The walkers are back, as The Walking Dead’s mid-season premiere kicked off on Valentine’s Day! Check out Josh’s recap for Season 6 Episode 9, titled No Way Out, and see our thoughts!
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Episode Recap of The Walking Dead, Season 6 Episode 9: No Way Out
Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham
So the episode begins with Daryl, Sasha and Abraham, being stopped by what we learn to be some of Negan’s henchmen. The main one demands that they turn their guns over to him. The trio reluctantly turns over their weapons. Then the leader “politely” informs the three that everything they have belongs to Negan. He then tells Daryl to go to the back of the truck to inspect the back, with one of the henchmen guarding him. While they are doing that, Abraham asks, “Who is Negan?” This gets under the skin of this leader henchman, and he decides he is going to shoot Abraham. Sasha begins to plead for Abraham’s life, which further angers the man, who says he is going to kill both of them. But then he backs off—or not. He apparently likes to mess with people’s heads before he does kill them. But Daryl saves the day—he managed to take the person guarding him out, and grabbed a rocket launcher, blowing up the entire group of Negan’s men. Sasha and Abraham are very grateful, obviously. But that is the last we hear of Daryl, Abraham and Sasha for a while….
Glenn and Enid
These two have made it to a church, and Glenn is frantically trying to come up with a solution to save Maggie, who is still stuck up on a damaged guard tower. He tells Enid to search for a weapon, feeling there must be something left behind they can use. While Enid is looking around, she seems to start to question her past philosophy, and begins to ask Glenn about what he meant about leaving people behind. He explains that you carry the people lost within you, and they are only lost when you are lost. It sort of makes sense to Enid, and she decides she wants to help Maggie as well. Glenn tries to get her to stay behind, but she refuses. Glenn then comes up with a plan—he will distract the walkers while Enid uses a makeshift rope to get Maggie down from the damaged guard tower. Oh, they also found a pistol then can use to help. Again, this group is not seen again until later in the episode…
Rosita, Tara, Eugene, Morgan, and Carol
Tara is freaking out because of Denise being taken—and wants to go after her. Rosita tells her it would be a futile attempt, and they would be dead before they found her. So the group sits tight. Carol and Morgan both get up from their unconsciousness, and Carol tells Morgan that she should have killed him. Morgan tries to explain himself to her though, and they both seem to gravitate towards the middle of their ideals to some extent. Meanwhile, Eugene is contemplating their fate—knowing they will have to fight their way out eventually. Rosita is not confident Eugene will be doing any fighting though, and lets Eugene know this. Again, this storyline is picked up a bit later in the episode…
Denise and the Wolf—and Carol
The Wolf has been leading Denise through the walker-infested Alexandria, and wants to make a break for the wall. They wind up in a basement-like staircase, and peer up. Denise is freaking out and the Wolf tries to instill some sick, twisted confidence in her. He promises that he will make her one of “them”, and Denise tries to say that she should be left behind because she will be too slow. The Wolf reasons that he needs her—or wants her company, but is purposely vague as to what the reason really is. But he tells her that they are going to make a break for the wall when there is a pathway. Then they go for it. Unfortunately, the path is not clear for long enough, and Denise gets grabbed by a walker. The Wolf saves her, but in the process, the Wolf is bitten on the arm. Denise then tells the Wolf that she can save him—if they can get to the infirmary. So the two make for the infirmary. Unfortunately, they get tied up with walkers again, and the Wolf saves Denise yet again. Then we hear a woman—Carol—yelling for Denise to run, and we hear some gunshots. The Wolf has been shot, dead. Denise makes a run for the infirmary, where several Alexandrians have been holding up, including Spencer. Denise checks on her patients, and yet again, the storyline here picks up towards the end of the episode..
Rick, Carl, Michonne, Father Gabriel, Jessie, Sam and Ron
As we saw last episode end, Rick and the group donned walker-drenched “ponchos” to blend in. They move, holding hands, to escape the house, which is now overrun with walkers. Things seem to be going smoothly. Rick comes up with the next plan though—they need to get to some vehicles and lure the walkers out of the walls. The one problem is Judith, and what to do with her. Father Gabriel has a solution—he will take her to the church and wait this out. Rick is reluctant at first, but seems to be resolved to no other option. Jessie then tells Sam to go with Father Gabriel, seemingly worried about Sam handling this situation. Sam refuses though, and wants to stay with her. After some pleading, Jessie agrees. This turns out to be a huge mistake. But before we get to that, Father Gabriel does make his way to his church, and finds that there are some survivors inside.
So the rest of the group make their way to their destination, but there is a problem. Sam begins to have his freak out. He freezes, and Jesse tries to coax him into going forward. Unfortunately, the commotion begins to draw attention—and Sam becomes walker food. He is bitten several times, which leads to Jessie screaming, and she is the next snack. Things get worse though—Carl, who was holding Jessie’s hand, is unable to get free. Rick, meanwhile, is having a mini-meltdown, seeing his new love interest being torn apart. But he comes to when he sees Carl in trouble. He has only one course of action—using the hatchet in his hand to hack off Jessie’s arm.
Unfortunately, the chaos does not end here. Ron, who has now frozen himself, aims his gun at Rick. His only words said are, “You….you”. Just as Ron pulls the trigger, Michonne has katana’d Ron through the chest, from the back. Close call right? Unfortunately, it is much closer than hoped. The camera moves to Carl, who has had his eye shot out. He falls over, and Rick has to catch him. Rick picks up Carl, and Michonne goes into frenzy mode, clearing a path to the destination that will eventually be the infirmary.
Storylines Converge
Denise sees Rick, Michonne and Carl running for the infirmary, and is somehow able to see the wound, and has some Alexandrians help prepare for treatment. Rick gets Carl on a gurney, and Denise gets to work, with the assistance of Michonne.
Rick though, seems to be spiraling back to “Crazy Rick” and comes to a conclusion in his head—he will hack every last walker within the walls of Alexandria, or he will die trying. He takes his hatchet and goes to town on the walkers. Michonne, meanwhile, becomes concerned about Rick, and heads out to help after Carl seems to be stabilizing. Then others inside the infirmary move out to help. This cascades down to the various other groups—Rosita, Tara, Eugene, Carol and Morgan head out to help. Then Gabriel rallies the people in the church to help out. The groups then begin to converge, and become a pretty fierce force against the onslaught of walkers.
Meanwhile, Glenn and Enid make their move to save Maggie. Glenn uses his gun to draw the attention of the walkers, and Enid scales the wall to rescue Maggie. But things look bad for Glenn — he has been cornered and is out of ammunition. But again, someone is looking out for Glenn — just as things look bad, we hear a bunch of machine gun fire—Abraham and Sasha saved the day by mowing down the walkers on top of Glenn.
Then the next phase of the quickly devised plan is put into effect. Daryl has leaked a bunch of fuel into the lake—and then proceeds to use an RPG to ignite it. The walkers are then drawn to the fire, and this turns the walkers away from the fighting group led by Rick. And just like that, Alexandria is cleared—for now.
Back at the infirmary, Rick sits with the unconscious Carl. Rick tells him that he has seen that these Alexandrians can learn based on how they fought that night. He seems to now have hope for them, and now calls them “we” rather than “they”. Rick then pleads for Carl to stay with him. Carl then curls his hand slightly, showing Rick he is still alive.
Josh’s Thoughts: The Walking Dead, Season 6 Episode 9: No Way Out
There was a lot of chaos on this episode of The Walking Dead. I really enjoyed the scene with Daryl, Sasha and Abraham, and how Daryl was able to save the day. But from the looks of it, this Negan character is gong to be a handful for Alexandria going forward. If the show follows the comic book storyline, we are about to get some major mayhem shortly.
Moving over to Rick and the group, Sam should not in anyway have been allowed to continue with the mission they were working on. We already know he is basically agoraphobic, and has issues (additionally, it seems Carol really messed this kid up, making matters worse). But I guess this freak out could have happened with Gabriel, which would have been death for both Father Gabriel and Judith. Apparently both of these kids were messed up though, as Ron just goes crazy as well. I guess it sort of makes sense—Rick’s entry into their life basically wound up with his entire family dead. Again, it begs the question—was this Rick’s and the group’s fault, or was Alexandria a ticking bomb that would have been wiped out if they didn’t show up? It would be interesting to find out.
Poor Carl though. I knew his plight could be coming soon, and when I heard the gunshot go off, I knew what had happened. It looks like he will be pirate Carl now.
Then we have the ever-lucky Glenn, who manages to avoid another swarm of walkers for just long enough for a miracle to happen. I wonder how much luck this guy has left….
Overall, this was a pretty good episode, I thought. There were a lot of big “surprise” moments, and the tension was held pretty high the entire ride. We also had some interesting character development—Enid realizing maybe life is worth living, and with other people. Father Gabriel coming to terms with the new world, and that they have to save it, rather than waiting around for some higher power to do it for him. Carol and Morgan seem to come towards the middle on their ideologies (although there still could be some head butting here). Denise getting her courage to do what is necessary when she has to save Carl. This Wolf even possibly might have had some redemption before his end — although we will never know this for sure.
I did have a problem with the seeming ability of Alexandria to take on the entire hoard of walkers though. What was their plan after they were backed to the wall? If Daryl hadn’t made is fiery lake, the group seemed to be at their bitter end. Still I had a pretty good time with the episode, and look forward to seeing how the story progresses from here. First order of business cleaning up the town—it must smell disgusting right now.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 6 Episode 9 of The Walking Dead: No Way Out
The Walking Dead is back! And I don’t mean in the literal sense that it has returned to our TVs, I mean it in the sense that it is back to being awesome! After a disappointing midseason finale, I was hoping that this midseason premiere might make up for it, and I must say, that it has fully redeemed itself! So much action, so much suspense, so many surprises… I just really enjoyed this episode from start to finish. Okay, so I did have a few minor squabbles, but there was so much awesome-ness going on, that I was able to overlook them, for the most part.
It seemed like not only did she show redeem itself this episode, but that several of the characters redeemed themselves as well. Although Father Gabriel has always been a coward, it seems that he has found courage in himself, and in turn inspired it in others. At first, I was skeptical about Rick handing off Judith to Father Gabriel. I didn’t think he could be trusted, and just earlier this season, even Rick himself didn’t trust Father Gabriel when he volunteered for a mission, immediately shooting him down. But I suppose this was all part of him proving and redeeming himself.
But I must say, it was a bit of a miracle that Judith did not cry at all, which surely would have attracted walkers! It was also a little odd that at the beginning they could have a whole conversation about what their plan was without the walkers noticing, but later on the walkers suddenly decided to attack when there was not as much talking as before. Ah well, it all led to a pretty great scene of Sam being suddenly eaten, and Jessie in turn being attacked herself, and Ron’s reaction to all this. I feel a little bad that now that entire family has been taken out, but honestly, the group is kind of better off without them, because they all seemed to stir up trouble in their own way.
Explosions galore, walkers galore, surprise attacks, action abound, fire…. this is how I like my Walking Dead! Bring on the rest of the season!
Scenes from The Walking Dead, Season 6 Episode 10: The Next World
Here are scenes from next week’s The Walking Dead episode titled The Next World:
