The Walking Dead Recap

A recap of ‘What We Become,’ episode 13 of season 10 of The Walking Dead. Is this the most satisfying sendoff for everyone’s favorite self-taught swordmaster? Maybe not, but it leaves open a. The Walking Dead recap: Season 10, episode 6: Bonds. In another page straight out of The Walking Dead comics — albeit with a few tweaks — The Walking Dead TV series is finally introducing the.

Warning: The following contains massive spoilers for Sunday’s penultimate Season 9 episode of The Walking Dead. If you’d prefer to watch first, read later, turn back now.Readers of comics have known since the Whisperers were introduced that they should be bracing themselves for Sunday’s episode, Season 9’s penultimate. But even they couldn’t have guessed, given the series’ habit of diverging from Robert Kirkman’s source material, whose noodles Alpha would use to mark her territory as the Kingdom’s fair got underway.

Read on, and as the, uh, stakes are raised, I’ll reveal which characters lost their heads. ‘WE GOT A LOTTA LOST TIME TO MAKE UP FOR’ As “The Calm Before” began, we flashed-forward through a few years with a couple of nice Hilltoppers who, in the present, were murdered by Alpha; the Whisperers’ leader even scalped the woman to use her pretty blonde hair as a disguise when she infiltrated the fair. Speaking of the social event of the season, it kicked off with Ezekiel doing some speechifying from the Kingdom’s theater balcony — here a Rick shout-out, there a Carl shout-out — while a papier mache Shiva looked like it might take a flying leap at any moment. Once the King’s Evita moment was concluded, he and Carol went back to fretting about Henry’s whereabouts just long enough for the boy to arrive with Daryl, Michonne, Connie, Lydia and my favorite character, Dog.

“You can’t ever run away like that again,” Carol told her son, leaving him linguistic wiggle room to run off some other way (not that that would be an issue for long dun-dun- dun). When Ezekiel expressed his surprise and delight at Michonne’s change of heart about coming to the fair, she joked, “I was in the neighborhood.” But seriously, they needed to gather all of the communities’ leaders, and fast.At that powwow — attended by the Kingdom’s monarchs, Alexandria’s Michonne and Gabriel, Hilltop’s Tara and Oceanside’s post-time-jump Rachel (who you may remember as the kid who always wanted to kill everybody) — the preacher revealed that his community’s council had voted to grant Lydia asylum. Which was all well and good for Alexandria, Tara noted, because it was Hilltop against which the girl’s mother was gonna retaliate. Michonne understood — hell, she’d even encouraged Lydia to run away, she admitted. But they’d all been mistrusted at some point or other. And though “Lydia didn’t choose where she came from she chose where she wanted to be.” Fine, fine.

But they still needed to send fighters to protect the Hilltop. Agreed, said Michonne. “The four communities have to present a united front,” letting Alpha know that if she messes with one of them, she messes with all of them.

To seal their mutual protection pact, Ezekiel suggested that they sign Michonne’s charter — the one that Tara had stolen from Alexandria. One by one, they scribbled their autographs — even “Queen Carol.” When it came time for Michonne to affix her moniker, she offered the pen to Gabriel, saying that it was only right that the agreement be ratified by the head of Alexandria’s council. ‘ANY GOODBYE COULD BE THE LAST’ Outside the theater, the fair was hoppin’. Though the idea of splitting a box of popcorn with Henry when Hilltop was in danger seemed frivolous to Lydia, it seemed altogether wondrous to Ezekiel and Carol. “Our son is taking a girl on a date to the movies tonight!” they marveled. Nearby, Luke enlisted Enid to help convince Alden to join him on stage.

Go on, “I wanna hear my crooner boyfriend croon,” she said, marking the first time he’d heard her refer to him as her boyfriend. Significantly less chipper was Kelly, who admitted to Connie that she was upset about her disappearing act. “You are my sister,” Kelly signed.

“But you just ran off.” The Whisperers’ willingness to sacrifice a baby had brought up feelings that Connie had thought she’d dealt with (yet hadn’t), she replied. And with that, all was forgiven.

Shortly, while Addy flirted hopelessly with Henry, Rodney and Gage tried to intimidate Lydia away from their friend’s crush. (And next week on Riverdale )Soon, the time arrived for reinforcements to set off for Hilltop. Among them were Daryl, Carol, Magna, Yumiko, Dianne and Marco (and big props if you could pick those last two out of a lineup!).

Before departing, Daryl entrusted Dog to Connie — and damn near smiled as he waved goodbye to her. (Oh yeah, Daryl is so in lurve!) Carol encouraged Ezekiel to enjoy the fair for which he’d worked so hard, but alas, “I won’t enjoy anything until you’re back,” he said. And could that gate closing as Carol waved goodbye to Ezekiel have been any more ominous? Harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban full movie youtube.

Anyway, it seemed as if the warriors had scarcely left the Kingdom when they happened upon the Highwaymen at the site of the Whisperers’ murder of those nice Hilltoppers. As the group split up in hopes of finding survivors a la Alden and Luke, Carol agreed to pay the Highwaymen overtime in the form of movies, and Yumiko (who was sticking with Carol, Daryl and Michonne) and Magna (who was headed straight to Hilltop) shared a kiss, confirming the romance that comic-book readers have known about all along. ‘NO ONE ELSE HAD TO DIE’ After nightfall, Daryl realized that his group had been led into an ambush, but it was too late.

First, he, Carol, Michonne and Yumiko had to take out a bunch of walkers, then they found themselves surrounded by Whisperers. “You just had to give me the girl,” sighed Beta.

“Now that deal is done.” Flashing back then to daytime at the Kingdom, Rosita assured Eugene, who was using ham-radio parts he’d acquired at the fair to try and set up a rudimentary telephone system between the communities, that nothing had to change between them — they could still talk. As if that was what her unrequited love wanted. Meanwhile, Tara was champing at the bit to get back to Hilltop. “I want them to know they have a leader who shows up for them,” she told Gabriel. When Henry caught up with Lydia, who was all but shivering as usual, he reassured her that he didn’t like Addy, he liked her, and they shared a couple of kisses. At the same time, a bewigged Alpha was eavesdropping on all the conversations that she could when Ezekiel bumped into her. “You can call me Debbie,” she said before asking to be pointed in the direction of sweaters.

“I have a feeling it’s gonna be a hard winter.” When the evening’s feature presentation got underway, both Ezekiel and Henry were missing. But the seat next to Lydia’s wasn’t empty for long; her mother soon took it.From there, we cut back to the woods, where Alpha told Daryl, Michonne, Carol and Yumiko that Lydia was no longer a concern. (Honestly, the timeline here confused even me; how fast could she get from the movie theater to the woods?) “She was weak,” said the villainess. Rather than answer that question, Alpha took Daryl for a walk that apparently went on until past dawn, because it was daylight again by the time she showed him a massive herd that her Whisperers could direct toward any of the civilized communities at any time. To ensure that his people never again crossed over onto their turf, she’d marked the border. “You’ll see it as you leave,” she said in a way that implied a malevolent laugh. Had she killed Lydia?

At that, we flashed back to the fair and a mother/daughter confrontation in which the teenager noted that, all she had to do was scream, and people who actually cared for her would render her an orphan. But she wasn’t going to do that; she just wanted Alpha to leave. “I’m giving you a choice,” said Lydia, “which is more than you’ve ever given me.” Miraculously, Alpha left her daughter with a pulse.

Back in the present (?) with Daryl, the psycho told her captive, “I don’t think you can protect my daughter. But I hope I’m wrong.” Oh, “you are,” he replied before being sent off to rejoin his group. Later, Alpha told Beta that she wanted to be left alone, then murdered the Whisperer who caught a glimpse of her shedding real, human tears. ‘THEY DIED AS HEROES’ As Daryl left with Michonne, Carol and Yumiko, they found Siddiq tied to a tree. In hysterics, he led them to Alpha’s border wall, which was lined with stakes, atop each of them another head: those of Highwaymen Ozzy and Alek, DJ, Frankie, Tammy Rose, Addy and Rodney, and then our more prominent players, Enid, Tara and finally Carl 2.0, Henry. Later, Siddiq addressed the communities that had gathered at the fair. “I think Alpha left me alive to tell you that story, to scare you and drive us all apart again,” he said.

“But I wanna tell you a different story” — one of heroism, in which even strangers fought together as if they were family. “We have to keep going, for them and for all of us,” he concluded. “We need to honor them.” Apparently months later, because I’d swear there was snow beginning to fall, Daryl visited the spot where the heads had been affixed to their stakes with Lydia, and she left at the base of Henry’s pike her Hilltop medallion. So, your reaction to the big heads-on-a-stake scene? Anyone you cared about enough to be sorry they were beheaded? Were you relieved that Ezekiel and Rosita were spared their comic-book fates?

Gone but not forgotten, ’s Alpha once again reared her ugly head in Sunday’s episode, in so doing changing the course of Carol’s future, Beta’s in a way, everybody’s. Read on, and I’ll explain how.‘WALK ME THROUGH THOSE GATES SO I CAN OPEN UP A NEW CHAPTER IN THE BOOK OF NEGAN’ As the ominously-titled “Look at the Flowers” began, we flashed back to Carol making a deal with Negan: If he brought her the head of her son’s killer, and fast, she’d make sure that he was forgiven for In the present, though as we well know that Carol had requested, she was dissatisfied with the speed with which he had accomplished his task. He’d had to earn the villainess’ trust, he argued. “That s— takes time.” Well, he could do what he wanted as far as Carol was concerned, but she wasn’t going to help his rebranding efforts in Alexandria.

Not just then, anyway. “I need to be alone,” she said, “and s— like that takes time.” (Oh, Carol, it takes a lot to make me empathize more with Negan than you, but you’re doing it, lady. You are doing it.). Shortly thereafter, Beta and two Whisperers discovered Alpha’s head in Carol’s trophy case on a pike. “You,” gasped a Whisperer to whom we will give the super creative name Whisperer No.

“ You are the Alpha now.” Oo, Beta did not like that. No, he had the fellow remove his mask, then forced him to get close enough to Alpha’s reanimated noggin for her to bite his ear off. “Can you hear her?” asked Beta while Whisperer No. 2 took a sudden interest in cross-country running. B refrained from making a “Can ya hear her now?” joke, I’ll never understand.) Anyway, Beta packed up Alpha’s head as carefully as one would their favorite baby doll and walked Whisperer No. 1 into a small town, where he let walkers finish what the boss lady had begun. Beta then headed to what appeared to be his old stomping grounds: the back room of a bar, where there was a guitar, a poster for Half Moon — the legendary singer that he used to be — and a snippet of a lyric written on Grand Hotel stationery (“These 2 eyes see 1 truth”).

Once he’d trashed the place — what, could there be a more rock-’n’-roll way to grieve? — he tore off part of his mask and cranked one of his albums to draw a crowd of guardians outside.

The following morning, he thanked Alpha’s head for putting an idea in his, ended its argh’ing and began leading his new horde toward, presumably, Alexandria. Oh, and he’d fixed the rip in his mask by adding a piece of Alpha’s face to it. (And they say romance is dead.)‘PLEASE TELL ME WE AREN’T REALLY ON A JOURNEY TO FIND CHOCOLATE BUNNIES’ Meanwhile, at the safe house, Ezekiel beat himself up for failing the kids during the Hilltop fire. They were all fine, but it didn’t matter to him. “These days,” he sighed, “the mistakes seem to stick harder than the triumphs.” When Magna arrived, alive and well-ish, she and Jerry enjoyed a warm reunion; apparently, being trapped in a cave with a bunch of walkers really bonds virtual strangers.

With Rosita’s encouragement, Eugene announced that he’d been in communication with someone outside their group — someone that he was scheduled to meet. Immediately, suspicious eyes turned toward him. How did they know this individual wasn’t a spy like Dante had been? Before things got heated, Ezekiel spoke up, throwing what was left of his kingly weight around to say that he trusted Eugene’s judgment. For his part, Eugene added that, after all that they’d just lost, if believing he might’ve made a new friend made him a fool, that was a role he was willing to play.

So, off the smitten smarty-pants prepared to go with Ezekiel and Yumiko (who clearly ). In an especially sweet scene, Jerry said goodbye to his “boss” as if all too aware that it might be the last time they saw each other. “The Kingdom needs you,” Ezekiel told his dear friend.

“Make sure our legacy lives on.” Good advice, seeing as it didn’t seem like Ezekiel had much longer. On the road, he soon realized anew that he was hardly in fighting shape. And when his horse keeled over, it occurred to him: “He wasn’t strong enough to make the journey. Maybe I’m not, either.” (I’ll go ahead and say it for the horse: Ya couldn’t have thought of that before you rode me to death?!?) Rather than let Ezekiel turn back, Yumiko insisted that they were on their trip “to find out what’s possible, what none of us can predict or imagine.” Hmm, like maybe proper medical care for Ezekiel? We can but hope.

In the meantime, the group rode on and eventually entered a big metropolis. Everywhere they looked, it seemed like they found walkers, still moving but tied in place, positioned in tableaus that brought to mind life pre-apocalypse. What the actual? Did Eugene’s radio girlfriend have a particularly weird sense of humor?

She’d struck me as more serious than that. In any case, the young boa-clad woman they eventually encountered was one kooky ball of energy — like Tank Girl on Red Bull. “Oh my God!” she exclaimed when she saw them. “Hi!” (Just look at the picture above; she’s gonna be a pip!)‘YOUR TRACK RECORD DOES NOT INSPIRE CONFIDENCE’ On her walkabout, Carol was dogged every step of the way by visions of an Alpha who was far less crazy-lady and far more Mean Girls. She dropped the names of all those Carol had lost, as if reading from a White Pages of the deceased, and suggested that if our tortured heroine returned to Alexandria, she’d only lose more people — maybe even Daryl. And Carol was “not taking this head,” Alpha added, knocking on her noggin.

“Unless you take your own.” (Apparently, the Alpha of Carol’s imagining was a lot like Negan for real: She never shut up!) On and on, Alpha prattled, about how she knew the truth, and so did Carol, something about a letter Carol had sent Maggie about her bald nemesis Alpha was all over the place with it until finally Carol fell through the rotted floor of a shack from which she was trying to retrieve (I think that was) a boat. As a walker, as one always does, approached, Alpha beckoned it. “This way, friend!” she said, adding that Carol should “just look at the flowers like you’re supposed to.” ( Told ya imaginary Alpha was mean.) Needless to say, Carol managed to free herself, kill the walker and return to Alexandria (with what I imagined had to be at least a dislocated shoulder). She is clearly going to live to be older than Betty White. Infinite crisis gameplay. While all this was going on, Negan went to retrieve Lydia from the shack in which he’d stashed her. But Daryl was.

Negan was quick to explain about the deal that he’d struck with Carol, but when he tried to prove he’d kept up his end of the bargain, of course, Alpha’s head was gone. After Daryl raised his crossbow to offer his performance review of Negan’s supposed handiwork — if he’d beheaded Alpha, he hadn’t done it fast enough — the men were caught off guard by a couple of Whisperers who, per Alpha’s own rules, regarded her killer as the new Alpha. (Swear to God the reversal of fortune brought Negan thisclose to laughing at Daryl like he was Nelson from The Simpsons.) Negan’s first order of business was to take away the only rifle in play; his second was to make Daryl kneel before the Alpha. “You should probably shoot me,” said Daryl. “Don’t threaten me with a good time,” Negan replied. And with that, he and Daryl took out the Whisperers. The following day, as the men gave up waiting for Carol to return (or return Alpha’s head to its pike), Negan admitted that he had liked being with the Whisperers.

“It was nice feeling like I mattered again but Alpha took it too far. You don’t kill people who don’t deserve it,” he said, “and you never kill kids.” (People who don’t deserve it? Uh, tell that to Denise, Glenn, Abraham, Olivia Need I go on?) “Is that supposed to make me like you?” asked Daryl.

“What about my winning personality?” Negan replied. Despite the flaw to Negan’s logic, this could be the beginning of a beautiful — straaange — friendship.So, what did you think of the episode’s big Beta reveal? Eugene’s new friend? Daryl and Negan’s buddy comedy? Hit the comments.