Season 6 of AMC's The Walking Dead consists of sixteen episodes; it premiered on October 11, 2015, and concluded on April 3, 2016. It was confirmed on October 7, 2014, that AMC had renewed The Walking Dead for Season 6. Scott Gimple continued as showrunner for a third consecutive season.
This season introduces notable characters including Heath, Denise Cloyd, Paul "Jesus" Rovia, Gregory, Dwight and Negan.
The first part follows Rick and his group leading the Alexandria community through a series of crises, including the threat of a massive horde of walkers and an attack by dangerous scavengers known as the Wolves. The second half involves Rick and his companions discovering more survivor communities, making allies of the agrarian Hilltop Colony and adversaries of the Saviors led by the ruthless Negan.
The premiere episode, "First Time Again," received 14.63 million on its initial broadcast and 7.43 million in the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic.[1]
This season adapts material from Issues #78-100 of the Comic Series.
Plot
"First Time Again"
Rick's group and the Alexandrians stand beside a quarry filled with walkers. The quarry exits are being blocked by several large trucks, one of which teeters on the edge of a cliff. As Rick outlines a plan to herd the walkers away, the teetering truck plummets to the ground, unleashing the walkers. Rick – who'd been orchestrating a supposed dry run – yells for the group to put the plan into action.
In a flashback to the moments following the deadly town meeting, Deanna sits by a campfire, mourning her husband. "You were wrong," she tells Father Gabriel, referring to his warning that Rick's group was dangerous. Abraham, meanwhile, carries Reg's body in a tarp. He takes a swig of liquor then pours some out onto Reg's corpse.
At the infirmary, Rosita tends to Tara, who has just come out of her coma. Glenn and Nicholas stagger in, bloody from their fight in the woods. Glenn tells Maggie that they were attacked by walkers, omitting the fact that Nicholas ambushed and tried to kill him.
Carl sits next to Enid on a dock. She holds his hand. Ron secretly watches.
Rick warns Morgan that he no longer takes chances, implying that they'll be taking some precautionary measures with Morgan.
Drunk, Abraham sits on a stoop, playing with Reg's wedding ring. He flashes a peace sign when Sasha strolls by. She returns the gesture.
Back in the present: On his motorcycle, Daryl herds the quarry walkers down a road lined bumper-to-bumper with cars.
In the past: Rick learns about the "W man" from Morgan and tells Daryl they should beef up security. Daryl disagrees with Rick's plan to stop recruiting new people to the community.
In the present: Sasha and Abraham drive a car to a rendezvous point marked with red balloons. Daryl informs them via walkie-talkie that he's bringing the herd to their position.
In the past: Rick visits Morgan in the unfinished townhouse where he was detained following his fight with Pete – Alexandria's unofficial holding cell. Rick apologizes for holding Morgan, but Morgan acknowledges the need for precaution.
While guarding the gate, Eugene lets in three Alexandrians — Heath, Scott and Annie — who've been on a supply run for the past few weeks.
Rick releases Morgan and debriefs him on the Alexandria community. They find Gabriel and Tobin digging graves for Reg and Pete. Rick refuses to let Pete be buried inside the community. Deanna agrees and tells them to bury Pete several miles down the road. Ron eavesdrops.
As Rick and Morgan load Pete's body into a car, Morgan points out that Rick could have imprisoned Pete instead of killing him. Rick argues that Pete was a killer, but Morgan counters, "I'm a killer, Rick. I am and you are, too."
In the present: Rick, Michonne and Morgan arrive at a rendezvous point with yellow balloons. Glenn tells them via walkie that he's almost at his destination.
In the past: Ron secretly follows Rick and Morgan to Pete's burial site, where they discover a nearby quarry filled with walkers. Ron is discovered when he's attacked by walkers and Rick and Morgan have to rescue him.
Rick and Morgan deduce that the quarry has been trapping all the walkers in the area, which is why Alexandria has been so safe. Ron tries to leave, but Rick sternly warns him that he will die if he wanders around alone.
In the present: Glenn, Nicholas and Heath arrive at a tractor store located on the walker-herding route. Glenn devises a plan to kill the walkers inside so their noise won't draw the oncoming herd off-course. He tries to lure the walkers out the front door only to find it blocked.
In the past: Rick presides over a community meeting to propose herding the quarry walkers away before they break free and attack Alexandria. He assembles a team of volunteers. Sasha says she'll help Daryl lead the walkers away and Abraham quickly offers to join her so she isn't alone. Glenn will help herd, but Maggie decides to stay back in Alexandria to keep an eye on things. Nicholas volunteers to help, despite Glenn's look of disapproval. Deanna quashes protests from Carter, one of the Alexandrians, and gives the plan her blessing.
Rick meets with his team and devises a plan to herd the walkers west, away from Alexandria. Eugene suggests they build a wall at a key intersection to ensure none of the walkers split off and make their way to the community. Rick charges Carter, who worked on the wall construction crew, with building it.
In the present: Daryl leads the herd to the yellow rendezvous point at the key intersection. Walkers pinball against the newly-erected wall as they make their way around the bend. Rick, Michonne and Morgan shoot flares to keep the walkers marching west.
In the past: Rick's group and the Alexandria residents build the wall. Continuing their earlier conversation, Daryl tells Rick that recruiting new people is the only way to help the community thrive.
In the present: Glenn formulates a new plan to kill the walkers in the tractor shop. He tells Nicholas to stay on the sidelines and radio Rick if things go south.
In the past: At the wall construction site, Maggie reveals to Tara that Nicholas got Noah killed and also tried to kill Glenn. When Tara objects to Glenn's decision to help Nicholas rather than punish him, Maggie points out that Glenn gave Tara a second chance after she sided with the Governor against them. "Glenn saves people," Maggie says.
In the present: Glenn breaks a window at the trailer store and, with Heath's help, shoots walkers as they pour out. When they become overwhelmed, Nicholas steps in and helps kill the walkers.
In the past: Carol serves refreshments at the wall construction site. Morgan notes that Carol is constantly alert and asks if she used to be a cop like Rick. Unnerved, Carol curtly thanks Morgan for the compliment.
In the present: Abraham takes an unnecessary risk when he leaps out of the car to kill a few walkers that have strayed from the herd. He hops back in, exhilarated.
In the past: At the wall construction site, Rick advises Deanna to start allowing firearms within the community. Walkers emerge from the woods and approach a group of Alexandrians. Overwhelmed, Carter asks for help. Rick stops his people from intervening and encourages the Alexandrians to defend themselves, but they're paralyzed with fear. Morgan jumps in and kills the walkers. Carter glares at Rick.
At the armory, Eugene overhears Carter urging Tobin, Spencer and Francine to help him kill Rick. Carter spots Eugene and is about to shoot him when Rick, Daryl and Morgan walk in. Rick wrestles the gun from Carter but decides at the last minute not to execute him.
In the present: Rick's team fans out to manage the herd. A walker attacks Carter and bites him. Carter screams, drawing walkers off the road.
In the past: Rick invites Morgan to live with them in the house. Morgan tells Rick he's still the same Rick he met at the beginning – he knows this because Rick didn't kill Carter when he had the opportunity. Rick admits he wanted to kill Carter, but stopped himself because he realized he didn't have to: "Somebody like that?" Rick says, referring to Carter's ineptitude, "They're gonna die no matter what."
In the present: Rick kills Carter to stop his screaming from attracting the walkers. Tobin herds the stray walkers back onto the road. Rick asks Morgan to return to Alexandria and update everyone.
Daryl, Sasha and Abraham continue leading the herd down the road.
In the past: Rick runs into Jessie at the armory. She admonishes Rick for being rough with Ron in the woods. Rick offers to teach her and Ron how to protect themselves, but Jessie says she's already asked Rosita to give her gun lessons.
In the present: Michonne and Rick monitor the herd on the road.
In the past: Rick brings everyone to the "finish line," where he instructs them to fall back while Daryl, Sasha and Abraham escort the herd another 20 miles down the road. In private, Abraham asks Sasha if she's doing this because she still wants to die. She says no.
The group finds the tractor store full of walkers and Rick makes plans to clear it out later, after the dry run. Glenn pulls Nicholas aside and tells him he's not ready to go on such an important mission, but Glenn promises he'll help him in the future.
Rick finally leads the team to the quarry, moments before the truck topples off the cliff.
In the present: The walker herd reaches the finish line when a loud horn unexpectedly goes off in the distance. Drawn to the noise, half the walkers split off from the herd. While the front of the herd continues to follow Daryl, Sasha and Abraham, the back half of the herd veers off the road en masse – their new course taking them right to Alexandria.
"JSS"
In a flashback, Enid's parents are killed by walkers while trying to jumpstart a car. Locked in the car, Enid cries as walkers devour them outside.
Enid wanders the woods alone, foraging for food and killing walkers. She repeatedly traces the letters "JSS" in dirt and dusty windows. Enid eventually stumbles upon Alexandria's gate. She starts to walk away, but seeing "JSS" scrawled on her arm, changes her mind and goes inside.
In the present, Carol collects ingredients from the pantry. Mrs. Neudermeyer, also present, once again complains about wanting a fresh pasta maker. Carol snidely comments that Mrs. Neudermeyer should be more concerned about her "disgusting" cigarette habit.
Later, Carol sees Sam moping on her porch and brusquely tells him to get over his father's death.
Jessie tries to give Ron a haircut. He blames her for Pete's death and is angry that she's friends with Rick. She defends Rick and reminds Ron that his father was a dangerous man.
Maggie tells Deanna that they have seeds and suggests they start a garden once the town expansion is finished. She urges Deanna – still in shock over the death of her son and husband – to lead the community once again.
At the infirmary, Eugene and Tara meet Denise, the new doctor. She explains that she studied surgery in medical school but switched to psychiatry after having panic attacks.
Carl sees Ron and Enid sitting together outside. Gabriel asks Carl for self-defense lessons. Carl ignores Gabriel, then has a change of heart, inviting him to come by for a machete lesson.
From her kitchen, Carol watches Mrs. Neudermeyer smoking outside. Suddenly, a man rushes up and cleaves Mrs. Neudermeyer with a machete.
Maggie and Deanna hear a commotion inside the walls, then Maggie sees the Wolves scale the fence and infiltrate the community. Judith.
At home, Jessie and Sam hear a window break and hide in an upstairs closet.
As chaos erupts in the streets, Enid stops by Carl's house to say good-bye before leaving the community. But Carl convinces her to stay and help protect Judith.
Carol watches as the Wolves take prisoners in chains and one Wolf paints a "W" on his forehead with blood. She saves a mortally wounded neighbor from a Wolf then stabs the neighbor through the head.
From the lookout tower, Spencer shoots a cargo truck as it hurtles toward the main gate. The truck crashes into the wall, causing the horn to blare – the same horn that drew the walker herd Daryl, Abraham and Sasha were simultaneously leading away from Alexandria. Spencer tries to get out of the lookout tower to stop the horn, but the door is blocked.
One of the Alexandrians, Holly, is rushed to the infirmary. Denise asks Tara to stay behind and stand guard.
Spencer finally reaches the truck but hesitates when he finds a walker inside. Morgan arrives just in time to kill the walker and stop the horn. Sensing Spencer's fear, Morgan orders him to hide in the truck.
Inside the walls, Morgan confronts a Wolf and orders him to leave. Carol, disguised as a Wolf, swoops in and stabs Morgan's opponent. Morgan angrily tells her they don't have to kill people. "Of course we do," she snaps, and orders him to help her secure the armory.
Deanna decides to stay outside the walls since she lacks fighting skills. Maggie tells Spencer to keep Deanna safe inside the truck.
Denise panics after discovering that Holly is bleeding internally. Tara and Eugene urge her to overcome her fears and operate on Holly.
Carl saves Ron from a Wolf attack and urges Ron to follow him inside the house. But Ron sees Enid standing in the doorway and storms off.
Jessie hears Ron arrive home. She emerges from the closet to warn Ron away. But when she gets downstairs, a Wolf woman attacks her. Jessie grabs a pair of scissors and repeatedly stabs the woman in the chest as Ron looks on.
En route to the armory, Morgan leaves Carol to save Gabriel from a Wolf. He spares the attacker's life.
At the armory, Carol loads a bag with guns. She shows Olivia how to use a gun and instructs her to shoot if anyone comes through the door.
Gabriel helps Morgan bind a Wolf. But to Morgan's dismay, Carol shoots his prisoner and starts distributing guns. Morgan gives his gun to Gabriel.
Meanwhile, Rosita and Aaron kill Wolves who've looted a house.
Morgan encounters a group of Wolves near the main gate and takes them on with his staff, ordering them to leave. "You keep choosing this life, you will die," he says. "We didn't choose," says the blond Wolf, who Morgan earlier encountered outside Alexandria. The Wolves flee, but not before one of them grabs a gun on his way out. Morgan shuts the gate behind them.
The Wolves now defeated, Carol stands over Mrs. Neudermeyer's body and tears up.
A shell-shocked Aaron walks down a street littered with bodies. He notices one of the Wolves had the backpack he lost escaping the truck ambush with Daryl. Aaron finds the photos of Alexandria inside and, horrified, realizes that's how the Wolves found the community.
Back in the infirmary, Holly dies on the operating table. Denise asks Tara, Eugene and Eric for a moment alone. Tara reminds her to destroy Holly's brain.
Maggie, Deanna, Rosita and Spencer patrol the perimeter. Spencer asks how Rosita is able to live in the face of such despair. She explains that her friends give her something worth dying for.
Carl finds a farewell note from Enid: "Just Survive Somehow," it reads.
In a house, Morgan encounters the other Wolf he met in the woods outside Alexandria. The W-Man taunts Morgan for not killing him when he had the chance. Morgan knocks him unconscious.
Later, Morgan and Carol stride down opposite ends one of Alexandria's corpse-strewn streets, refusing to acknowledge each other as they pass.
"Thank You"
Glenn, Michonne and the Alexandrians race through the woods toward Alexandria, where the horn continues to blare. Half of the quarry herd follows close behind. Over the walkie, Rick tells Daryl to stay the course and keep the rest of the herd moving along the road.
Rick tells his team that he's going to get the RV and redirect the breakaway herd before it reaches Alexandria. In private, he tells Glenn and Michonne that the Alexandrians with them "aren't all gonna make it." Rick instructs them to lead the team back to Alexandria but to keep going if anyone can't keep up. Heath overhears the conversation.
Just then, one of the Alexandrians gets mauled by a walker and bleeds out. Michonne stabs his head. Afterward, Rick takes his gun and an energy bar off his body while the remaining Alexandrians look on in horror. Meanwhile, the horn stops.
Glenn and Michonne lead the group towards Alexandria. Walkers attack, sending the Alexandrians into a panic: Sturgess fires wildly into the air and hits Scott in the leg before fleeing; Nicholas becomes paralyzed with fear; and a walker bites David on the shoulder.
Meanwhile, Daryl tells Abraham and Sasha that he's leaving them to help defend Alexandria. Abraham and Sasha implore Daryl to stay until they reach the 20-mile marker as planned, but Daryl refuses and rides off on his bike.
David tells Michonne about his wife, hoping he'll get to see her before succumbing to his walker bite. Annie insists they stop to treat Scott's leg.
The group checks cars in an abandoned town to see if any can be used to drive home. Heath recognizes the town as the location of Aiden and Nicholas' disastrous and fatal supply run. Nicholas admits he and Aidan didn't know what they were doing. Reluctantly, Heath tasks Nicholas with showing them how to get through the town.
With Nicholas leading the way, the group runs into walkers feasting on Sturgess' body. Nicholas becomes paralyzed by fear again, but snaps out of it when Glenn calls his name. The group backtracks only to be confronted by more walkers. They retreat into a pet store, where Glenn formulates a plan to set fire to a nearby building to distract the herd. Nicholas suggests a feed store and offers to lead Glenn there.
Over the walkie, Glenn fills Rick in on his plan while Rick sprints down the road and fights off a group of walkers.
Back in the pet store, Annie and Scott point out that their injuries are slowing everyone down and urge the group to keep going without them. Heath looks pointedly at Michonne and refuses to leave anyone behind.
Afterward, Michonne confronts Heath about his attitude. He tells her he overheard Rick's instructions to leave people behind. Michonne angrily reminds Heath that he hasn't had to survive like Rick, and doesn't know what it's like out in the world. Heath counters that he's been on plenty of runs, but Michonne points out that he's never "been covered in so much blood that you didn't know if it was yours, or walkers or your friends."
Out in the town, Glenn and Nicholas find a walker pinned underneath a car. Nicholas recognizes the walker as a friend that he and Aidan left behind during their supply run. He stabs the walker through the head, then he and Glenn rush away as sounds of gunfire erupt from the direction of Alexandria.
Meanwhile, Rick reaches the RV and races off down the road.
Michonne's group sits quietly, watching walkers file by the storefront, drawn by the gunfire. Michonne sees David writing a farewell note to his wife. When he tries to hand it to her, she refuses to take it. "You're getting home," Michonne writes on her arm. Then walkers that had been lurking in the back room of the store begin pounding on an interior door, drawing the attention of the walkers outside. As the herd arrives in town, Michonne's group races out of the store, guns blazing. But Annie falls and is devoured by walkers.
Meanwhile, Glenn and Nicholas reach the feed store only to find that it's already been burned to the ground. Glenn desperately urges Nicholas to suggest another building as the massive herd moves toward them.
Michonne's group reaches a gate and climbs over it one by one. The herd catches up and claws at Michonne and David as they clamber over. Walkers drag David off the gate and tear him apart as Heath looks on in horror.
In another part of town, walkers corner Glenn and Nicholas in an alley. Glenn climbs a dumpster and helps Nicholas up as walkers surround them and grab at their feet. After staring at the teeming horde all around them, a sudden calm comes over Nicholas. "Thank you," he tells Glenn and shoots himself in the head. Glenn gets knocked into the herd by Nicholas' falling corpse and screams as he's engulfed by feasting walkers. Whether Glenn was killed or not is ambiguous.
Grim and exhausted, Michonne and Heath help Scott limp through the woods. As they wade through a creek, Heath is shocked to see his blood-soaked reflection in the water.
Meanwhile, Rick stops the RV at the edge of the woods, where Glenn directed him to intercept the herd. He tries to reach Glenn by walkie but receives no response. Then he radios Daryl to tell him the breakaway herd will soon be back on track.
As Rick waits, two men sneak into the RV and fire at him – it's the Wolves that Morgan let escape. Rick dives and returns fire, killing them. He then sees more Wolves sneaking up outside the RV and opens fire on them with a machine gun, killing them all.
Daryl hears gunfire over the walkie and calls Rick's name, but gets no response. He races down the road, reluctantly rejoining Abraham and Sasha as the herd trails behind them.
Michonne, Heath and Scott arrive at Alexandria to find the outlying buildings burned. Michonne unsheaths her katana.
Rick tries to start the RV but the engine falters. He keeps trying and trying, but without luck as the massive breakaway herd starts to emerge from the forest just behind him…
"Here's Not Here"
In Alexandria's makeshift prison cell, Morgan visits the Wolf that he took prisoner and recalls the man once saying he wanted to take everything that Morgan had. "Well, here it is," Morgan says, launching into his story. "Every last bit."
In a flashback, Morgan rants to himself in the apartment where Rick, Michonne and Carl found him.[2] His lantern topples and starts a fire.
Now homeless, Morgan hunts walkers in the woods and burns their bodies at his campground. He sharpens long sticks and builds a stockade around the camp.
One day, while hunting, two men stumble upon him whilst running through the woods. He kills them, stabbing one through the neck and throttling the other.
Morgan recreates his King County bunker at the campground, using walker blood to scrawl messages on the surrounding rocks and trees. "Clear," reads one; "Here's Not Here," another.
While hunting, Morgan follows the sound of a bleating goat and discovers a secluded log cabin. A man orders him to put his gun down. Morgan ignores the warning and stalks after the man, who ambushes Morgan and knocks him unconscious with a staff.
Morgan wakes up in a cell inside the cabin. "Kill me," he begs. The man introduces himself as Eastman and hands Morgan a book, "The Art of Peace." Morgan watches Eastman run outside to kill a walker with his staff and then drag its body into the woods.
Eastman brings Tabitha, the goat, inside the house for the night and asks Morgan not to hurt her.
As days pass, Morgan remains in his cell, ranting and mumbling to himself. He watches Eastman practice martial arts with his staff outside.
Eastman finally speaks to Morgan and explains that he used to be a forensic psychiatrist. He asks what Morgan did before the fall, and what he does now. "I clear," Morgan replies. "Walkers, people, anything that gets anywhere near me, I kill them."
"That's the biggest load of horseshit I ever heard," Eastman deadpans. He explains his philosophy that humans aren't built to kill, saying he only met one evil person among the many criminals he interviewed for his job. He then tells Morgan that the cell door has been open all along and invites Morgan to leave whenever he wants. "Or stay," Eastman offers. "Crash on the couch. And we'll try to find you another way."
Morgan opens the door and charges at Eastman. As they struggle, they knock into a piece of drywall with a child's artwork that's hanging from the wall, breaking it in two. Furious, Eastman picks up the broken artwork and leaves. Morgan returns to the cell.
That night, Eastman explains that he used Aikido to defeat Morgan. He shows Morgan a rabbit's foot and says he received a flyer for the martial art the day after his daughter gave him the rabbit's foot. He credits Aikido with improving his life.
The next morning, Eastman asks Morgan to watch Tabitha while he goes out to scavenge. In his cell, Morgan opens "The Art of Peace." On the first page is a handwritten note, stating that a goal of Aikido is to "completely avoid killing, even the most evil person." Then Morgan hears walkers about to attack Tabitha outside and runs to her rescue.
Morgan drags the dead walkers into the woods and discovers a cemetery with wooden grave markers. As he digs a grave for the walkers, Eastman joins him. Eastman retrieves the dead walkers' driver's licenses and etches their former names onto new grave markers.
Back at the house, Eastman gives Morgan his own staff and, over time, teaches Morgan Aikido. "It's about redirecting, evading, and actually caring about the welfare of your opponent," Eastman says. Morgan also continues his studies of "The Art of Peace."
Over dinner, Morgan asks why Eastman has a cell in his cabin. Eastman tells him he once interviewed a convicted killer named Crighton Dallas Wilton, whom he recognized as a true psychopath. Eastman recommended against his parole. Wilton escaped, killed Eastman's family and then turned himself into the police. Eastman says he built the cell with the intention of kidnapping Wilton and starving him to death. "Did you?" Morgan asks. "I have come to believe that all life is precious," Eastman replies.
Eastman suggests they go on a scavenging mission. Morgan takes Eastman to his campground to retrieve the supplies he took from the men he murdered. Sensing Morgan's trauma, Eastman orders Morgan to practice his Aikido forms. "Not here," Morgan begs, but Eastman insists.
A walker approaches the campground. Morgan readies his staff but freezes when he realizes the walker is the man he choked to death. Eastman pushes the paralyzed Morgan out of the way and kills the walker, but is bitten in the process. "That wasn't for you to do!" Morgan screams, attacking Eastman. Eastman fends off Morgan's attack.
"I said not here," Morgan cries.
"Well, that's the thing, Morgan," Eastman replies before leaving. "Here's not here."
Morgan remains at the campground and reverts to his old ways, whittling spears and hunting walkers in the woods. He kills a walker and discovers that he's saved a young couple. Morgan moves to attack them next, but the woman slowly offers a can of food and a bullet, thanking him, and then backs away with her companion.
Morgan allows the couple to leave, then he runs back to Eastman's cabin, where he finds a walker eating Tabitha. He somberly kills the goat and wheels the bodies to the graveyard, where Eastman is digging. Morgan spots a grave marker for Crighton Dallas Wilton. Eastman admits that he abducted Wilton from prison and starved him to death. "What I did to him, it didn't give me any peace," he says.
Back in the house, Eastman tells Morgan there's enough power, food and security to last Morgan the rest of his life, but advises Morgan against being alone. "Everything is about people, everything in this life that's worth a damn," he says. Before dying, Eastman gives Morgan his rabbit's foot.
Morgan leaves the cabin with his staff and backpack. He walks through the graveyard, where Eastman is now buried. He reaches the railroad tracks and finds a signpost for Terminus.
Back in the present, Morgan concludes his tale, suggesting the Wolf can be saved, just like he was. The Wolf shows Morgan a deep cut in his torso and predicts that he will die. "But if I don't, I am going to have to kill you, Morgan," he says. "I'm going to have to kill every person here." Morgan leaves, locking the door on his way out.
Then out on the street, Morgan hears Rick screaming to open the gates.
"Now"
As Deanna takes in the aftermath of the Wolves' deadly attack, Michonne tells Maggie that Glenn didn't make it back with the group, but had promised to send a signal if he got stuck.
Just then, Rick sprints toward Alexandria as walkers emerge from the woods and surround him. Michonne opens the gate for Rick, slamming it shut just as the massive herd arrives.
Terrified Alexandrians gather by the wall as the herd pounds on the other side. Rick assures everyone that Daryl, Sasha and Abraham will return with their vehicles and lure the walkers away. He urges residents to keep noise and bright lights to a minimum in the meantime.
Sensing the Alexandrians' growing frustration, Aaron confesses that the Wolves learned about Alexandria after finding photos of the compound in his lost backpack. He credits Rick with successfully leading half the herd away from Alexandria. Deanna walks away in a daze.
Later, Jessie drags the dead Wolf from her kitchen to the graveyard and starts to dig. Rick reminds her that they don't bury killers inside the walls, although he doesn't have a solution for how they should dispose of the bodies.
Scared residents raid the pantry despite Olivia's attempts to ration food. Spencer passionately urges them to stop, lest "we'll all look back at this moment now as when we destroyed this place.' The residents comply, and Deanna smiles proudly at her son.
While walking, Aaron catches Maggie rigging a flashlight to a rod. Nearby, he sees a group of Alexandrians paint the names of the deceased on a memorial section of the wall. The list includes Glenn and Nicholas.
Aaron corners Maggie in the armory and correctly guesses her plan to scale the wall and search for Glenn. Seeing that she's determined to go through with it, he offers to help, and show her a safer way out.
At home, Deanna gazes at Reg's wedding ring and snaps out of her daze. She spreads a map on a table and excitedly draws out plans for an expansion of the community.
Deanna finds Spencer drunk in the kitchen, along with a bin of stolen food. She chastises him for raiding the supplies after his speech to the group. Spencer accuses Deanna of giving everyone a false sense of security and blames her for Reg and Aiden's deaths.
Meanwhile, Carl asks Ron to help him find Enid. Ron refuses and threatens to tell Rick if Carl goes after Enid on his own. They fight and Carl throws Ron to the ground.
At the infirmary, Denise pores through medical books in desperate search of a treatment for Scott, who's unconscious with a life-threatening infection in his leg wound. Tara stops by and tries to lift Denise's spirits, but Denise remains frustrated and scared.
While walking by a neighbor's house, Jessie spots Betsy as a walker with slashed wrists through a window. Residents gather round as Jessie kills her. "This is what life looks like now,' she says. "We have to see it. We have to fight it.'
Meanwhile, Aaron shows Maggie a sewage grate and says the sewer leads underneath the wall. Despite Maggie's protests, he insists on joining her.
Underground, Aaron expresses his guilt over leading the Wolves to Alexandria. He saves Maggie from two walkers that emerge from the sewer muck. Maggie urges him to turn back, but he refuses.
Back at the infirmary, Denise reads a passage in her medical book and injects saline into Scott's infected leg. She smiles as her syringe fills with pus and his heart rate stabilizes.
From the lookout post, Rick radios Sasha and Abraham but gets no response. Ron finds Rick and tells him that he stopped Carl from pursuing Enid in the woods. He asks for shooting lessons. Rick hands his gun to Ron and instructs him to target a walker in the herd.
Meanwhile, Denise walks up to Tara on her porch and kisses her. Tara smiles.
Maggie and Aaron reach the end of the sewage tunnel only to find it blocked with walkers outside. Maggie says they can't keep going, tearfully admitting that she's pregnant. "I don't know if he's alive,' Maggie cries. "I don't get to know what will happen.' She and Aaron hug.
Back at Jessie's house, Jessie tries to convince Sam to come downstairs. He stays on the second floor, afraid to return to the area where Jessie murdered the Wolf.
That night, Deanna is on her way to return Spencer's stolen rations when a walker (a turned Wolf) attacks her. She stabs it repeatedly with a broken bottle until Rick arrives and kills it. "I want this place to stay standing,' Deanna tells him. Rick urges her to lead the residents, but she insists that it's him they need. Still reeling from Spencer's accusation, she asks Rick if her vision for Alexandria was pie-in-the-sky. "No,' he tells her.
Maggie erases Glenn's name from the memorial wall. Aaron helps, and jokingly suggests that Aaron/Erin is a good name for a boy or a girl.
Spencer relieves Rosita from the lookout post. She thanks him for taking out the Wolves' truck and credits him with the fact that the wall is still standing. After she leaves, Spencer munches on stolen crackers.
Rick joins Jessie in her garage and admits he expected Glenn and the others to have returned by now. She assures him they might still be alive. "This is what life looks like now,' he says, echoing her words from earlier. Jessie says there has to be a future and asks Rick to tell her there's more. He nods, and kisses her.
Deanna walks up to the gate with renewed determination, watching the walkers banging at the fence. She bangs back. As she walks away, we see blood start leaking through a crack in the wall.
"Always Accountable"
Daryl, Sasha and Abraham arrive at the 20-mile marker set for leading the herd away from Alexandria. A group of gun-wielding assailants ambushes them in cars. As they flee, Daryl crashes on his bike and is separated from Sasha and Abraham.
Sasha and Abraham soon crash their car and emerge from the wreckage with guns blazing. They defeat their attackers but flee when they hear reinforcements arriving.
Daryl eludes his attackers and quietly walks his motorcycle through a burnt-out forest littered with charred walker bodies. He tries to radio Sasha and Abraham but gets no response. As he inspects a wound on his arm, he hears a noise nearby. He hides his bike under a pile of branches and finds two sisters, Tina and Sherry, with their hands up. Just then, a man knocks him out from behind.
As Daryl drifts in and out of consciousness, he sees his captors rummage through his supplies. The man pegs Daryl as a soldier from an outpost – one of the men who originally attacked Daryl, Sasha and Abraham.
The man, D, wakes Daryl at gunpoint the next morning. Daryl insists he isn't who they think he is, but D doesn't believe him.
Daryl's captors march him through the woods. D declares that they are not returning to the community they came from. "You feel you gotta kneel? Fair enough. We don't." D tells Daryl.
As they keep moving, D lays out a plan to find "Patty" and then leave immediately. He describes how he and Sherry burned the entire forest with the walkers in it. He then explains that they joined up with a community, thinking naively that they would rebuild society together. Daryl argues that they should let him go, but D refuses to listen.
They arrive at a gated parking lot full of walkers and start to panic. "Patty", the man says. "She's gone." Tina faints. Daryl grabs their duffel and runs.
Safe in the woods, Daryl again tries to radio Sasha and Abraham without luck. He grabs his crossbow from the duffel to shoot a nearby walker. Afterwards, he looks down at the fallen contents of the duffel and sees a cooler filled with insulin: Tina's a diabetic.
Meanwhile, Sasha and Abraham deduce that their attackers had intended to ambush someone else. Sasha insists that Daryl will try to regroup with them and that the best way to find a tracker like Daryl is to let him find you.
In a nearby town, Sasha writes "Dixon" on the door of an office building. Abraham eagerly takes out his knife to slay a walker down the block but Sasha warns him against leaving evidence for the attackers to trace their whereabouts.
Inside the building, Sasha situates herself in an office as a walker pounds on the glass wall of an adjacent conference room. She asks Abraham if he wants to stand watch, or sleep. Abraham opts to stand watch.
Abraham later tells Sasha that he's eager to kill the walker in the conference room. Sasha calls him out for being reckless. "You have choices," Sasha says. "And without walkers, and bullets, and shit hittin' the fan, you're accountable for them." Abraham shrugs her off and insists on standing watch throughout the night.
Back in the woods, Daryl returns Tina's insulin and forces D to hand over their gun as well as a wooden figurine that D carved. They're interrupted by the arrival of men in a truck. Wade, the leader, orders D to return what he took – Tina and Sherry. Daryl helps them flee and gives their gun back. He lures one of Wade's men into the path of a walker, which bites the man. Wade hacks off the man's arm and calls off the search. "He only wanted to take this so far", Wade tells his men. "He only wants ass that's willing."
The next morning, Abraham finds an abandoned military vehicle containing RPGs and a box of cigars. He spots a walker impaled on a bridge fence and eyes the RPG launcher strapped to its back. He climbs onto the fence to get the launcher, dangling precariously over the edge and grappling face-to-face with the walker. The walker snaps at him and Abraham finally backs off. He yells in frustration and returns to the Humvee to smoke a cigar.
As Abraham sits, he watches the impaled walker's rotted shoulder slide completely through the fence post. The walker falls to the ground, leaving behind the launcher, dangling by its strap.
Abraham brings the RPG back to the office and admits to Sasha that she was right about his recklessness. He commends her for calling him on his bullshit and declares he would like to get to know her better.
"What makes you think I want that?" Sasha asks.
"A man can tell," Abraham replies. Sasha smiles, but tells him he has some stuff to take care of.
Daryl's group comes across a burnt and melted greenhouse. Tina recognizes the two dead people encased in melted glass inside and lays flowers at their side. The corpses awaken and attack Tina, breaking through the glass and killing her. Daryl kills the walkers, as Sherry breaks down and D looks on distraught.
Daryl and D dig a grave for Tina. Daryl asks D how many walkers he's killed, how many people, and why. Satsified with D's answers, Daryl invites them to come live in Alexandria.
Daryl brings D and Sherry to his motorcycle. D turns his gun on Daryl and forces him to hand over the crossbow. D and Sherry get on the bike and ride off.
Daryl finds a fuel truck in the woods branded "A.A. Pattrick Fuel Co." Its license plate reads "Patty". He kills the walker in the cab and drives to pick up Abraham and Sasha.
Daryl, Sasha and Abraham drive down the road in the fuel truck. Daryl tries to radio Rick. "Help", a voice on the radio replies.
"Heads Up"
In the alley where Nicholas and Glenn tumbled off a dumpster into a herd of walkers, Glenn lies pinned underneath Nicholas' body as walkers disembowel it. Eventually, Glenn squirms to safety underneath the dumpster, stabbing at the walkers reaching for him until their corpses block him in.
Days pass as Glenn waits for the herd to move on. Finally, he crawls out and searches for water. "Heads up," says a voice, moments before a water bottle hits the ground. It's Enid, who tells Glenn that Alexandria was attacked, but runs away before he can question her further. Glenn chases Enid into the street but loses her.
In Alexandria, Rick asks Morgan if they can speak later. Rick inspects the perimeter wall and notices blood trickling through from the other side.
Rick joins Maggie at the lookout post, where she anxiously scans the horizon for a sign from Glenn. Rick proposes that they lure the walkers away from Alexandria so that Glenn and the others can safely return.
Meanwhile, Glenn discovers David -- the Alexandrian who died at the fence and has now turned -- and stabs him through the head. Nearby, he finds the farewell note that David wrote to his wife. He starts to head back to Alexandria but at the last minute, has a change of heart and goes after Enid.
Back in Alexandria, Gabriel posts a sign for a prayer circle. Rick shreds it as he strides by Gabriel, who patiently replaces it with a new sign.
Rick and Carl teach Ron how to use a gun. Rick stresses the importance of waiting for the right moment to shoot. He gives Ron an unloaded gun but refuses to let him actually practice shooting.
Morgan is on his way to the infirmary when Rick flags him down. Rick, Michonne and Carol confront Morgan about his refusal to kill Wolves during the attack. Morgan maintains that "all life is precious" and that bad people are capable of changing. "Making it now," Rick challenges, "do you really think you can do that without getting blood on your hands?"
"I don't know," Morgan admits.
On the porch, Rick and Michonne come up with a strategy to lure the walkers away from Alexandria. Michonne urges Rick to enlist the Alexandrians' help executing the plan, but Rick is unsure. Then Deanna joins them and excitedly reveals plans for an expansion of the community.
Rosita offers machete lessons to a group of Alexandrians. Eugene attends, but recoils at the weapon and admits he's scared of dying. Rosita gruffly tells him that dying is easy — what's hard is letting your friends die because you were too scared to save them.
Meanwhile, Glenn finds Enid hiding in a restaurant and orders her to return to Alexandria. Enid points a gun at him but begrudgingly complies when he wrests it away from her.
In Alexandria, Rick saws wood to build new supports for the wall. Tobin joins him. Rick assures Tobin the wall will survive as long as they shore it up. Tobin admits that residents had been reluctant to change, but acknowledges that Rick has been right all along. "Don't give up on us," Tobin urges.
Glenn and Enid find green balloons left over from Rick's walker-herding mission. Enid suggests they use the balloons to distract walkers. Glenn directs her to a bush concealing more balloons and a helium tank. As Enid inflates more balloons, Glenn lectures her against acting rashly out of fear.
In the pantry at Alexandria, Ron knocks over items to distract Olivia so he can steal bullets from the armory.
Glenn and Enid finally arrive at Alexandria and find it surrounded by walkers. Enid's mood sinks but Glenn insists they forge ahead.
Meanwhile, Spencer shimmies over the wall along a rope he's attached to the watchtower with a grappling hook. Rick screams at Spencer to turn back, but the rope slackens, dropping Spencer into the herd. Tara hangs off the wall to shoot at walkers as Rick and Morgan pull Spencer up to safety.
Rick chastises Tara for endangering her life to save an Alexandrian, and then turns his rage on Spencer. Spencer explains that he had intended to find a car and draw the walkers away from the wall. Rick orders Spencer to come to him before executing any future strategies.
At the infirmary, Denise is curious when Morgan stops by to ask for antibiotics. After some probing, he admits that the drugs are not for him.
Carol suspiciously watches Morgan lead Denise to the townhouse with the jail cell. She heads to Jessie's house to drop Judith off, and hears Sam call down to her from upstairs, asking if the people who attacked them were monsters. "If you kill people, do you turn into one of the monsters?" he asks. Carol says that killing is the only way to keep from becoming a monster.
At the townhouse, Carol unlocks the door but Morgan stops her. She demands to know who Morgan is holding in the cell.
Meanwhile, Ron quietly follows Carl down a street, his gun in hand.
As Rick and Tobin shore up the wall, Rick sees Tara and apologizes for yelling at her. Deanna thanks Rick for saving Spencer, but Rick demurs. Deanna asks why he did it. "Because he's your son," Rick says. "Wrong answer," Deanna replies.
Then: everyone in town looks up as a bunch of green balloons float into the sky. "That's Glenn!" Maggie cries out, filled with hope. But suddenly, the watchtower topples over, crashing into the perimeter wall…
"Start to Finish"
Sam leaves an empty lunch plate outside his room then retreats back inside, where he draws a picture of a little boy tied to a tree with walkers surrounding him.
Outside, the watchtower collapses, knocking down a panel from Alexandria's perimeter wall. As walkers swarm through the gaping hole, Rick orders everyone to run to their homes. Deanna and Rick open fire on the walkers and Deanna is injured.
Meanwhile, Carol trips while running down the street and hits her head. Morgan helps her up and they dash into the townhouse with the makeshift jail cell.
Maggie scrambles to the lookout post, narrowly escaping walkers as they grab at her feet.
Eugene cowers against a wall and spots Rick's walkie on the ground. He hears Daryl call Rick's name and picks up the walkie. "Help," he cries as a walker comes at him. Rosita and Tara rescue Eugene and they flee to a nearby garage.
Rick helps Deanna limp down the street, where they're joined by Michonne, Gabriel, Carl and Ron. Jessie shoots at incoming walkers and ushers the group into her house.
Enid and Glenn watch in shock from the perimeter. Despite Enid's pessimism, Glenn insists on helping Maggie and his friends.
Inside Jessie's house, Rick carries Deanna to an upstairs bedroom. Sam watches, paralyzed with fear. Jessie urges him to be brave.
On the main floor of the townhouse, Carol refuses Morgan's offer to examine her head. One floor below, Denise sits opposite the W Man and asks to see his wound. He removes the bandage, revealing a badly infected gash. Denise cautiously removes a bag of IV fluid from her pack.
Back at Jessie's house, Michonne and Rick tend to Deanna and discover a bite mark on her side. "Well, shit." Deanna says.
Rick confers with Jessie and comes up with a plan to run to the armory and draw the walkers away from Alexandria with flares.
Michonne, meanwhile, tells Deanna that she believes in Alexandria and Deanna's plans to expand it. Deanna asks what Michonne wants for herself. "I don't know," Michonne admits.
Down in Jessie's garage, Carl checks on Ron, who's upset and brooding about his father. They argue, then Ron locks the door and takes out his gun, but Carl knocks it out of Ron's hand before he can use it. As they fight, Ron swings a shovel at Carl, but accidentally breaks a window instead. Walkers immediately flock to the sound of the breaking glass.
Rick and Jessie hear the commotion and race to the garage. Rick breaks the door open with an axe. Ron and Carl run inside the house as walkers stream into the garage. Rick and Jessie shove a couch against the door. Carl covers for Ron and says they accidentally knocked over a shelf.
In private, Carl holds Ron at gunpoint and demands he hand over his gun. Ron does, and apologizes for attacking Carl. Carl empathizes with Ron for losing his father, but points out that Pete was "an asshole."
Rick hears Judith crying and runs upstairs. He sees Deanna leaning into Judith's crib and moves in to kill her, thinking she's turned. "It's still me!" Deanna calls out. Seeing how weak she is now, Rick gently lays Deanna in a bed. She gives him farewell notes for Spencer and Maggie and asks him to look after Spencer as he would his own people. "They're all your people, Rick," she tells him.
Meanwhile, as Carol pretends to rest, Morgan peers down toward the makeshift jail cell. Carol shoves him aside and runs downstairs, where Denise is tending to the W Man's wound. Wielding a knife, Carol orders Denise to back away from him. Then Morgan arrives with his staff in hand.
Back at Jessie's house, walkers break through their makeshift defenses and start flooding inside. Rick blocks the stairs with a sofa as the group retreats upstairs. Then he tells Michonne they're going to need two walkers.
Morgan tries to dissuade Carol from killing the W Man. Carol threatens to kill Morgan if he gets in the way. Morgan knocks the knife out of Carol's hand and slams her to the ground, knocking her unconscious. While he's distracted, the W Man grabs Morgan's staff and strikes him unconscious, then takes Carol's knife and points it at Denise.
Michonne tells Deanna that they're leaving the house and starts to offer to kill Deanna before she turns. But Deanna insists she will shoot herself when the time comes.
Rick's group slathers themselves in guts. Sam opens his door and recoils from the gruesome scene. "Pretend you're brave," Jessie says. Sam tearfully nods.
The W Man cuts his bonds and holds Denise at knifepoint just as Rosita, Tara and Eugene charge into the room. The W Man forces them to lower their weapons, then takes a gun and escapes with Denise as his hostage.
Rick's group, each member now covered in guts, goes downstairs and slowly, calmly walks into the herd unnoticed.
Glenn and Enid climb a tree to gain a better vantage point. Glenn sees Maggie on top of the lookout post.
Deanna holds a gun to her head but stops from pulling the trigger when she hears walkers in the hallway. She flings the door open and fires at the herd.
Rick's group stands on Jessie's front porch, looking out at the sea of walkers. They hold hands and make their way into the herd…
Elsewhere, Daryl, Abraham and Sasha are stopped by a group of bikers. They demand all their supplies and the truck, saying all of it now belongs to a man named Negan.
"No Way Out"
The leader of the gang informs Daryl, Abraham and Sasha that their guns and truck now belong to a man named Negan before taking their sidearms. He orders one of the men to take Daryl to the back of the truck and inspect its cargo while Sasha and Abraham stay behind. After some conversation between Abraham, Sasha and the leader of the gang, the whole group of bikers explodes. Daryl then comes out from behind the truck holding an RPG, having subdued and killed the biker who went to check cargo with him, and leaves with Abraham and Sasha.
In Alexandria, walkers swarm the streets. Rick's group, still covered in walker guts, makes its way toward the armory. Rick announces a plan to herd the walkers away from Alexandria using vehicles from the quarry. Gabriel offers to keep Judith safe in the church while the others go on. Jessie tries to send Sam with Gabriel, but Sam refuses to leave her side.
Inside the townhouse, Tara insists they rescue Denise from the W Man. Rosita points out they don’t have enough guns to fight walkers outside. Carol borrows Rosita’s gun to sweep the house.
On the street, the W Man holds Denise at gunpoint as they hide from walkers.
Meanwhile, Glenn and Enid search a church for supplies to rescue Maggie from the lookout tower. Enid opens up to Glenn about her dead parents. "They're still here because you're still here," Glenn tells her.
From their hiding spot, the W Man and Denise watch walkers stream down the street. The W Man tells Denise they'll make a run for a lookout tower as soon as a gap opens up in the herd.
Glenn orders Enid to stay at the church while he rescues Maggie, but Enid refuses. They find a gun inside of a box near the altar and piles of cloth that they can tie together to help Maggie climb off the platform.
Recalling an earlier exchange at the townhouse, the W Man admits to Denise that she was right: He wasn’t born this way. "I changed, and now I want to help you change," he says.
As Rick’s group quietly walks through the herd, (while a narration of what Carol said to Sam about the specifics of being killed by walkers plays) Sam spots a young boy who's turned. He panics and stops dead in his tracks. Jessie begs him to keep walking, but he won't move. Walkers attack and tear into Sam. Jessie goes into shock at the sight of her son being eaten alive, and does nothing to stop the walkers from devouring her as well. This causes Rick to flashback on memories of her while sobbing "No". As the walkers consume her, Jessie's hand remains firmly clasped around Carl's. Desperate to free his son, Rick hacks off Jessie's hand with a hatchet.
Amid the chaos, Ron picks up Jessie's dropped gun and aims it at Rick, ready to kill. Michonne's sword bursts through his chest and the gun goes off. Ron falls to his scapula upon the swords removal and is instantly engulfed by some of the herd, preoccupying many in close proximity to feed. "Dad?" Carl says weakly. Rick looks in horror as his son, who's been shot through the eye by the rogue bullet, collapses on the road. He scoops up Carl and sprints through the herd as Michonne clears a path with her katana.
Back in the townhouse, Eugene vows to Rosita they will fight their way out. "We will, not you," she says.
The W Man spots a gap in the herd and sprints to the tower with Denise. He defends Denise when walkers attack her but his arm gets bitten in the process. Denise urges him to come with her to the infirmary.
In the townhouse, Carol unloads on Morgan for saving the W Man and putting Alexandria in danger. "I should've killed you," she tells him. Morgan replies that she couldn't have, and then exits.
Denise and the W Man take refuge in a house, where she ties a belt around his arm. She points out that he saved her, indicating that maybe he really has changed.
Denise and the W Man run outside toward the infirmary. Carol sees them from the townhouse balcony and shoots the W Man. "Go!" he urges Denise before being devoured.
Denise reaches the infirmary, where Heath, Spencer and Aaron are hiding out. Rick arrives with Carl and lays him on a gurney. Denise goes to work on Carl's wound. Rick, still shellshocked, strides outside with his hatchet and goes on a killing rampage. Michonne, Heath, Aaron and Spencer run outside to help Rick fight the walkers.
Alexandria residents watch from their homes as Rick’s group takes on the walkers. Two residents (Olivia and Eric) venture out and join the fight. “We can beat them!” Rick cries.
In the church, Gabriel watches the battle unfold. He hands Judith to one of his congregants and walks out with a machete. “God will save Alexandria because God has given us the courage to save it ourselves,” he proclaims and heads out to join the fight.
Carol tells the townhouse group that Rick is making a stand. Everyone – including Eugene -- joins the fight. Morgan finds the W Man, who is now a walker. "I'm sorry," he says, stabbing him.
Enid rescues Maggie while Glenn distracts walkers away from the tower. Maggie cries out as walkers surround Glenn. Abraham and Sasha suddenly appear. Standing on top of the fuel truck, they’re able to gun down the walkers and save Glenn.
Safely inside the truck, Glenn proposes to Daryl that they use the vehicle to lead the walkers away. But Daryl suggests an alternate plan.
As the fighting intensifies, Daryl fills the pond in the middle of Alexandria with fuel from the truck, then launches an RPG into the water. A ball of fire erupts in the sky. Rick’s group and all the Alexandrians keep killing and killing as the walkers flock to the fire, going up in flames as they stumble into the lake.
The next morning, the street is littered with walker corpses. A group stands quietly outside the infirmary, holding vigil. Michonne holds Judith inside.
Carl lies unconscious in bed with Rick at his side. Rick tells Carl that he underestimated the Alexandrians and vows to rebuild the community, just like Deanna planned. "I want to show you the new world," he says, crying. Carl’s fingers grip Rick’s hand.
"The Next World"
As Rick gets dressed to go on a supply run, Michonne asks him to bring back toothpaste. They chat with Carl, who now wears a bandage over his eye but seems otherwise recovered from the gunshot.
Over the two months since the herd of walkers broke into Alexandria, the town has been expanded with a new wall built, and residents can be seen dismantling the old wall. Daryl tracks down Denise to review her list of requested supplies and asks why she wants orange soda. Denise explains her plan to surprise Tara, who's leaving with Heath on a two-week supply run.
Eugene opens the gate as Rick and Daryl leave for the supply run. He gives them a map to agricultural supply stores and instructions to track down sorghum, a "criminally underrated grain" that could help replenish their low food supply.
In the car, Rick predicts they will finally find food and new people that day. Daryl notes that they haven't encountered anyone in weeks.
Back in Alexandria, Michonne stands guard at the top of the wall and sees Spencer walk into the woods with a shovel. She follows him.
Maggie finds Enid alone and encourages her to pitch in and help get Alexandria back on track. She tells Enid that she's around if she wants to talk.
Rick and Daryl spot a sorghum barn and find a truck inside. They open the truck and discover a large store of supplies. Rick proposes they drive the truck and come back for their car later.
En route to Alexandria, Rick and Daryl stop at a gas station to scavenge. Daryl finds a tipped over vending machine, and they chain it to the truck to flip it over. Just then, a masked man races over and crashes into Rick, prompting Rick and Daryl to pull their guns on him.
The assailant introduces himself as Paul Rovia -- though his friends call him Jesus -- and tells Rick and Daryl that he was just running from walkers. Rick asks him how many walkers he's killed -- the test for new members of the group -- but Daryl cuts him off. Eventually, they decide to let Jesus go on his way.
While Daryl and Rick talk about Jesus and whether to follow him, they're surprised by the sound of gunshots behind the gas station. They investigate and discover firecrackers in a trash can. Realizing it was a trick, they run back just in time to see Jesus driving off with the truck, dragging the vending machine behind it.
Meanwhile, in the woods, Spencer tries to draw a walker out of a nearby bush. As the walker emerges, Michonne appears and kills it, then asks why Spencer is in the woods. Spencer explains that he takes walks after his shifts and starts to head off alone again. Michonne insists on going with him, explaining that his mother, Deanna, told her to figure out what she wants in life, but for now, she just wants to figure out why he's wandering around in the woods with a shovel.
In another part of the woods, Carl and Enid walk, and Enid wonders aloud why they keep coming out there. "Because we're kids, that's what they do," says Carl. "We're not kids," Enid mutters in response.
Back on the road, Rick and Daryl sprint after the truck and find the vending machine discarded in the middle of the road. Daryl shatters the display case and stuffs orange sodas for Denise and some snacks into his bag. Then they keep running.
As Carl and Enid read in the woods, they hear a noise. Enid hides and Carl draws his gun, but they relax once Carl realizes it's just Spencer and Michonne. After a beat, Enid announces that she doesn't want to come out to the woods anymore. "Okay," Carl says flatly, and gathers his belongings.
As they head back through the woods, Carl and Enid see a walker in the distance. Over Enid's protests, Carl tries to draw it toward him, and stops her from killing it. "You wouldn't understand," he says, telling her to go home.
Meanwhile, Rick and Daryl catch up with Jesus and hold him at gunpoint. Rick ties Jesus up, assuring him the knots are loose enough to eventually wriggle free. Then Rick and Daryl drive off in the truck.
As they drive across a field, Rick and Daryl hear a sudden noise and realize that Jesus is on the roof of the truck. Rick screeches to a halt, sending Jesus tumbling to the ground. On foot, Daryl chases after Jesus while Rick kills nearby walkers. Jesus and Daryl wind up struggling inside the truck and Jesus accidentally knocks it into neutral, causing the truck to roll into a pond and sink. Daryl begrudgingly agrees not to abandon Jesus, who was knocked unconscious, after Rick points out that Jesus saved Daryl from a walker.
Michonne and Spencer catch a glimpse of Carl as he races away, leaving a walker behind. Spencer unsheathes his knife as Michonne recognizes the walker: It's Deanna. Michonne restrains Deanna as Spencer tearfully stabs her through the head. He explains this is the reason he's been walking in the woods.
Afterward, Spencer digs a grave and mourns the loss of his entire family. Michonne assures him that he still has a family with his friends in Alexandria.
Later, Daryl guards an unconscious Jesus in the back seat as Rick drives them back to Alexandria.
At home, Michonne chastises Carl for risking his life by leading Deanna around. Carl explains that he had to: Spencer needed to be the one to kill her. "It should be someone who loved her," he says. "I'd do it for you." Michonne hugs him and replies, "Me too."
A pick up truck soon appears outside Alexandria and lingers for a few seconds.
As they arrive in Alexandria, Daryl tells Rick that he was right when he once suggested they stop bringing new people into the community. Rick disagrees: he thinks Daryl was right in the first place.
Rick and Daryl bring Jesus to the infirmary so Denise can check him out. Later, in the townhouse basement, Daryl and Rick leave water and a note next to Jesus' still unconscious body.
Back at home, Rick wearily flops onto his couch, where Michonne joins him. He tells her Daryl is guarding a man that they brought in. He hands her mints from the vending machine in lieu of the toothpaste she wanted. As they laugh together, their fingers interlock and they kiss.
Rick and Michonne lie naked in bed after making love. Jesus walks into the room and tells Rick to wake up. As Rick and Michonne leap up and grab their weapons, Jesus says, "We should talk."
"Knots Untie"
Abraham flirts with Sasha as they return from a patrol. Sasha informs him that she's trading shifts with Eugene and will no longer be working with him. Abraham sighs.
Abraham lies in bed with Rosita. She gives him a necklace with a pendant made from the fuel truck's cracked brake light. As Rosita showers, Abraham thinks about Sasha.
Later that night, Maggie is discouraged that it will still be some time beforeAlexandria's new garden yields any crops. Glenn assures her they'll be okay. They see Denise and Abraham running into the townhouse basement and sprint over to investigate.
In Rick's house, Jesus waits for Rick and Michonne to get dressed. Carl discovers Jesus and points a gun at his head as the others arrive. Michonne and Rick emerge from the bedroom and assures everyone that Jesus just wants to talk.
Jesus tells Rick's group that he's part of a community that raises livestock and crops, and his job is to search for other settlements with whom to open trade. He offers to take them to his community, the Hilltop, to prove he is telling the truth.
Daryl prepares the motor home for the trip to the Hilltop, and reluctantly accepts a homemade oatcake as a parting gift from Denise. Meanwhile, Carl assures Rick that he approves of his relationship with Michonne, but insists on staying behind to guard Alexandria.
Rick, Michonne, Glenn, Maggie and Abraham board the motor home with Jesus.
En route to the Hilltop, Abraham asks Glenn about Maggie's pregnancy and shares his skepticism over bringing a child into the world. "We're trying to build something," Glenn explains.
Rick slows the motor home as they approach an overturned car. Jesus recognizes it as belonging to the Hilltop and desperately begins searching the wreckage for his people.
Daryl follows tracks to a nearby building. Maggie guards Jesus as Rick's group searches inside. They find four of Jesus' people, one of whom is injured.
The group continues on towards the Hilltop. One of the newcomers, Harlan, introduces himself as a doctor. Glenn asks if he has any prenatal vitamins, and Harlan smiles, admitting he used to be an obstetrician. "I'd say you two just hit the jackpot," he says.
Freddie, one of the newcomers, tells Jesus that he saw a vision of his dead wife when he thought he was going to die. Abraham ponders Freddie's words.
The motor home gets stuck in mud, forcing the group to disembark. Jesus points ahead to a massive wall. "That's the Hilltop," he says.
Jesus leads the group to the main gate, where spear-wielding guards order Rick's group to disarm. Jesus tells Rick they can keep their guns and confides that his community ran out of ammo months ago.
The gates open, revealing a large manor house and a farming community inside. Jesus explains that the house was once a living history museum.
Jesus takes the group inside, where they meet Gregory, the community's leader. Gregory orders Rick's group to clean up before meeting with him. Annoyed by this man, Rick asks Maggie to speak with Gregory on the group's behalf.
As they wait in the foyer, Abraham asks Daryl if he's ever thought about settling down. "You think shit's settled?" Daryl replies. Abraham plays with Rosita's necklace.
Maggie meets with Gregory to discuss trade options. Gregory condescends to her and notes that Alexandria is low on provisions. He offers to help on the condition that Alexandria residents work at the Hilltop, insinuating Maggie would be very desirable in the community as a "smart, beautiful woman." Maggie rebuffs him and points out that the Hilltop is low on ammo and medication, proposing they help each other. Gregory, insulted, ends the discussion.
Jesus assures Rick and Daryl that he can convince Gregory to make a fair trade. They hear a commotion outside. "They're back," a resident tells Gregory.
Rick's group and Gregory walk outside as a Hilltop team returns from a mission to Negan's compound. The team reports that Negan killed two of their group because their drop was too light, and that he's holding another one of their members, Craig, until they deliver a message. Gregory asks for the message. "I'm sorry," Ethan says, stabbing Gregory in the gut.
Rick's group intervenes. Abraham hears Sasha's voice in his head as he's throttled by a Hilltop resident. Daryl rescues Abraham. Rick stabs Ethan dead. Jesus calms astonished residents by pointing out that Ethan initiated the bloodshed.
Harlan rushes to Gregory's side. Abraham remains on the ground after the fight, stunned by his experience. It's as if he's had some kind of realization, or found some sort of peace. He assures Daryl he's alright. In fact, "I'm better than alright," he says. He stands, leaving Rosita's necklace behind in the dirt.
In the library, Jesus explains that Negan is the head of a group called The Saviors, who agreed not to attack the Hilltop in exchange for half of their supplies. Rick's group offers to rescue Craig and wipe out the Saviors in exchange for food, medicine and supplies. Jesus agrees to take the offer to Gregory.
Later, Jesus reports that Gregory wants to discuss the offer with Maggie.
Gregory, recovering from his injury in his bedroom, says he'll agree to the deal. But Maggie realizes she's in a position to negotiate for even more, telling him that Negan will continue to demand more provisions and will eventually deplete the Hilltop unless her group stops him. She says her group will kill the Saviors, but only in exchange for half of the Hilltop's supplies. Gregory begrudgingly accepts the offer.
Rick's group loads the motor home with supplies from the Hilltop. Rick asks Andy, who had been one of the Hilltop's liaisons with Negan, to brief them on the Saviors' compound.
In his medical trailer, Harlan performs an ultrasound on Maggie. Glenn and Maggie smile when they see the fetus and hear its heartbeat.
Rick's group leaves the Hilltop. In the motor home, Glenn circulates an ultrasound photo of the baby. Abraham gazes at the photo and smiles at Glenn.
"Not Tomorrow Yet"
Carol collects supplies from Alexandria's diminished pantry. She forages for acorns in the forest, then bakes acorn cookies and hands them out to Alexandria residents. Carol gives Tobin a container of cookies, and he compliments her on their taste. They flirt.
Rick's group returns from the Hilltop. Rick orders everyone to gather at the church, telling Carol, "We're gonna have to fight."
Morgan finds Carol at the cemetery and asks why she never told Rick that Morgan had been holding the W Man prisoner. Carol evades his question. She leaves the cemetery after placing a cookie on Sam's grave.
At the church, Rick tells the community about the deal that Maggie struck with the Hilltop. He rationalizes pre-emptively killing the Saviors, explaining they would eventually find and attack Alexandria, and that by taking them out, they are ensuring the continued survival of the community. Morgan urges Rick to talk with the Saviors instead of killing them, but no one else supports him. "We kill them all," Rick declares, which seems to cause a discomfort in Tara.
Carol lies in bed, unable to sleep. She opens a journal and adds "Ws 7" to a list of all the people she's killed: "R, K, D, L,Terminus/Courtyard 3?, Candle Woman 4." Carol then solemnly circles the tally at the bottom, "18."
Meanwhile, Maggie tells Glenn that she intends to go with them to the Saviors' compound because she was the one who enabled the deal with the Hilltop, but assures him she'll stay on the perimeter.
Carol walks outside, smoking a cigarette and joins Tobin on his front porch as they share a cigarette together. He admits that Carol is capable of doing things that terrify him, and explains his view that she can do such things because of her mortherly instincts. He adds that many Alexandrians see her as a mother figure, but she's something else to him. They kiss.
Inside their home, Abraham packs his bag and tells Rosita that he's leaving her. Rosita cries, demanding an explanation. "When I met you, I thought you were the last woman on Earth," Abraham says. "You're not."
Denise finds Tara lost in thought and asks what's wrong. Tara tells Denise that she loves her and invites Denise to join her on an upcoming two-week run. Denise explains that she's the only doctor and has to stay behind, but she'll tell Tara she loves her when she comes back. They kiss.
At a meeting to coordinate the attack, Andy (from the Hilltop) draws a map of the interior and exterior of the Saviors' compound for Rick, Maggie, Daryl, Glenn, and Michonne. He explains that the main building has one entrance guarded by two men, but that he is unsure of how many there are in total. Rick proposes they attack at night while everyone is asleep. He plans to walk right in through the front entrance. "They want Gregory's head, right?" he says. "We're gonna give it to them."
The next day, Rick's group caravans down the road. After they sound the horns on their vehicles to attract any nearby walkers, he orders everyone to separate on foot and reconvene in a couple of hours. Rick tells Father Gabriel that there's no turning back from the mission now, and Gabriel agrees, declaring with confidence that he will not retreat. Rick asks why he's still wearing his priest's garb. Gabriel says he's still who he was (he thinks), and jokes that "it'll be harder for them to see me in the dark." The two men share a laugh.
As Carol is smoking another cigarette, Rosita approaches her telling that she nearly blurted out Morgan's secret about the W Man at the church meeting. "He doesn't want to kill," Carol says, defending Morgan. Rosita begrudgingly agrees not to tell anyone.
In the woods, Glenn and Heath kill several walkers and share their anxiety about killing the Saviors, having never killed living people before. Glenn saws off a walker's head.
The group reconvenes on the road, where Rick proposes that they attack a couple of hours before dawn. Carol pulls Rick aside and chastises him for bringing Maggie on the mission. She insists on staying behind to help Maggie guard the perimeter. Rick, Jesus, and Andy size up three decapitated walker heads to decide which one looks most like Gregory. Jesus picks a head but remarks that the nose is different. Rick grabs the head and pummels the nose, figuring Andy can tell the Saviors that he broke Gregory's nose in the struggle. Andry remarks that "the Saviors: they're scary but those pricks got nothing on you."
That night, Andy drives up to the Saviors' compound alone, and announces that he has Gregory's head. Two guards walk out and inspect it. Satisfied, one of the guards goes inside to get Craig. Daryl approaches silently and kills the other guard, and the group emerges from hiding, removing the body from sight then killing the first guard when he returns with Craig. The group sneaks into the compound. Rick enters a bedroom and quietly plunges his knife into a man's head as he sleeps.
In another room, Glenn and Heath discover two men asleep, and grimly prepare to kill them with their knives. Glenn is able to overcome his nerves, and offers to kill the other for Heath as well. They find a trophy wall of Polaroid photos showing the bodies of Savior victims, all of whose heads have been crushed.
Tara, Gabriel, Andy, Jesus, and Craig wait outside in a car. Tara confesses to Gabriel that she told Denise that she loved her, but only did so to hide her misgivings about their mission to kill the Saviors. Jesus asks Tara if she really loves Denise anyway. Tara says she does. "So you know what you're fighting for," Jesus says.
Abraham covers for Sasha as she tries to open a locked door. However, a Savior discovers them and attacks Abraham, but is pulled off him by Sasha before he can do anymore harm to Abraham. Sasha then stabs the Savior in the stomach, but he manages to pull the alarm, alerting the compound to the attack.
Maggie and Carol hear the alarm from their perimeter posts. Maggie insists on going to help. "You are staying here," Carol says firmly.
Tara tells Jesus to drive back to the Hilltop with Craig to uphold the deal. Jesus asks Andy to take Craig back so that he can stay behind and help.
Rick's group moves through the rest of the compound with their guns, engaging the Saviors, who are now awake and fighting back. Aaron hastily shuts himself in a bedroom to hide from a group of Saviors, and is forced to stab a Savior who was in the room, in self-defense. Tara shoots at two Saviors as they flee the compound, killing one and mortally wounding the other. Glenn and Heath run to the armory with Saviors on their heels. They slam the door shut, grab guns and spray through the door with bullets. They open the door and find a pile of dead bodies. One of the Saviors stirs and raises his gun. Jesus shoots him dead, solemnly declaring that "this is the new world."
Outside, Gabriel approaches the Savior Tara injured, and tells him to drop his gun. The Savior taunts him, telling him that they are both dead. Gabriel recites a prayer from the Biblical book of Ezekiel before shooting him. "Amen." he says stoically.
With the fighting over, Rick's group emerges from the building. They find a small parking lot of vehicles. Glenn asks Heath to postpone his 2 week supply run with Tara, but Heath refuses. The two of them take an RV and leave immediately.
Back in Alexandria, Morgan welds together the metal gate to a prison cell. He takes a break and becomes lost in thought.
Michonne queries Rick about which one of the men they killed was Negan. Just then, a lone surviving Savior tries to escape on a motorcycle, which Daryl recognizes as his own. Rosita shoots the Savior off the bike and Daryl tackles him as he tries to flee and beats him into submission. Daryl demands to know where the Savior got the bike. As Rick holds a gun to the Savior's head, a woman speaks through the man's walkie-talkie, ordering Rick to lower his gun. "We've got a Carol and a Maggie. We're thinking that's something you want to chat about," the woman says.
"The Same Boat"
An armed man ambushes Carol and Maggie, who are guarding the perimeter of the Saviors' compound. Carol shoots him in the arm but spares his life. Three more Saviors move in and take Carol and Maggie hostage.
Paula, one of the Saviors, watches through binoculars as Rick's group beats up a fellow Savior, Primo. She radios Rick on Primo's walkie and tells him she has Carol and Maggie. Rick offers to trade Carol and Maggie for Primo. Paula tells Rick she'll get back to him.
Paula puts Maggie and Carol in a car and radios for backup.
Paula's group brings Maggie and Carol to a slaughterhouse, where they're gagged and bound in a makeshift cell. Left alone momentarily, Maggie tries to cut her bonds on the edge of a wall. Carol finds rosary beads on the floor and pockets them.
Paula's group returns to the cell. Carol hyperventilates. Maggie is concerned, unsure whether it's real or Carol is pretending. Upon Maggie's insistence, the Saviors remove Carol's gag and look pitifully at her as she gasps for breath and prays. Carol begs them not to hurt Maggie and the baby, and asks Molly, one of the Saviors, to refrain from smoking on account of the pregnancy. Michelle, one of the other Saviors, surprisingly backs Carol up.
Donnie, the Savior who Carol shot in the woods, shrieks with pain and threatens to kill Carol. Paula orders him to leave Carol alive as insurance until backup arrives in 30 minutes. Donnie smacks Paula. Maggie trips him as he goes for Carol, and they fight. Paula knocks Donnie unconscious with the butt of her gun and instructs Michelle to interrogate Maggie in another room.
During the interrogation, Michelle asks Maggie where her group lives. "You're not the good guys," Michelle states. "You should know that."
Michelle wraps a bandage around her fingers and explains to Maggie that she was punished for stealing gas to look for her boyfriend's body. She reveals that she, too, was once pregnant. "I'm sorry," says Maggie. "No, you're not," Michelle replies, then goes back to questioning her.
In the other room, Carol thanks Paula for helping her and Maggie with Donnie. "You're pathetic," Paula tells Carol.
Rick radios Paula to ask if she's considered his proposal to trade hostages. Paula delays her decision and ends the transmission. Carol explains to Paula that her group killed the people at the outpost because Saviors ambushed Daryl's group on the road, instilling them with a fear of Negan. "We had to stop him," Carol says. "Sweetie, we are all Negan," says Molly cryptically.
Paula tells Carol that her boss was the first person she killed after the fall. She says she stopped feeling bad about killing people when her body count reached the double digits. Carol accuses Paula of living among killers, but Paula counters that Carol's people are killers, too, making Carol a killer.
After Carol tells Paula that she'll die unless she makes the trade, Paula eventually radios Rick again and tells him to meet her in a nearby field. Afterwards, she worries that the absence of static on the walkie means that Rick's group is close, possibly already outside the slaughterhouse. Paula contacts her reinforcements, who are now only minutes away. She and Molly leave Carol alone in the cell. In their absence, Carol sharpens the crucifix on the rosary beads and uses it to cut herself free.
Carol finds Maggie and suggests they quietly escape, but Maggie insists, "We can't leave them alive. We have to finish this." They return to the cell and realize that Donnie died from his gunshot wound and is beginning to turn.
Molly returns to the cell and is attacked by a turned Donnie, who Maggie tethered to a pipe in range of the door. Maggie bludgeons the injured Molly to death, then Carol takes her gun and they race away. Moments later, Paula discovers the dead bodies and draws her gun.
Maggie and Carol find a hall full of impaled but living walkers, designed to slow them down or trap them. From behind, Paula fires at them until she runs out of bullets. Carol aims her gun at Paula and orders her to run, despite Maggie's insistence that Carol kill Paula. A walker attacks, causing Carol to shoot Paula in the shoulder. Maggie kills the walker, then races over to fight Michelle. During their struggle, Maggie's belly is nearly slashed. Then Carol shoots Michelle dead.
Maggie and Carol find Paula injured on the ground. Paula asks what Carol is so afraid of when she's so capable. "I was afraid of this," Carol says, alluding to Paula's death by her hands. Paula lunges at her. Carol shoves Paula into a speared walker, who tears off a portion of Paula's face and begins to devour her. Moments later, a Savior calls Paula's walkie to announce that reinforcements have arrived. "Meet us on the kill floor," Carol responds.
As Maggie and Carol wait for the Saviors, Carol confesses that she has killed 20 people. Maggie urges her not to think about it. "I can't stop," Carol says.
Carol and Maggie trap the newly arrived Saviors on the kill floor, which they've doused with gasoline. Carol throws her lit cigarette into the room and watches in shock as the bodies go up in flames.
Maggie kills the impaled walkers as she and Carol make their way to the exit. They find Rick's group just outside the door, about to storm the building. As Maggie and Glenn reunite, Daryl asks Carol if she's okay. "No," Carol says. They hug.
Rick tells Primo that his friends are dead and demands to know if Negan was among the people they killed at the compound. "I'm Negan," Primo says. "I'm sorry it had to come to this," Rick says before shooting him point-blank.
"Twice as Far"
A new day begins in Alexandria: Olivia opens the pantry and smiles at the fully-stocked shelves. Gabriel walks the grounds with a rifle. Eugene, now sporting a ponytail, assumes his new post at the front gate and nods at Sasha standing guard on the platform. Morgan practices Aikido by himself while, nearby, Carol smokes on her front porch swing, fingering her rosary beads.
Morgan lays the final brick in a jail cell that he built in the brownstone basement. Rick asks Morgan why he built a cell. "It’ll give you some choices next time", Morgan says.
Another day begins: Olivia takes stock in the pantry. Gabriel patrols. Eugene assumes his post. Carol smokes on her porch swing. Tobin kisses Carol good-bye on his way to work.
Rosita gets dressed in her bedroom while Spencer sleeps in her bed. She shakes her head, like she might be having regrets.
Daryl rummages through his recovered motorcycle bag and finds the wooden figurine that D was carving before stealing his bike. Carol joins and asks Daryl about his encounter in the burned-out forest. "I should've killed them", he tells her. He asks what the Saviors did to Carol and Maggie in captivity. "To us? They didn't do anything", she says.
Another day begins: The pantry opens. Carol grasps the rosary beads on her porch.
Denise stands on the guard platform, watching Abraham and Eugene leave the compound. Clutching a crumpled yellow page from a phone book, she focuses her attention on a walker caught in Alexandria’s spike array. She eyes it like she’s psyching herself up for something.
In the street, Spencer offers to make dinner for Rosita. Noting her aloofness, he asks whether Rosita is even interested in continuing their relationship. “Okay, we’ll do dinner,” she says dismissively.
Afterwards, Denise asks Daryl and Rosita to accompany her to a nearby apothecary that might be stocked with drugs. Daryl and Rosita ask Denise to stay behind, but she insists that she’s ready to go outside the walls. And she’s going to, with or without them.
The trio drives down the road in an old truck. Denise mentions that her brother taught her how to drive trucks like this when she was young. The group encounters a fallen tree in the road. Rosita reassures Daryl that it just fell, it wasn’t put there by people. She finds some liquor bottles on a walker under the tree, but Denise isn’t interested. She says alcohol was “more her parents’ thing.”
The group is forced to continue on by foot. Rosita suggests they take a shortcut following some railroad tracks, but Daryl insists on the road, telling her “I ain’t taking no tracks.” Denise follows Daryl while Rosita takes the tracks alone.
Abraham and Eugene walk down an alley in a local town. Abraham observes that Eugene’s mullet has been fashioned into a ponytail. Not only that, but he’s been taking on more guard duty shifts, knows how to use weapons, and has even been flirting with women. “I’m a survivor,” Eugene says, touting his ability to adapt. Abraham still isn't convinced.
Rosita waits for Daryl and Denise after taking the railroad shortcut. Denise apologizes to her for choosing Daryl over her and asks her who taught her how to use weapons. Rosita says it wasn’t Abraham. He was just one person in a long list of people who taught her a lot of things. They arrive at the apothecary and Daryl jimmies the door open.
Meanwhile, Eugene takes Abraham to an industrial machine shop. He proposes they use the equipment there to manufacture bullets, figuring that ammo is a finite supply and will soon become the “coin of the land.” A walker approaches. Eugene takes out his machete, but the walker's head was drenched in liquid metal, now hardened, and Eugene can’t get through. Abraham finally stabs the walker with rebar. An enraged Eugene insists he could have killed it himself and tells Abraham his “services are no longer required.” Abraham leaves, telling Eugene to find his own way home.
Inside the apothecary, Daryl and Rosita raid the pharmacy shelves. Meanwhile, Denise finds a keychain with the name Dennis on it. Pocketing the keychain, Denise draws her machete and enters a back room, where she finds a walker in a leg cast. She sees a child’s shoe protruding from a blood and sludge-filled sink. Horrified, she flees outside.
Denise waits outside and tries to hide her tears. Daryl gently praises her for finding the apothecary. He correctly guesses that Dennis was Denise’s brother and she notes that he was actually her twin. She says Dennis was brave, but also angry. It was a dangerous combination. “Sounds like we had the same brother,” Daryl replies.
As they walk back, Daryl suggests they take the railroad tracks instead of the road.
Near the tracks, Denise spots a cooler inside a car inhabited by a walker. Ignoring Daryl and Rosita’s warnings, she goes after the cooler. After an intense struggle, she kills the walker by herself and proudly displays a can of orange soda that was in the cooler.
Daryl admonishes her for risking her life for a soda. Denise explains that it’s not about the soda. She came out here to confront her fears. “I have training in this,” Denise says. She explains that she asked Daryl to take her on the run because he’s brave like her brother was and he makes her feel safe. And she asked Rosita to join because she wants to help her cope with being alone for the first time ever.
She tells Daryl and Rosita that they, too, need to deal with their issues. “You’re strong, and you’re smart and you’re both really good people,” Denise urges, “and if you don’t wake up—“ Mid-sentence, a crossbow bolt strikes Denise through the eye, killing her. Dwight, the Savior who stole Daryl’s motorcycle, emerges from the woods with Daryl’s crossbow and a group of armed Saviors at his side: They have Eugene.
Dwight, whose face has been recently burned, orders Daryl to lead his group to their community. Spotting Abraham, Eugene claims they have a friend hiding behind some nearby oil barrels and urges Dwight to kill him first. As Dwight sends a Savior to investigate, Eugene bites Dwight in the crotch. Abraham opens fire. A shootout ensues and Eugene is hit. After Neil and seven other Saviors are killed, Dwight retreats with his remaining men.
Afterwards, Rosita keeps watch over Eugene in the infirmary. Eugene wakes, and tells Abraham that he wasn’t trying to kill him earlier. “I was just looking for our moment.” Abraham apologizes for questioning his survival skills. “You know how to bite a dick, Eugene,” Abraham says. “I mean that with utmost of respect.”
Abraham, rocked by the day’s events, goes to Sasha’s house. “You said I had choices,” he tells her on the porch. “You have them, too.” She invites him inside.
Daryl and Carol bury Denise. She watches Daryl pocket the Dennis keychain and take an angry sip of booze. “You were right,” Carol says, referring to Daryl’s regret about letting the Saviors live.
In his house, Tobin reads a note from Carol in which she writes that she’s leaving Alexandria. “I love you all here, I do, and I’d have to kill for you. And I can’t. I won’t,” she writes.
As Carol narrates the letter, another day dawns in Alexandria. Rosita guards the front gate instead of Eugene. Sasha glances at Rosita from her post on the platform as the town's cars are lined up by the front gates. Several weapons wheel carts of weapons around town.
Morgan looks at Carol’s porch. The swing is empty.
"East"
A car idles on the road, its windshield shattered by a bullet. Blood drips on the ground. A woman’s voice orders a man to come out. The man screams. A gunshot rings out.
At home, Carol packs her bag in preparation for leaving Alexandria. She hides her bag when Tobin enters the room. He reminisces about Denise, whom he knew from the start of Alexandria. Carol only pretends to listen.
Later that night, Carol slips out of the bedroom as Tobin sleeps.
The next morning, Sasha and Rosita guard the gate. Carl examines one of the Savior’s guns and pockets it. Glenn showers with Maggie; noticing bruises on her abdomen.
Daryl mounts his motorcycle, clutching the “Dennis” keychain that Denise found at the apothecary.
Abraham takes over Sasha’s post at the gate. She smiles and hands him a cigar. Rosita watches their exchange.
Rick and Michonne snuggle in bed. Michonne gets dressed so that she can help Glenn and Maggie beef up security. She tells Rick that Maggie is worried about an attack. Rick assures her that they’ll be able to handle the Saviors. “The world’s ours and we know how to take it,” he declares.
Michonne joins Maggie and Glenn outside, where Maggie has collected a bin full of guns. Maggie suggests they create caches of guns throughout the community, to guarantee they’ll have weapons in the event of an attack.
Despite Rosita’s protests, Daryl opens the front gate and leaves on his motorcycle. Glenn and Michonne go after him, along with Rosita, who claims to know where he’s heading.
Tobin shows Carol’s farewell note to Rick. They convene with Sasha and Abraham at the gate and deduce that Carol took a car and snuck out when the guards changed shift. Rick and Morgan leave to find Carol.
Carol drives down the road and runs into a truck full of armed men – more Saviors --who shoot out her tires. Carol steps out with her hands up. The men demand that she lead them back to Alexandria. Carol begs them to return home. When they don’t comply, she opens fire with a gun she had hidden in her coat sleeve. After the shootout, she orders a surviving Savior to come out from hiding. He grabs a knife and charges at her.
Maggie stops by the pantry to eat lunch before beginning another shift. Enid insists on taking Maggie’s shift so that Maggie can rest.
Rick and Morgan follow Carol’s tire tracks east -- the opposite direction of the Saviors’ compound that Rick attacked, Morgan notes. Rick asks why Morgan wants to help find Carol, whom he barely knows. Morgan insists he knows more about Carol than Rick thinks.
At the scene of the shootout, another injured Savior staggers out of the truck and sees Rick and Morgan approaching.
Rick and Morgan arrive at the scene. They discover Carol’s car, but no sign of Carol. Uncertain whether she’s alive or dead, they follow a trail of blood leading away from the road. The injured Savior emerges from a hiding spot, grabs Carol’s rosary beads from the ground and follows Rick and Morgan.
Rosita, Glenn and Michonne arrive at the spot where Dwight killed Denise. They find Daryl’s motorcycle hidden underneath some branches, confirming Rosita’s hunch that Daryl came back to kill Dwight. Rosita points in the direction that Dwight escaped, but wonders if they shouldn’t let Daryl complete his mission.
Rosita, Glenn and Michonne catch up to Daryl in the woods. Glenn tries to stop Daryl from going after Dwight, but Daryl refuses to stand down, explaining that if he had killed Dwight in the burned-out forest, Denise would still be alive. Rosita decides to join Daryl.
Glenn and Michonne reluctantly turn back. Before they reach the car, however, Dwight and the Saviors ambush and capture them.
Rick and Morgan follow the blood trail. Morgan recalls that Rick banished Carol after she killed two of their people at the prison, and asks what Rick would do if that happened today. Rick says he would thank her. Morgan makes the argument that because Rick spared Carol’s life, she was able to return later and save them at Terminus. “People can come back,” Morgan says.
Rick and Morgan encounter a man at a farm overrun with walkers. Rick orders the man to drop his weapon, but he says he’s only looking for his horse and flees. Rick fires at the man, but Morgan intervenes. Rick guesses the man was a Savior based on his weapon, but Morgan insists they had no way of knowing who he was.
Morgan confesses to Rick that he took a Wolf captive during the attack on Alexandria. Rick seethes, but Morgan explains that the Wolf later saved Denise from walkers — and Denise then saved Carl. Morgan vows to find Carol on his own and tells Rick not to come looking if he doesn’t return. Rick hands Morgan a gun.
Rick returns to Alexandria and learns from Abraham that Michonne hasn’t come back. Staring at the gate, the two share their fears over getting close to someone again. But, Abraham says, “I think I’m that much more ready to tear the world a brand new asshole.” Rick smiles and nods.
Maggie asks Enid to cut her hair. “I have to keep going,” she explains, examining her new look, “and I don’t want anything getting in my way.” Suddenly, she doubles over in pain. To Enid’s shock, Maggie collapses to the floor, screaming.
In the woods, Daryl and Rosita creep up on the Saviors’ camp where Glenn and Michonne are being held. Glenn tries to scream a warning to Daryl through his gag, but Daryl is caught off-guard by Dwight sneaking up behind him. Dwight has a gun trained on Daryl. “Hi Daryl,” he says before shooting. Daryl turns around and is shot. A large amount of blood splatter is seen as Dwight then tells Daryl, "You'll be alright."
"Last Day on Earth"
Light streams through holes in the wall of an unknown, pitch-black room. Heavy breathing comes from inside. Muffled voices can be heard outside.
Morgan continues his search for Carol. He finds a horse – presumably the one the man they encountered at the barn was looking for -- in the middle of a field.
The Savior who survived the encounter with Carol follows her tracks. He grasps Carol’s rosary beads.
A man flees through the woods. Saviors whistle all around him. The Saviors catch up to the man and take him captive. The group’s leader tells the captive that his people at the library had to die because they broke the rules. The Saviors beat the man.
Carl urgently packs guns into his bag. He and Rick are planning to take Maggie to the Hilltop for medical care. Enid begs to come along but Carl refuses. Rick meanwhile loads more bags into the RV. Sasha, Abraham and Eugene insist on joining as well.
Enid pleads with Carl to join the group. He locks her in the armory. Enid screams at Carl, asking what will happen if Carl and the others don’t return. “Just survive somehow,” he says, echoing her personal mantra.
Rick works on the RV. Aaron, too, insists on accompanying him to the Hilltop. Rick relents. Gabriel updates Rick on the safety measures that he’s implemented in case the Saviors attack while Rick is gone. “I will not fail you,” Gabriel says. The RV departs with Rick, Carl, Abraham, Sasha, Eugene, Aaron and a bedridden Maggie on board.
Morgan rides the horse through a town and spots Carol huddled on a stoop. He inspects a knife wound on her torso.
The Saviors drag their captive onto the road. “This is us about to make an example out of you,” says the leader. They stand in the middle of the road, waiting.
Maggie lies in the back of the RV. Rick assures her the doctor at the Hilltop will be able to help. “As long as it’s all of us, we can do anything,” he says.
Morgan dresses Carol’s wound inside a library. He proposes they leave for Alexandria at dawn so that she can get stitches and antibiotics. She refuses.
Abraham slows the RV to a stop as they run into the Saviors’ blockade on the road.
Rick’s group steps out of the RV. Rick puts his hands up and offers to make a deal. “Give us all your stuff,” the leader commands. Rick refuses before getting back in the RV to turn around. “What if it’s the last day on Earth for you?” the leader asks before Rick leaves. “Maybe you should be extra nice to those people in that RV. Because you never know.”
Back in the dark room, the heavy breathing continues.
In the RV, Carl asks Aaron why he didn’t stay back and help guard Alexandria. “I owe her,” Aaron says of Maggie. “I owe them,” Carl says of the Saviors.
Eugene studies a map with Sasha to figure out an alternate route to the Hilltop. He finds a path that’s longer but offers long-range visibility.
At the library, Carol explains to Morgan that she cares about Rick’s group, which means she would kill to protect them. “If you don’t want to kill, or if you can’t, then you have to get away from them. You do not get both,” she says. She orders him to leave, briefly raising her gun at him. But then she wearily lowers it, knowing she doesn’t have it in her to fire.
As Abraham drives the RV, he tells Sasha he’s ready to bring new life into the world. She smiles.
Rick’s group encounters another, larger, gang of Saviors blocking the road. Rick sees that they’re outnumbered and tells Abraham to turn around. A Savior fires his rifle in the air as they retreat.
Outside the library, Morgan finds a walker dangling from a noose. He stabs it in the head then cuts it loose. Back inside, he finds no sign of Carol. He gallops down the road on his horse to track her down.
The RV encounters yet another roadblock: this time, a line of walkers chained together across the road. The group gets out to investigate. Aaron notices that one of the walkers has two of Michonne’s dreadlocks stapled to it, and Sasha notices Daryl’s crossbow bolts embedded through another walker’s chest. Saviors fire at them from the woods. Rick cuts the chain, letting the walkers loose. They pile into the RV and drive forward.
Back on the move, Rick notes that the Saviors were only firing at their feet. “They want us in this direction,” he realizes. Aaron informs Rick that Maggie’s fever is worsening. They soon come upon a still larger roadblock of Saviors in the road and, once again, turn around.
Rick sits by Maggie’s side and tells her the Saviors are gone. “I believe in you, Rick,” she says.
In a nearby town, Morgan spots Carol’s rosary beads on the ground near a freshly killed walker. Meanwhile, the injured Savior finally catches up with Carol and shoots her in the arm. He says he plans to watch her die, slowly. Morgan arrives and orders him to stop. When the Savior refuses, Morgan shoots him multiple times in the chest, killing him. Carol begs Morgan to let her go. Two men wearing armor approach on horseback: one of them is the man from the barn. Morgan shakes his hand, and he agrees to get Carol medical assistance.
Rick’s group encounters a giant wall of logs blocking the road. As they investigate, the Saviors hang the a captive from the library off a nearby overpass. Rick stops Aaron from shooting the captive’s noose, saying they need to conserve bullets. The man chokes to death. Meanwhile the logs erupt in flames. Rick’s group returns to the RV and turns around.
As the survivors debate their next move, Eugene points out that the Saviors are probably looking for the RV and might not expect them to travel by foot.
After nightfall, Rick and Eugene go over the plan: Eugene will drive the empty RV to lure the Saviors. Eugene hands Rick a recipe for making bullets, in the event that he gets killed. “You’re a survivor”, Abraham tells Eugene. They hug.
Rick’s group carries a very weak Maggie into the woods on a stretcher. Eugene gets in the RV.
Marching through the woods, the survivors suddenly hear whistles coming from every direction. They’re surrounded by Saviors. Eugene, too, has been captured. The head Savior from earlier takes their weapons and forces them to their knees.
Inside the dark room, which we now realize is a van, we hear the leader talking to Rick’s group outside. Dwight opens the van and drags out Glenn, Michonne, Rosita and a gunshot but alive Daryl. Dwight kneels them down with the others.
A man wearing a leather jacket and a red scarf steps out of a nearby RV. In his hand is a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. “I’m Negan”, he says to Rick. “You work for me now. You have shit, you give it to me.” He explains that he’s letting them live so that they can work for him, but warns that he has to “beat the holy hell” out of one of them as punishment for killing his men. “This is Lucille,” he says of the bat. “And she is awesome.”
“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,” he begins, pointing Lucille down the line of survivors. “And you… are… it.” One of the survivors is chosen as the first victim. Negan warns the group “Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father, and then we'll start. You can breathe, you can blink, you can cry,” he says, raising the bat. “Hell, you’re all going to be doing that ".
Negan’s bat crashes down on the unknown survivor as the screen blackens out... then you hear sound of the bat on the chosen one's skull together with screams echoing through the night.
Episodes
| Title | Writer(s) | Air Dates | U.S. Viewers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "First Time Again" | Scott Gimple Matt Negrete |
October 11, 2015 (US) October 12, 2015 (UK) |
14.63 million |
| 2. | "JSS" | Seth Hoffman | October 18, 2015 (US) October 19, 2015 (UK) |
12.18 million |
| 3. | "Thank You" | Angela Kang | October 25, 2015 (US) October 26, 2015 (UK) |
13.14 million |
| 4. | "Here's Not Here" | Scott Gimple | November 1, 2015 (US) November 2, 2015 (UK) |
13.34 million |
| 5. | "Now" | Corey Reed | November 8, 2015 (US) November 9, 2015 (UK) |
12.44 million |
| 6. | "Always Accountable" | Heather Bellson | November 15, 2015 (US) November 16, 2015 (UK) |
12.87 million |
| 7. | "Heads Up" | Channing Powell | November 22, 2015 (US) November 23, 2015 (UK) |
13.22 million |
| 8. | "Start to Finish" | Matt Negrete | November 29, 2015 (US) November 30, 2015 (UK) |
13.98 million |
| 9. | "No Way Out" | Seth Hoffman | February 14, 2016 (US) February 15, 2016 (UK) |
13.74 million |
| 10. | "The Next World" | Angela Kang Corey Reed |
February 21, 2016 (US) February 22, 2016 (UK) |
13.48 million |
| 11. | "Knots Untie" | Matt Negrete Channing Powell |
February 28, 2016 (US) February 29, 2016 (UK) |
12.79 million |
| 12. | "Not Tomorrow Yet" | Seth Hoffman | March 6, 2016 (US) March 7, 2016 (UK) |
12.82 million |
| 13. | "The Same Boat" | Angela Kang | March 13, 2016 (US) March 14, 2016 (UK) |
12.53 million |
| 14. | "Twice as Far" | Matt Negrete | March 20, 2016 (US) March 21, 2016 (UK) |
12.69 million |
| 15. | "East" | Scott Gimple Channing Powell |
March 27, 2016 (US) March 28, 2016 (UK) |
12.38 million |
| 16. | "Last Day on Earth" | Scott Gimple Matt Negrete |
April 3, 2016 (US) April 4, 2016 (UK) |
14.19 million |
Cast
Deaths
- Carter
- Enid's Mother (Flashback)
- Enid's Father (Flashback)
- Shelly Neudermeyer
- Richards (Alive and Zombified)
- Aphid
- Erin
- Stacy (Off-Screen)
- Michael (Off-Screen)
- Natalie Miller (Off-Screen)
- Bobby (Off-Screen)
- Dinesh (Off-Screen)
- Dan (Off-Screen)
- Samantha (Off-Screen)
- O'Hara (Off-Screen)
- Charlyne (Off-Screen)
- Jeffery (Off-Screen)
- Park (Off-Screen)
- Adrian (Off-Screen)
- Holly
- Barnes
- Sturgess
- Will (Zombified)
- Annie
- David (Alive and Zombified)
- Nicholas
- Tommy
- 40's Man
- 20's Man (Alive and Zombified)
- Crighton Dallas Wilton (Confirmed Fate)
- Tabitha
- Eastman (Off-Screen)
- Betsy (Alive and Zombified)
- Tina
- Carla (Alive, Confirmed Fate; Zombified)
- Delly (Alive, Confirmed Fate; Zombified)
- Deanna Monroe (Alive and Zombified)
- Maya (Off-Screen)
- Pascal (Off-Screen)
- Ted (Off-Screen)
- Lucy (Off-Screen)
- Timmy
- Lead Savior
- Sam Anderson
- Jessie Anderson
- Ron Anderson
- Owen (Alive and Zombified)
- Freddie's Wife (Confirmed Fate)
- Ethan
- Rory (Confirmed Fate)
- Tim (Confirmed Fate)
- Marsha (Confirmed Fate)
- Gabe
- Donnie (Alive and Zombified)
- Molly
- Michelle
- Paula (Alive and Zombified)
- Primo
- Denise Cloyd
- Neil (Alive)
- Miles
- Jiro
- Roman
- Abraham Ford (Off-Screen)
- At least 8 unnamed Alexandria residents
- At least 30 unnamed Wolves
- At least 48 unnamed Saviors
- 1 unnamed man (Alive)
Videos
Official Trailers
Promotional Material
Posters
Trivia
- This season is mainly based on "Volume 14: No Way Out", "Volume 15: We Find Ourselves", "Volume 16: A Larger World" and the first half of "Volume 17: Something To Fear" from the Comic Series.
- Below are the changes made to the main cast in this season.
- Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha) is added to the opening sequence after being listed under "Also Starring" in Seasons 4 and 5.
- Josh McDermitt (Eugene), Christian Serratos (Rosita), Alanna Masterson (Tara) and Seth Gilliam (Fr. Gabriel) are still listed under "Also Starring". All have been regulars since season 5.
- Lennie James (Morgan), Tovah Feldshuh (Deanna), Alexandra Breckenridge (Jessie), Ross Marquand (Aaron) and Austin Nichols (Spencer) were upgraded to series regulars after recurring appearances.
- Lennie James was added to the opening credits, while Alexandra Breckenridge, Ross Marquand, Austin Nichols, and Tovah Feldshuh were listed under "Also Starring". Feldshuh is given the special billing "and" similar to Scott Wilson in Season 3.
- Following the deaths of Deanna and Jessie in "Start to Finish" and "No Way Out", respectively, Tovah Feldshuh and Alexandra Breckenridge are no longer listed under "Also Starring" in succeeding episodes.
- Feldshuh is listed as "Also Starring" in the closing credits of "The Next World", possibly to avoid giving away her appearance in the episode.
- On Talking Dead, Scott Gimple wrote a letter in regards to the sixth season, stating the following: "For a good while now, humans have been the bigger threat. At the start of our next season, that will change. I've said before the show reinvents itself every eight episodes and we're doing it again, friends. Now that these characters know that they have what it takes to survive, what are they going to do with that power? How will they choose to live? Beyond answering those questions, we're currently putting into motion some of our most ambitious stuff yet and things are going to get very big, loud, and scary."
- This season featured human deaths in every episode except "Heads Up" and "The Next World".
- This season has the second highest death toll by far, with 134 deaths, being second only to Season 8 with 587 deaths as "Wrath". However, Season 6 currently still holds the record for the most named deaths.
- Gale Anne Hurd has stated the walkers will become a larger threat in Season 6 as compared to Season 5.
- The Season 6 premiere was 90 minutes long, making it the first season premiere since "What Lies Ahead" of Season 2 to be so.
- "First Time Again" is the first season premiere that did not surpass the viewing figures of the previous season. Receiving a total of 14.63 million viewers received during the initial broadcast, compared to Season 5's "No Sanctuary".[1]
- "Here's Not Here" is the first episode (excluding season premieres and finales) to have a run-time of 90 minutes.
- This is the first season to have no episodes written by Robert Kirkman.
- This is the second season in which no actor from the opening credits dies on-screen (Season 1 being the first)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "First Time Again" Receives 14.6 Million Viewers - Zap2it (Oct 13, 2015)
- ↑ Season 3 Episode Clear