The Walking Dead Episode 6.05 Recap
Rick runs for Alexandria as half the herd of zombies are hot on his heels. Michonne and Maggie help him in safely and seal the gate while Deanna looks on in shock. The dead are gathering thickly on the wall, and the frightened members of Alexandria gather. Rick speaks, promising they are safe for now. The wall seems stable; now Rick wants to know if the residents can hold up. Aaron, sensing the fear and doubt amongst the residents, speaks up, defending Rick and his plan, reminding them that because of Rick, only half the herd is outside those gates. Aaron then takes blame, admitting that it is his lost backpack that led the Wolves to Alexandria.
This rousing speech doesn’t seem to buoy the spirits. Olivia is trying to ration food from the pantry, but those waiting for food think this is pointless. If they are going to die soon, why starve themselves? They push their way into the pantry, leaving Olivia watching helplessly, and Deanna observing silently. Spencer shows up and warns them that starting down this road will be the beginning of the end; that this hopelessness will lead to Alexandria’s downfall. Shamed, the looters (calmest looters I have ever seen) put their food back and slink away. Deanna is proud of her son.
Back home, Deanna mopes over Reg’s wedding band – but only for a moment. Inspired by Spencer’s rousing speech, she grabs one of Reg’s blueprints and starts mapping out new plans for Alexandria, including space for crops, education, training, and medical. Glass breaking downstairs worries her, and she finds Spencer, drunk, with a whole basket of food stolen from the pantry. If only one person stole from the pantry, no one would notice. “Why not me?” He reasons that everyone is right, they are going to die soon, then blames his mom for all of this, for thinking that they could start fresh. He blames her for the death of Reg and Aidan. Deanna says nothing, just packs up the food and takes it back to the pantry.
It is dark out as Deanna heads to the pantry. A walker, a former Wolf, suddenly lunges at her, causing her to drop her groceries. After the initial shock, she grabs a broken bottle and stabs wildly at the zombie – but only in the chest. She gets it to the ground but doesn’t really neutralize it. Rick comes and gives it a swift knife to the brain. She assures Rick she wants to live, and tells him that the community doesn’t need her – they need him.
Despite what Michonne said, Maggie won’t believe that Glenn is dead, and she decides to go looking for him. Aaron finds her preparing to jump the wall and insists he go with her. She doesn’t want the company, but relents when he tells her of a better way: through the sewer system. They should be able to follow the sewer past the herd of zombies at the gate. So they venture in. A fallen ladder blocks their way at one point. When they loosen it, they discover two hideous zombies that look like the Toxic Avenger if he were the undead. Mottled, rotten, bloated, rubbery skin; bones that are soft and pliable. Maggie actually gets tangled in one of them. Aaron kills them both, and she insists that he can go. She could have handled them if she really wanted.
The two continue on, and finally come to the end of the sewer line. Maggie can see zombies stomping around outside – they didn’t go far enough. Aaron tries to reason with Maggie, that he can get out and distract them, but she screams at him – it’s over! She weeps over burning his photo, how she could have helped if she went with him, but she didn’t because, as she admits – she is pregnant. “I want to see his face. But I don’t get to, not now. I have to live with that.” Aaron hugs her tightly as the sewer gate is blacked out by zombies.
Maggie and Aaron return to camp, and are on top of the wall keeping watch for signs of life from Glenn, Daryl, Sasha, Abraham, or even Nicholas. In a rush of emotion, Maggie rushes down and starts rubbing Glenn’s name off a list of fallen that have been written on the wall. Aaron joins her, scrubbing Nicholas’ name as well, and hinting that Aaron/Erin makes a good name for a boy or a girl. But Maggie can consider it when Glenn comes back.
Carl is worried that Enid went over the wall and wants to go looking for her. He seeks Ron’s help, but Ron is mad and wants to let Enid be. Apparently Enid was his girlfriend, so seeing her and Carl hanging out sent his teenage hormones raging. He really doesn’t want Carl to go looking for her, and threatens to tattle. The two get into a shoving match, and Carl retreats home. Later, Ron finds Rick on the wall and tells him, truthfully, what happened, but assures Rick that Carl is with Judith on their porch. He then asks Rick to teach him how to shoot, something which Rick happily obliges.
Jessie sees movement in an otherwise empty house and sees a zombie throw herself against the window. Other residents come to see what is going on and scream when they see the zombie. Jessie remains calm, takes a deep breath, and opens the door enough to knife the zombie in the eye. “I used to not want to see the way things were,” she explains to the onlookers. “But this is what life looks like now. We have to see it, fight it. If we don’t fight, we die.” No one says a word as she leaves, but judging by the look on Denise’s face, she was touched by the impromptu speech.
Denise has been struggling with her new, overwhelming responsibility as Alexandria doctor. She had a patient in the clinic who had an infected wound and was probably going to die – and she couldn’t do anything to save him. Denise is so scared of what is going on in the clinic that she doesn’t have time to be scared about what is going on outside the clinic. Tara visits her and offers her some support, but it doesn’t really help Denise, at least not as much as Jessie’s speech. After hearing that, Denise returns to the clinic and her medical textbooks, and finds something. She takes a needle and sucks out some of the infected pus from her patient’s wound. His vital signs even out and Denise finally has a win. She goes out and finds Tara. Without a word, she kisses her deeply.
Tara and Denise aren’t the only ones smooching. Rick finds Jessie doing laundry, and alludes to the fact that he heard about her speech. “I wasn’t saying there was no future; there’s got to be. Tell me there is more.” He tells her with passionate kisses.
But trouble is brewing, as blood is leaking through the seams of the wall…
You can watch a clip from the next episode, titled “Always Accountable,” below:
