'The Walking Dead' recap ('Now'): season 6, episode 5
By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Sunday, November 8, 2015
So you want to know if Glenn is alive?
You won't find out tonight. I was watching the clock over the hour, hoping we'd learn something.
But alas, he is still out there, either mincemeat or trapped. This was an hour of little moments that may lead to bigger moments down the road. There were no big plot twists, no big deaths, very little action, a few minor revelations and two romantic connections. Here's a quick rundown of what happened.
- The walkers surround the walls. Rick arrives with the walkers not far behind, having escaped the RV. About half ended up diverting due to the train horn. Rick says they'll have to wait for Sasha, Abraham and Daryl to come to ward off the walkers. He also hopes that Nicholas and Glenn are alive but isn't so sure. As the episode ends, the walls seem to be holding - but a crack appears in the final moments.
- Rick smooches on Jessie. We knew this was going to happen eventually and now that Drunk Pete is dead and buried, why not? She clearly was drawn not just to him but his philosophy on survival. She has the potential to be a great warrior. (Her younger son Sam? He is so afraid, he won't even go downstairs for cookies.)
- Denise smooches on Tara. Tara's interest in Denise's medical skills goes more than skin deep. And Denise appreciates Tara's concern even as she struggles to keep a patient alive. Tara encourages her and Denise figures out a way to keep him going. She is so triumphant, she gives Tara a lip lock. Denise's warrior skills though? Nonexistent.
- Carl and Ron throw down briefly. The love triangle is set. Enid-Carl-Ron. Ron says he's the boyfriend. Carl is more pining for her. But Carl wants to go out and find her. Ron stops him and then gets into a brief shoving match. Carl wins that. Later, he tells Rick what he did (minus the tussling part), then wants to learn how to shoot a gun. Maybe Ron is finally growing up. Enid? She's out there somewhere but likely still alive.
- Spencer protects the pantry. Several surviving Alexandrians begin raiding the foodstuffs because they believe the end is near following the attack. But Spencer (who saved Alexandria by killing the trucker trying to knock down the wall) surprisingly implores people that they need to believe there is a future and that this means rationing is more apt. He seems heroic and Deanna is pleasantly surprised by his leadership.
- Spencer gets drunk and verbally attacks his mom. Psych! He was merely trying to hold off the inevitable. He stole a bunch of stuff from the pantry and guzzled two bottles of wine. Then he blames Deanna for making them too "soft," leading to the death of their father and his brother.
- Deanna goes psycho on a walker. As she returns items to the pantry, a leftover walker (who was a Wolf) tries to go after her. She drops her food and a glass bottle breaks. She grabs the broken end and starts attacking the chest of the walker. That won't stop him. Rick comes out and hits it in the skull. Clearly, she is a virgin at this. But she tells Rick she "wants to live." He also reassured her that her vision of the world is not completely bonkers. Does he really believe it or was he just trying to calm her down? Hard to say.
- Aaron's guilt and Maggie's pain coincide. There is a presumption that Nicholas and Glenn are goners. Aaron feels responsible because last season, he had convinced Daryl to raid a pantry that had been booby-trapped by the Wolves and left behind his backpack. In said backpack, his photos led the Wolves to Alexandria. Though nobody appears to give him any guff, he is hating himself. So when he sees Maggie wanting to leave to find Glenn, he tags along, hoping to help. He even comes up with a possible escape route via a sewer pipe - but the pipe doesn't extend far out enough. Maggie realizes she can't save Glenn. He's going to have to do that himself. She hugs Aaron, who is truly a sweet guy. (Where is his boyfriend? Why isn't Aaron spending any time with him?)
- Maggie is pregnant! What made her pain more poignant was the fact she's pregnant. That was a factor behind her not going out with Glenn to help out with the walkers. After losing her sister and her parents, what more can she take?
Ross Marquand, who plays Aaron in an interview last week, said the set piece for the sewage scene was incredible. "We were just in awe of the construction of it," he said. The water was muck mixed with candy bars, oatmeal and egg yolk. "It already had this moldy musty smell," he said. "But it wasn't that bad." (In reality, the odor had to be pretty awful but the humans generally don't seem to react to such things on this show.)
He said he and Lauren Cohen were in that water over two days, 12 to 14 hours each. The water, he noted, was very very cold, and he had to spend a lot of time in it.
But he said the actors playing the walkers had it worse. "The poor guy I had to dispatch had a body suit on and not much else," Marquand said. "He was shivering like crazy. We kept throwing blankets on him. He had this massive dentures and could barely breath. After I stabbed him, he had to go in the water and hold his breath for 30 seconds."
Marquand is not sure if Glenn knows about the pregnancy. Assuming Glenn is dead (and believe me, Marquand would not say whether that is true or not) "once that news does become more public, it could be devastating and heartbreaking and bittersweet."
He also addressed why his partner Eric was not around, why was he spending so much time following around Maggie. He said a scene was shot with them but it was not used.
About the Author
Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.
