers approaching and Sasha refuses to leave. She’d rather stand there popping off head shots like she’s trying to unlock an achievement. Michonne starts having her own flashbacks to when she was out in these streets and the next thing you know, it’s three badass women of color fucking shit up in the ZA and I was so here for it.

After Michonne saves Sasha’s ass, Sasha has a breakdown. She accuses Michonne of not being able to help her and says everything worked out for Michonne.

Not really, Sasha. Look around. It’s pretty terrible for everyone.

On a serious note, Sasha needs help. She’s also feeling guilty over telling Noah he wasn’t going to make it and then he didn’t make it. Oh, Sasha. It’s okay. I think we all had Noah on our death predictions list. Michonne and Rosita are pretty understanding of Sasha showing her ass, and that’s understandable considering what Sasha has been through. And also: her edges.

CSI: Alexandria

Daryl and Aaron are tracking the people who were using the light the night before… I guess.

All they find are walker body parts (limbs) and Daryl says it just happened. So they continue on deeper into the woods because why, exactly? It’s two of you. Why would you want to recruit anyone who would do this?

They find a woman tied to a tree. She’s been eaten by walkers and her insides are now her outsides. Daryl says this was fresh, too. There’s a W on her forehead and she turns while Daryl is holding her head.

Can they take their asses home now? I mean shit.

Rick Goes Full Shane. You Never Go Full Shane.

Rick catches Jessie smoking a cigarette in her garage. Why are people smoking these stale-ass cigarettes? The ZA has been in effect for 18 months - 2 years. You know those cigs are gross. She says Noah was a good kid. She doesn’t even pretend to say anything about Aiden because Ray Charles could see Aiden was a douche.

Rick straight up tells her he knows Pete is beating on her and she defends Pete. She also wants to know why Rick cares. Um, how about because he’s a human being? And also, he wants in your panties - and Rick says as much. She storms into the house. He stomps off to an intersection and looks around at all the normalcy - including a kid running around with that toy boat and red balloon. He barges into Jessie’s house and tells her just because it’s nice here, doesn’t mean she just gets to live like everything is fine when it’s not. Oh, and by the way: your son asked for a gun to protect you. He can help her and take care of her and her boys.

1. You just met this woman!
2. You sound like Shane, Rick. And I’m gonna need you to settle the hell down.

Rick is sounding a lot like Huck on Scandal, who, even when he’s making sense, you won’t listen to him because he speaks with this cadence reserved for crazy people and serial killers. He tells Jessie all she has to do is say yes. She says yes.

Of course, Pete walks in and wants to know what in the entire fuck is going on in his living room. Jessie tells him he has to leave. Rick does, too. Pete ain’t ’bout that life.

The two fight and eventually go through the front window, taking their fight to the streets. Didn’t Rick say something last week or the week before about society remaining intact as long as the windows are intact? Message!

Everyone comes running to watch, break it up, or stand around looking dumb. Meanwhile, walkers are approaching the gates, but good thing suffering Sasha, operating on zero hours of sleep is up in the tower again! That’s going to end well one day. She takes out the walkers, including one with a fresh-carved W on its head. This is the mini-herd which passed Carl and Enid.

While trying to break up the fight, Jessie gets slapped by Pete and Carl gets pushed by Rick. Rick gets Pete in a sleeper hold and watches as that red balloon floats into the sky. There’s a message here, but I’m too annoyed to find it. There goes normalcy and a chance at happiness because Rick fucked it up?

Rick only stops when Pete is passed out and Deanna yells at him. Rick rants about how Deanna’s way of doing things is going to get more people killed than it already has. They’re going to do things his way and his way says men like Pete need to die. They have to be very careful about the kind of people they let live there. Deanna is like, “That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said all day.”

Rick is offended. Downright disrespected. He can’t believe she would even think of exiling him. It’s important to note that the only person looking like they’re cosigning any of this shit is Carol, who’s protecting Sam behind her cardigan. You remember Sam. That kid she threatened to kill two weeks in a row.

Anyway, mid-rant, Rick is knocked the fuck out by Michonne, who then glares at Deanna and the others because Michonne is sick of everyone’s shit.

Me too, girl. Me too.

Thoughts & Questions:

• As I predicted on the podcast weeks ago, it looks like our group is going to end up being their own worst enemy. Everyone is so busy doing the wrong thing or going about the right thing in the wrong way, they’re not paying attention to the fact that, for some reason, walkers are frequently hitting up their gates. Sasha out in #DemWoods using up all the damn ammo. No one is communicating!
  • Has Maggie told anyone about the very real problem of Gabriel running his mouth?
  • Has Rick told anyone he has seen the Ws as far away as Richmond (100 miles away)?
  • Is anyone from our group going to suggest a Sasha intervention?
• Dickless Nicholas has Rick’s gun. We knew we’d see it again because there was no other reason to show an initial carved into it. And I can’t help but think this is yet another way the group’s own sloppiness, lack of communication, and paranoia will come back to bite them in the ass. Glenn has threatened Nicholas, so Nicholas goes out to get a gun he can sneak back into the community without checking it in. Sound familiar? That gun will be the cause of someone we care about getting hurt or killed. There’s no reason why Glenn, Rick, Deanna, and Nicholas shouldn’t have had a conversation about what happened to Aiden. If Deanna is as good at reading people as she said she is, surely she saw through Nicholas’ bullshit. And her words to him while filming even suggest as much. Then why is no one talking about what to do? Why have a Constable if you’re not going to discuss these things? Even if Deanna doubts Rick now, how can she possibly make a decision as to whether or not her mistrust is valid or if Rick should go if no one is talking about these very real problems they’re having? Our people are way too smart and seasoned to be doing this foolishness.