Episode 3 Season 6 Recap and Review

Breakdown: We are back with Rick, some of his bad-ass friends, and the rookies who just seem to whine a lot. They are still trying to fix the already way screwed up plan to save the Alexandria Compound from almost certain horde destruction.

SPOILER HEAVY – YOU ARE WARNED

Glen and Rick and most of the Alexandria militia are running towards the horn sound coming from the Alexandria Compound.  Darryl, Sasha, and Abraham are leading half of the zombie horde towords their final destination while half are on the march towards Alexandria.  Rick  is on the way to get an RV and try and divert the rest,  leaving Michone and Glenn to lead a very green and un-trusting band back to help guard the compound.

Michone and Glenn are questioning their trust in Rick since he gives Michone and Glenn direct orders to save who they can, but leave behind those they can’t help.  Rick is immediately proven right when one of the band is bitten and both the bitten victim and the zombie are quickly dispatched by Michone’s sword.  Heath overhears Ricks instructions but decides not to share the directive with the others.  Sure enough when they run into another small band of walkers, one of the rookies (Sturges) shoots Scott in the leg  and runs off, and two more get bitten including David.  Michone allows David to live and to walk with them, but he doesn’t seem to know it’s a death sentence.

David tells Michone that he is recently married (3 months) and tells a story of how he found his new wife on a scouting raid and it brought back his humanity.  They won’t even stop to bandage up Scott (the rookie shot in the leg) because they know they only have a small amount amount of time before they are in a sea of walkers, but they do slow down in an abandoned boarder town to search for a working car.   Glen and Michone discuss the fact that they won’t leave anyone behind (despite Rick’s orders)  so they want to bandage Scott up and keep moving.  Nicholas, who has yet to prove himself worthy in any way is now tasked with leading the way.  Oh yeah they do find Sturges, who having no guts in the previous attack and running off, ends up feeding his guts to a group of walkers.  (Thanks writers…we needed that!)

When they get surrounded, they take shelter in a boarded up feed store.  Glen comes up with a plan to burn some of the buildings and stop the horde in their tracks in the little town and is about to set out alone, but Nicholas is determined to go and help him.   Just before leaving Glen removes the watch Hershel gave him from his back pack, and radios rick to let him know where they are.  The feeling of foreboding is already building, and unfortunately when an episode of “The Walking Dead” projects that someone we have come to know is going to die, they usually do.    The wounded and slow rookies ask to be left behind, but Glen and Michone won’t have it.  Heath confronts Michone about Rick’s orders to leave the weak behind, and she puts him right by explaining he has never been “out there”, so basically…shut up!!!!!

Darryl is having all sorts of trouble not being in the thick of the action and leaves Sasha and Abraham alone to charge back into the action.

Nicholas and Glen encounter a former member (now walker) of a past Nicholas crew was left behind for dead and Glen helps Nicholas dispatch him by reminding him he’s “not that guy anymore.”  Rick now with a wounded hand from having to punch down a walker reaches the RV and speeds back toward the horde to try and divert them.  David gives Michone a note written to his wife Betsy to say goodbye.  Mochone writes on her arm ”you’re going to make it” and hands the note back.  Just then a couple of walkers hidden in the back of the store make enough racket to draw the others outside to the shop, after Michone dispatches the undead inside the store, they watch in horror as the hord descends upon the town they are hiding in.

(commercial break)

They blast out of the pet store, blaze of glory style, but the gun shots make them the target du-jour and soon they are on the run…well more fast walk again.  Annie with her sprained ankle falls and is a quick walker snack pack.

Glen and Nicholas are having trouble finding a building to burn, and the remaining survivors have to climb a wall to escape.  They have Michone by the leg but Heath finally shoots her walker captors and sets her free. David is in the same situation but he wont make it back after all, because he is dragged from the wall and screams in terror as he too becomes quick zombie food.

Nicholas and Glen are trapped on all sides on top of a dumpster in an alley way.

Nicholas is losing it looking at the horrific army of walker faces growling and reaching for him.  Glen tries to bring him back to reality, but it backfires, because Nicholas, in maybe his bravest and most cowardly moment, thanks Glen, lifts his own gun to his temple and kills himself.  Which not only ends his run on the show, but sends his remains and Glen crashing to the ground at the walkers feet.  Did Nicholas land on top of Glenn and is that what they are eating, or are they ripping Glenn apart and feasting on him? Stay tuned dead fans…same dead time…same dead channel….wait a minute we still have 10 minutes of show left….

Commercial break to catch our breath again.

Michone, Scott, and Heath are the only three back in the woods still trying to make it back to Alexandria.  There is no smoke, but they don’t know what happened.  Michone looks down at the promise she wrote on her arm for David and seems defeated.  Heath sees his own reflection in the small stream they are forging through and doesn’t seem to recognize his own reflection, maybe he is starting to understand and change.  Darryl is still speeding back towards home. Everyone still alive hears the gunfire and hope that all is well back in the compound…it’s all they can do.  Rick tells all of them not to be afraid and run back home.  That would be selfish.  Getting rid of the biggest digital herd since “World War Z” is what is right, what has to be done for the ones they love in the compound…and he is right.  Just as he is about to sound the horn.  The escaped wolf with stolen gun (thanks Morgan and your incorrect pacifist ways!!!!) and one of his pack burst into the RV and shoot up the RV console.  Darryl isn’t able to raise Rick on the radio anymore and turns back towards Sasha and Abraham.  Rick manages to dodge the shots, and kills them, but finds a bottle of baby formula in one of their pockets and know they’ve been in town.  He sees another group heading along the side of the RV to ambush him, and unloads a crap storm of bullets through the side of the camper to kill them.  The RV won’t start of course.  The horde is surrounding the RV.  And that is where they leave it.  It’s going to be a long seven-day wait for fans of the show this time with a 90 minute episode promised for next week.

Final score?  Walkers win.  Oh sure they lost a few, but they were already dead anyway. The living are quickly becoming extinct.

This was an action packed episode once again, but very much less satisfying than episode 2.  It was full of what we have come to expect whenever things get to comfortable, a ton of death.  For the most part we lost people we barely knew or cared about.   But the only questions that matter are: Is Glen gone?  Will anything ever work out for survivors in this post-apocalyptic world?

All I can say is that I’m glad it wasn’t a season finale!