The Walking Dead S5E8 "Coda" 11/30/14

Mid-season finale time!  Will they rescue Carol and Beth?  Someone's bound to die - who's it going to be?

Atlanta.  After head-butting Sasha, Lamson runs and runs, trying to get away from the walkers stalking him because his hands are still ziptied behind his back.  He's also running away from Rick, who is chasing him.  Rick jumps in a handy police car and gains on Lamson, using the car's PA system to tell him to stop.  Lamson doesn't stop, just runs and runs - until Rick hits him with the car, sending him flying and landing face first on the asphalt.  Rick is sick of this shit.  Lamson begs for him to help, panting that he thinks his back is broken.  Rick's like, all you had to do was stop.  Lamson asks to be taken back to the hospital.  Rick: "You can't go back, Bob."  And then he shoots him in the head.  "Shut up."

Church vicinity.  Where does Father Gabriel go after escaping the church?  Over to the school where Gareth and his cannibals had been camped out.  He looks at the detritus left behind, keeping an eye on the increasingly agitated walkers trapped in the school.  Then he looks at the campfire and realizes that it's a human leg (Bob's leg) sitting there, charred and chewed.  There are maggots squirming on the leg.  He freaks out - understandably - and then the walkers break free and come after him.  He runs back to the church, limping on his hurt foot.  Walkers surge out of the woods and he runs to the church's front doors, pounding on them and screaming to be let back in.  Carl and Michonne confirm that it is him and then they break open the doors they'd nailed shut, pulling him inside.  The doors are ruined now, however, and the walkers pour in.  Michonne makes with the slicing and dicing as they all retreat into the rectory.  One by one, the three of them (plus Judith in a backpack) sneak out through the hole Gabriel made in the floorboards earlier.  While the bulk of the walkers are inside the church, Carl and Michonne put down the few stragglers still outside and then nail the church doors shut again, trapping the walkers inside.

Atlanta.  Rick rejoins the group and they discuss how the plan may have been changed in light of Lamson's recent demise.  The cops say that the story they'll tell Dawn is that Lamson was killed by the rotters so that she doesn't have any reason to distrust Rick and his group.  They'll still attempt the trade.

At the hospital, Dawn keeps trying to raise Lamson and Shepard (the chick cop) on the radio and is frustrated when they don't respond.  She and Beth talk and, as much as I [now] like Beth, I don't care about this at all.  Dawn is not an interesting character, even as she's supposed to be a threat.  The writers haven't given her much by way of decent dialogue or character development.  I guess this scene is supposed to show Beth getting a little closer to her.

Church.  The walkers begin to break out of the church.  Michonne, Carl and Gabriel are at a bit of a loss as what to do next.  Fortunately, they don't have to do anything: Abraham et als. drives up in the firetruck, smashing through the church's front steps and blocking the doors.  After hugs for Michonne, Glen tells her that Eugene lied.  She takes it in stride, telling Maggie that they learned that Beth is alive and that the others went to get her back.  Maggie gets all teary - WHICH IS HILARIOUS BECAUSE ALL SEASON SHE'S NEVER MENTIONED BETH AT ALL - and they saddle up to go to Atlanta to help.

Hospital.  More Beth and Dawn bonding by the open elevator shaft where Beth has gone for some alone time.  Blah blah blah they are interrupted by yet another of Dawn's asshole cops.  He has snuck up on them and heard Dawn call Beth a cop-killer.  He threatens to tell the others unless she steps down.  Dawn pulls her gun on him blah blah blah and then they tussle, beating this shit out of each other.  Dawn gives almost as good as she's getting, but he's a little bigger than she is.  Beth tries to help and while the other cop is distracted, Dawn hits him in the throat.  Choking, he staggers backwards towards the open elevator shaft.  Dawn screams Beth's name and Beth jumps up and shoves the cop into the elevator shaft.  Dawn, quietly: "Thank you."  Afterwards, Dawn finds Beth hanging out in Carol's room.  More blah blah blah.  And on the bed, behind Dawn, Carol stirs, waking up.

Outside the hospital.  Rick and crew has arranged for a meeting.  While the others cover him with rifles from the surrounding rooftops, Rick walks out onto the top floor of a parking garage.  Two of Dawn's cops drive up.  They draw their guns; Rick puts his down on the ground.  Rick proposes the trade.  One of the cops asks, "Where are your people?"  In answer, Darryl (or Sasha) sniper-shoots a walker that was coming up behind the cops.  Rick: "They're close."  Heh.  The cops are surprised but agreeable to Rick's proposal.

Hospital.  Rick's group walks in, cops Shepard and Lecari still handcuffed, the other two cops accompanying them.  Beth and Carol change back into their own clothes and Beth sneakily stuffs a pair of scissors into the case on her right wrist.  The exchange/stand-off takes place in a hospital corridor.  Dawn and her remaining three cops stand in front of Carol (in a wheelchair), Beth and Dr. Whatsisname.  Everyone holsters their weapons.  It's tense but people seem reasonable.  There's a one-for-one exchange first: Carol for Lecari.  Then Beth for Shepard.  Rick's group gets ready to go when Dawn speaks up: "Now I just need Noah.  And then you can leave."  Rick's all, that wasn't part of the deal.  Dawn is insistent, even as Shepard asks her to back off.  Noah comes up and says he'll stay with Dawn, sacrificing his freedom so Beth and her friends can get away.  Beth runs up to him and hugs him.

As Noah walks down the hallway, Dawn murmurs smugly, "I knew you'd be back."  Beth can't stand that, can't stand listening to Dawn any longer.  Beth walks up to her, standing close: "I get it now." And then Beth rams those scissors into Dawn's shoulder.  In an immediate reaction, Dawn fires her gun RIGHT THROUGH BETH'S HEAD.  [Holy shit.  I did NOT see that coming.  I had to rewind it and watch it again right away.]  Dawn looks shocked.  Everything goes into slow motion, everyone's stunned and horrified reactions.  Darryl steps up and puts a bullet right through Dawn's forehead as her lips form the words, "No - I didn't mean to."  And then everyone is pointing all the guns at everyone else.  Shepard spreads her arms wide and shouts, "Hold your fire!  It's over!  It was just about her.  Stand down!"  Amazingly, everyone does, although Carol has to take a whimpering Darryl's gun from him.  Rick's group is shocked, stunned, ragged with grief.

Outside, the firetruck pulls up in front of the hospital.  They all (except Eugene, who seems to be alive, if not really with it) get out and approach the hospital, weapons out.  They're there to see Rick's group come out, to see Darryl carrying Beth's body, tears streaming down his face.  Maggie screams and falls to her knees, reaching out to clutch at her dead sister's limp hand.

It ends there, but there's a tag scene: Morgan has been tracking the group, carving symbols into the trees.  He finds the school and delivers a coup de grace to an immobile walker.  Then he finds the church and after a moment of prayer, he finds the map Abraham left for Rick, showing him the route to D.C.

Previously on The Walking Dead / next time on The Walking Dead