Things are peaceful in Alexandria. Olivia takes stock in the pantry; Gabriel now walks with a rifle over his shoulder; Eugene does guard duty; Morgan is finishing up a jail cell; Carol chain smokes and plays with her rosary and seems to have moved in with Tobin; Rosita is hooking up with Spencer, but seems to be doing it out of a desire to not be alone. It’s the same everyday. Carol and Daryl discuss the Saviors he met on the road at the beginning of the half-season. She agrees that he should have killed them. Daryl notices a change about her and asks what the Saviors did to Carol and Maggie. “To us? They didn’t do anything.”
Eugene and Abraham go beyond the walls to a metal shop, and he reveals to Abraham the real reason for the trip: he is almost certainly-positive that they can use this place to make bullets. Abraham is proud of Eugene and excited at the proposition, but he puts a pin in the conversation to take care of a stray walker. Eugene calls dibs and Abraham steps back and gives him a go. The walker has been coated in metal, so when Eugene tries to machete it, his knife just bounces off the chrome dome. The walker pins Eugene against a table, and despite several attempts, Eugene can’t grab a weapon. Abraham finally steps in and jams a length of rebar in the walker’s face. Rather than thanking Abraham, Eugene is insulted that Abraham felt the need to save him. Abraham reminds him that he is best at thinking; not so good at killing stuff. Offended, Eugene decides that he can take care of himself, and that Abraham’s protection services are no longer necessary. Abraham storms out, telling Eugene he can find his own way home.
Denise wants Daryl and Rosita to take her on a run. She passed an apothecary at some point and while it looked like it was mostly a gift shop, if it really is an apothecary, it might have some useful medicine. Neither of the experienced hunters wants Denise to go, but they give in when she threatens to go out alone.
On the road, a felled tree stops them. Rosita and Daryl check, take care of a zombie caught beneath the trunk, and tell Denise to get out of the truck: they walk from here. Though it is a straight shot if they follow the train tracks, Daryl refuses and instead takes the road, almost twice as long. Rosita takes the tracks and Denise follows Daryl. Man, Terminus really medded up Daryl.
They reach the apothecary and, once it is determined safe, the trio move in. Denise is overwhelmed by the smell. At the back of the shop is a pharmacy counter, shielded by a solid metal door. Daryl cracks it open with his crowbar and finds the drugs have been untouched. He and Rosita hop the counter and plan to take everything they can. A thumping quiets them down, but Rosita identifies it as a single walker, maybe one who can’t walk. She and Daryl continue with their looting, but Denise is drawn to the noise. In a back room she discovers discarded children’s books, and a playpen. She peeks in with trepidation, but is relieved to find it empty. That relief is short-lived when she sees a gurgling, rotting zombie splayed out on the floor, looking more like Pizza the Hutt than a zombie. On the wall, “hush” is scrawled manically. Then Denise finds the missing baby: drowned in a murky basin. Only the baby’s foot is visible. Denise runs from the room, startling Daryl and Rosita, and waits for them outside.
When they are done, Daryl compliments Denise on recommending this place. Rosita is a little more harsh, reminding her that they told her she wasn’t ready to come out. As they walk back, Denise tells Daryl about her twin brother, Dennis, who was six minutes older than she was. She wanders away to check on a car when she spies a cooler in the passenger seat. A zombie is trapped in the car, but Denise really wants what is in that cooler. Daryl and Rosita decline the side quest; they already got what they wanted. Denise opens the car door and tries to wrest away the cooler. The zombie spills out on top of her and the two struggle. Daryl and Rosita rush in with the save, but Denise yells at them. She kills it, calmly slips the knife back into her holster, then proceeds to vomit on her glasses, which fell off in the struggle. She retrieves her prize, a six pack of sodas.
Daryl yells at Denise for risking her life for a can of soda. Denise loses her cool and starts yelling back, about how you have to take chances if you want to live. The reason she wanted Daryl on this run is because he reminds her of her brother and feels safe with him. She wanted Rosita to come because she knows she feels alone, but is stronger than she thinks. Denise herself is sick of the fact that she isn’t out in the world, trying to live. Suddenly an arrow pierces Denise through the eye. A whole mess of Saviors come out of the woods – and they have Eugene hostage.
The leader of this crew, Dwight, was the leader of the crew who stole Daryl’s bike, and who he blew up. The arrow came from Daryl’s crossbow, but Denise wasn’t the one he was aiming for. Dwight wants to be let into Daryl’s complex, and wants to be allowed to take whatever and whoever they want, or they will kill Eugene, then Rosita, then Daryl. Eugene sees Abraham hiding behind some barrels in the forest and rats him out. A couple of the Saviors go looking for him, and the others all watch expectantly. Eugene takes the opportunity and bites Dwight’s penis as hard as he can. Abraham surprises the group from behind and shoots. Daryl slashes a neck, and he and Rosita get their guns back. A massive gunfight erupts, but when walkers are lured to the noise, Dwight calls for his men to fall back. Daryl grabs his crossbow back and starts to follow, but Rosita calls him back. Denise is already gone, and Eugene has been hit in the crossfire. They carry him off to Alexandria.
Eugene has been patched up. The bullet only grazed him and the antibiotics they picked up on the run will probably save his life. Eugene wakes and assures Abraham that he wasn’t trying to get Abraham killed, he just needed a distraction. Abraham understands that and apologizes for doubting his ability. “You know how to bite a d*ck – and I mean that in the nicest way possible.”
Daryl has retrieved Denise’s body, and buries her in their graveyard while holding a vanity keychain she took from the store. It says Dennis. Carol joins him and they dig mostly in silence. “You were right,” Carol says. “I knew it when you said it.”
Tonight’s events have a two-pronged effect. Abraham goes to Sasha’s house and tells her that there could be 30 years for them here. “It would still be too short,” he says. She invites him in.
More tragically, Carol has left a note for Tobin, which he discovers the next morning, as the normalcy of Alexandria plays out around him. According to her note, Carol didn’t mean to end it like this, but what they have is what other people want, too. If they survive this threat, another will come for them. This letter is addressed to the community as a whole: “I love you all, and I would have to kill for you. I can’t; I won’t. Rick sent me away and I wasn’t going to come back. I can’t love anyone because I can’t kill for anyone anymore. I am going like I always should have. Don’t come after me, please.”
I find Carol’s story shift to be awkward. I honestly don’t think she “found religion,” as her fondling of the rosary would suggest on a surface level. I think it was Maggie’s pregnancy that got her thinking about the meaning of life, and her role in this new world. She misses being a mom, but doesn’t want the risks that would entail. I think she misses the woman she used to be, and doesn’t like who the new world has forced her to become. Of course, I don’t think she is going to find happiness out there on her own, and I certainly don’t think she would join the Saviors – not willingly, anyway.
You can watch previews for the next episode, titled “East,” by clicking here.
