While last week's episode of The Walking Dead had us with the troupe leading the many, many, many Walkers from the Alexandria area, tonight's hour is spent in Alexandria during the exact same time. And boy what an hour this was. The suspense in "JSS" was unreal, and folks in Alexandria who were unaware of what the outside world is like these days got the surprise of their lives. The Wolves are no longer coming. They're here.
Can't Close My Eyes And Make It Go Away
The episode opens with Enid, who I barely cared about before and care even about as "JSS" progresses. We see her pre-Alexandria struggle while traveling with her parents. Their car is stopped on the side of a road where mom and dad are trying to figure out where the fuse is. It's a very inconvenient time to have car trouble. Enid is leaning out of the car door and spots Walkers approaching. She's yelling to her parents and trying to get them to understand the urgency of getting the hell out of there. They are not quite as panicked...but the next time we see them, they are Walker food in the road. A horrified Enid watches this happen from inside the car.
I guess the Walkers have had their fill and move on, because somehow Enid survives the attack and finds herself walking through the forest alone. She crouches and hides where she can when she hears Walkers nearby, and she uses her finger to write the letters "JSS" in the dirt. So, she's leaving a trail for someone to find her? Were mom and dad traveling in a caravan when their car broke down?
Enid continues her journey on foot and finds another abandoned car to spend the night in, leaving "JSS" on the dusty windows before she leaves. She also kills a turtle and eats it raw right out of the shell. Protein? Enid uses the bloody bones to spell "JSS" in the grass. Okay TWD. We get it. She then finds the gates of Alexandria...and the opening credits roll.
How Long Must We Sing This Song
Carol is in the pantry with the other women who love to talk cooking and baking. She reminisces about the "miracles" she made with water chestnuts. Oh Carol. Truth be told, I really want to try one of her casseroles. She offers to teach Shelley how to make pasta with her own two hands on one condition - Shelley can't smoke in the house. "It's a disgusting habit and it kills you." This gives me quite a giggle considering how long our heroes probably went without showering and brushing their teeth while they were on the road...and then there's the whole lack of toilets and toilet paper thing. But I guess I wouldn't want my house smelling like smoke either.
Carol arrives home to find Sam on her front porch. He's mopey and Carol has no time for that. "Your dad used to hit you and then he got himself killed. It happened and now it's done. You live with it or it will eat you up." She brushes past him and tells him to go home. After all, she has a casserole to make.
Meanwhile, Carl takes Judith on a walk and Gabriel approaches. He asks Carl to teach him how to fight Walkers. I guess Gabriel actually wants to stop sucking. He tells Carl he wants to help and admits he wasn't ready before. Carl isn't happy about this but tells Gabriel to come by later to get started on machete training. He then spots Enid and Ron sharing a hug (because Ron is still 10 kinds of pissed off) but just continues to push the stroller.
When Carl returns home he puts Judith down for a nap. Carol is in the kitchen finishing up her casserole and puts it in the oven. She sets a 40 minute timer next to the "baby cam" and spots the woman with the disgusting habit standing outside across the street with a cigarette in hand. Sure, smoking will kill you...but so will a guy with a machete. The Wolves are everywhere and they are massacring the locals.
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Carol runs to find Carl who already has his gun ready. She tells him to keep Judith safe and she takes off. Carl is ready to shoot when his front door opens, but it's only Enid. She's come to say goodbye but Carl tells her she has to stay and help him protect his sister. She tells Carl the community is too big to protect. Too many blind spots. "That's how we were able to..." But Carl cuts her off again because he's clueless. "Don't tell me goodbye." Damn it Carl! She's one of them!
Carol is just so amazing. She takes her gun and her cardigan around the side of a house and finds one of the other pantry women being slashed by one of the Wolves. She kills the dude quickly but she's unfortunately too late to save her neighbor. This woman is a goner and Carol ends up putting a knife in her head to stop her crying...I wonder if this is at the same time Rick kills Carter?
Maggie has been trying to get Deanna back on her feet. She's in the process of showing her leader an area where they can start farming (because that worked out so well at the prison) and they hear the commotion in the neighborhood. They also see one of the guards on the wall get hit with a fire bomb. Deanna's remaining son, Spencer, is up in the tower. He's sniping Wolves when he sees a giant rig heading straight for the gate. It crashes, the driver dies, and we now know the source of the loud horn that diverts the Walkers from the woods at the end of last week's episode. Spencer is useless though and is unable to kill the driver/Walker when it's time for him to step up. Suddenly Morgan appears (that was fast!) and takes care of it. Deanna, Maggie and Spencer agree that it's best that Deanna stays the hell out of the way, so Spencer takes her to hide.
Sam begs Jessie not to leave the house but she's worried about finding Ron. They hear a noise in the house and hide in the closet. Ron meanwhile, is witnessing the bloodshed and running from one of the machete wielding Wolves. Carl shoots the guy from his porch and tells Ron to come inside. Ron is still angsty and runs away. When Jessie thinks her intruders might be gone, she takes her newly acquired gun and makes her way downstairs to look for Ron, leaving Sam in the closet. One of the Wolves attacks her from behind, she loses her gun, and I'm sure she's a goner. I have my own angst as this fight goes on. Jessie, however, channels every bit of anger she must have had with Pete over the years and she doesn't give up. Grabbing a pair of scissors from the kitchen counter (it's handy that she cuts hair for the community), she stabs the intruder. A lot. She's screaming, stabbing, and then stabbing more when Ron walks in. He's terrified.
Bodies Strewn Across The Dead End Street
Morgan enters the community and realizes who the attackers are. He's not trying to kill anyone though. He wants to talk it out. Morgan approaches the first machete wielding psycho he sees and asks him to stop the violence and leave. Morgan realizes he'll probably have to fight this dude but he doesn't get the chance. Carol comes out of nowhere and kills him. She's wearing a trench coat, she has her face covered, and she's put a "W" on her forehead. She's not messing around, Morgan - no time for talk. Morgan is pissed because he feels he could have stopped the guy. "You don't have to kill people." Carol looks at him as if to say "Are you effing kidding me?" but just tells Morgan she's heading for the armory and needs his help. Get your shit together Morgan - people are being slaughtered left and right!!!
Carol chains Morgan up and drags him behind her. The Wolves have been doing the same with some of their soon to be victims. She looks the part and her plan is working. They pass by someone in trouble though and pause. Realizing it's Gabriel, Carol quickly says "leave him" and I laugh out loud. Morgan of course has to save Gabriel so he breaks free from Carol and knocks out the guy trying to put a knife in Gabriel's throat. Having lost her prisoner, Carol just start shooting all of the Wolves she sees. Ha! She gets to the armory and tries to teach Olivia, the girl who keeps inventory, how to defend herself. She hands her a pistol and puts her finger on the trigger. "Someone comes in, you squeeze and don't stop squeezing til they hit the ground."
Morgan is tying up Gabriel's attacker and he wakes up. He looks and Gabriel and Morgan and says "You need to know that people don't belong here anymore." That's all he is able to say because Carol walks up and puts a bullet in his head. This shouldn't be funny. It shouldn't. But the look on Morgan's face is just priceless. Dude, you just wasted so much time with this guy while people are getting sliced open all around the neighborhood. Carol's approach is just so much more effective.
Smokin Hot Rosita and Aaron are making their way around town with guns as well and are killing the Wolves as fast as they can (you're on your own, Morgan). Morgan finds himself surrounded by Wolves and he tells them they need to leave because his people have guns. "You keep choosin' this life, you will die." One of the Wolves responds "we didn't choose," and then he takes his group and leaves. Morgan feels pretty good about this until he comes across one of the Wolves he had met in the woods last season. This guy is relentless and Morgan has to kill him. Yup, that's usually how it goes buddy.
The Real Battle Just Begun
Eugene and Tara are at the clinic and find a new "doctor" in charge since Pete is...no longer available. Denise didn't actually finish med school. She wanted to become a surgeon but gave that dream up because she used to get frequent panic attacks. Wow. I guess you can just flip a coin between her and the dead doctor who was drunk all the time. Denise ended up going into psychiatry instead so I guess she was the next best thing to a physician? Regardless, I like her. She's got neat sense of humor.
Unfortunately Denise is called into action pretty quickly as the first stabbing victim is brought in. The prognosis isn't good - this chick is bleeding internally and the only chance she has is for Denise to operate. Denise is on the verge of a panic attack but Eugene gives her a pep talk about why it's not good to be a coward. She jumps in now and does everything she can to save the girl on the table. Denise is unsuccessful, but she does prove to herself that the community needs her and she's ready to fill that role. At least we get one warm and fuzzy moment tonight. Just one.
Carl realizes Enid is gone (good riddance) and instead of saying goodbye, she has simply left a note that says "just survive somehow." Carol's casserole timer goes off and I realize this has all happened almost in real time. Carl turns the alarm off and gets the casserole out of the oven. At least dinner tonight will be tasty.
With the Wolves gone for now, Aaron and others are walking through the streets trying to find more survivors. Aaron sees something strange... one of the Wolves has Aaron's backpack with all of the pictures of Alexandra. No wonder they knew how to invade. He looks around and starts to cry. Carol and Morgan find themselves (literally) at a crossroads and they walk past each other in silence.
The episode ends there and my heart finally goes back to beating normally. I loved having a Carol heavy episode, as I missed the badass side of her, but this attack was shocking. The people of Alexandria were finally understanding the threat of the Walkers nearby. Walkers don't have machetes, they don't sprint, and they don't drive trucks through well structured walls. These people didn't stand a chance against the Wolves. Even with people like Carol, Smokin Hot Rosita, and Aaron around, this attack was bound to be catastrophic to the community. I'm not sure how Morgan made it back so quickly, but he's clearly finding that while he has friends in Alexandria, they are not like-minded friends. I'll be interested to see what happens when the group reconvenes in the coming episodes. In the meantime, what did Gabriel's attacker mean by "people don't belong here anymore?" What is the significance of JSS? And how will our heroes retaliate? I hope it starts with a good "Damn it Carl!" from Rick.
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