Rick, Glenn, and Michonne are leading their group through the forest. Rick wants Daryl and Sasha to keep on target, and he will circle back and try to direct the rest of the herd back on track. Michonne and Glenn are to take their group back to Alexandria and see what is going on there. Rick pulls Glenn and Michonne aside, and quietly tells them that their group probably won’t all make it home. “Save them if you can, but if you can’t, you keep going.”
Michonne takes the lead, and many of the Alexandrians are scared and paranoid. They hear rustling, and a bunch of walkers appear. Glenn, Michonne, and Heath run ahead and start slaughtering them. The Alexandrians slowly move in, scared. Sturgess is so scared that when he shoots, he shoots wildly. The only shot that connects is in Scott’s leg; Sturgess turns and runs. The zombies all seem to be killed, but like in any good horror movie, one more jumps out and bites David’s shoulder. He knows what it means, but hopes to make it home to say goodbye to his wife Betsey before he has to be put down. He and Betsey have only been married for three months. Aaron found David during one of his recruiting missions. He had lost everyone, every thing, and gave up on being an actual person. They found Betsey on the way back to Alexandria. She was his first friend, then more, then she “made me more.” If he makes it back to her, he wants to tell her that finding her in all this was everything.
Annie is barely hobbling on with a sprained ankle, and Scott is losing a lot of blood. They turn off the road to a small commercial area. Nicholas recognizes this area as where he was when he abandoned his group. There are no working cars, so Nicholas leads the group through the little town, trying to find a way out. They find Sturgess’ hat, and later on, Sturgess, being devoured by zombies in an alley. They find they are surrounded, and duck into a pet store to hide out. Glenn’s plan is to sneak out, set a building on fire, and draw the zombies away, allowing the rest of the team to escape. Nicholas suggests a feed store – it will go up easy – and goes with Glenn. Before he goes, he radios Rick to let him know of the plan.
Annie insists she be left behind; Scott too. Michonne refuses to leave them behind. She then confronts Heath about his sudden distrust, and Heath admits he heard what Rick said. Michonne defends her team, then gets personal, challenging him, saying that he doesn’t truly know what it is like out there. “Have you ever been covered in so much blood you didn’t know if it was yours or walkers or your friends?” Heath doesn’t.
Glenn and Nicholas rush through town when Nicholas spots Will, a 19-year old who was part of the group he was with – one of the guys he abandoned. Will is now a zombie, half-crushed beneath a car, but still gnashing his teeth hungrily. Nicholas insists it is up to him to stab him. They hear distant gunfire coming from Alexandria, and pick up the pace. Back at the pet store, Michonne’s group hears the same gunfire and get nervous. The zombies outside are being drawn to it. Michonne directs her people to sit quietly until the herd clears, then they will meet Glenn at the feed store.
A banging at the back of the pet store reveals a couple zombies in a storage closet. Michonne takes care of them easily, but a few walkers outside heard it and have started to flock towards the shop. Behind them, Michonne can see the lost half of the herd has caught up with them. With no other choice, she gets her people out of the store. They run, and Annie falls. She insists they continue without her, and within moments she is devoured by zombies. It is now Heath, Scott, David, and Michonne. They work together to get over a heavy chained metal gate. David and Michonne are the last to go over, and the walkers grab at their feet. Heath shoots the zombies, desperately trying to get them off Michonne (David is a lost cause anyway). David succumbs to the zombies, giving Michonne a better chance to escape. She makes it over the gate, and she watches David get absorbed into the herd. It is Heath who reminds them they have to keep going.
Nicholas and Glenn finally find the feed store, and find it has burned to the ground long ago. Walkers are surrounding them quickly, and Nicholas finally recommends a direction. They run, but find themselves at a dead end. There is a chain link fence, but walkers are on the other side and moving fast. Glenn starts shooting; so does Nicholas, but there are too many zombies and they run out of ammo quickly and turn to their knives. The pair climb atop a dumpster, giving them a tiny bit of distance. Glenn continues to kick them away, and Nicholas develops tunnel vision. He starts to cry, and no matter how much Glenn screams at him, he can’t come back. This is where I think Nicholas is going to feed himself to the zombies in the hopes of giving Glenn a chance to escape, but he doesn’t. It is so much worse.
“Thank you,” he says to Glenn before raising his gun and shooting himself in the head. Nicholas topples over, onto Glenn, and the two fall into the sea of zombies. They dig in gleefully, and we watch as Glenn is disemboweled. He watches his own guts be torn out before he dies.
Michonne, Heath, and Scott are the only three to survive. They make it to Alexandria, but Michonne is worried when she sees no smoke; no sign that Glenn is alive.
We still have a good ten minutes left in this episode, and we pick up with Rick. Rick was last seen running (literally) back to get the RV, then circle back to pick up the rest of the herd. On the way, he stops to kill a trio of walkers. In doing so, his hand is injured. I’m not sure if he simply cut himself or if he was bitten, but it looks like Rick is finally going to lose his hand. So Rick gets the RV and returns to the meeting point. He gets no answer from Glenn, but Daryl does respond. Daryl split off from Sasha early, I think to try to round up the missing herd. Rick reports gunfire coming from home and urges Daryl and Sasha to continue their mission. The people they left at home can handle whatever it is. Going home before this is done wouldn’t be helping them; it would be helping Rick, Daryl, Sasha, Abraham. Daryl eventually rejoins with Sasha and Abraham, and we see they still have a massive amount of herd with him.
Rick waits quietly in the RV, waiting for the herd. Instead, he is set upon by two humans, presumably Wolves. After some wrestling, Rick manages to shoot both of them. A faint sound outside brings Rick’s attention to three more Wolves, creeping around outside the RV. They don’t know he saw them in the rearview mirror. Quietly, stealthily, Rick grabs an automatic rifle and turns the side of the RV into Swiss cheese. It works, the three of them are dead. But now the RV won’t start. I am guessing he hit the gas tank. And just his luck, the remainder of the herd, the stragglers who wandered away, are headed right towards him.
A moment now to mourn the loss of Glenn. Even though I knew it had to come eventually (he did die in the comic book, around this time) it doesn’t make it any easier. He was one of my favorites. I find it interesting that, despite all his insistence that he had changed, Nicholas was still the same coward he was when he let Noah die. He took the cowardly way out, killing himself, and in doing so he killed Glenn.
You can watch previews for the next episode of The Walking Dead, titled “Here’s Not Here,” by clicking here.
