The first The Walking Dead episode of Season 6 played with time. A combination of black and white footage and color footage show us what happened in the time between last year’s season finale, and where we are now. Season 6 seems to be set no more than a week after Season 5’s finale.
We are introduced to the most exciting portion of the episode right away: a massive, massive herd of zombies. It turns out that the reason Alexandria has remained relatively safe from zombie attacks is because there is a massive stone quarry not far from the community. Before the zombie apocalypse, whoever worked in the quarry, left the trucks angled, blocking off the exits. Zombies would tumble into the quarry like lemmings over a cliff, and they amassed there for years. There are quite literally thousands of zombies trapped in this huge pit. A few zombies manage to slip through the cracks and escape (tonight, one nearly ripped itself in half trying to squeeze between the two big rigs, peeling off most of its skin as it went). When part of the cliff erodes away under the weight of one of the big rigs, Rick decides it is time to act.
As we intercut with color scenes, showing Rick and the Alexandria community herding zombies, we see, in black and white, what brought them there. It is mostly housekeeping stuff: Sasha is no longer suicidal, but she does find a moping buddy in Abraham; Glenn told Maggie what happened with Nicholas; Maggie then told Tara, who is furious that Glenn let Nicholas live, but Maggie reminds her that people change, and they were once on opposite sides; Glenn may have let Nicholas live, but he still doesn’t trust him, though Nicholas seems ready to be bossed around by Glenn; and Morgan has to live in a holding cell while Rick figures out if he is a threat in any way. Morgan seems to be trying to figure out the same about Rick.
Heath returns from a weeks-long supply run with Scott and Annie. Eugene, who has taken over gate duty temporarily, is wary of these new people, but Heath’s sense of humor encourages him to open up. Nothing bad happens.
Rick finds Gabriel helping Tobin dig graves: one for Reg, and one for Pete. Rick is apoplectic at the idea of burying Pete within their walls, and Deanna agrees. She clears Rick and Morgan to take Pete’s body out into the forest. Ron, Pete’s eldest son, watches all this. Despite the fact that his father beat him, he is still his father. Ron follows the men until they stop and get out of the car. Rick wants to just dump him, but Morgan insists on burying him properly. He starts digging, but Rick stops him – he hears something. The two men venture out a short way and discover that they are standing on a cliff, overlooking the zombie quarry. Then they see Ron, being chased by a couple walkers. Rick tackles the kid to safety, and they watch the zombies lemming over the cliff. Rick gives the kid a stern talking-to about being prepared, the dangers of zombies, and how he needs to be properly trained; Ron just wanted to see where his dad’s body is going to be. Later, back at the compound, Rick bumps into Jessie. Things are awkward between them, and Jessie tells Rick that he can’t tell Ron what to do. Rick defends his stance, and it soon becomes clear that Jessie isn’t so much telling Rick not to talk to her kids, but telling him that they won’t listen to him. She is already getting training from Rosita, which she will teach her sons. Rick accepts this.
A more pressing concern is Carter. He has spent the entire apocalypse behind the walls of Alexandria. He hasn’t had to fight, and the number of walkers he has encountered can be added up on his own fingers. So he thinks that Rick’s idea, to lead the herd out of the quarry and far, far away from Alexandria, is a waste of time and more likely to get them killed. Carter is so vehemently against Rick and all that Rick stands for, that he is trying to organize a group of Alexandrians to revolt against him, and kill him if necessary. Eugene overhears this, and Carter threatens him with a gun, not seeing any way around shooting him. Rick, Daryl, and Morgan walk in, and Rick easily disarms Carter. After a few minutes, he hands the gun over to Daryl, but he could have very easily killed Carter. He wanted to. While they are out building wall reinforcements to move the herd, a few stragglers come out of the woods. Rick holds back Glenn, Michonne, Daryl, and the others from his group to let the Alexandrians get a feel for defending themselves. They fail miserably, especially Carter, and Rick and his team clean up the mess. No one dies, but Carter is even more determined that Rick needs to go.
Rick puts forth a plan to lure the herd away. By putting teams at carefully selected points (which are marked by balloons, the international sign for “there’s a party up in here”), and reinforcing corners with steel walls, Rick feels confident he can pull it off. Hell, he found helium in an apocalypse; how hard can herding some mindless meat sacks be? Unfortunately, while checking out the route during a dry run, the cliff gives way, dropping one of the big rig barricades, forcing Rick’s hand. Above the protests of all the Alexandrians, it is go time. Daryl leads the herd on his motorcycle, with Sasha and Abraham backing him up in a car. Teams stationed at predetermined balloon points shoot guns and flares to keep the zombies attention and send them in the right direction.
The plan is working, and no one is more surprised – or happy – than Carter. He apologizes to Rick and shakes his hand, vowing that he will trust him from now on. Emboldened by success, Carter heads off to assist at the head of the herd. A rogue zombie wanders out of the woods and is on Carter before he knows what happened. His girlish screams draw the herd into the woods. Rick rushes in, killing the zombie, then trying to get Carter to shut up before he brains him. I don’t know why – the zombie ripped off half of Carter’s face. He had to die. Anyway, Rick kills him and the group is able to get the zombies back on track.
But there is one more challenge they will face. As the zombies are being herded into the last phase of the plan, a big rig horn starts blaring. It is too loud, too persistent to get the zombies’ focus back and thousands of zombies scatter. Michonne and Rick recognize where the horn is coming from: home.
Check out sneak peeks for next week’s episode of The Walking Dead, titled “JSS.”
