‘The Walking Dead’ Episode 6.15 “East” (8 out of 10) Created by Frank Darabont; Starring Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Steven Yeun, Danai Gurira, Chandler Riggs, Lennie James, Lauren Cohan; Sundays on AMC.
With only one more episode to go in season 6, TWD has just gone and dropped another bomb on us. It was a helluva way to leave us all hanging in anticipation for the season finale, and I have a sinking feeling that all of that cocksure badassery that Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) has been throwing around is about to get a serious reality check. Spoilers ahoy!
Carol Is a Death Machine
Last week, we learned that Carol (Melissa McBride) was planning on leaving Alexandria because she could sense blood on the horizon and didn’t want to be a part of it. Ironically enough, her road away from Alexandria leads her to one of the bloodiest encounters of her career as a zombie killing shock trooper.
I use the word “ironically” to cover for some possibly shoddy plotting—why would Carol think that she would have to kill less people if she struck out on her own? I also thought that this little wrinkle didn’t make a whole lot of sense with Carol’s character. If we had some more insight as to why she didn’t want to kill any more people, it would be more believable. Since we didn’t get that, we have to assume that she ran off in order to satisfy some upcoming plot development, most likely involving Morgan (Lennie James) who ended the episode sending Rick back home so he could trail Carol on his own.
Aside from the eyebrow-raising that I was doing as I thought about the writers’ decision about Carol’s future, watching her straight up execute five Saviors was very satisfying. Even though the tide of the battle seems to be turning in the Saviors’ favor by the end of the episode I love thinking about how Rick and the Alexandrians have been creating some serious vacancies in the Saviors’ ranks throughout the season. Nothing is more thrilling than watching a bunch of mean, smug bikers get slaughtered by the folks that they’re trying to subjugate.
Daryl Screws Up
The episode opens with Daryl (Norman Reedus) solemnly looking at a keychain that belonged to the late Denise (Merrit Wever) and then tearing off into the zombie and Savior infested wilderness. This prompts Glenn (Steven Yeun), Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Rosita (Christian Serratos) to follow him as the audience collectively gasps at all of the horrors that could assault these beloved characters when we’re right on the verge of the season finale.
The soul of this development is during a conversation between Glenn and Daryl in which Glenn utters the words “Things will go wrong out there” which gives Daryl a bit of pause. He’s never one to be deterred from whatever it is that he’s tracking, but this phrase makes him at least consider the peaceful alternative—but he still doesn’t give up on his quest for revenge. It’s precisely this quest that puts Daryl into a deadly situation in which Dwight (Austin Amelio) may or may not have killed Daryl with a gunshot wound to the head. In an interview with “Entertainment Weekly,” Norman Reedus did confirm that it was indeed Daryl’s blood that we saw, but even if that’s the case, I’ve learned from both “Kill Bill” and season two of “Daredevil” that a gunshot wound to the head is not as fatal as it once was.
What was a bit scarier for me was Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) final scene in the episode where something has apparently gone wrong with her baby, which ended up sparking a conversation between me and my wife about the ramifications of a stillbirth in the zombie apocalypse. There’s some nightmare fuel for you.
Verdict
Outside of the sucker punch to the face during the last few minutes, this episode felt like it was killing time before the season finale. I get that—we want to make sure that the final episode is appropriately awesome—but the bulk of the episode was spent following characters as they wandered around the woods. I was intrigued by whoever Morgan and Rick found at the barn—was he a Hilltop fellow? Or maybe a scout from another community?
Regarding Daryl’s possible death, I’m not really feeling it. The scene felt very much the same as Glenn’s possible death earlier in the season, so I’m expecting Daryl to be injured but not deceased. Again, my money’s on Glenn meeting Lucille next week, so I’m viewing Daryl’s headshot as a red herring.
But we’ll see, won’t we? Only one more week until it all goes down the tubes!