What I Watched Today
(rambling, random thoughts & annoyingly detailed recaps from real time TV watching)
The Walking Dead
In case you didn’t know, it’s Rick’s last episode.
It’s not looking good for Rick. We see a cloud of crows. We hear Rick’s voice saying, wake up; it’s time to go. He’s talking to himself. Literally. The crows turn into helicopters. Rick bleeds as he stands over himself in a hospital bed. Hospital patient Rick says, wake up, a-hole. In the real world, zombies come for Rick, who’s impaled by metal pole attached to a cement block. He takes off his belt and, screaming in pain, hoists himself off the pole. He hits the ground crawling, with zombies coming from everywhere. Luckily, the horse that caused his problem in the first place, is waiting. He jumps on, and the now-merged horde follows him as he trots away.
A smoking camper stalls on the road. Anne/Jadis/Tortellini is frustrated. A voice on the radio asks her to confirm her location, and the status of her A. She says she’s north of the junkyard, and the A is ready for transport. They know her group vacated the landfill, and if it’s a trick there will be consequences. She says, it’s no trick. She’s desperate, and needs to leave this place. She gets out, and says she’ll be ready.
Good thing these aren’t fast zombies. The horse plods along. Rick tells himself to stay awake. He drifts too close to the horde, and then takes off.
A zombie toddles out of the woods as Maggie and Dianne approach on horseback. Maggie dismounts, and smashes its head. Over and over. She wipes the blood off of herself, and says they can go.
Rick continues on. he sees a mailbox, and gallops on a path through the woods. He reaches a cabin with come face me a-holes written on the wall. He goes inside, and tears some bedding into strips. He wraps them around his middle where the wound is. He looks around, and sees a dead body with a gun in its hand. There bullet holes in the cabin walls. He passes out.
Rick says he’s looking for his family. Someone asks, what’s your wound? Rick and Shane sit in their patrol car looking at a vehicle turned upside down near the road. Shane says, idiots, and Rick asks if that was the car they were chasing? Shane says, a third man changes everything, and Rick tells Shane that he’s looking for his family. Shane says he could argue that it’s his family; it’s his baby girl. Rick says she doesn’t have his nose. They laugh. Shane admits to being an a-hole, and says Rick is one too. Shane says Rick took a page out of his book, and he’s glad Rick stepped up. Rick says, it had to be him, but Shane says that’s where he’s wrong; it has to be him. That’s the only way it gets done. He knows Rick has it in him. It’s time. He tells Rick, listen carefully. Kneel down, dig deep, and find the rage; it’s in there and the only way this gets done – and it has to get done. He can do it. Rick says he’s sorry for what he did to Shane, but Shane tells Rick, forget that sh*t. He leans toward Rick, and suddenly turns into a zombie.
Back at the cabin, zombies are spilling in. Rick busts out the boards from a window, and pulls himself out. A zombie grabs his leg, but miraculously, he gets away and back on the horse. There’s not even that much of him to go around. Why the crowd?
Michonne writes, as Judith does crafts with shells. Michonne gets a coffee ring on some of her papers. I note this because one of my bosses told me, coffee rings show you’re working hard. A guy comes by, and tells Michonne that Maggie just came in; someone opened the gate. Maggie stomps through town, and Michonne meets her at the jail steps. Maggie tells Michonne to get out of her way. Michonne asks if Maggie is willing to turn this into something else for him, but Maggie says it’s not for him. It’s for her, and for others; he should have died. Michonne says, he didn’t die; it’s done. Maggie says, because Rick decided? and tells Michonne, stand back. Michonne was there. She saw what Negan did. Michonne asks if Glenn would want this; for Maggie to go through her to get to Negan. Maggie says she doesn’t know. She never got to say goodbye. Michonne says her father wouldn’t want this. Maggie says it’s the one thing she had was knowing Glenn’s murderer would die. What does she do? Start over? Start something else? If Negan had butchered Rick in front of Michonne, and she had a child to raise alone, he would have been dead, and she knows it. She tells Michonne to stop acting like she has a choice, and she can just turn it off. It’s been a year and a half, and she can’t. Michonne says she’s going to have to find a way. Maggie wishes there was something else she could do, but she can’t keep living like this. There’s nothing Michonne can say. Michonne asks if she’s willing to live with what comes after, and Maggie says she can’t live with it now. She holds out her hand, and Michonne gives her the key.
Maggie goes inside. Negan says, she gave up the key huh? He says Michonne has the blood, but Maggie has the fire on her. Maggie asks if he remembers her. He says, of course. It’s why he thought she’d win. She tells him to get on his knees. He says he remembers her screaming, and how much he broke her when he broke open her husband’s head, Maggie says, his name was Glenn. Negan asks if she’s come for revenge, but she says, justice. He thought she’d do this sooner, and asks if it took her this long to work up the nerve. He cracked open her husband’s skull, and popped out his eyeball while she watched. He used to say he didn’t enjoy killing. It was a lie. Her husband was different. Killing him that way was fun. Maggie puts the key in the cell lock. Negan tells her to have her justice. Kill him – it was worth it. She wants to see him in the light. He doesn’t move, but says, come on, and asks if she doesn’t have it in her. Is she going to punk out like Rick? She wants him in the light. He cries, and tells her to kill him.
She grabs him by the collar, and throws his ass into the hallway. He begs her to kill him. She asks, why? but he says, just do it. She insists he tell her why, and he says, so he can be with his wife and family. He should be dead. He has to be dead, and it has to be her because he cant do it. He’s tried. He can’t be like this; don’t make him stay like this. She tells him to get back in his cell. He continues to beg, and she says, no. She came to kill him, but he’s already worse than dead. That settles it. He says, it’s not supposed to be like this, and closes his cell door behind him. I wonder if this is reverse psychology.
Outside, Maggie and Michonne look at each other. Dianne runs up and says there’s trouble at the bridge.
Rick keeps on leading the horde. He needs to find his family. He passes out, but the horse keeps going with him on it.
Hershel shows Rick the sunset. They talk about how beautiful it is, and they hug. Rick is sorry for what happened to Hershel and Glenn; everything he’s lost. Maybe if he’d tried harder… Hershel says his girl is strong. His grandson will make her stronger. Does Rick think he has to worry about her? Rick says he needs to find his family; keep them together. Hershel says he doesn’t. He only thinks he does. Rick says it’s been hard. What he wanted for him and Carl. He’s been trying. Hershel says he’ll get there, and Rick says he’s tired. Maybe he can find his family there. Hershel says, no. He has to wake up. Rick is back on the horse. He doubles over, and rides hugging the horse’s neck.
Rick is at the hospital, where it all began. He hears Morgan asking, what’s your wound? He sees the double-doors that say, DON’T OPEN DEAD INSIDE. He pulls out the board holding the doors shut, and opens them to a bright white light. He walks outside, and there are dead bodies carpeting the ground. It’s like Jonestown, but worse. He walks through them. Heavy, grey clouds loom above.
Sasha stands up, and Rick says, they’re all dead. She knows, and tells him, it’s okay. He asks, how? She says he did his part, like she did hers, and like others did before them. The others gave them strength, and they needed to do what they did, so others could draw from them. They changed each other. They helped make each other better. She tells him, it’s never the end of everything. They don’t die. It’s not about him, or her, or any one of them; but all of them. She doesn’t think it evens out, but it always crosses over to the good, the brave, and toward love. He’s not going to find his family there. They’re not lost. Neither is he. He needs to wake up.
He falls off the horse, and the horse takes off, like my Golden Retriever did when I fell in that hole. Some man’s best friend. Apparently, the horse isn’t either. Rick is bleeding like a stuck pig. He wanders into an abandoned camp, and some zombies see him. He shoots one, two, three, and the third one falls on him. Well, crap, here come more. He shoves that one off, and this is crazy. They’re rolling right through, knocking down tents, headed toward Rick. He stumbles away, but damn! Here they come from the other side. Where’s that freaking horse?
Rick drags himself to the bridge, and falls. The zombie mob gets closer. Rick hears his name, and everyone comes running. Daryl, Ezekiel, Carol, Eugene, Maggie, and Michonne. Michonne kneels in front of Rick, and says they’ll get him out of there. She says, it’s not over. She loves him because he’s a fighter, and never gives up. So fight. Fight for her; for all of them. The others stand and watch, and I wonder how they could have possibly killed all those zombies that fast. Rick says he found his family. He found her. Michonne says, he did, and he says, this isn’t real. She says, yes, it is, and kisses him. She says, now wake up.
Rick limps toward the bridge, the zombies following. How they haven’t gotten him yet is beyond me. He drips blood as he walks. He leans on the wooden beams, stumbles, and crawls a little, reminding me of a determined marathoner. He faces the zombies. Holy! There’s tons of them. He says, no, and keeps walking. A zombie comes up behind him, close enough to touch, but an arrow pierces its head. It’s Daryl with his trusty crossbow. Everyone from Alexandria runs out of the woods. Maggie wonders what Rick is doing, and Daryl says, he’s trying to bring down the bridge. Maggie starts running around to the other side, and Rick is like, I got this. Some others follow Maggie. Rick says, too many, and chops a zombie in the head with a hatchet. Daryl shoots more of them. A box of dynamite falls and opens.
Michonne and the others run around the other way. Rick just stands there, facing the zombies. He raises his gun, and aims at the dynamite. Michonne cries out. Rick says, I found them, and shoots. The bridge blows and burns. Daryl cries. In one of the coolest special effects ever on the show (possibly a toss-up with Jadis’s thrashing machine), we see flaming zombies dropping off of both sides of the bridge, and into the water. Maggie and Carol hold Michonne back. Daryl walks into the woods. Presumably to be alone with his feelings.
Anne sees the smoke from the bridge. She fiddles with the radio, and listens in. The helicopter is coming, and she gets her gun ready. She sees the mess floating down the river, and she’s all, wtf? She looks closer, and sees Rick washed up on shore. She radios the helicopter. She says she has a B, but he’s strong. Can they help? She drops the gun, and says it’s no longer a trade. She’s trying to save a friend who saved her. She has something for them. Deal? The helicopter lands
Funky music plays (see below). Anne tells Rick he’s going to be okay. She’s going to save him. He lies on a stretcher on the helicopter, receiving oxygen. The helicopter takes off. Nothing like leaving that door wide open.
Time jump – six years. A small group of young people are in the midst of a pack of zombies. They’re slicing and dicing, but become surrounded. One asks, Meg, what do we do? Meg says, fight. Gunshots ring out, and the zombies start dropping. As soon as a path is cleared, the group runs through it, and into the woods. They find a little girl who has a gun and a mini katana. She asks if they have names, and they tell her more names I will have to learn.
They ask what her name is, and she says, Judith. Judith Grimes. She puts on Rick’s sheriff’s hat.
Next time. Michonne hasn’t given up and never will; Carol’s hair is a lot longer; Daryl says a storm is coming; strangers come to town; someone wants to help Negan; Gabriel wonders what else might be out there; hiding in plain sight; and some fancy fightin’.
🔊 On Talking Dead, we saw video tributes to Andrew Lincoln from some of the cast members. As they were recorded a while ago, Scott Wilson (Hershel) was featured. Apparently, this episode of TWD was his last performance, which certainly makes it more poignant . We found out we’ll be meeting The Whisperers, and the funky music was Space Junk by Wang Chung. It had also been used during the closing credits of the first TWD episode. You can read about it here:
🏃 How Does It Happen…?
🎶 Maybe This Will Help…
What I Watched - TV With Theresa 