Monday, March 21, 2016

The Walking Dead: Season 6 Episode 14 - Twice as Far


Hello everyone and welcome back!  With 3 episodes left in season 6 of The Walking Dead I was a bit surprised how this episode felt like a "moving the pieces into place" episode for most of the time.  I tend to forget that things can change at the drop of an arrow.  WOW, that episode was nuts!  Maybe ALMOST as nuts as my personal experience trying to watch the episode!  I'll spare you the details and just say that it was really late by the time we finished.  I say this all the time, but this recap will be very brief and we can continue the discussion in the comments!  Let's dive in.


Discussion Points


  • The episode kicked off showing the passage of time and everyone's new routines.  Gabrielle was comfortable sporting a rifle through Alexandria and patrolling the streets.  Eugene was on guard duty.  Sasha was on watch.  Morgan built himself a prison cell much like the one he was held in for his transformation episode.  He told Rick he built it to be more prepared next time.  And we know that you don't build a prison cell without eventually using it!  We also watched Alexandria's inventory slowly dwindling once again.  They also focused on Alexandria's stronger perimeter wall that were built after the initial wall collapse.  
  • We also kicked off the episode with a development between Rosita and Spencer.  More of a walk of shame for Rosita and Spencer getting a little too attached.  But, it clearly had been going on for some time as Spencer was asking her what they were doing and he was fine either way.  He just wanted to know.  Eventually Rosita agreed to a dinner.  How can you turn down Beef Stroganoff?  
  • The episode eventually focused on 2 teams heading out of the town.   Eugene and Abraham; and Daryl, Rosita and Denise.   
  • Eugene was trying to prove himself to Abraham and how he had elevated to phase 2 of his post apocalyptic survival.  They had an encounter with a walker who had melted metal over his head (Game of Thrones Golden Crown anyone?)  Eugene was struggling but still thought he could handle it and Abraham took him out causing a bit of a feud between the 2.  
  • Before that, Eugene unveiled his plan to create ammunition for their people and for trade with Hilltop and maybe others.  Abraham thought this plan was genius and thought that's where Eugene should focus his skills.  i.e. behind the scenes and not on the front lines.  
  • Denise remembered an apothecary where they could refill their supply on medication.  She wanted to go and she wanted Daryl and Rosita to keep her alive.  They were reluctant to take her, but eventually did.  Denise had never been outside the walls and was struggling all episode to make her first walker kill.  She said she had training but never put it to use.  
  • There was some foreshadowing on taking trails vs. taking the long way.  Rosita took the trail and Denise followed Daryl on the long way.  No incidents occurred and they broke their way into the apothecary.  They ransacked the supplies and Denise had her encounter with a walker.  Now, I can't be sure but it sure looked like this walker had drowned his/her child to possibly silence them.  The wall had the word "HUSH" written in red all over it and then we saw a bloody pool in a sink with a child's shoe sticking out of it.  I'm not going to speculate further because it was a disturbing sight!  
  • Denise finally did get her walker kill when Daryl agreed to take the train tracks/trail back to their truck.  Denise saw a cooler and thought it might have something useful in it.  She struggled with the walker but eventually took it down and got her ORANGE CRUSH she'd been wanting to give to Tara.  I mean seriously what are the odds Denise would actually track down 1 can of Orange Crush in the first cooler she saw?  But, it was symbolic and it works!  Daryl and Rosita of course thought she was nuts.  
  • Denise went on some speech talking about what matters in this world and how Rosita and Daryl need to shape up and wake up etc.....  And while she was in the middle of her speech she got an arrow straight through the eye.   And it came from a familiar weapon held by a familiar person.   D did it.  At the train tracks. With Daryl's crossbow.  (Can we get CLUE: The Walking Dead Edition board game please?)   RIP Denise. 
  • So the man that Daryl set free is with Negan's crew.  Daryl knew he should've killed him and D agreed.  He was being a real tool this time.  He even said he was still adjusting to the kickback on the crossbow and wasn't even aiming for Denise.  Oh right, and they had Eugene captive.  
  • Abraham was still roaming around and Eugene used that to his advantage when he created a diversion.  The less I say about Eugene's attack strategy the better.  But let's just say D's going to have a hard time peeing while standing the next time he needs to.  (I'm not even sure if that's accurate, but surely the joke still works!)  
  • Long story short, there was a battle and the rest of our heroes were able to overtake Negan's crew again.  We know that Negan's crew is aware of Alexandria as D spoke about it and was demanding that they take them there and let them in.  I can't remember if Daryl offered to take him there in their episode together.  Eugene got grazed by a bullet, but Abraham certified his elevated status to phase 2.  And of course, Abraham also won the night with another awesome 1-liner about Eugene's biting move.  
  • The night ended with Carol and Daryl burying Denise.  They had a chat earlier in the episode where Daryl discussed how he should've killed the man he helped in the woods (D).  Carol has been sitting with her rosary and pretty much insinuated that they caused this issue with Negan's crew and their captives had done nothing to them to instigate it.  In the end, Carol decided to leave Alexandria as she refuses to kill to defend the town.  

Ohhhh boy Carol.  I guess there's a difference between killing the living when attacked vs. being the predator?  I mean obviously there is, but Carol seemed to have disregarded her conscience for survival in the past.  Maybe they're suggesting that Morgan got to her after their debates?  They've certainly been building towards Carol's transformation over the past few episodes.  I guess I just didn't see it going down this way.  With 2 episodes left, things should get interesting!  

So, next weekend is Easter.  I will try my best to watch the episode on Sunday night and get some kind of recap up.  I'm not making any promises though!  I usually average 1 "discussion post" per 8 episodes and next week looks like a good candidate.  Hopefully, everyone will continue to understand!  For now, hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll see you next week in one form or another! 

8 comments:

MJ said...

Drop of an arrow ! Good one. LOL They at least could have brought back her other eye for Carl ! LOL. There is just something so wrong with Eugene - but it got the job done. As soon as we started to learn about Denise's past I knew she was a goner. Poor Tara - every time she finds someone they are killed. Wonder if we will even see Tara considering the actress was very pregnant at the time of filming. Agree - that shoe floating in the sink was very disturbing.

Notice D's face ? It didn't look like that when we last saw him Between his face and that girl missing part of a finger last week - thinking this is how Negen doles out punishment. I always figured he was with Negen and that was who he and the two girls were running away from. At first he had thought Daryl was with Negen too and that's why they were afraid of him at first.

I don't think Daryl told him about Alexandria but like last week people assume that you are clean enough that you must have a place you are staying.

Oh Carol. Like tyresse she has decided she does not want to kill (I said weeks ago she was envious of Morgan's ability to give people a chance) and like Tyresse Carol will probably die because of it - or cause someone else to die.

Mike V. said...

Agreed on Carol....she will die or be the cause of someone else's death. It's been building to that.

I did notice D's face. Couldn't remember if he was burned like that before or not...but should've known that was Negan's punishment. Duh...lol good call!

Swamped today...but certainly will comment more later if I can!

MJ said...

Was Daryl's refusal to follow the track about Terminus ? Or did he think it was safer with Denise with them? Didn't make sense to me.

I guess we were to infer that the woman walker at the drug store drowned her kid ? That was horrible to see.

As for the making bullets thing - need more then just lead. Pretty unrealistic in my opinion.

Mike V. said...

Hmm...Terminus makes sense...didn't he and Beth run into issues on the track? I just thought he's on edge after the negan stuff last week but I didn't really think too much about it.

Yeah...I made the same assumption in the recap with the drowned kid, but was unsure if that was the implication too. And yeah it was rough to see!

I'm sure Eugene has a fool proof plan! :-) lol

Jason B. said...

Yeah, Daryl has just had bad memories with train tracks, definitely Terminus, but also his time with the Claimers and how that all turned out. And now Denise's death can be added to that. I'll be surprised if we ever see the man on train tracks again haha.

Yeah poor Tara, I'm wondering if we'll see her at all the rest of the season as MJ said. Another week and a half or so would have to pass in the show as well as the actress being ready to act again after having a baby. If they aren't back by the finale then we'll have Tara learning of a close friend's death two season premiers in a row. And I'm sure Daryl has the orange crush saved to give to her. I hope we see that on screen, whenever it happens.

Jason B. said...

Oh and talk about change with Dwight, huh? When Daryl asked him the three questions back in the forest, he had never killed anybody and to the "why?" he said "because if I did there'd be no going back to the way things were." Now here he is two months later and he kills someone he doesn't know before even making his presence known.

And lol when they just called him "D" in episode 6 I figured it was only to cover his identity if it was him until he showed up again, but then a few weeks later they came out and confirmed that he was Dwight. So I'm convinced that at least part of the reason that they called him D was because Eugene bit "D's nuts." If that somehow wasn't planned, then it's an epic coincidence haha.

Mike V. said...

lol on D's nuts. Nice one Super j! Also good observations on the 3 questions. I didn't pick up on that but that makes sense.

I think I forgot the actress that plays Tara was pregnant which made sense to send her on her trek to get her off screen. Yeah...not sure if she'll make it back or not...but it would be more timely for her to get that can of orange crush this season to make the biggest impact. We'll see!

Jason B. said...

Yeah I agree, I hope that she was able to come back sometime before they finished filming the season.

Well, I guess the spoilers for the finale are already out unless they are wrong. So no more walking dead reddit or Facebook until after the finale for me haha. I had Denise's death spoiled for me a few days before the episode from a Facebook comment, and there's no way I'm letting that happen for the finale. So Internet wise I think I'll only be discussing the next episode here haha.