The fifth episode, “Now,” breaks down walls in the sixth season of The Walking Dead.
We can only imagine what is going to happen next in debatably one of the craziest seasons of The Walking Dead.
It’s only the fifth episode and we’ve already seen plenty of death, loss and zombies.
And we’re on the edge.
What’s Alexandria going to do? Is Glenn (Steven Yeun) really dead? What’s going to happen to Maggie (Lauren Cohan) if Glenn is gone? Where did Enid (Katelyn Nacon) go? Do we have some steamy romances building up?
This episode doesn’t answer any questions, but it definitely made us think … WTF is going to happen next?!
Here’s the recap of “Now:”
We see Deanna (Tovuh Feldshuh) standing at the top of the wall, in some kind of stupor. After the last few days (yes, it has only been a few days), she can’t really take anymore. Michonne (Danai Gurira) also tells Maggie that Glenn didn’t return back with the group after the situation with the wolves. She turns back away from the outside to look at Alexandria, and when she turns back, she sees the massive herd approaching the walls. Inside that herd is Rick (Andrew Lincoln) sprinting towards camp. Thank god he made it out of the RV. I knew he was going to, but I still get nervous when any character gets stuck in a situation like that.
Michonne opens the gate just in time for Rick to come in and slams it in the faces of the thousands of walkers approaching Alexandria. Rick tells everyone that Sasha, Abraham and Daryl will come back from their drive and lure the walkers away from camp, but in the meantime, everyone should live like they’re not there.
But then, it gets personal. Aaron (Ross Marquand) admits to everyone that the reason The Wolves found the camp was because of the pack he lost when he and Daryl were stuck in the car. The Wolves found the pictures he took for recruitment, and that’s how they got in. Deanna cracks (more) and walks away. The whole time he looks awful. Like it was his fault that they got tricked and got stuck in a car surrounded by hundreds of zombies. I just wanted to give him a hug.
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We then see Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge) dragging the Wolf she killed out of her house and into the graveyard. While she is digging, Rick comes by and says killers can’t be buried inside the walls, and when no other option is presented, they stare at each other in an awkward silence. The scene cuts to the food pantry where people are coming in and stealing more food than they are allowed. They are fighting with each other and all I can think is:
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After the food fiasco, Maggie is rigging two flashlights to a pole and Aaron sees her, thinking she is going to try and leave. Then, Maggie and Aaron see some Alexandrians painting the large list of deceased names on the walls. Aaron follows Maggie to the armory, where she says she’s going out and looking for Glenn. Aaron agrees to come with her and says he has a safer way to go out other than through the gate or over the walls.
Deanna is at home in her stupor when she stops and gazes at her dead husband’s wedding ring. She snaps out of it and starts drawing up plans to expand the community. She’s obviously still delusional if she thinks that the thousands of zombies around their camp are just going to leave and that they’ll have time for expansion. She then goes in the kitchen and sees her son Spencer (Austin Nichols) drunk as a skunk with a ton of stolen food. She yells at him, and then he blames her for his dad’s and brother’s deaths. She goes back into her vegetative state.
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Carl (Chandler Riggs) asks the bratty Ron (Austin Abrams) to help him find Enid. He refuses and says that if he decides to go, he’ll tell Rick. “You saved my life, now I’m saving yours,” Ron says. I hate him so much. They start fighting and Carl throws Ron to the ground because Ron sucks.
Jessie is then passing by a neighbor’s house when she sees a neighbor who had slit her wrists now zombified. She opens the door and stabs her in the head emotionlesly, while all the other neighbors watch in horror.
Maggie and Aaron are then in the sewer, where they try to get a fallen ladder out of the sludge. Aaron hurts his head, and the noise wakes up some nasty sewer walkers. Maggie is struggling with them and wraps her hands up, around and in the walker. Aaron saves her, and she yells at him. They continue on.
In the infirmary, the new surgeon, Denise (Merritt Wever), puts some saline in an infected wound of a man who was about to die. His heartbeat goes down and he survives for a little while longer.
Ron then goes up to the wall and tells Rick that Carl was trying to leave to find Enid. He also asks if Rick could show him how to shoot, and all I could think was: Psychopathic killer. Why would you give that kid a gun?
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Tara (Alanna Masterson) is sitting on the porch when Denise comes up to her and kisses her. She thinks it’s the end of the world, but it is not. One of the things I love about this show is the diversity in the characters. They make it seem real and true, unlike other shows. It’s colorful. It’s interesting, and the depth in the show is neverending.
Maggie and Aaron reach the end of the sewer and find the exit blocked by the thousands of walkers in the street just a stone’s throw away from the exit. Maggie says they can’t keep going and reveals that she’s pregnant. PREGNANT?! OMG. The creators of this show can’t get any more ballsy and mean. I can’t take it anymore. Glenn is perhaps gone, and she’s here alone. Figures — she would have a baby right when he dies. She starts yelling, and the walkers turn toward the entrance. They go back to camp.
Later that night, Deanna walks the food back to the pantry when a Wolf-turned-walker comes out and attacks her. She stabs the Wolf with a broken bottle and blood goes everywhere. Eventually, Rick comes along and kills it. She tells Rick how she wants to live, and wants this place to survive. Rick tries to get her to lead the Alexandrians, but she says it’s him they need. When she said that I was like:
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Maggie and Aaron return to the memorial wall, and start to erase Glenn and Nicholas’s names. Aaron suggests that Aaron or Erin is a good name for a baby. And all I can think about is Glenn.
Rick then goes to Jessie in her garage and tells her that the others should have been back by now. Jessie says there has to be a future, and Rick nods. Then they make out. Finally. There has been sexual tension between the two since the start, and they make a grand couple.
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Diana, now feeling better, walks up to the gate and bangs on the wall to the walkers.
The walkers bang back a little bit, and the episode ends with blood seeping through the cracks in the wall.
This is a great transition from the jam-packed action of the episodes before to whatever is going to happen next. It deepens the characters and adds even more reasons why we would cry if anyone died. I can only wait for what happens next.
Rating: 4/5
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