What happened to Glenn on 'The Walking Dead'?

Glenn's aliiiive!

Yes, we pretty much knew that. The signs were there. Glenn, a season one survivor, had received no proper send off. Actor Steven Yeun wasn't talking. Spies had seen him on set afterwards. (To screw with viewers, producers took his name off the credits for three episodes. And last week, someone using a walkie talkie said "help?" which was not Glenn but might have been.)

It took a month for "The Walking Dead" to confirm Glenn's continued existence. (And not everyone liked the way they did it.)

So rewind to episode three: Nicholas and Glenn were trapped on top of a dumpster with walkers all around them. They appeared doomed. So Nicholas said "thank you" and shot himself to death, incidentally dragging Glenn down with him.

But fortunately, Nicholas fell on top of Glenn and the walkers focused on gouging out Nicholas' guts, allowing Glenn to slide under the dumpster. Using his knife, he killed off a few walkers trying to reach him. Then he waited overnight and into morning until the walkers wandered off.

The moment he got out from under the dumpster, Enid dropped him a water bottle. (How did she know he was down there?) The bottle broke. She was annoyed. He entered her abode and she left him a second bottle of water. But that was the end of her charity. She didn't even want to see him close up. From a distance, she only gave him sketchy information about Alexandria.

"We heard that sound. Gunfire," Glenn said.

"What happened is what always happens. People die," Enud said in her fatalistic way. The air horn and gunfire "were people," not walkers, she noted.

He wanted to know if Maggie survived. Enid, who clearly didn't know, didn't bother to tell him she didn't know. Instead, she ran off and left him in the dark. That's a pretty obnoxious thing to do.

Glenn eventually finds her and tells her to come back with him. She doesn't want to. At one point, she even pulls a gun on him. He knows she's bluffing and takes it away from her. She calls him an a-hole. She personifies petulant teenager with more than the usual baggage.

The reality is she she is keeping her distance from everyone because she figures they are going to die anyway. She just has to "survive somehow" and nothing more.

They come to the agreed-upon "all safe' meeting point for the quarry mission which includes  balloons and a helium tank. They ultimately release several green balloons to signal to Alexandrians that they are alive, much to Maggie's relief.

***

Meanwhile, back at Alexandria, there is a lot of stupid behavior going on. Let's rank them in levels of idiocy.

Dumb: Spencer tries his own daredevil act rappelling outside of Alexandria to distract the walkers. But his plan quickly goes awry and he falls into a mass of walkers. He is ultimately saved by Rick and Tara. "What Spencer did was stupid," Rick said to Deanna. But instead of using Spencer as a distraction to make a run for a car, he saved Spencer instead. He still is having a hard time merging the Alexandrians with his crew. Michonne tells him he needs to try. And the fact he worked so hard to keep Spencer around is a sign he is willing. And Deanna is thankful.

Dumber: Morgan letting those five wolves go, the ones who almost killed Rick soon after and then keeping the extra wolf alive. He tries to justify not killing humans to Michonne, Rick and Carol, who are skeptical. He said the philosophy he learned from the psychiatrist saved him from the brink. He's having a hard time letting it go. In fact, he goes to Dr. Denise and has her tend to the wound of the Wolf. But Carol sees him and wants to know what's going on.

Dumbest: Teaching Ron how to use a gun. Rick and Carl, for some bizarre reason, are willing to teach crazy Ron firearms despite the fact his father, drunk Pete, had it in for Rick. Ron is clearly bitter about his father's loss and hates Carl. But he gets an empty gun to "practice." His deep desire to kill seems oddly strident. In fact, he steals some bullets and is ready to shoot Carl when...

The walls come tumblin' down! The burnt church outside the walls comes falling down because of the walkers at the very end of the hour. Alexandria has now been breached and there are hundreds of walkers entering. Glenn and Enid are just outside so they can help. We can only hope Abraham, Sasha and Daryl come back in time to draw some of the walkers away.

Next week is the mid-season finale and it looks to be a doozy.

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

Dubious advice? "The only thing that keeps us from becoming a monster is killing." - Carol to Sam, who is too scared to come downstairs.

False optimism: "We've come back from harder things." - Rick to Maggie before the walls come down.

Falser optimism? "Things moved slow here. Then things started moving fast. Too fast. But don't give up on us." - a supportive Alexandrian to Rick.

Pep talk? "What you should be scared of is living and not doing everything you can to keep them here." - Rosita barking at Eugene, wimpy as always with weapons.

Realism: "The world is trying to die." - Enid.

Truth: "Would you have listened to me?" - Spencer to Rick after he went rogue and tried to rapel out of Alexandria without Rick's "permission."

UPDATE: Yeun provided a message to fans during a commercial break in "Into the Badlands": "I've been following everything you've been saying and it's meant so much to me to see all of your support and concern for Glenn," said Yeun. "The Walking Dead has the best fans in the world and I'm happy to be back."

He will also be on "Talking Dead" via satellite later.

Gale Anne Hurd, the producer, said keeping secrets is the norm on "The Walking Dead" but the "Is Glenn alive?" twist was especially strong. When people on the show sign a "non-disclosure agreement," they can't even talk to your spouse about plot twists.

Ken Jeong explains his popularity: Glenn is the "incorruptible bada**" and loves the story about a "boy becoming a man."

Yeun said he has been in seclusion over the past month. "I frequent a lot of take out," he said. "My apartment looks like a hoarder's house."

He said he now feels relieved. "I feel very grateful. I feel so amazed by the response."

"It proves this world still can take that story of the good guy winning sometimes," Yeun said.

Scott Gimple, the showrunner, said he was under the dumpster for several hours collectively. "Seven," Yeun said.

On his paternal feelings toward Enid, Yeun said it's part of his maturation process, especially now that he knows he may be a father.

"Once he found safety or something he could fortify his life, all he could think about is that he could create more life," Yeun said.

INTERESTING FACTOID FROM "TALKING DEAD"

Glenn is the only one of the original five season one survivors who has yet to kill a human.