By RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com, originally filed Sunday, March 1, 2015
"You should keep your gates closed. It's all about survival now - at any cost. People are always looking for an angle, looking to play on your weakness. They measure you by what they can take from you, by how they can use you to live."
That's how Rick Grimes sees the current world to Alexandria president Deanna Monroe.
Question: is he talking about himself?
A zombie apocalypse means an almost constant siege mentality, a war that never seems to end. PTSD? There is no "post." For Rick Grimes, he had only a brief respite at the prison when he became a "gentleman farmer" for a few months before that flu took so many people down.
After the Governor almost killed Rick, he has been metaphorically burned multiple times, especially the cannibalistic folks at Terminus who almost sliced his head off. He has had to savagely kill Gareth and the cannibals, attack a pack of marauders, mourn the loss of a daughter until Carol and Tyreese brought her back and saw three of his close allies die.
That's a lot to absorb, the type of tragedies that has hardened an already hardened man. He has seen savages in his eyes and they have eaten away at his trust in other human beings, leaving him with only his own fragile sense of self.
Surprisingly, Rick accepts Alexandria's request to take all their guns, which they can grab any time they want to leave the compound. Daryl keeps his crossbow and Michonne her sword.
But Rick is understandably wary of the "president" of Alexandria Deanna. She was a politician from Ohio before the apocalypse but said she was shepherded to this planned community by the military, who never came for her and her crew. There are solar panels for electricity, a eco-friendly sewage filtration system and a cistern for a regular supply of water. (Homes started at the $800,000 point, she noted, "and they sold them all!")
Deanna said her husband was a professor of architecture and designed the wall, using materials from a mall that was being built nearby. "There were supplies here and we made the best of it," she says. "We made a community... I want you to help us survive. I know you can help us do that."
She said northern Virginia was evacuated so not many people are around. But they have lost folks. And Deanna has had to banish people - likely to their death.
She seems kind, shrewd, judicious and smart as a whip. At least two of those appear to be prerequisites to survive in this dangerous environment. She herself said if she weren't a politician, she'd make a great poker player.
Aaron, the "recruiter," had convinced her that Rick's crew could help them. They seem humane, relatively speaking. "Your the first group in a long time we've considered taking in," she says sincerely.
Deanna videotapes each member of the team ("We're about transparency here," she says) and while some virtually reject her way of life (Daryl), others are more willing to embrace it for what it is (Carol, Michonne).
Rick himself is in between. He could tell this place is in amazing shape. Electricity, video games, running water and... showers! This is the first show he's had in years - since the CDC bunker season one. He also decides to shave his scraggly beard, to show his chin for the first time in ages. Jessie, a 30-something blonde woman with a son Carl's age, provides toilet paper and other supplies. She offers to cut his hair.
"You don't even know me!" he says, not used to offers of simple benevolence in this day and age.
"I can take care of myself," Jessie says.
She later says to him, empathetically: "It's okay if you're not okay with this yet."
He does tell Deanna up front that he's killed so many people now he's lost count to keep his group alive. "Sounds like I want to be part of your family," Deanna says. She senses he had been an authority figure and he admits he was a sheriff.
Daryl? He has oddly thrived without structure. Now that he's in a place that resembles "civilization," he refuses to wear anything but his dirty clothing. A couple of days in, Carol, who suddenly is dressing like a Sunday School mom, teases him and asks if he had even taken a shower.
Michonne, to Rick, says she understands their caution but "I have a good feeling about this place."
"I hope you're right," Rick says.
"Yeah. Me too," Michonne says, betraying some of her doubt.
Carl meets Jessie's son who introduces him to a couple of other teen-agers, including a brooding teen girl Eden, who didn't speak for weeks after they picked her up. She looks at him with suspicion. But you know this is going to be Carl's first "love interest."
Both Carol and Carl observe that these people are nice but seem "weak." Carl worries that this could make them weak, too. Carol, in the video to Deanna, acts like the sweet den mom. It's an impressive act. We know better.
They are given various homes. But the first night, everybody stays in one place - just in case. Rick can't sleep. He takes a walk at night. He still isn't sure about this place.
Carl, in the meantime, sees Eden climb the fence. He doesn't know why. He follows her out, loses track of her. Rick leaves as well to check on his gun in the juicer. It's gone! What the...? Four walkers approach. Carl joins in. They kill them - plus a surprise walker under a blanket. Proof: they won't become weak.
Aiden and Nicholas, part of Deanna's crew, give Tara, Noah and Glenn a dry run of a supply run. Aiden admits he's a douchebag and soon he proves it. They have a system on runs involving a flare gun. He just wants to make sure they do exactly what he says.
He and his buddy decide to play around with a walker, a walker that had killed their friends. They had strung him up but he had gotten away. Aiden wants to "play around" with the walker. But it almost gets Tara, who rips away the upper layers of the walker's skin trying to get it away before Glenn knifes it in the skull.
A peeved Aiden and Glenn get into it when they get back inside Alexandria. Deanna wonders what's going on. "Why did you let these people in?" Aiden asks. Glenn: "Because we know what we're doing." Aiden tries to punch Glenn. Glenn ducks and gets Aiden. The fight ends when Deanna shows up.
"Thank you," she tells Glenn.
"For what?
"Knocking him on his ass."
She gives Rick the sheriff's job at the end of the episode. And Michonne is his backup.
Rick later tells Carol: "We won't get weak. That's not in us anymore. We'll make it work. If they can't make it, then we'll just take this place."
Ominous!
[As a reporter, last fall, before the season had debuted, I was able to visit the set inside those walls during this episode but I only watched one scene. It's where a now-beardless Rick leaves his home and can't find his family. He is so used to worrying about their safety, he forgets that they are in a seemingly safe zone. They shot the scene from several different angles so it took a lot of time. You may even notice the shadows in one shot don't quite match those of another. We reporters also noticed that everyone was on set from Rick's group - except Bob, Tyreese and Beth, ahem. We had signed away our life if we were to give away that information ahead of time. What I noticed was signage outside the walls for tourists saying none of the actors could come and sign or take pictures. I'm sure it was to discourage people from just hovering around.]
QUOTE
"You're a family. Absolutely amazing how people with completely different backgrounds, with nothing in common, can become that. Don't you think?" Deanna, marveling over Rick's crew.
"You look ridiculous." - Daryl to a suburbanized Carol as Edith Bunker
"We need to make this work because we were almost out there too long." - Glenn to Deanna
"We're ready for this." Michonne to Deanna
ASSESSMENT
For an episode with very few zombie kills, this was a well-written, well executed episode about the impact all this trauma has had on the group, especially Rick. And Rick's final proclamation? Is that a prediction? Or an inevitability? Episodes directed by Glenn Nicotero are always good, aren't they?
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