'The Walking Dead' recap ('Try'): season 5, episode 15

Since Carol last week told him that Pete was abusing Jessie and their son Sam and she suggested Pete had to die, Rick has been stuck in a mental box. He was already suspicious (and jealous) of drunken Pete. But now he wants to take action - even if immediate action is hardly warranted.

Carol receives more intel from Sam that fuels his madness. She said Sam would lock himself in a closet while Pete went after Jessie. One time, Sam found his mom unconscious while Pete sat on the porch.

Soon after, Rick patrols the streets and sees Pete. Pete tries to be friendly but Rick gives him the evil eye. "Keep walking," Rick growls. Pete senses that whatever friendship he was trying to create with Rick is not happening.

Rick approaches Deanna for guidance - or maybe permission to off Pete. He is appalled when he realizes she knows about Pete's actions. But she is not willing to kill somebody just because he's abusing his wife. Pluse, Pete saves lives as a surgeon. This is civilization to her. "We're not executing anybody," Deanna declares. "Don't ever suggest it again." At worst, she'd have him exiled, though for most folks, that's as good as dead. Rick just wants him in a grave.

And because Rick can't let this go, he then approaches Jessie to talk to her about Pete. He knows she's a domestic abuse survivor. She acknowledges it. Jessie first justifies Pete by saying the same thing Deanna says. He saves lives. Plus, he's been good before. He just goes through down periods. "I can fix it," she says, unconvincingly. "I can take care of myself." She closes her garage door and enters her house. He needs to let this go.

But he can't. A few minutes later, he loses all sense of decorum by entering Jessie's home unprompted and convincing her that what she's experiencing is similar to surviving outside the walls. Kill - or be killed. "You can't put it off and wish it away," Rick says. "If you don't fight, you die." Plus, when she asks if he'd do this for anybody, he admits no. This is less an issue of principle and more about how much he wants her. Pete comes into the room and senses the sexual energy and his drunken jealousy justifiably kicks in. (How much alcohol is there left in the post apocalypse anyway? Is Pete making moonshine?) They start to fight.

Pete goes through a window, like in a Western.

They continue fighting in the street. They choke each other. When Jessie tries to stop them, Pete shoves her away. Rick does the same to Carl. When Deanna tells them to stop, Rick lifts a gun up and starts whipping it around like a mental patient. And he tries to justify his behavior.

"We know what needs to be done," Rick says. "We do it. We are the ones who live. You sit and plan and hesitate. You pretend to know when you don't... You want this place to stay standing. Your way of doing things is gone. Things don't get better because you want them to. Starting right now, we have to live in the real world. We have to control who lives here."

With the whole crew's safety in Alexandria in the balance, Michonne comes in and knocks Rick out.

Tuna casserole uneaten: Carol tries to soften the blow of Aiden's death by giving Deanna what every family longs for in times of loss: a tuna casserole. How Betty Crocker! Aiden and her family are listening to Aiden's favorite Nine Inch Nails song, a harsh, loud, angry, discordant tune. It only seems to feed Deanna's despair and anger. When she hears Carol's knock and opens the door and sees Carol's casserole with a note, "We're truly sorry for your loss," she burns the note. She is seriously regretting bringing Rick's group in.

Bang, bang! Sasha is handling the losses of Bob and Tyreese (and now Noah) by killing walkers. Lots and lots of walkers. Rosita and Michonne leave the compound for the first time and run into Sasha, who is enticing walkers to come at her. She shoots and shoots and shoots until she runs out of ammo. Michonne and Rosita have to help finish them off. Sasha is trying to exorcise her own demons and sadness by becoming a one-woman zombie Rambo. "I don't need your help!" she says to Michonne. Sasha is also spending oodles of time as the sniper and shoots down walkers galore while up there. How much ammo did this compound stock up?

Glenn still wants Alexandria to work: Mourning the death of Noah, Glenn blames Nicholas for not following his instructions in the revolving doors and then trying to leave Eugene and Glenn behind. If you recall, Glenn had to punch Nicholas out to ensure their safety. Nicholas on video blames Glenn for "distracting" Aiden (huh?) and leading to his death.

Glenn threatens Nicholas by telling him he wasn't equipped to go outside, that he was responsible for five deaths, including that of Noah and the four Alexandrians he and Aiden abandoned a month earlier. "People like you are supposed to be dead," Glenn says.

Nicholas runs to Deanna: "These people have to go. They are not like us. I know you see it, too."

"You don't know what I see," Deanna says enigmatically. "I see a great deal." (In reality, she knows some of Rick's crew are worth keeping but not everybody. The question: how to break them apart without breaking up Alexandria?")

Glenn tells Rick he believes, "We are them. We are now." He really wants a safe place and Noah believed the same. Rick isn't so sure that's the case.

How's Tara?: We don't see Tara after her injuries from last week's explosion that ultimately killed Aiden, but Pete apparently worked on her. Presumably, she will recover and survive.

What's that W? The W seems to be carved on the foreheads of both live and dead walkers. Where is that coming from? Who's doing it? I presume we'll find out next week.

Bromance brewing: Aaron and Daryl are getting along swimmingly killing walkers in the outside. They run into fresh kill, limbs asunder, and wonder who is doing this. They then see a woman tied up and gutted, the "W" carved on her head. Hmmm... what is going on?

Love is in the air? Carl may have his first girl crush in the post apocalypse in Enid. Enid? Where did that name come from? Anyway, Enid appears to have had a rough go of it outside the walls just like Carl. She alludes to her trauma but doesn't specify what occurred. They end up in a hollowed out tree to avoid walkers and are so close, you expect them to kiss. They don't for now, but hormones will prevail at some point.

Best line from Enid: "It's their world. We're just living in it."

NEXT WEEK

In a preview shown on "Talking Dead," Carol threatens Peter in a way that causes him to cower. It's what she wished she could have done to Ed.