The “Walking Dead” season six premiere was two separate stories all leading to one conclusion, done through the use of black and white flashbacks and colored current events. This will be way to hard to explain on paper, so I’m just going to start at point A and work my way to point B, which means my scenes will be out of order. But, it’ll make more sense.
WARNING: FULL EPISODE SPOILERS AHEAD
When we return, we’re treated to a black screen with a lot of walker vocalization in the background. Rick is yelling that he knows it sounds insane, but the Alexandrians need to come for them before they come for the Alexandrians. Fade in on Rick standing in front of a huge walker pit with about a dozen characters and a few background extras. When I say huge, I mean gigantic; there’s at least 2,000 walkers in the pit. Rick is already in the middle of putting his plan in action when the walkers on the other side of the pit push a guard truck off the entrance, making way for them to escape. Rick says this was going to be a dry run but they have to do the plan now. A new character, Carter, shouts that they’re not ready, but Rick says they have no choice and starts shouting directions to the group. Sasha and Abraham get in a red sedan and take off, Glenn and Heath (another new character) depart with Nick, although Glenn is apprehensive about letting him join in the plan. Cater is still panicking but everyone ignores him as more walkers begin squeezing through the trucks. Rick reminds everyone that they need to be on point and don’t panic, the walkers are headed for Alexandria so this needs to work. Morgan and Michonne fire flares into the sky to get the attention of more walkers in the pit and then the last of the group take off.
Days earlier, Deanna is lying on the ground near the outdoor fire, right next to the pool of blood left behind after Pete accidentally killed her husband, Reg. Father Gabriel is about to come up and comfort her, but Deanna senses his presence and tells him “you were wrong.” Reg’s body is being carried by Abraham to the Alexandria cemetery. After setting Reg’s body on the ground, Abraham catches a glimpse at the dead man’s wedding ring and instantly starts having mixed emotions to his death. He takes a bottle of liquor out of his pocket and pours some on the ground in honor of Reg before downing the whole bottle himself. Sasha sees him and they solute in solidarity. Jesse, Pete’s wife, is at home trying to comfort her kids since they lost someone, too, now that Rick shot Pete in the head. She cradles Sam as her oldest son, Ron, runs upstairs. She doesn’t follow because she doesn’t know what to say. Carl finds Enid sitting atop a gazebo and the fledgling young couple hold hands while not saying a word. No one is having fun in Alexandria tonight.
Meanwhile, Rosita is taking care of Tara who just woke up from her coma after the failed run. Moments later, Glenn and Nick stumble into the infirmary, still bloody as Hell after Nick tried to murder our favorite Asian. Tara jokes, “wow you look like shit,” to get Glenn’s attention and he appears genuinely overjoyed that she’s awake. Maggie hears the commotion and notices Tara before she does Glenn, Tara says “I’m OK, check on them,” before passing Maggie to Glenn. Glenn promises Maggie that he’s OK, and lies by telling her that he and Nick were attacked by walkers and he was hit by falling debris. Eugene shows up, too, and Tara jokes again saying “thank god nothing happened to your hair.” Eugene is nothing but smiles, so much so that he starts to freak her out. She laughs and asks that Noah come in to protect her from Eugene and everyone looks over at her solemnly. She doesn’t know yet that Noah was ripped to piece by walkers because of Nick. Elsewhere, Morgan and Rick are having a not so pleasant reunion as Daryl looks on. Rick is still covered in blood and tells Morgan that he doesn’t take chances anymore. Morgan simple tells him, “you were right. It wasn’t over.”
In the morning, Daryl is working on his motorcycle outside and is talking about the guys Morgan met on the road, the guys who packed the walkers into the trucks and the bodies they’re finding with W’s carved into their foreheads. Rick decides that it’s not save to bring new people into Alexandria anymore and anyone outside the gates need to fend for themselves. Daryl disagrees but Rick doesn’t seem to care, instead opting to check on Morgan who’s in Alexandria’s make-shift holding cell. When he enters, Morgan is practicing with his staff (not as dirty as it sounds) and he tells Rick he learned it from a friend after he went crazy in season four. He understands why he was held in the cell overnight, saying “sometimes you’re safer when there’s no way out.” Morgan is excited to get to know Rick again. The duo go for a walk with Rick showing him around Alexandria and explaining how Reg erected the walls. Father Gabriel and Tobin (he’s been in four episodes so far) catch Rick’s eye by the graveyard and he charges over to see what they’re doing. Father Gabriel and Tobin are digging a grave to put Pete in, but Rick stops them because they don’t bury murderers next to innocent people. They disagree, but Deanna shows up and sides with Rick, telling them to dump him outside and “let the trees have him.” Ron sees the whole thing and follows Rick and Morgan outside of the walls.
When they get to a clearing, Rick wants to just dump the body but Morgan wants to stay and bury him. They have a little exchange, with Morgan ignoring Rick and starting to dig anyway, and Rick has to stop him because he hears something close-by. They follow the noise through the woods and discover the walker pit with thousands of walkers in it. Morgan uses his binoculars to see that the only thing keeping them in is a pair of trucks squeezed together on each of the two exits. Suddenly, walkers come up behind them and we see that the walkers are chasing Ron. Ron almost falls in the pit and is almost munched on but is saved both times by Rick and Morgan. Ron starts to take off because he hates Rick, but Rick grabs him and yells at him, telling him he’ll die outside the walls by himself but Rick will show him how to protect himself later so that doesn’t happen. Rick then basically threatens Ron’s life and since Rick just killed his dad, Ron goes next as to not be the next person shot in the face. On the way back to Alexandria, Rick stops to bury Pete and Morgan happily helps him dig.
Back at Alexandria, Eugene is guarding the front gate when unfamiliar faces approach. We formally meet Heath, Scott and Annie. They’re legitimate Alexandrians who have been on a run for the last couple of weeks which is why Eugene hadn’t seen them before. Heath threatens to kick Eugene’s ass so the ex-scientist lets them in. Heath asks if he missed anything important while they were out on a run and Eugene tells him he should get all the dirt directly from Deanna before telling Heath that he respects his hair game. Soon, the town has gathered at Deanna’s house for a meeting where Rick and Morgan tell them all what they saw at the walker pit. Everyone is there including Aaron and Eric. Heath divulges that there had been survivors there at one point who didn’t want to come back to the town and when he went back to check on them, they had been overrun by walkers. Michonne deduces that the constant noise from the walker pit is drawing in more walkers. Rick says that they need to tackle the walkers before they make it out of the pit, a heavy rainfall is all it could take for the trucks to slide down the cliff. Carol is there, too, and feigns fear to seem empathetic with the crowd but confirms there’s no other way.
Carter is scared and just wants to reinforce the trucks because Rick’s plan sounds too risky. Deanna has the final call and she sides with Rick. The plan is to open the walker pit, distract the walkers and have them follow a convoy, build a series of deflectors to keep the walkers on path, and lead them 20 miles away from Alexandria where bridges and valleys will keep them on the same path headed away. Daryl will lead the convoy in his motorcycle and Sasha and Abraham will follow close to him incase something goes wrong. Rick also announces that there will be more than one person guarding the city from now on and sticks Holly (who we still haven’t met despite her being mentioned twice), Spencer (Deanna’s son) and Rosita on first watch. Glenn instructs Maggie to stay behind and keep an eye on Deanna because “she needs to come back from this.” There’s also another reason why Glenn wants Maggie to stay behind, but they don’t want to say why. *coughcough* she’s pregnant *coughcough* Rick is going to need more volunteers to make the plan work. Father Gabriel volunteers but gets shot down. Heath, Francine (this is her fourth episode), and Glenn volunteer, much to his dismay. Carter is still freaking out and asks why they should listen to him after what he did to Pete, but Deanna has Rick’s back again and they have Rick go over the plan one more time.
Later on, Rick, Carter, Deanna, Eugene, Heath and Michonne are going over the blueprints for the walker deflectors. It’s going to be a series of walls made of house siding and unusable cars that will keep the walkers in the right path. A large group of Alexandrians head out to the streets beyond the city to start building the deflectors. Jesse and Rick lock eyes for a moment but don’t speak. Carol is there handing out water and asks if she should come along because she’s been learning how to shoot. Liar, she’s already one of the best shots! #spycarol Rick tells her he’d rather she stay behind to spy on the town while they’re gone and to protect it should things go badly. Morgan also speaks with Carol and hints that he knows she’s putting on an act. Daryl speaks with Rick next and tells him he’s going to still search for other survivors to bring to the city no matter what Rick says. Maggie tells Tara that Nick is the reason Noah is dead and that Nick tried to kill Glenn and Tara wants revenge. Maggie brings up second chances and reminds her that Tara was on the other side of the fence at one point and they gave her another chance. Tara decides to let it go, for now. Suddenly, four walkers hear the noise from the construction and attack. Rick wants the Alexandrians to use their shovels and take out the small pack. They prove to be cowards and too useless to fight so Rick, Daryl, Michonne and Morgan have to jump in and save them. This prompts Rick to tell Deanna that everyone in Alexandria needs to learn how to fight and use a gun. She agrees.
When everyone is back at Alexandria, Eugene goes to the cafeteria to get a can of peas. While there, he overhears Carter rallying a small group – consisting of Francine, Olivia (this is her fourth episode) and Tobin – to kill Rick before he takes over the entire city. Clumsy Eugene drops the can and alerts them that he’s been eavesdropping. Carter is about to shoot Eugene to keep him quiet when Rick, Daryl and Morgan show up. Rick makes it look like he’s about to execute Carter but stops when he thinks he’s frightened the man enough. Later on, Rick lets Morgan hold Sophia while they’re talking on his porch with Michonne listening inside. Rick invites Morgan to live with him so they can get to know each other again but Morgan insists they know each other already. Rick is still the same man he met before who tried to pull him from darkness. Rick divulges that he wanted to kill Pete because it would make it easier if he wasn’t around to screw things up for the entire town. Some people shouldn’t be alive now but Pete would have gotten killed on his own anyway, so Rick didn’t have to do it. Rick finally visits Jesse, telling her he didn’t want to visit her too soon. Jesse is pissed about how Rick talked to Ron, especially after he just killed his father. Rick wants to teach Jesse how to protect herself and Jesse turns him down because she already asked Rosita to show her. Then she’ll show her kids because she’s ready to fight. This makes Rick happy.
Finally, we’re back to the day of the walker pit plan… The walkers begin squeezing past the trucks in bigger numbers and everyone takes off with their directions. Sasha and Abraham go ahead of Daryl and clear any stray walkers that stumbled into his bike path. Thousands of walkers are following behind Daryl and he’s just about to reach the series of deflectors. Rick, Michonne and Morgan are on the other side and Morgan asks if Michonne stole one of his peanut butter bars while he was unconscious the last time she met him. Michonne denies it, though it’s obvious she did take it, and says life always works that way. The walker growling alerts them that the walkers have almost reached the deflectors so the trio set off flares to keep the attention of the walkers. The walkers start bumping into the deflectors, however, Carter is a good builder and the walls hold up and funnel the walkers in the direction they want them to go. The number of walkers is so great that they trample each other, smashing their heads open on the deflectors. Further down the road, Daryl and Sasha and Abraham are still leading the walkers, but some start veering off into the forest. Abe hops out of the car, gets their attention and leads them back to the road. Part one of the plan is complete.
Glenn, Heath and Nick are awaiting their call on the walkie-talkie much further away. They arrive at an abandoned gas station and find a dozen walkers inside, ones that are loud and rambunctious. Glenn says they have to take the walkers out because their noise will lead other walkers off the path. The plan is to let them out one by one through the front door. Nick will hold the door shut while Glenn and Heath dispense the walkers. When they swing the door open, they see a metal gate in the way. The only way to let them out is to smash the window and take on the pack all at once. Heath and Nick panic, but Glenn assures them that they can do it. They succeed, though Glenn and Nick are almost bitten and end up saving each other.
Back at the main walker path, Carter admits that Rick’s plan worked in front of the Alexandrians and Grimes group. All of the groups meet up again among the trees and Rick says they need to follow the walkers for at least another hour. He orders them to split up into groups again so they can fan out and look for any stragglers. Carter is the first to head off and he doesn’t pay attention and a walker grabs him and bites part of his face off. He starts to scream and his screams catch the attention of a few walkers. He’s wailing and wailing and won’t shut up and Rick has to stab him in the head while he’s still alive to quiet him before he ruins the whole plan. Michonne and Morgan see this and aren’t happy, but understand it needed to happen for the good of the plan. Once the screaming stops, the stray walkers go back into following the herd. Rick sends Morgan back to Alexandria to tell them the plan was a success. Not so fast! A horn off in the distance starts to blare and catches the attention of all the walkers because of its intensity. Michonne notes that the horn sounds like it’s coming from Alexandria. The plan is ruined. All the walkers start to leave the road and head towards the horn, towards Alexandria. Rick and the others head back to warn everyone…but I assume it’s going to be baaaaaad…
