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The Walking Dead - S6E5 - Now

Previously on The Walking Dead, ‘Here’s Not Here’

Remember how Glenn may or may not be dead? Remember how this is a big deal because he’s not only the moral center of the group, but he’s an original cast member from season one? Remember how that’s a big deal because every goddamn season this show puts him or Maggie in peril and we just know the other will lose their shit if something were to happen to their beloved?

Well, we witness Maggie finding out about it via a whispered conversation between Michonne and Maggie, overheard by Deanna, who is walking around like she’s off her meds.

Images: AMC

Remember how Rick was like, “Under no circumstances do we lead a herd of walkers back to Alexandria.”? Remember how he was all, “If we go back now, that’s for us. Sticking with this mission, that’s for them.”?

Well, apparently he said fuck all that when shit got really real, cause his raggedy-ass comes running up to the gates with a herd at his back. In those fucking cowboy boots. You mean to tell me he couldn’t have hooked a left or a right at any point to draw them away? Then maybe circle back so he doesn’t lead ALL OF THEM to the gates?

And why is his hair so goddamn wet? Did he stop and get a Jheri Curl?

The Walking Dead S6E5 - Rick runs for gate

Anyway, he gets himself cleaned up and comes back to the gates to deliver a speech. He says half of the herd made it back. No, you LED them back, but whatever. He assures everyone the gates will hold, but wonders if they will. OMG! I am so over this already.

He encourages everyone to hold out hope that Abraham, Daryl, Sasha, Glenn, and Nicholas will make it back. Well, all the others. Fuck Nicholas. Rick then says they should keep quiet and turn their lights off at night so as not to rile up the herd or attract more. I guess the constant noise of the walkers (which is what increased the number at the quarry) isn’t a factor. I guess standing on the tower and taking them out one by one isn’t an option. Or letting in a few at a time to kill them. Not possible.

Ron side-eyes Carl while caressing his knife. This kid is more like Rick than he knows. Aaron steps forward and tells everyone that it’s his fault the Wolves attacked because he lost his pack and they must have “followed their tracks.” This show needs to stop acting like “tracking” is something people just know how to do. They didn’t track shit, dude. You had a big-ass map with photographs in that pack. And applesauce. They just wanted more applesauce.

Jessie begins to bury the body of the wolves - including the one she killed in her kitchen - but Rick stops her with that “We don’t bury killers inside the walls” bullshit. WHY? WHY DON’T WE DO THAT? Why is Rick trying to make life harder than it already is? Every.fucking.time you leave the gates, you put your life in danger AND you risk the security of the whole camp. Why are we taking trips outside to bury bodies when it’s completely not necessary?

A group of Alexandrians decide since they’re all gonna die soon anyway, fuck rations! They storm the pantry and the poor chick in charge (I forget her name) tries to stop them. Bruce, some asshole, is all, “I’m not gonna let my family starve,” and then tries to take ALL THE BAKED BEANS. Yo, fuck this guy. For real. Deanna stands there looking dumb. Then Spencer walks up and tells everyone to cut the shit and put the beans back.

Bruce is all, “‘member that time you left the gate open and trusted Gabriel to close it and then nothing too bad happened?” And Spencer is like, “Remember that time I stopped a fucking truck from crashing our gates?”

Bruce puts the beans back.

Everyone should be keeping the noise down, but some Alexandrians (with nothing else to do, apparently) are painting names on the walls as a memorial to those who didn’t make it back. They even put Strugess’ punk-ass on there. And I guess Rick’s pep talk didn’t work cause they put Nicholas’ and Glenn’s names on there, too!

Guilt-ridden Aaron discovers Maggie gearing up to go find Glenn. He doesn’t try to talk her out of it, but offers to go with her because he knows a secret way out.

Deanna stops moping long enough to draw up city plans that include reinforced walls, crops, notes for education, training, and elections, and exploration. She labels it: Dolor hic tibi proderit olim, which means, “Someday this pain will be useful to you.”

Some think this means she was planning to kill herself and this was her way of leaving the group with something useful. I think it’s something Reg or someone else once told her, and it’s a reminder to turn the pain into something good like plans for a better community. Because if it is a suicide note then fuck her because how can they Google translate that pretentious shit? Ugh.

Also, who the fuck wants alfalfa?

She finds Spencer being a sloppy drunk in the next room. He stole liquor and other foods from the pantry after he shamed everyone else out of doing the same thing. This asshole dropped lines straight out of the White Privilege Handbook and I no longer want him with Sasha. Fuck him.

Note: We’ve only seen Morgan a tad. He was one of the ones rushing to open the gate when Rick was screaming and he was standing around for the first pep talk. DASSIT. We haven’t seen Carol AT ALL because you know she would not stand for this shit. She would have made everyone leave the pantry at gunpoint.

“Bruce, if you don’t go sit your ass down somewhere. You too, Spencer. Eh, eh, eh. Get back here with that dark liquor, Spencer. I see you.” - Carol, if this episode decided not to suck

Anyway, Spencer tells Deanna everything is her fault cause she’s a shitty leader and lowkey a shitty wife and mother.

Carl tries to recruit Ron in leaving the camp to look for Enid. Ron is like, “Nope.” He’s all, “I told her it was dangerous out there and going over the wall was mad dumb, but she kept doing it. Oh, well.” Carl can’t believe Ron doesn’t want to help his friend. Ron says, “She was my GIRLFRIEND. Don’t get it twisted.” Carl’s going to go anyway and when trying to physically stop him lands Ron on his ass, he threatens to tell Rick and then points out that Rick and others will go out looking for him looking for Enid, and then someone will die because that’s the way it works.

This kid is an asshole, but he’s making ALL THE SENSE IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW.

Denise is super overwhelmed. First, she killed Holly, and now they come back with a man shot in the leg. Scott’s wound is infected and she doesn’t know what to do. Tara checks in on her to deliver ANOTHER PEP TALK.

Remember that guy Dave who wrote a shitty “If you’re reading this, I’m dead” note on a scroll? Well, his wife Betsy went to join him in that shitty note-writing class in the sky because she slit her wrists. Jessie finds her reanimated corpse in her house and puts her down in front of some other Alexandrians. She then delivers a “we fight or we die” pep talk and I’ve had just about all the pep talks I can take.

Aaron’s secret way out is through the sewers where he and Maggie encounter nasty sewer walkers. How Sway? We get it. Nicotero can make really gross zombies. Before they exit the tunnels, Maggie changes her mind and says they don’t have to go looking for Glenn. She’s pregnant and she has to live with what happened, as does Aaron. Then they hug and I seriously stopped caring.

Denise drains some really gross pus out of Scott’s wound. Then goes to see Tara and plants a big kiss on her.

Ron gets up on the guard tower with Rick - you know, let’s keep the noise down, but it’s fine to stand here where the walkers can see us and use the walkie-talkie to radio the others who are still out there - and snitches his ass off. He tells that Enid is out there and that Carl wants to go looking for her. Then he asks if Rick will teach him how to shoot. Rick gives him a gun and lets him practice on shooting the walkers at the gate.

Jessie found time to bake cookies for Sam, who has probably been hiding in the closet this whole time. He asks her to bring the cookies up to him like it’s a fucking hotel. Apparently, he’s now scarred from coming downstairs since his mother killed a woman in their kitchen. Carol threatening to leave him gutted to a tree for walkers didn’t scare him, but now he has a stair phobia. Okay. She punks out and leaves the cookies at his bedroom door.

I thought food was at a minimum since they don’t know how long it will be before they can leave the gates. And she’s baking cookies? I hate this entire town.

Deanna stares at a house while she remembers all the terrible shit her son said to her and then she’s attacked by a walker. It’s the guy Carol shot in the back at the armory. He conveniently looks like Pete, though.

MESSAGE!

She stabs it in the chest with a broken bottle… repeatedly. And it lets her. Yelling out comically bad groans with each stab. Rick finally comes to her rescue. She says she wants to live and Rick tells her, “Then you need to lead them!” Which really means, “You need to lead them by doing whatever I tell you to do so that I’m really leading them.” She says the town needs him and then asks if what she wanted for Alexandria was just pie in the sky. He says no, but his eyes say yes.

Maggie and Aaron clean Glenn and Nicholas off the wall. Their names, not their remains. Then Aaron tells Maggie that when Glenn gets back, they could name the baby after him whether it’s a boy or a girl. *eye-roll*

Spencer relieves Rosita of guard duty and she says she thought it was Carol’s turn. But Spencer tells her Carol isn’t in this episode because it’s so shitty and doesn’t deserve her. She tells him he did a good job taking out that truck. He says he just got lucky. Then she leaves and he munches on his stolen crackers. That’s right. He’s literally eating crackers with me because I now hate everything about him.

He needs something to absorb all the liquor, I guess.

Then this episode told me to go fuck myself because Rick and Jessie kiss and I seriously CANNOT EVEN WITH THIS SHOW.

Deanna bangs on the gate while walkers bang on the gate on the other side. That’ll show ’em, Deanna! As she walks away, walker blood seeps through a crack in the wall.

Good. I hope everyone gets eaten.

The Walking Dead S6E5
  • 5/10
    Plot - 5/10
  • 7/10
    Dialogue - 7/10
  • 4/10
    Action - 4/10
  • 6/10
    Performances - 6/10
  • 10/10
    Walkers - 10/10
6.4/10

Summary

This episode was a hot-ass mess. Nothing of significance happened. We’re watching the Alexandrians learn lessons we watched other characters learn four seasons ago. And the big difference here is that no one gives a shit about the Alexandrians except Aaron.

Morgan doesn’t tell anyone he’s holding a wolf captive. Carol doesn’t tell anyone that Morgan is a walking liability. Carl wants to sneak out to look for Enid.

I hated everything about this.

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User Review
4 (5 votes)

About Nina Perez (1391 Articles)
Nina Perez is the founder of Project Fandom. She is also the author of a YA series of books, "The Twin Prophecies," and a collection of essays titled, "Blog It Out, B*tch." Her latest books, a contemporary romance 6-book series titled Sharing Space, are now available on Amazon.com for Kindle download. She has a degree in journalism, works in social media, lives in Portland, Oregon, and loves Idris Elba. When not watching massive amounts of British television or writing, she is sketching plans to build her very own TARDIS. She watches more television than anyone you know and she's totally fine with that.

20 Comments on The Walking Dead - S6E5 - Now

  1. FOR THE PODCAST: This was some bullshit. Nina summed it up perfectly on Twitter after the joint ended when she said she felt like the episode just told her to go fuck herself. I felt like it told me the same thing. I’m not even gonna go into bullet points on this shit. All I came to say was I wasn’t feeling it. Plus, the order is all wrong this season. The Morganshode shold have been ep 3, Glen/Rick number 4. If you do that, it would flow better with this as episode 5 in my opinion. Anyway, let me step aside and let other people get their words read. Oh, one last thing. Fuck Maggie and those 37 accents she has. This heffa is like Fett on The Strain. Where the fuck are you from, woman?????

  2. and that death should be administered by Carol, the only worthy one

  3. (4 the ‘cast!) Wanna know why I don’t have much to say? Because not a damn thing happened on this episode. This week and last weeks shows should have been one, normal length episode. Get it together AMC, this show has sucked this season. The Walking Dead is the Jacksonville Jaguars of television at this point. The true fans are holding on but damn can you please win more than once a season?

    And screw Rick, Jessie, Ron, and that cookie monster.

  4. Hey girl! FOR THE PODCAST:

    Shout out to Maggie who has looked for Glenn twice…and Beth, zero. I see you, preggy. By the way, that was the worst kept secret ever. We all knew.

    Shout out to that Alexandrian who didn’t even have the decency to shoot herself in the head when she killed herself. Now they gotta deal with your rude walker ass.

    Shout out to Deanna for generally pissing me off at every turn. You’ve been in the Zombie apocalypse for 3 years and don’t know how to even kill a walker? You worthless son of a bitch.

    Shout out to Sam for realizing his mom’s cookies are SLAW compared to Carol’s. Also for not coming downstairs when she said. My mother would have counted to 5 and then all hell would break loose.

    Shout out to Rosita taking a little time to worry about her big brolic ginger, Abraham.

    Shout out to Ron. Not only because has has the worst haircut ever, but…I don’t know if I’m certain that Enid knows she’s his girlfriend…

    No shout out for Rick and Jesse. I hope Michonne slices her head off.

  5. “We gotta keep noise to a minimum!”
    - Rick screaming

  6. FOR THE PODCAST:

    I have a pep talk to make, can y’all Alexandrians quiet the fuck down? Are we gonna ignore how loud Maggie was in the sewer or why you’re going to let Ron shoot a gun off the tower for target practice? Didn’t this town just get raided? Don’t we have 1000 zombies at the wall now? This episode was terrible mainly because of the stupid shit these Alexandrians still have to learn, which is stuff we all learned in season 2 by the way. I know this recap is fittin to be lit though. Pep talk over.

  7. FOR THE PODCAST:

    Welp, I didn’t hate the episode but it was hard to give a single fuck bc my 2 main questions weren’t really addressed!! 1. Is Glenn dead or nah 2. Does Rick now have gangrene!!! Let’s hop into my highlights

    1. We’ll start with Rick,maybe there’s hope for his hand bc he was able to hop in the 🚿 and gets zest fully clean!! Which led directly to him and Jessie Spano gettin it in!!(moral of the story ❄️🐇’s love Irish Spring it is known). Also I loved his debo like talk with Deanna!! This might be me but I swear it went something like “hey pops tripping he wants me to ask for the neighborhood back!?!? And Rick was all “what neighborhood, I didn’t kno u wanted it back homie?!?!” Then boom Rick punched her and said “THATS MY NEIGHBORHOOD PUNK!!!” Then Rick said ” U want some too spencer?!” And he was like “no!!!” But again that could’ve just been me!!

    2. Speaking of Deanna was I the only who thought when the walls started bleeding I had fell into westeros and either someone just had a wedding of some kind or maybe a weir wood tree suddenly started crying on the wall..? Idk basically WTF was that?

    3. Lastly is spencer!! I kinda lowkey wanted that to be his blood we saw at the end bc this ninja gots to go!! 1. He stealing the brown water from the pantry then, this nigga had the temerity to take the ritz crackers and dill pickles to boot!!! Fuck this ninja!!!!!

    That’s all I got can’t wait to hear the podcast!!! Love the work y’all putting in!! ✌🏾️✊🏾💯

  8. FOR THE PODCAST
    episode was okay/We all guessed or knew Maggie was pregnant so that’s not a big reveal though i liked her & Aaron/the alexandrians left behind are just as whiny & annoying as some that went w/rick & co-carol would’ve put things in order-some of them would’ve been walker food/don’t trust Ron @ all/rick & Jessie not feeling it at all-cutting hair 2 locking lips?!?! may it end as quickly as it started.
    Eagerly looking forward to the podcast! Thanks

  9. FOR THE PODCAST:

    I didn’t hate the episode. That said, my issues with it go beyond the story and if you don’t read this on the podcast I understand. Rina made a great point in the group regarding the ongoing treatment of Black women in cult fandom. My score card is 0 to 4 for Black women being treated as more than just asexual workhorses. It’s an ongoing trend, even when the chemistry between the actresses and their fellow cast mates is palpable and real. Maybe it’s a topic for a Geek in Review with the ladies who did the West Allen podcast, but I”m just so tired of people that look like me being sidelined and passed over.

    With that off my chest, I appreciated the show did not even give a damn about explaining how Rick got clear of that horde. They just said “Impossible White Man Game Proper in Effect” (shout out to TBGWT, TM) and kept it moving. We needed to see more of our folks (Where was Carol? If anyone needed to be present to set people straight it was her). Maggie going to be Maggie. I appreciate Aaron and Spencer showing some brass.

    I won’t even speak to the closing scene-see my first paragraph for that mess.

    Let’s hope next week with the focus on our folks makes up for suffering through the punks that were the folks from Alexandria. Well done episode, because it made me hate them more.

  10. FOR THE PODCAST

    Since everyone has basically said everything, all I have to say is that a) clearly Jessie & Aaron were the only ones who knew about the head shots. Aaron cause he’s been out there. And Jessie cause porch dick actually taught her something useful.
    B) Deanna legit couldn’t stab that walker in the head. She was too short to reach his head! Lol

    That’s it. Definitely one of my least favorite episodes ever.

  11. FOR THE PODCAST

    I have never seen a show that so gleefully brick walls its narrative more than this one does. There are multiple times throughout every season where we get to a point where I don’t even understand what kind of show this wants to be anymore. Gimple is all over the fucking map with his choices and at this point it just seems like dart board storytelling.

    The Leftovers does multiple-POV storytelling to perfection, and leaves me constantly fascinated by their ability to tell the same story from 3 different angles and have me so emotionally invested in every single one. The Walking Dead on the other hand turns it into a fucking shitshow of nonsense. Every time they have an episode that makes me question “Why is this episode here?” they have completely broken the illusion and thrown me out of their story, because now I’m focusing on the writers and show runner instead of the characters which I have a hard enough time doing anyways because they go out of their way to make them so obnoxious.

    WHYYYYYYY are we STILL listening to the same monologues every single season? How many times are we going to have to watch bad actors talk about “This is the way things are now”? STFU, show. Just because you’re saying shit with new people doesn’t mean you’re saying something new. At one point Aaron was literally standing in the same room as Maggie and narrating everything that she was doing. Who are you talking to, dude? WE CAN SEE EVERYTHING.

    I could go on for another 6 paragraphs but instead I’m gonna go watch Regina King and Carrie Coon turn on their Beast Mode again instead.

  12. Well I’m clearly in the minority here but i liked the episode lol.

    I liked that we got to learn a little more about the Alexandrians outside of them being walker food

    Prediction: Ron is gonna shoot Rick or Carl

    I will say i didn’t like that Morgan, Michonne and Carol were only in the scene at the beginning but maybe we,ll see more of them in 2 weeks.

    Can’t wait to hear the podcast even tho my opinions on the episode won’t likely be shared lmao. Will be fun to hear Nina curse throughout it

  13. I hate the Alexandrians. The stuff at the pantry was unacceptable 😖

  14. For the podcast:
    The scene with Rick and Jesse just felt Horrible! Blegh

  15. FOR THE PODCAST: All I got is #AlexandriansSoSoft. Know how long it took for order to breakdown? A smooth 45 minutes. Their stomached didn’t even rumble and their ready to ransack the pantry. They need to die.

    I need some Sasha and Daryl next week to hopefully move something forward cause they’re clearly not giving us resolution on Glenn until the mid-season finale.

  16. Damn, you went off on feedback last week Nina lol sheesh.

    FOR THE PODCAST

    Anyway, while this is so far my least favorite episode of the season thus far, I still liked the episode. Basically showing the aftermath of JSS and how people are dealing with it. I think liking this episode for some could be based around how you feel about the Alexandrians. A lot of big things are any being set up from the books so I’m interested to see how they are adapted.

    I feel like I should be more mad at Rick for leading half the herd back to Alexandria but after all that running he did in ‘Thank You’ add him having go get back home, I can feel him if he just said “Fuck it”.

    BTW, we saw Carol in the episode, she just didn’t do anything. Also I think Morgan did tell Rick about the Wolf. After he said something along the lines of “things that need to be discussed..” during the speech, he gave Morgan a look then Morgan gave him a nod so we’ll see if that meant anything in 2 weeks.

    I liked that Jessie and Aaron stepped up in this episode. I was expecting him to just keep it to himself that he is somewhat responsible for the Wolves getting in but he did speak up and it made me for fond over the character.

    Deanna is looking way too much like Bruce/Caitilyn Jener this season. #TheStress

    While I’m liking more mature Carl, he really needs to cut his hair.

    Can’t wait to see Sasha shine next week.

    That’s it, interested to see hear how the podcast goes lol.

  17. “This review and comments show what happens when you are trying to hard to entertain blacks Twitter instead of actually watching the show. The episode was good. Dumb mothrrfuckas”

  18. For the cast (I know I might be late)

    The longer they wait the more upset I’m gonna be if Glenn is alive. They really want is to care more and be shocked. Nope, it’s not working. This episode did nothing but not answer questions, although we did learn Glenn pull out have game weak. I’m getting kind of annoyed, just show me Walker Glenn already. Then Maggy can clutch her pearls and Tara could comfort her. That’s the safest relationship, 2 😻s rubbing won’t have a never aging baby like Judith.

  19. I liked it ok. I like seeing folks outside the main group interact.

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