Okay, I'm going to just breathe for a second. At long last, we have a Carol and Daryl episode. Side by side. Just the two of them. The hour is all about the badass duo's quest to find Beth. This is by far my favorite episode of the season and I'm not ashamed to admit that I will be re-watching "Consumed" several times. Here's what went down (or didn't)...
Exiled
We have a serious of flashbacks throughout the episode, and the first one we see is immediately after Rick sent Carol off on her own when she admitted to killing Karen and David. I know...I don't really remember them either. She drives away from Rick and pulls over on the side of the road, sobbing while Walkers bang on her windows. This is a woman who had literally lost everything and I remember the bitterness I felt when this happened. Carol finds her way to an empty law firm and sets up shop there for a little while, until looking out the window one day to see smoke coming from off in the distance. This was the day the Governor attacked the prison, and Carol made her way there as fast as she could.
Carol's next flashback has her digging graves for Mika and Lizzie. Man. They are seriously tugging at my heartstrings tonight. She pauses and looks up at another cloud of smoke, which we know now was Terminus. We also know that she caused a hell of a lot more smoke at Terminus when she essentially blew it up. But this memory ends with her just looking up, on the verge of saving her friends, just as the prison flashback ended with her car pulling up just as the prison chaos was starting... these are the moments before she went in for a rescue.
Following those memories, we see Carol burning the bodies of Karen and David. More smoke. This is the most extreme situation Carol has faced when thinking she was "saving" the group. This was not a rescue...but it was Carol taking extreme measures to keep the healthy people safe.
The final flashback is of Carol taking off the Walker guts poncho she wore while taking down Terminus. She's seen walking away...but I assume this is right before she decided to reunite with the group and take them to see Tyreese and Judith. She went from exile to redemption in what seemed like forever to us...but really just a short time in The Walking Dead world.
Bonnie and Clyde
Carol and Daryl are following the car they believe also took Beth away last season. Carol suggests they run the car off the road and then make the driver talk, but Daryl wants to be sneaky and observe. Unfortunately, they run out of gas before they can follow the car back to its origin and they have to find shelter for the rest of the night. My brain is thinking "Yes! Finally! Carol and Daryl are totally going to hook up!" I mean, it's TIME for this to happen, right?
Carol takes him to a women's shelter she knows of nearby and they find themselves in one of the temporary housing rooms...with bunk beds. Carol offers to take the top bunk but says she will keep first watch while Daryl sleeps on the bottom bunk. Carol asks him if he's started over. He says "I'm tryin'." When Daryl asks her what's really on her mind she says "I don't think we get to save people anymore." He asks why she's here then. Carol replies "I'm tryin'." She sits down next to Daryl on the bed and then lays back. Daryl also lays back...this has to be it, right? Right? Right?!?!?! Nope. They hear a noise and go to investigate it. A Walker is banging on one of the office doors...the mood is sufficiently killed...and Carol and Daryl sleep in shifts. AGHHHHHH.
When morning comes, the two make their way through downtown Atlanta on foot in an effort to find the car that had alluded them. Daryl's plan is to make it to the top (or close to it) of one of the big office buildings to get a good look at the surrounding area. They find a suitable building and navigate through it, though not without some challenges. They encounter several Walkers and many of the doors are chained shut. Daryl and Carol squeeze through one doorway and find an office with a pretty great view of the city. Daryl sees a car with the same white cross markings as the one that took Beth. It's parked just across the way. They have a lead. Just before they head out of the office, Daryl makes a couple of comments about a painting hanging on one of the walls. "Looks like a dog sat in paint and wiped its ass all over the place. Carol says she likes the painting, and when Daryl teases her, she says "I'm serious. You don't know me." He replies "You keep telling yourself that."
How Is He Still Alive?
While pushing herself back through the chained doorway, Carol inexplicably exits the door backwards...and Noah is there pointing a gun at her. Noah? Really? Dude can barely walk. He hasn't been eaten yet? Anyway, he takes Carol and Daryl's weapons, cuts open some tents that had been holding Walkers, and hobbles away. Asshole. Carol still has a handgun hidden and she begins shooting. Daryl swipes at her hand to make sure she doesn't kill Noah and she swears she was aiming at his leg. Daryl says "he's just a damn kid" and Noah makes a narrow escape.
Carol and Daryl try to find their way out of the building while Carol grumbles about losing their weapons. She says she doesn't want to see Daryl or anyone at the church die, and that's why she was lingering near the car outside of the church. "You're not who you were and neither am I...I don't know if I believe in God or Heaven anymore, but if I'm going to Hell, I'm making damn sure I'm holding it off as long as I can." With that, Carol hastily picks up her bag and a book falls out - Treating Survivors of Child Abuse. She had taken it from the women's shelter.
Traveling on foot once again, Carol and Daryl cross a bridge and find a van with the white markings leaning over the edge. Daryl carefully searches the vehicle as a ton of Walkers approach. Knowing they can't kill their way out of the horde with minimal weapons, they climb in the van, fasten their seat belts....and go over the bridge, crashing into the ground below. Holy shit. Many Walkers follow them over the edge and we can see and hear them splattering on the van's roof and windshield. It makes me giggle. Carol's arm is all effed up and she's not walking too well. Daryl says it was a stupid thing to do and Carol replies "We made good time getting down." HA! She's got a point. They are three blocks from the hospital now, and they are going back to observing mode.
Finding another building to hide in, Carol and Daryl snack and have a heart to heart. He mentions Carol's comments about how he's not who he was before. Daryl asks her "How was I?" Carol says he was like a kid before....but a man now. She then tells him that she and Sophia had stayed in the women's shelter for a day and a half before running back to her abusive husband. "Who I was with him...she got burned away and I was happy about that. And at the prison, I got to be who I always thought I should be...thought I should have been. Then she got burned away. Now it just consumes you." Daryl looks at her and says "We ain't ashes," and this would be the PERFECT time for a smooch, but they hear gunfire and rush to check it out.
Wouldn't you know it? Noah is still doing his damnedest to survive. Carol and Daryl kill a Walker that's attacking Noah, but he tries to run away again. Seeing the opportunity to get the weapons back, Daryl traps him under a bookcase and considers leaving him to become Walker food. "I already helped you once. It ain't happening again." Carol pleads with Daryl to save Noah...and Daryl does so at the very last second.
Noah tells them he's from the hospital and Daryl asks him if he saw a blond girl there. "You mean, Beth?" Wow. I know we're in a zombie apocalypse but had no idea Beth was the only blond girl around anymore. Noah tells them she's still trapped there and the three of them try to exit the building before the shady cops find them. Carol runs outside and a hospital car hits her. The cops put her on a stretcher and take her away. Daryl and Noah steal a huge truck and head back to the church to call in the cavalry.
The episode ends there and now we know why Carol ended up in the hospital. She's not there as a spy - she's seriously all kinds of banged up. And with Noah in the picture and the church group about to join in, I think we missed the boat once again on the Carol and Daryl romance. Damn it.
We do seem to have ourselves quite the rescue mission coming though. All of Carol's flashbacks with her various "I'm going to save everyone" situations have lead up to her really being one of the characters we simply can't do without on this show. She's seen a lot of smoke and lost parts of herself along the way, but Daryl is right...she's not ashes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a kick ass hospital invasion with Rick, Daryl, Michonne, and Tyreese. It can't get much better than that....oh yeah it could. Daryl could friggin kiss Carol when they rescue her. I'm not asking too much, am I?
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