The Walking Dead: Try
Welcome back to Gothic.net’s weekly recap of The Walking Dead, with your host, the award-winning horror author and tattooer, Fish. This week we have episode 515, titled “Try”. Are Rick and Company going to try to fit into the Alexandria Safe Zone, or, more likely, try to take it over. Let’s give it a viewing, shall we? Follow me, and watch your back because SPOILERS ABOUND!!! I’ve heard some rumors that this may be another character’s last episode. They’ve done it before, offing someone the week before the finale, why not again.
After a brief flashback involving Sasha, Carl, Daryl and last week’s gut wrenching death, we get into the episode with a bloody walker snarling as it passes over Sasha’s dead photos. Deanna’s RunMix CD provides the soundtrack to the family sitting around, likely mourning Aiden’s punk ass, while dinner preparations are underway in Carol’s Kitchen. Mmmmm, Carol’s Kitchen sounds like a lovely diner. Shame you can’t tell anyone about it, or you’ll wake up tied to a tree with walkers eating you alive. By the way, doesn’t Nine Inch Nails seem like an odd choice for a grieving family? What track is next, Rob Zombie’s Living Dead Girl?
Back to Carol’s Kitchen, where we find Sam knocking on the window, as Carol’s is writing out a note. Wow, that kid really likes to push his luck. I guess being threatened with a living death is somewhat better than your dad beating you, which is its own living death.
Sasha grabs her rifle and takes up her lookout post, obviously stressed out. Here comes a walker up the road, as we switch back to the Mayoral household, where Reg’s makes the wise call to turn the music off, ending on the very fitting line of “tear a hole.” Yep, Reg, that’s what happened to your baby asshole, not to mention poor Noah. A knock at the door draws up back to the walker shambling up Main Street toward the front gate.
Deanna steps outside to look around and finds Carol’s Tuna Noodle Casserole. The note reads, “We’re truly sorry for your loss.” I wonder how sorry, or more accurately, I wonder if she put some surprises in it. Deanna goes back in, leaving dinner on the stoop. She burns the card, looking pissed. She obviously does not trust our wonderful friends anymore. I guess Gabriel’s words got to her.
As the walker claws at the gate, Sasha pops its top with a single shot. We see another one get nailed by Daryl in a field. Aaron comments that there are more around, but he is unsure about people, when Daryl cuts him off, pointing out a light in the darkness.
Credits roll, as we get Saul Goodman pushed on us, as always.
We come back to Nicholas’ testimony about Aiden’s death, where he throws Glenn under the bus by saying he distracted Aiden while he was wasting ammo on the armored walker. Glenn is saying that he saw the grenades and tried to stop Aiden. Back to Dickless lying that the rest of the group wanted to leave Aiden, but he didn’t, the exact opposite of how it went down. Glenn says the Nicholas was gonna run, but the made him stay. When asked about Tara, Dickless says the he wasn’t going to leave her either. This is back and forth between the two, contradicting each other, so to avoid confusion, I’ll just give it to you.
Dickless: When we got to the lobby…
Glenn: All he had to do was hold the door…
D: He was hitting on the glass, pushing my door open. They were gonna kill me…
G: But he panicked…
D: or they were trying to, they just didn’t care.
G: Noah, I had him. I had his hand…
D: If I didn’t push back, I’d be dead too
G: I tried. I watched him die.
We learn that Glenn is on his porch telling his side to Rick, while Dickless is on Deanna’s cam, which should help to polarize the two sides even further. Dickless angrily asserts that it was everyone’s fault but his. “They did this!” Deanna is looking over the recording, as we hear her voice on the tape putting Dickless and Glenn on restriction from leaving the walls, or being armed, until she looks into it. Dickless tells her that the new arrivals have to go, that they aren’t like them. When he tells here that she sees it too, Deanna tells him that he doesn’t know what she sees, and she sees a lot.
Glenn tells Rick that he could have abandoned Nicholas outside and made up a story about it, when Rick replies with “They don’t know what they’re doing.” I have a bad feeling that Rick doesn’t know what they are doing, and it’s about to get ugly. Glenn suggests teaching them but Sheriff Rick doesn’t think they cane really get it. Rick agrees when Glenn insists that they have to be there, but that they don’t answer to Deanna’s rules. Glenn disagrees, that they have to make this town work, invoking Noah’s name and his belief in Alexandria. Rick wanders off without saying another word, looking at a red balloon floating in between the houses
We cut to Carol watching Jessie, Sam and Rosita on the porch, when Rick strolls up, She tells him about the Tuna Delight she sent to Deanna, how they needed to see her gesture of condolence. She asks him if he has thought about what she told him about Pete. She tells him that Jessie put a bolt inside a closet, so Sam can lock himself in all night. Sam said he can hear Pete screaming and breaking stuff, while Jessie cries, that a recent fight got quiet earlier than usual, so he left his hidey hole. Jessie was unconscious and bleeding, while Pete sat on the porch. So now we know why Pete was being an asshole on the porch a few episodes back. It’s where he goes to relax after a vigorous round of wife beating. Rick asks the stupid question of why Carol cares what happen, why she gives him a look of, “You can’t be that stupid,” and tells him that he knows why. Then the ball drops, as Carol says that she has seen Rick’s interest. She makes a firm statement that if walkers hadn’t killed her husband, she wouldn’t still be alive. Rick nods his head, saying, ”Yeah, you would,” as he walks away. I would take this to mean that if Ed hadn’t been eaten, Rick would have taken care of him.
What is the red balloon on the pond attached to, that it keeps drawing Rick’s attention? Perhaps it is just a symbol, because as Rick grips his revolver, Pete comes out of the darkness calling his name, walking up behind Rick. Slowly, I turn… Pete asks if Rick is okay, and is told to keep walking. Pete doesn’t get it, but turns and walks away into a commercial break.
Michonne must be one hell of a light sleeper, because the alarm clock flipped its number to 6:30, and she woke up. No alarms needed. I wish I could do that. As it is, I look like a walker first thing in the morning. A basket of laundry beside the bed catches her eye. Obviously, she didn’t put it there. Holding up a t-shirt, carefully placed lighting shows a bird and the word “one”. Obviously, the ‘one’ means something. Is Michonne going to wind up alone again? I hope not, because the group really needs her. She lays out her uniform, looking like she doesn’t want to put it on, when there is a knock at the door. Rosita enters and lets us know that Tara is hanging in there but Sasha has been in the tower all night. Is Sasha heading down the Starkweather path? Possibly. Probably. After a brief query about Sasha’s location and that Abraham is up there now, Michonne rushes out, leaving her uniform. This is obviously a symbol that she isn’t going to be The Man right now, worrying about her friend instead.
We cut to Michonne and Rosita walking determinedly through the woods, looking for Sasha’s hideout. It seems that having a place to hide is very important in Alexandria. The sounds of running put the ladies on their guard. They are a bit twitchy, as neither of them have left the walls since they arrived. They discuss how it feels different already, which Rosita thinks is good, but M disagrees. Rosita tells Michonne that she was screwed up because she lost something, the answer in DC that Eugene lied about, but Michonne seems screwed up because they found something. Anybody who ever lived in the Metro area can tell you that the only things DC has the answer to are free museums, a tasty half-smoke, and getting anything done quickly. Michonne talks about feeling helpless in regards to Noah’s death, while Rosita backs her up, telling her not to give up. She points out that Michonne left her sword behind when she left the walls, that it is a sign of her changing. I think it is a sign that Michonne won’t be able to fight as well as she should.
Deanna is looking over four graves, when Rick walks up, apologizing for what happened. He asks how she is holding up, when she tells him that she isn’t. He tells her about Pete. She already knew, saying she hoped it would get better. Rick insists that it won’t get better but Deanna defends his surgical skills as reason to let it go, that he might save Tara’s life. Rick insists that they have to stop him. Stop from beating his wife, not saving Tara, that is. Rick suggests forcing a separation on Rick and Jessie, but Deanna asks what will happen when he refuses. Rick insists that it will have to be that way, that he doesn’t have a choice. Deanna continues asking what happens, and Rick simply replies, “I kill him. We kill him.” Deanna tells Rick that they are in civilization now, that you don’t just kill people. Rick disagrees, using a variation of Stand Your Ground, that telling someone to stop or they die is the current state of civilization. When asked what they do if he continues to beat Jessie, or even kill her, Deanna says that he will be exiled. Rick seems to think he will return and do worse, that it will fall on the tower guard to take care of it then. Deanna is riled up now, insisting that they do not execute people, and that Rick had better not bring it up again. Rick schools her that people die often now, that she can decided who and when, rather than leaving it up to the events to come. She makes a threat, or is it a promise, that she wouldn’t kill Rick but just exile him, as well.
Walker down! Walker down! All shot in the back of the head, Michonne points out that Sasha is hunting the walkers, pointing out Sasha’s bullet-ridden photo.
Carl is wandering around the woods when Enid calls his name. Carl finally found his soulmate, a girl who just can’t stay in the house, or walls, in this case. She tells him, from a hiding spot, (There’s another one, three for those keeping count) that she knows he has been following her, that he is loud. He tries to get her to go back, citing Noah and Aiden’s deaths. She replies that people always die. Sounds familiar, Rick maybe? When he asks what she does in the woods, she tells him, “The same thing as you,” and bolts off. A game of chase commences between two teens full of raging hormones. If this was any other show, it would end with them getting frisky, but I highly doubt it here. More likely, someone will find a walker, and not in any way they want to. I guess we will find out after the commercials.
We get a peek at the next Mission: Impossible movie during the break. I wonder when Tom Cruise will get too old for these flicks. We also get the usual Talking Dead commercial, mentioning that Chandler Riggs will be on the couch tonight. Things don’t look good for Coral. Noah was on the couch last week. Uh oh!
Back to the cute couple in the woods, stalking a walker, using an egg timer as a diversion so they can get away. Whew!
Glenn confronts Nicholas about his responsibility for the deaths of the last four members of his scouting group, as well as Noah. Glenn pulls no punches saying that people like Nicholas should be dead, but the walls went up quick enough to save him. When Glenn tells him that the only way for Dickless to survive is to stay inside the walls. Dickless tries to act tough, asking, “Who the hell do you think you are?” Glenn replies that he is someone who knows who Dickless is, and what he did. Dickless tries to say that he has been protecting Alexandria, providing for it, while Glenn is new. When Glenn reasserts his statement, Dickless pulls a Cornholio by throwing an “Are you threatening me?” at Glenn. He simply replies that he isn’t threatening Dickless, but saving him, as he walks away.
Our kids take a breather against a fallen log, when Enid tells Carl that they are supposed to be outside the wall, what it feels like and she doesn’t want to forget it. I assume she means what freedom feels like, not running from reanimated corpses. Ok, she likes the running part, at least. Carl admits to dreaming about walkers in the woods, and Enid says she does as well. After a brief discussion of how Ron wouldn’t understand her, Carl asks why he scares her. Enid simple says, “I don’t know, you just do,” as she pulls out a knife and starts carving on the tree trunk. She shares that it was her mom’s knife. Carl asks what happened to Enid before Alexandria, and when she brushes it off, he shares that he has had his share of bad shit happening. At the sound of a group of approaching walkers, the get up to leave, but Enid leads him into a hollow tree, where they hide face to face. Yep, another hiding spot. I think the title of the episode, Try, is everyone is trying to hide. If they are spotted, they are so fucked. Enid leans in and whispers in Carl’s ear, “It’s their world. We’re just living in it,” as the walkers move on past. Carl starts to take her hand, maybe moving in for a kiss, when he turns away. Enid smiles, “Cool, you’re afraid of me too, as the walker continue on.
Hands start digging at the base of a tree, unearthing a canister containing the pistol that Rick tried to hide in the blender. Oh look, it’s Dickless, and he looks pissed, as he takes the gun. That is not a good thing at all. Why do I have a feeling it will end up pointed at Glenn? Oh yeah, he hates Glenn. That’s it!
Sasha and her silenced rifle reduce the group of walkers to piles of rotting flesh. She is on the hunt, breathing heavily, sounding a bit like Private Pyle from Full Metal Jacket, the same hundred-yard gaze in her eyes. Rosita and Michonne come up from behind, calling her name (a common tactic this episode), when she tells them to go back, that she is sick of being on the defense. When Michonne asks if Sasha is just going to take on all the Walkers, she nods her head and says, “Yeah.” The trio enters a clearing with twenty or so walkers when Sasha pulls her bag off and takes up a firing stance. Rosita says they have to leave, and Sasha says that they do, but she doesn’t, popping of more shots. Michonne has a flashback to her own similar behavior, when she steps up and starts taking shots. Sasha tells her that she doesn’t need help, and M says that it isn’t for her. Rosita can do nothing but join in, stabbing away with her hunting knife. Sasha runs dry and, while she is trying to reload, a pair gets too close, so she has to resort to her knife. A third gets the drop on her, and after falling to the ground and losing her knife, Michonne blows its head off. Sasha gets pissed, insisting that she had it. I don’t think so. She keeps saying that she doesn’t need help and they should go. Sasha finally lets it out, that nobody can help her. She had told Noah that he wouldn’t make it, and she was right. Her face shows such a painful emptiness that we know she isn’t long for this world. She walks off, and Michonne and Rosita follow her into the next commercial break.
Ahhh, there you are Jeff GoldJobs, hawking apartments. I was wondering when we would see you again.
We return to Daryl and Aaron stalking through the woods, when they come upon a large number of severed limbs, much like the ones at Noah’s old home. More carved Ws maybe? Ever the tracker, Daryl points out that it just happened and whoever did it, took the missing parts with them. Up goes the crossbow, and off they go hunting the hunters. They find a naked, disemboweled woman tied to a tree, eaten alive, much in the way Carol threatened Sam. Obviously, she forgot her safe word. Daryl lifts the woman’s head up to find the W on the forehead. I knew we’d get one! She reanimates while he holds her head by the hair, but not for long before Daryl puts her down.
Jessie, don’t you know those cigarettes will kill you, if Pete doesn’t do it first. Actually, what I am wondering is how nasty those smokes must be. RJ Reynolds hasn’t been around in a couple years, so those are some stale-ass cigarettes. Rick walks up as she stubs out the butt. She comments that Tara is in good hands with Pete, to which Rick replies that he knows Jessie isn’t, that he’s beating her, and it has to stop. She tries to defend her husband, that he got help before, that she can fix it. Rick disagrees, offering to fix him for her. She’s says Rick will only make it worse, but he counters that worse means she is dead, and he isn’t going to let it happen. She confronts Rick about why it is so important to him. He insists he can help, but Jessie insists that she is married and can take care of herself, as she heads into the house, closing the garage door on him.
Rick is walking away from the house when he sees all the normal life going on about him. Obviously upset by it, Rick turns around and storms into Jessie’s living room, where she is crying, He tells her about Sam asking for a gun to protect her. He tells her about how life inside the walls is the same as outside, that you don’t get to just live, if you don’t fight, you die. How he doesn’t want her to die, how he can keep her and the boys safe. “All you have to do is say yes.” She asks him if he would make the same offer for just anyone, to which he replies no. She tells him yes, right as Pete walks in. Asking what he is doing in his house, Pete insists that Rick needs to leave, to which Jessie says no. Pete doesn’t believe what he is hearing, closing in on Jessie when she tells him that he needs to leave. Pete asks Jessie what she and Rick have been doing, when Rick tells him that they are going to leave together. Pete gets furious, saying that Rick is leaving. Pete asks if Rick believes he is the law, that he has a say in what happens. Rick simply replies to Pete’s question of, “Who do think you are,” that is someone that is trying to avoid killing him. Pete takes a swing, but Rick ducks the first swing, nailing Pete with a right hook. Pete hits him back in kind, before throwing himself at Rick, grappling the lawman, beating his head against a wall. Rick pushes them away, throwing Pete through the front window, right into the final commercial break.
Ahhh, Sasha is back in the tower, scoping out walkers, when a girl, going running and screaming through her scope. Reg calls for Deanna as we see a scene reminiscent of a walker attack, as Rick, bloodied and snarling, proceeds to beat the ever-loving snot out of Pete. Everyone comes running to watch, including Glenn and Dickless, Carl and Enid, Carol tries to shield Sam while Jessie cries her eyes out. As Rick and Pete are rolling around trying to strangle each other, Jessie tries to pull Pete off Rick, earning her a backhand. As Rick gains the higher position, Carl tries to pull his dad off, getting pushed away, but not punched, so he can get back to the pressing business of throttling Pete. He gets behind the abusive husband, wrapping his arm around Pete’s neck and squeezes. The red balloon floats away as Deanna runs up demanding they stop, sounding more like a schoolteacher breaking up a playground fight than a mayor. Rick growls in Pete’s ear that if he hurts them again, he’s dead, eliciting another command to stop from Deanna. “Or what,” he asks, pulling his revolver and pointing it at the crowd. “You’ll kick me out?” Rick starts a speech about how the Alexandrians don’t ”get it”, that his group does what needs to be done. Meanwhile, as Rick speaks, Sasha is scoping out walkers that are up against the corrugated tin wall, popping them off. While Rick is laying down the law about how all the Alexandrians do is plan and wait, Nicholas hears Sasha’s shots, looking back her way. She nails one walker in close up, the W visible on its forehead. Rick tells Deanna that if she wants Alexandria to stay viable, their way of operating is over. He says that they have to start living in the real world, controlling who lives there. She replies that it has never been clearer than now. Rick questions her that she is talking about our bloodied sheriff. He tells her that her ways have cost lives and he isn’t going to stand by and let it happen. While Rick is spouting off, Deputy Michonne, in full uniform comes up from behind and cold-cocks him, taking the gun away. The lighting flickers a bit, as she looks back to Deanna, and we fade to black.
So we made it the whole way through with no deaths. Shocking, but things are going to be ugly next week for the finale.
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Posted by Michael Fisher
on Sunday, March 22nd, 2015. Filed under Dark TV, Headline.
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Tags: abuse, amc, carl, deanna, enid, glenn, hiding, jessie, nicholas, pete, rick, walkers, walking dead, zombie
