SPOILERS FOR SEASON 6, EPISODE 15 FOLLOW!
By: Tyler Miller
The Walking Dead aired the penultimate episode of the season last night and it was another fairly weak episode. It was mostly set up for next week’s season finale, but there was still some interesting and exciting stuff in here.
Last night’s episode starts off in a real interesting way. We see different shots of an encounter that’s gone south, with the voice of Carol and another man in the background before a gunshot goes off. The show then jumps back to right after the previous episode ended. Carol leaves the group in the middle of the night, leaving just a note for Tobin to read explaining why she left. He brings the note to Rick who heads out with Morgan to go and find her. Before he heads out though he learns that Daryl left to find Dwight’s group, and Glenn, Michonne, and Rosita went to try and stop him. Rick tells Abraham and Sasha for no one else to leave and heads off.
This is the biggest issue with the episode. The fact that six of the community’s best fighters all left when they know that an attack from the Saviors could happen at any moment. We already knew Carol was going to leave and not come back, so she’s not being counted in this group, but everyone else didn’t need to leave. Daryl left for selfish (albeit understandable) reasons, so that forced three others to go after him. Had Daryl never left, the others wouldn’t have gone after him, and the only people that would’ve gone out of Alexandria are Rick and Morgan to try and bring Carol back. The latter group’s adventure makes more sense and is more understandable than Daryl’s, but we gotta get these characters into bad situations somehow right?
We then catch up with Carol and see that she took one of the cars that blocked the entrance to Alexandria. She comes across a car with Saviors in it and they shoot her tires out, causing her to stop. They demand that Carol go with them to Alexandria as they were headed there already, but she refuses and begins to panic like she did when she was captured with Maggie. At first I thought it was a ruse again, but she was genuinely panicking and afraid of having to kill these men again because she didn’t want to do it. But push came to shove and she killed a few of them with a gun hidden up her sleeve, showing that she’s still a badass under her current emotional and moral state. She then killed another with a spear from her car, and then we get to the moment from the start of the episode. Carol shoots one remaining Savior and then heads off.
Jumping over to Rick and Morgan’s awkward drive, they come across the spot of Carol’s Massacre and begin looking for traces of her. Rick kills the Savior that Carol didn’t after he doesn’t give up any answers about her location, but it doesn’t matter since Morgan found a blood trail that leads into a field. Since they have no other leads they follow it. What they don’t know is that there was one Savior left alive hiding in the bushes. He picks up Carol’s crucifix that fell on the ground and begins following them, presumably to kill them and Carol.
Now we’re following Glenn, Rosita, and Michonne as they try to find Daryl. They go back to where Denise died and find his motorcycle, deciding to go into the woods where Dwight’s group went. They find him (after Rosita almost takes an arrow to the face) and Glenn pleads with him to go back home. Glenn’s pleas hit Daryl and get through to him, but he’s still determined to get revenge for what happened since he feels that it’s his fault all of this happened. Rosita decides to go with him since she feels that it needs to be done as well, so Glenn and Michonne start to head back to Alexandria. They stop to talk for a moment when Dwight and his group of ninja Saviors all sneak up on them and surround them. How Dwight’s group has gotten so good at sneaking on people is beyond me.
Meanwhile, Rick and Morgan are still following the blood trail in the fields when they come across a barn house and its owner. They try to ask him if he’s seen Carol, but walkers swarm and he runs off. Rick tries to shoot him, but Morgan causes him to miss and they kill the walkers. It’s now when Morgan talks to Rick to try and make him see that he doesn’t have to kill everyone. He comes clean about how he kept one of the Wolves prisoner, but also tells him how that Wolf saved Denise’s life which caused her to be able to save Carl’s life. Morgan decides to continue searching for Carol by himself, as Rick is needed back at Alexandria. Rick gives him a gun just in case he needs it and Morgan says to not come looking for him if he doesn’t return. It’s sad to see these two part ways for what may be the last time. I sincerely hope Morgan does return to the group next week (or next season).
Rick returns home and talks with Abraham by the gate about how he’s afraid to get close to someone again, but Abraham reassures him, telling him that they’ll be back any second now. We then catch up with Maggie and Enid who’ve been getting a bit of quality time today. Maggie has Enid cut her hair short, saying that she doesn’t need anything getting in her way. Things take a sharp left turn though when she starts having stomach pains and ends up on the floor screaming. Honestly, I have no idea what’s happening to her but it can’t be good.
The episode ends with Daryl and Rosita finding Michonne and Glenn captured in the woods by Dwight’s group. They get ready to save them when Dwight sneaks up on Daryl and Rosita, putting a bullet in him and leaving blood splatter on the screen before it cuts to black. Daryl’s probably alive since it looked like he got shot in the shoulder, but it sucks that we’re left on a cliffhanger like that until next week.
Other thoughts:
- How the hell did Dwight sneak up on characters so many times?! Especially with Daryl who’s a tracker, that’s a damn shame.
- Rick’s talk with Michonne at the start of the episode about how they’re ready to take on the Saviors and win was inspiring, but laughably ironic. They’ve just taken a big loss with Denise’s death, and now they’ve lost even more with there people being captured. Things are only going to get worse.
- Rick said what everyone already thinks about Carol: “That woman. She’s a force of nature.” You’re goddamn right Rick.
- It looks like Rick is starting to really understand the mistake that he’s made by starting this war with the Saviors. And it also looks like he’s starting to understand Morgan’s philosophy a bit more after learning about the Wolf and Denise. Could we see a change in his character?
- A little over a week ago I wrote my predictions for who Negan will kill. Yeah, with the way things happened in this episode and the preview for next week’s 90 minute season finale, it looks like some of those predictions are pretty safe right now. You never know how things will go though, so we’ll see.
- There are some rumors going around that the season finale will end on a cliffhanger and we won’t find out who Negan’s victim is until the fall when the show returns. I REALLY hope that that isn’t the case since it’ll detract from his introduction and piss us all off.
Last night’s episode wasn’t really the best. It was fueled by characters making some pretty dumb decisions, all to set up what’s going to happen in the season finale next week. That was kind of expected though, since the show does tend to have trouble with its penultimate episodes. Even still, I was entertained by the proceedings (mostly Rick and Morgan’s story) and am looking forward to next week. Negan is finally going to be here and the price will be paid (and maybe we’ll find out how).
TheComfySpot 