TWD Season 5 Episode 9: What Happened and What's Going On

Welcome back The Walking Dead fans! It's been a long break and I've been eager to see what the second half of season 5 has in store. The mid-season finale brought us the heartbreaking demise of Beth, a character who was almost an afterthought until the prison crumbled last season. She was just coming into her own and was on the verge of a happy reunion with the gang before the hospital hostage trade went to hell in a hand basket. I assumed that tonight's episode would deal with the aftermath of losing Beth...but The Walking Dead threw me for a loop instead. Hold on to your hats, kids. Here's where we are with "What Happened and What's Going On."

For What Can Be Seen Is Temporary

The episode opens with a shovel plunging into dirt....someone is digging a grave.  The camera cuts to a picture of a house, much like the one from "The Grove," then back to a funeral where Maggie and Noah are sobbing. We then see a picture of twin boys on a playground, followed by a brief glimpse of the prison before The Governor's invasion. I'm really confused...but that's probably the point. 

Suddenly we're whisked to a conversation between Rick and Noah about Noah's planned escape to Richmond. He says Beth had planned to go with him, so Rick thinks the group should honor Beth's wishes and get Noah home. I mean, if Beth had known Rick and the gang were planning a rescue, I'm pretty sure she would have refrained from her botched escape to Richmond in the first place. I don't think these were "Beth's last wishes" so much as "Beth's plan when she thought she would never see her loved ones again." Regardless, I'm not on board with this idea. It was excruciating to watch Abraham try to convince the group to go to DC back when they believed Eugene could SAVE THE WORLD, but somehow going to Richmond is a no-brainer? 

As the group begins this next chapter, we see some more snippets of places we know and people we miss. We hear the digging again and catch a glimpse of the railroad tracks that lead to Terminus...just before we see a dead Mika and Lizzie sitting in a doorway as happy as can be. Wait. What? Mika looks at the camera and says "It's better now." The camera goes back to the picture of "The Grove" house and we see blood start to drip on it. Uh oh.  

The High Cost of Living

The group splits up into two cars - one carrying Rick, Michonne, Tyreese, Glenn and Noah, and the other is carrying everyone else. As they approach their destination Noah looks at Tyreese and says it's not Tyreese's fault that the hospital trade went the way it did. Tyreese replies "It went the way it had to...the way it was always going to." He then tells the group that his dad always made sure he and Sasha kept up on the news when they were growing up. They always listened to the radio and they never changed the channel regardless of what terrible things might have been reported. Noah reveals that he lost his dad in Atlanta but he hopes to be reunited with his mom and twin brothers soon. 

Rick decides their car will travel further ahead and scope the area out, tackling the last bit of the trip on foot. They approach Shirewilt Estate, where a Woodbury style wall went up when the zombie apocalypse began to wreak havoc in Virginia. The gates are closed with no guards in sight, so Glenn climbs to the top of the wall...only to see a ghost town. Noah is immediately emotional and climbs the fence. He takes off toward his house as quick as he can with his bum ankle and finds burnt houses, dead bodies, and some Walkers along the way. 

Rick, Glenn and Michonne start to sweep the neighborhood for supplies. Michonne scores a Yankees jersey and Glenn picks up a brand new bat. It's hard to tell how much time has passed since the hospital, but Rick's additional facial hair and Glenn and Michonne's overall defeated demeanor suggest the group has had a long and draining trip to Virginia. They talk about Beth, Dawn, the hospital, and Beth's last wishes again. But the truth is...none of them had ever believed Richmond was going to be safe enough to be their new home. 

In the meantime, Tyreese tries to comfort Noah. He explains that he didn't want to live after he lost Karen...you know, the woman we saw 5 minutes of his relationship with before she got the flu and was killed by Carol an episode later. Tyreese still talks about her as if they were soul mates. Anyway, Tyreese says that if he had given in to his sadness, he wouldn't have been around to rescue Judith. Choosing to live also saved her life.  "Noah, this isn't the end." 

Noah still wants to see his house and Tyreese goes in first to clear it. The door is already open and there are blood stains in the entryway. The body of Noah's mom lays on the ground and she's missing a portion of her head. Noah covers her up and talks to her as Tyreese continues through the house. Our gentile giant passes by a closed door that clearly has a Walker behind it and makes his way into a bedroom with the body of a boy in it. This must be one of Noah's twin brothers. I guess the Walker in the previous room is the other twin. You know, the Walker we didn't kill just now while "clearing the house." Tyreese pauses to look at the family pictures on the wall. He's distracted and doesn't hear the Walker approaching behind him. He's as surprised as we are when the Walker BITES his arm! Noah takes out his little zombie brother quickly and runs off to get help. 

Insult to Injury

Tyreese sits in the corner of the room holding on to his arm, which is now gushing blood. He hears reports of terror on the radio nearby. He looks up to see Martin, the Terminus douchebag he lied about killing, who was eventually killed in the church by Sasha. Martin tells Tyreese that if he'd killed him when he was supposed to, Gareth wouldn't have found the church and Bob wouldn't have died. Maybe Bob's survival might have helped Beth's rescue. Maybe there was a domino effect. Martin basically says that Tyreese's inability to kill causes the people around him to die. Bob appears and calls bullshit. "I got bit in the food bank. It happened the way it had to. The way it was always going to. Just like this." I'm thinking this couldn't get any more strange, but then The Governor appears. "You told me you'd do whatever you had to do to earn your keep. The bill has to be paid." Lizzie and Mika are sitting in the doorway now, with Mika saying "It's better now Tyreese." Tyreese snaps out of it to see another Walker coming at him. He has to shove his wounded arm in the Walker's mouth to be able to push him away and kill him. Good God.  

Michonne, Rick and Glenn are making their way back to the spot where they left Noah and Tyreese. Michonne says they should go to Washington DC. They are only (only?) a hundred miles away now and even though Eugene lied about the cure, Eugene still thought that was the safest place to go. "Don't you want one more day with a chance?" she asks. Rick agrees, but the moment of understanding is ruined by Noah's screams. That jackass got himself trapped near a bunch of Walkers, delaying his already handicapped ability to run for help. Shit! He's worse than Gabriel! 

Tyreese is still sitting against the wall upstairs, gripping his now almost mutilated arm, and he hears Beth singing "Struggling Man" by Jimmy Cliff. Oh man. This song couldn't be any more appropriate. Then suddenly there she is, playing guitar and sounding so angelic. Beth says "It's okay Tyreese. You gotta know that now." Bob adds "It's okay that you didn't want to be a part of it anymore, Ty." Tyreese is crying now as he looks at Beth and the two girls...and Martin starts laughing. The Governor sneers and says "You're eyes were open but you didn't want to see...even though I made you see it. But did you adapt? Did you change? No. You sat in front of a woman who killed someone you loved...and you forgave her."

Tyreese struggles but manages to get himself up. He looks and the Governor and says "I know who I am. I know what happened and what's going on. I know. You didn't show me shit. You're dead. Everything that you were is dead. And it's not over. I forgave her because it's not over. I'm not giving up. People like me...they can live." At this point the blood is pouring over the picture of "The Grove" house that we saw earlier. Lizzie and Mika take Tyreese's arm and hold it. In reality, Rick is holding Tyreese's arm as Michonne brings down her sword. They are going to try to pull a Hershel and save him that way. But has it been too long? Tyreese has had two Walkers gnawing on that arm at this point. 

Rick and Glenn carry Tyreese out of the house as quickly as they can. They have to kill a bunch of Walkers in order to get back to the car, which slows them down greatly. Tyreese thinks about how he let Marin go and his sister having to dispose of him later. He flashes back to Carol pointing her gun at Lizzie. He hears Beth singing again and starts to black out. 

They get him in the car and use the walkie talkie to tell Carol what's happening. They are going to need her medical skills as soon as possible. The car wheels spin in the mud for a bit...the movement causes the back doors of a broken down truck next to them to unleash a bunch of Walker torsos on the hood of the car. What the hell? No time to figure that out. We have to get Tyreese's arm cauterized! As the car drives away, Tyreese can hear the same radio reports coming from the car radio. He says "turn it off" and sees Bob sitting in the passenger seat in front of him. Bob asks if Tyreese is sure and Beth, who is driving, turns and says once again "It's okay Tyreese. You gotta know that now." Lizzie and Mika are beside him..."It isn't just okay. It's better now." With that, Tyreese closes his eyes for good. 

What Cannot Be Seen Is Eternal

The car stops. Noah gets out and takes a few steps, his head hanging low. Michonne, Rick and Glenn pull Tyreese's body out of the car. We don't hear what they are saying. We don't even have a close up of their faces, but we can still tell that they are in agony. Michonne unsheathes her sword, but we immediately cut back to the grave digging we saw as the episode opened. The funeral is Tyreese's and Gabriel is officiating. The group takes turns shoveling in dirt to fill in the grave. Sasha drops the shovel before she can do her part. Rick finishes the burial and the hour ends with the same sounds it opened with...and Tyreese's knitted hat placed on top of a wooden cross. 

I have to say that I'm floored. I can't believe we lost Tyreese an episode after Beth...and lost him because he passed by a Walker he should have killed and became distracted in the next room. Ugh! He was supposed to be clearing the house! I have to wonder if Sasha's actions at the funeral are out of anger. After all the talks they've had about how the world is now and what they need to do to survive, she loses her brother in another of his passive moments. Maybe I'm reading too much into the brief glimpse we got of her, but I'm thinking she might go crazy for a while. And speaking of crazy, while I enjoyed seeing Beth, Lizzie and Mika in the hallucinations, why didn't Tyreese see Karen? Again, she was the love of his life  or something right? Maybe there was just no room for her in the car. Regardless, Tyreese was never going to be okay with the evil around him or the tough and violent decisions that the group made each day. It just wasn't who he was and as Carol told Mika in "The Grove," the weak don't survive. Now he no longer has to "be a part of it." RIP.  

So next week I'm guessing we start the journey to Washington DC. With Noah and Gabriel both still traveling with the group, I'm sure it's only a short time before we see another character buried. Those two are useless. But where is Morgan in all this? He was hot on the trail for a while, but now that we're in Virginia, is he anywhere close? Will he catch up to the gang before the season ends? Will The Walking Dead writers give us a break before putting us through another hour as distressing as this one? Here's hoping...