Life goes on as usual in Alexandria: whatshername checks the food pantry; people take turns on their guard watches; Morgan practices his moves and builds a solid cell ("It'll give you some choices next time," he tells a skeptical Rick); Carol sits on her porch and smokes, running through the rosary she picked up in the last episode. We learn that Rosita has hooked up with Spencer. And Darryl works on his recovered motorcycle. Carol stops by to see him, sharing her cigarettes. They talk a little about how he lost the 'cycle - to the people in the burned forest after he saved them. She says she's sorry but that's how he is and we're all stuck with that. Darryl grunts: "No, we ain't. Shoulda killed 'em." He asks her what the Saviors did to her and Maggie. Carol, who is soul-searching after her latest bout of killing 'em, says: "To us? They didn't do anything."
Dr. Denise watches as Abraham and Eugene head out, ostensibly on a scouting mission. She consults a map and then finds Darryl and Rosita: she knows where there is an apothecary nearby and thinks they might be able to scavenge some usable drugs from there. The catch? She wants to go with them. Both Darryl and Rosita think this is a VERY BAD idea but they don't really have anything else to do and she convinces them to take her with them.
En route, Denise tries to give Darryl some pointers about driving a stick-shift beater truck since he's grinding the gears like crazy; she grew up driving trucks like that, her brother taught her. [I call shenanigans: there is NO WAY Darryl doesn't know how to drive a standard.] When they come to a downed tree, they get out and walk. Rosita suggested going along the train tracks - as it is twice as far by the road - but Darryl's all, no way, I ain't takin' no tracks (perhaps remembering the good old Terminus days). He walks off down the road, Denise trailing behind; Rosita rolls her eyes and stomps off down the tracks.
Meanwhile, somewhere else, Abraham and Eugene have made their way to an industrial area. Eugene has designs on a smelter, thinking that they should start making their own bullets, seeing how ammunition is very important and a finite commodity - Abraham is quite impressed with this thinking. But Eugene also insists that he's "changed, adapted, become a survivor." Abraham rolls his eyes a bit and when a lone zombie staggers out of a back room, moves to put it down. Eugene insists that he can do it himself and Abraham lets him, wary. When Eugene doesn't seem to be able to get the job done, Abraham steps in. Eugene is furious, telling the larger man that he doesn't need him any longer, and Abraham get frustrated and takes off, leaving Eugene to find his way home alone.
Rosita rejoins Darryl and Denise without incident, and they make their way into the apothecary. The outside windows are covered with gory handprints but inside, there's nothing but a bad smell. As Darryl and Rosita load up their packs with every bottle on the shelves, Denise decides to explore, particularly since she hears a thudding coming from a storeroom. I will confess to being a little nervous at this point since Denise is the obvious one to get wounded and/or killed, and it's dark and I was sure that something was going to jump out and fasten its teeth on her. But instead she just finds one broken down, emaciated zombie with a cast on its skeletal foot. Above this zombie, written on the wall: HUSH HUSH HUSH HUSH HUSH. And in the sink, submerged in disgusting, murky water, is a toddler's sneaker ... on a toddler's foot, connected to, one presumes, the remains of a toddler. Denise gasps and runs out of the shop as Darryl and Rosita look on, all WTF? After they're done packing up the medicines, they find her outside, huddled against the wall. It's a little more horrible outside the Alexandrian walls than she had hoped. But Darryl tells her that she did good, finding this place, and they head for home.
When they get to the railroad tracks, Darryl walks down them, saying, "This way's faster, right?" and Rosita and Denise grin at each other. They pass some cars as they walk and Denise can't help but check them out, looking for stuff to scavenge. She finds a car with a cooler - and a zombie - in it. Both Darryl and Rosita are all, never mind about that, but Denise is not to be put off. They don't see her open the car door and pull out the cooler, the zombie tumbling out afterwards. Denise struggles with the zombie and the other two hear that, and come running. But she waves them off - like Eugene tried to wave off Abraham - and manages to stick her knife into the zombie's head. Then she throws up. But there was a six pack of soda in the cooler, so she seems to think it was worth it. Darryl and Rosita are pretty pissed at her but she had a point to make. She has been scared and sheltered and she needed to be brave, to get outside the walls and prove herself. She was too afraid to tell Tara she loved her and that was stupid and she wishes that ... and right in the middle of her impassioned rant, she gets a motherfucking arrow through the back of her head, through her eye.
It's a group of Saviors, led by Dwight - the guy from the burned forest who stole Darryl's crossbow and motorcycle (so now we know how the motorcycle ended up at the Savior compound) - who still has the crossbow. He's the one who just shot Denise. They also have Eugene, hands tied and on his knees. There's some speechifying by Dwight and both he and Darryl are all, I should have killed you, to each other. Eugene spies Abraham hiding behind some oil barrels at the side of the tracks and helps escalate things by saying if the Saviors want to shoot somebody, they could start with the "first class a-hole who deserves it so much more than us three." Heh. Things erupt pretty quickly at this point: everyone shooting at everyone else and, awesomely, Eugene lunges forward, fastening onto Dwight's crotch WITH HIS TEETH. Dwight screams and screams [I'm also going to call shenanigans here too: Eugene would have to have awfully strong jaws to successfully bite through jeans enough to hurt]. Dwight finally breaks away and he and his remaining Saviors take off through the woods. Darryl snatches up his crossbox - REUNITED AT LAST - but Rosita calls him off. Eugene has been shot and she and the other two men pick him up and carry him off.
Back in Alexandria, Eugene is okay. The bullet just grazed him and the antibiotics that they got from the apothecary Denise found have saved him from infection. He and Abraham make up: "I apologize for doubting your skills. You know how to bite a dick, Eugene, and I mean that with the utmost respect." Some time later, Darryl buries Denise in the town's graveyard. [I may have moaned a little, seeing his bare arms.] Carol finds him there: "You were right. I knew it when you said it." I think she means that she now agrees that he should have killed Dwight in the burned forest.
And then we get a Carol voice-over, as Tobin reads the note she left over a similar montage of daily life to what opened the episode. Basically, Carol has come around to Morgan's way of thinking. She doesn't want to kill people anymore. But instead of staying in Alexandria and building a life there, she has decided that she doesn't want to be involved in having to defend the town because it would mean fighting other humans: "I love you all here. I do. And I'd have to kill for you. I can't. I won't." Instead, she's leaving, going out on her own, and asks that no one come after. "I can't love anyone because I can't kill for anyone. So I'm going, like I always should have." Which is total crap because out there, on her own, she's most likely going to have to fight and kill other people to survive. I call shenanigans, writers.
Seriously - WTF are they doing with Carol's character? I guess I'm okay with her questioning herself but this running away is crap. I'm guessing she's going to get caught up by the Saviors and come into play when we finally have to deal with Negan, so this is all just a plot device, not actually being true to the character. Stupid show.
Previously on The Walking Dead / next time on The Walking Dead
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