By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Sunday, November 15, 2015
It has been three weeks since Glenn supposedly fell into a pack of walkers and ... perished?
Since then, enough clues have come out to indicate that perhaps he is still alive.
And was that voice at the end of tonight's episode on the walkie talkie saying "Help!" actually Glenn?
Where is he now? Is he long dead or did he escape? If it's him, how did did he get away? We won't know this week. Or this was just a tease and we find out (awww...) it's someone else.
Indeed, Norman Reedus told EW that it is definitely NOT Glenn. But that doesn't mean the person on the other end isn't trying to help Glenn, right? Or that Reedus is prevaricating? Vanity Fair creates a semi-plausible scenario of escape for Glenn here.
Instead, we focus exclusively on Sasha, Abraham and Daryl in a passably diverting episode that doesn't really get us deeper into any of the characters. We already know Daryl is a softie at heart and he gets punished for it. We know Abraham has deep issues and he manages to get past enough of them this hour to move forward with a smile. Sasha has already reconciled the fact she hast lost her boyfriend and brother. Abraham and Sasha bond to a degree, at least, in their pain.
The trio had finished moving the hundreds of walkers that didn't get diverted by the siren several miles away from Alexandria. They begin circling back, Sasha and Abraham in the beat-up vehicle and Daryl on his motorcycle.
But soon enough, people begin shooting at them. Since nobody is meant to be shot, they aren't.
Daryl slides out on his bike and bloodies up his hand and arm. He gets up and escapes but he eventually pulls over his bike and takes a break. Problematically, he has lost touch with Sasha and Abraham.
Sasha and Abraham kill off the shooters and return to the point where Daryl fell. They decide to wait until he returns. They find a place to sack out temporarily, an office, where a walker is trapped inside a locked room. Abraham has shown a tendency to want to kill walkers for the sake of killing, not for any particular safety reason. Sasha sees this as a sign of Abraham being "out of control" now that she herself is back in control.
"Loose ends make my a** itch," he says. And you know what? He's right. On this show, every walker is a potential problem.
He goes outside and finds military grenades and a grenade launcher in the open on a bridge. He also sees a walker/soldier stuck on a fence, dangling over the bridge. How did this soldier end up like this? It clearly was not pretty. Whoever killed him did not take the firearms or a box of cigars for some odd reason. How long has the walker been there? How long has this stuff been just sitting there? The show obviously can't explain this. It just strikes me as odd.
Abraham inexplicably climbs onto the fence and comes face to face with the walker, almost like a death wish. Then he breaks out of his delusions and decides he doesn't want to die that way. He returns to Sasha and says he wants to live - really live - and not just "paycheck to paycheck" the way he has for awhile.
"I like the way you call bull***," he said. "I'd like to get to know you a whole lot better."
I don't think he meant that in a sexual way. And I don't think she took it that way. But who knows?
Daryl, in the meantime, is caught by trio of survivors who knock him out. He discovers they had burned a good portion of the forest and helped get rid a lot of walkers at an earlier point in time. They appear to be trying to find someone and escape from their original crew.
They use Daryl as a hostage for a potential trade with that group, thinking he may be part of said group. (It must be an awfully large group for them not to recognize him.) They get distracted when one of the survivors faints. Daryl escapes.He finds out he took one of the survivor's insulin packs. Yes, a diabetic is still alive three years into the apocalypse. That is highly unlikely. (I'm a Type 1 diabetic. I know I'd be long dead by now.)
Daryl, a nice guy at heart, returns to give them back their duffel bag with insulin in exchange for their gun. The men they were trying to get away from come back. Then they, too, get distracted and Daryl and the three survivors run. Daryl even returns the gun to the guy.
One of the chasers gets bit in the arm by a walker and another dude cuts it off. They walk away. The survivors now realize Daryl is not part of that other group. "Why did you come back?" the lead guy asks.
"I guess I'm stupid," Daryl said.
They run across a couple of people they knew who had perished in the big fire. But the bodies were not burned enough. Diabetic Tina lays between them and gets bit. How did she even survive this long with that idiotic move?
As they bury Tina, Daryl goes into recruitment mode. He asks the lead guy how many walkers he's killed. A couple dozen, he said. He has killed no humans. Why? He feels there's no turning back if you do. Daryl says there is a place where people are still like it was more or less. Of course, Daryl has no clue that the Wolves had ambushed everyone at this point.
But his recruitment style is clearly in need of refinement. The duo don't trust him. Instead, they steal his crossbow and take his bike. "I'm sorry," the woman says.
"You're gonna be," Daryl said. (I have a feeling he will find a way to get his crossbow back again...)
And luck upon luck! He finds a fuel truck (which had been used apparently earlier to burn the forest) and drives back to where Sasha and Abraham await.
The trio are back on the road to Alexandria, unaware of the carnage there. Daryl goes on his walkie and seeks out Rick. Instead, he hears...
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