The established trend of episodes focussing on smaller
groups of survivors continues with another Rick-less episode. Daryl and Beth’s
adventures continue, and we also catch up with Maggie, Sasha and Bob as all
roads appear to lead towards Terminus (“The End”).
I was caught off-guard by the pre-credits montage which
followed a bedraggled-looking Bob as he made a lonely trek through miles of
forest, deftly avoiding confrontations with Walkers. I didn’t realise at first
that this was a flashback until Daryl arrived on his motorbike alongside Glenn.
One of the fortunate things about the show’s current format is that it allows
for characters like Bob to get more development, which wasn’t very possible
back at the prison (he was only significant to me because he played D’Angelo in
The Wire, and also because Bob is a
relatively prominent figure in the tie-in novelizations).
After a tense near-brush with death as the three of them
fought off a group of Walkers in the fog, Bob and Sasha took the majority of
the focus as Maggie slipped away during the night, determined to find Glenn on
her own. They headed down the train tracks to catch up with Maggie – and to
ultimately arrive at ‘Terminus’. Sasha appeared to have lost a lot of hope, and
Bob was required to be the optimist. Sasha was fearful of heading to the sanctuary
for fear of discovering that Tyreese might have died, and so made the decision
to hole-up in an apartment in the nearest town. Bob appealed in favour of
continuing on towards ‘Terminus’ because surely other people from the prison
would have also seen the signs (good intuition there!).
Maggie was leaving messages in Walker-blood for Glenn to
follow – letting him know that she’s still alive, and where to go – which is as
good a plan as any other (let’s just hope that there aren’t any other survivors
called Glenn or Maggie out there, otherwise they might get very confused!).
Bob remained optimistic, but it wasn’t enough to convince
Sasha to abandon her plans: especially when she found an abandoned building to
make into her new home. Bob then ‘tried something’ and kissed Sasha – there had
been a few romantic implications between the two of them throughout the episode
– but she stubbornly made an effort to follow through on her intentions. However
it didn’t take long for her to realise that it wasn’t the smartest plan, and it
also appeared that fate was on hand to point this out to her as well. Upon
looking out of the window she saw Maggie outside, and quickly made her way down
to help her fight off a group of Walkers. Nobody can survive in this world
alone.
After last week’s episode I was very pleased to see a
continuation in the Daryl and Beth saga, although by the end of this episode it
appears to have come to an end. The two of them had a number of standout
moments in this episode before everything went to hell (as is so often the case
in The Walking Dead). One such moment
saw the pair of them taking a moment to pause at the grave of an unspecified ‘Beloved
Father’, a scene where no dialogue was necessary, and saw the two of them grow
closer as Beth grabbed onto Daryl’s hand.
The two of them made their way into a funeral parlour which
was suspiciously well maintained (heavily implying that someone was still
inhabiting it) and also had a well-stocked kitchen. This allowed for a few
brief moments of respite, including a grimly comical scene where Daryl bedded
down for the night in a coffin (the most comfortable bed he’s had in years!),
Beth played the piano and sang very sweetly, and the two of them were able to
enjoy a ‘white trash brunch’ of peanut-butter and jelly, diet soda and pigs
feet.
The unlikely romance between the two was growing throughout
this episode, but in The Walking Dead moments
of happiness or peace tend not to last long, and sure enough – as if on-cue –
just as the two of them shared a very palpable ‘moment’, there was the sound of
commotion outside as their alarm system was tripped. This brought a whole herd
of Walkers rampaging into the house, and Daryl effectively sacrificed himself
to allow Beth to escape. Being Daryl, he was able to fight his way out of a
room filled with Walkers – using ingenuity and creating barriers – and he
managed to get himself out of the house, just in time to see a car driving away
(apparently with Beth).
Daryl runs after the car until he can’t run any longer, and
upon arriving at a literal (and figurative) crossroads the chances of finding
out where Beth was taken seem highly unlikely. Exhausted, he slumps down in the
middle of the road, where he is eventually discovered by the villainous group
of marauders who overturned the house where Rick was last seen. Fortunately Daryl
is a tough son-of-a-bitch, and is welcomed into their ranks. Although this
group have already proved their nefariousness, with the finale now approaching,
the many separate plot-lines of the latter half of this season are now showing
signs of coming to a head.
The episode is able to end on a more positive note, as Bob
is reunited with Sasha and Maggie. Bob’s story within this episode was able to
come full circle – he’s been separated from groups before, and made his way out
on his own, but now he no longer has to.
Then just to give one final tease, we see Glenn discover a
sign for ‘Terminus’ as well. I’m now feeling excited as to what’s going to
happen when the finale comes around, as it surely has to see the various
parties arrive at the mysterious sanctuary. But what will happen when they get
there?
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