So, we know something's been coming right? We know we're getting close to the end of the season and shit is going to hit the fan. Tonight's episode, however, still completely caught me off guard. All of the violence we may have been missing these past couple of weeks was given to us (and then some) in this episode. Let's just get to it and go over what went down during "Spend."
Just Another Day
We're now at a point where Alexandria is becoming "the norm" for the Grimes gang. Daryl takes off on his fancy new motorcycle to do some recruiting with Aaron close behind. Noah asks Reg to teach him about architecture and how to maintain the walls around the community. He's in this for the long haul and wants to do his part to keep the place safe. Reg loves this idea and gives Noah a notebook. He tells Noah that he writes everything down and encourages him to do the same. "There's going to be a lot to remember. This is the beginning of this place."
Sheriff Rick is making the rounds and notices Jessie cleaning up a mess in her garage. She had been building some sort of metal owl with her sons and someone completely destroyed it. Rick won't take this lying down!...unless Jessie lies down with him. He decides to launch an investigation because he really has nothing else to do.
Pete visits Rick at home and sort of stumbles in with a beer for him and a beer for Rick. Pete says the owl thing is not a big deal and quickly jumps to talking about Rick losing his wife. Smooth. Pete then tells Rick, "We've lost things. Other things we're just fighting like hell to hold on to." So the marriage is an unhappy one? Fantastic. He looks at Rick and says "Let's be friends, man" and stumbles on out of there.
Abraham Is Awesome
Abraham goes to work at a construction site and he isn't out there long before a group of Walkers approaches. You'd think that people who are continually out in the open building things would have a better strategy to handle this situation. When Francine falls near the Walkers, the construction boss essentially says to leave her. Well, Abraham goes running toward her with his gun blazing and ax swinging. He smiles and takes out Walkers like he's swatting flies. Welcome back dude. We've missed you.
When the Walkers are slayed Abraham confronts the group leader about leaving people behind. The guy says they have a system and looks to Francine to back him up. She punches him instead and she's now one of my new favorite people. Some other workers talk about calling it a day, but Abraham takes over and says they are going to finish their work. The next time we see the boss man, he's sitting with Deanna and recommending that Abraham become his replacement.
Deanna listens to the construction boss' story and reluctantly agrees to Abraham's promotion. She notes that yet another person from Rick's group is now in a leadership position. Well aren't you the one making these appointments? You made two people you barely knew the law enforcement of the community, lady! Maggie, still working hard to be effective as Deanna's right hand, tells Deanna that she's making the right choices. "We know what we're doing. That's why you wanted us here. You wanted a future. You need us for that."
Gabriel Sucks (Again)
Anyone been missing him? I certainly haven't. We see Gabriel at the beginning of the episode walking around in what I assume is his new chapel in the form of a garage. He has his collar back and he's doing his scrunchy face, tormented crying thing while ripping out pages of a bible, so all I want to do is punch him.
Gabriel arrives at Deanna's house with his crying face and tells her "Satan disguises himself as the angel of light. I'm afraid that false light is here inside these walls." He goes on to say that it was a mistake letting in Rick and the rest of the group. Gabriel says "They're not good people. They've done unspeakable things." Deanna replies that in order to survive the way they did, they had to do terrible things. She tells Gabriel that Rick already confessed these things to her. Gabriel says the group can't be trusted and they are dangerous. "They will destroy everything you have here. They don't deserve paradise." Deanna thanks him for the information and sends him on his way....but Maggie is nearby and has heard everything.
Seriously? Some of the unspeakable things Rick and his group did helped to save Gabriel's ass on a number of occasions. His church might still be a safe place if he hand't gone off on his own and caused Michonne and Carl to take the barricades down to get him back in. Oh, and there's that little matter of him LOCKING HIS PARISH OUT OF THE CHURCH WHEN THEY WERE BEING SLAUGHTERED. I'm starting to hate him even more than I hated The Governor,
C is for Cookie
Carol finds Sam hiding out in her house and ushers him to the front door quickly. Sam's here to collect - he didn't say anything about the guns and now he wants his cookies. Fair is fair, Carol. He's bored though. His house has no power and someone smashed his owl statue, so Sam is hoping Carol will teach him to make cookies. Carol thinks about it for a second then agrees...if Sam steals the chocolate from the pantry. Nice! Carol is teaching him to lie AND steal!
Sam returns with the items and Carol lays down the law, telling him this is the only time this is happening, he's only getting half of the cookies, and he's never coming back. Sam doesn't seem to startled by this, but then again, the last time he saw Carol she threatened to have him eaten alive by monsters...so "you only get half the cookies and I won't help you make any more" is kind of lame in comparison.
Anyway, he starts chatting her up, asking her if she likes cooking and if she's always been good at baking. Carol's gives him short, quick answers and is clearly not interested in befriending this little guy. I guess her last experience trying to mentor Lizzie and Mika pretty much sealed the deal on her willingness to open up to a child again. "I was good at it. It distracted me. It made me forget when I was sad." Sam says that when he gets sad he breaks stuff. Carol asks him what kind of stuff and if he broke his owl statue. When he doesn't answer she asks "Why are you here?" He replies "Why did you steal the guns?" Carol says sometimes people need to protect themselves and Sam asks if he can have one of the guns. He says it's not for him...but cries and leaves when Carol asks who the gun would be for.
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| "Okay, maybe I won't **** you up after all." |
Because Carol had spent so many years as a battered wife, she instantly understands the situation. She follows Sam home but Pete answers the door. Carol says she just want's to make sure he's okay. "Why wouldn't he be okay?" Carol asks to see Jessie, but Pete says "It's not a good time" and slams the door in her face. Carol reports back to Rick and tells him Pete is a wife beater and might also be abusing Sam. "Rick, I know how this is gonna go with Pete. There's only one way it can. You're gonna have to kill him."
Worst Run Ever
Aiden and his douchebag sidekick, Nicholas are getting ready to go on a run. Seems there are some power source issues (God forbid) and Aiden puts a group together to go remedy the situation. Glenn, Tara, and Noah are tasked with helping Eugene do his science-y shit to get the power grid back to 100%. Deanna and Reg say goodbye to their very confident son while Glenn assures them the mission will be successful. Off they go in a van blasting very loud music.
When they reach their destination Glenn wants to survey the area, look for Walkers, and look for exits. Aiden and Nick make dickish comments and don't really help. Eugene, meanwhile, reminds Tara that he is not combat ready. Really? I'm sure the constant "I'm going to pee my pants at the sight of a Walker" look he has totally slipped her mind. She pretty much tells him to suck it up and start pulling his weight. Eugene argues that he has already paid his dues by getting the group to DC (kinda). Tara says the group got him there but he's totally right when he says they never would have thought to make that trek without Eugene's "mission." I do love this guy...but I was hoping he'd see Jessie at least for a trim. I also need Jessie to have more screen time.
Glenn and Noah see a horde of Walkers near the front of the building, so they enter through a side door. Glenn leads the way which makes me very happy. Everything starts out well (doesn't it always?) but then they spot a whole bunch of Walkers behind a locked fence. They are pushing against that cage like it could break at any moment. Everyone's a little shaken up now but Tara and Eugene are able to get the supplies they need to fix the power grid. Time to go. A Walker, wearing camouflage with some armor and a helmet approaches Aiden. He panics and starts shooting the Walker everywhere but the head. Did I mention what the Walker was wearing? Because he also has a GRENADE on his chest. Glenn tells Aiden to stop but Aiden shoots the grenade and shit blows up. The cage holding the Walkers is now open and Aiden has been impaled against a wall with lots of sharp things. He seriously could have been one of Elsa's "wheel of fortune" victims on American Horror Story. Nicholas shouts that Aiden is dead and Eugene realizes Tara has one hell of a head wound and she's completely knocked out. Way to go Aiden.
Glenn and company prepare to transport Tara to safety...and then they realize Aiden is still alive. I'll be Nicholas knew that already. Eugene tells the guys to save Aiden because Tara would agree if she was conscious. He promises to keep her safe while Noah, Nicholas and Glenn try to get Aiden off the wall (literally). The problem is...Aiden is reallllly stuck on that wall. After two attempts to free him, Nicholas looks at Aiden and says "We left them, we both did. That's who we are. I'm sorry." Then he runs away. Asshole. So now we know why Aiden loses people on his team so often. He and Nicholas just leave others the second things get dicey. Given what happened with Abraham earlier, I'm guessing this is a trend in Alexandria. Anyway, the Walkers are closing in and Aiden pushes Glenn away from him. We then see Aiden lose his guts as the Walkers eat him. I mean, he loses his guts for a while. That's some gruesome stuff right there.
Glenn and Noah follow Nicholas to an exit that happens to be a revolving glass door. Nicholas tries to push in one direction and Glenn and Noah are right behind him. Unfortunately there are Walkers on either side of the door so Glenn and Noah are at a standstill with Nicholas as the glass is the only thing keeping them alive.
Suddenly Eugene drives up in the van, blasting music and yelling "come and get me" to the Walkers. Seems Eugene ended up throwing Tara over his shoulder and shooting his way out of the building. My hero! The Walkers outside turn to follow the van and Glenn comes up with a plan to break one portion of the glass to allow all 3 of them to escape the doors safely. Instead of following this plan though, Nicholas takes care of Nicholas and pushes through his side of the door....leaving Noah exposed on the opposite side. Now I know why we saw Aiden die the way he did. It was a very tiny preview of what happens to poor Noah. He gets pulled away by the Walkers and thrown up against the glass. We see his terrified face as he's torn to pieces, and then we even see his face ripped off. Glenn sits on the ground and cries while he watches this happen. That has to be terrible....sitting on the other end of the glass knowing there's nothing you can do.
Nicholas runs to the van and when Eugene gets out and asks about Glenn and Noah, Nicholas knocks him to the ground and hops into the driver's seat. Will someone PLEASE kill this asshole?!?! Glenn is still alive (yay!) and beats the shit out of Nicholas before asking Eugene to help him get Nicholas in the back of the van. As they drive back to Alexandria, Eugene sees Noah's notebook. The only thing he had written so far was "This is the beginning."
I'm definitely going to have nightmares about Noah. That was horrific to watch and I'm actually kind of angry about his death. I wasn't really a fan of his character, but at the same time, I'm bitter now that Beth and Tyreese died trying to help him only for him to have his face torn to shreds a few weeks later. But I guess in the grand scheme of things it's better that Glenn goes back to Alexandria without one of his own people. It would be way too suspicious if somehow Aiden was the only one not to make it back, and with Gabriel "warning" Deanna, the group is going to struggle for her trust once she realizes her son is dead. Have I mentioned I hate Gabriel?
I'm interested to see how Rick handles the situation with Pete. He's already super protective of Jessie (in a very stalker way) and Pete definitely knows Rick is hot for his wife. Also, people don't just end up dead inside the walls of the community and it's hard to tell if Jessie is at the "I would leave him if there wasn't a zombie apocalypse happening" point yet. This could get extremely messy and based on the previews for next week, paradise is over. 
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