Josh recaps this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, titled The Distance. Rick has to decided whether to trust this new Aaron character, and how to best take care of his group. Check out what Josh and Violet thought about this week’s episode of The Walking Dead after the jump!
Don’t need the The Walking Dead episode recap for The Distance? Click here to jump directly to Violet’s thoughts on the episode!
To see Josh’s thoughts on this week’s The Walking Dead episode, The Distance, click here to get directly there!
Episode Recap of The Walking Dead, Season 5 Episode 11: The Distance
So, our new friend Aaron is brought to the barn by Maggie and Sasha. If you remember from last week, Aaron was the man who showed up at the end of the episode and introduced himself to Maggie and Sasha. Inside the barn, Rick and the group tense up, grabbing their weapons, and Daryl frisks their visitor. Rick then begins talking to Aaron, obviously very distrustful of this person. He also tells the group to keep a lookout, feeling confident that they could be under attack at any moment.
Aaron then drops the bomb on Rick. He tells Rick he would like the group to “audition” for joining his community. He says he knows that they are good people, and thinks the group would fit well into their town. Rick still isn’t buying the story. Aaron asks Sasha to give his pack to Rick. Inside the pack are photos of the town. There are huge walls, which Aaron describes as 15 feet tall and solid steel, and even goes as far to say nothing living or dead could take those walls down. Rick gets extremely angered at this proposition and knocks Aaron out with a right cross.
Michonne and much of the group seem to disagree with Rick’s decision, and Michonne is even on the side of seeing what this is all about. Rick disagrees, but Michonne makes a power play, and says the group will check this out. Once Aaron wakes up, Rick wants to know more about Aaron. Going through Aaron’s pack, he finds a flare gun. Rick makes the assumption that this must be used to signal whoever else is watching the group. Rick demands to know how many people are outside waiting for them. Aaron tells Rick that it doesn’t matter what number he says, he knows the number he says won’t be believed. Finally after some back and forth, Aaron says only 1 other person is outside.
Then, since Michonne is being insistent, Rick considers checking out Aaron’s story. He asks Aaron where the camp is. Aaron says he will drive them to the camp. Michonne even says that isn’t happening. Aaron tries to compromise, and tells them where the vehicles are they have for transporting groups. Rick doesn’t believe there are cars, but still, Michonne insists on investigating. Rick, while still not believing Aaron, agrees. Michonne, Glen, Maggie, Abraham and Rosita are sent to investigate.
The rest of the group remains behind, and Rick decides the best move to keep people safe from an ambush is to pair off and hide in the forest, so they aren’t sitting ducks in the barn. Rick stays in the barn though, with Judith and a tied up Aaron. Aaron offers Rick some applesauce for Judith, and Rick forces Aaron to test the applesauce for poison. He at first refuses, saying he hates applesauce. This makes Rick even more angry, and nearly forces the spoon into his mouth. It seems safe though, so Rick tests it. Then he does give Judith some. He makes sure to let Aaron know that he is a dead man if the five out on their mission don’t return within in a hour.
On the road, Glenn, Maggie, Abraham, Rosita and Michonne look for the cars. On the way, they have a conversation as to how to handle any people they run across. Glenn’s first thought is to shoot anyone they see. Maggie questions that, but Glenn reasons that no one will approach the likes of them when they’re walking down the road with guns. Michonne then talks about how they have let people into the group because they are good people. She even says that she herself was let in the group despite being a “crazy woman with a sword.” On their walk we get a brief look at the back of the head of someone who is spying on the five…
But it turns out Aaron was telling the truth about the cars. They find a car and RV right where Aaron sad they would be. Inside the RV is a ton of food as well. The group of five drive both vehicles back to the barn, and Rick sees the stockpile of food inside the RV. He lets Aaron know that this food is theirs, regardless of whether they join the community or not. This sparks another Michonne step up, saying that they have to check this out. Rick doesn’t feel safe about it still, but devises a plan to possibly see what this community is about.
Rick demands to know how to get to the camp. Aaron refuses to say, but says they would take Route 16. Rick, feeling a trap could be eminent, decides they will take another route, Highway 23. Aaron says that is a bad idea because their community has cleared Route 16, but hasn’t cleared 23. Rick also wants to approach at night, which Aaron also pleads against. Rick says that he will leave right then if Aaron would just tell him where the camp is, but Aaron still refuses.
So they head out at night, according to Rick’s plan. Most of the group is in the RV, and Glenn, Michonne, Rick and Aaron are in the leading car. They are driving at night, and Rick finds some license plates in the glove compartment. Aaron says that he is collecting all 50 states. Then, Rick finds a sound recording device. This raises Rick’s suspicion again, but Aaron says that they have to determine whether a group is worthy of coming into their community. Michonne is thumbing through the photographs that Aaron gave them, and finds some interesting things, probably most notably–solar panels. It looks like the community has electricity!
Then, Michonne notices something else in the pictures. There aren’t any photos with people in it. This raises alarms for Michonne, who then asks Rick if Aaron was asked the three questions. Rick says he hadn’t, so Michonne does. Aaron tells Michonne that he has killed countless walkers, two people, and the reason why was because they tried to kill him. This agitation gets Glenn distracted, and the car winds up in the middle of a walker-fest. He plows through dozens of walkers on the road, and he pushes on, hoping to clear enough away, so that the RV can make an escape. It seems like it does, so Glenn stops the car.
They decide to try to U-turn and meet back up with the RV, but the car won’t start. Michonne gets out and begins pulling various zombie bits from the car’s grill. It still won’t start, and Aaron begins to freak out. Suddenly a flare goes off in the air, and Aaron really freaks out, and busts out of the car. The other four then pursue, and wind up getting jammed up with walkers. Glenn winds up separated, and gets into some trouble. He is able to get out of it though, and winds up bumping into Aaron who is in trouble himself. He saves Aaron, and Aaron decides to stick with Glenn. Moving over to Rick and Michonne, they are in some trouble, but Glenn and Aaron are able to swoop in to save the day.
The four head to find the RV, and find the group in an abandoned warehouse. Also, Aaron’s partner is found, and he has a broken ankle. The man, Eric, thanks Rick’s group for saving his life. Then we learn that Aaron and Eric are more than just friends. Rick is still a bit suspicious of Aaron and wants to keep an eye on him, but Aaron demands to be allowed to sleep in the same room as his boyfriend. Glenn is able to talk Rick down.
The next morning, the group gets ready to head to the town. On the way, they pass Washington D.C. Abraham is driving, and believes they will make it, but they break down, which seems to be the start of another crisis, but, as what seems to be a throwback to Dale, Glenn is able to solve the problem pretty easily with a new battery. The car is up and running, and the group makes it to the gates of the new community, which we learn the name of: Alexandria. They get ready to see their new settlement, and Michonne has a talk with Rick, telling him to let the fight go. But Carol seems to back Rick up a little bit, saying, “Even though you were wrong, you were still right,” referring to how he handled this plan. The episode ends as they wait for the gates to open.
Josh’s Thoughts: The Walking Dead, Season 5 Episode 11: The Distance
I really had a problem with last week’s episode of The Walking Dead. It felt like a big filler episode, and really did not provide any entertainment for me. I really feel like that episode could have been scrapped for something better.
This week, however, I really thought was well done for the most part. I really felt for Rick this episode, having a hard time accepting Aaron as a “good guy.” From Woodbury to Terminus, how could Rick just accept this random person’s help, especially after learning that the group had been followed and spied on for some time? What I didn’t agree with was Rick’s decision to knock this guy out. Whether or not the barn was under siege, I would have thought tying the guy up and interrogating him right away would make more sense. Knocking him out takes away the interrogating option, and Rick would not be able to get any information.
I did like the interaction between Michonne and Rick this episode. Michonne really stepped up to Rick, and Rick actually acknowledged her authority, which was great. It means that Rick is not so far gone that he is just a psychopath now. He is still in control of his emotions, and respects his group member. He is just trying to keep everyone safe after all of the horrors the group has gone through.
I do believe that the group has found a new home. I wonder for how long, and how this will affect the show. It will be interesting to see the show put Rick into a position in which he doesn’t have the final say so, which I can’t think of happening since the beginning of the show, when he first joined the group, and partially at Hershel’s farm. Rick especially will have to learn to balance his instincts versus trying to settle down. It will be interesting to see the group become “domesticated” again.
I look forward to seeing what happens once we get on the other side of the gate. I am guessing we will meet the leader of the group and if I were to bet, we have seen the final butting of heads between Rick’s group and Alexandria.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 5 Episode 11 of The Walking Dead: The Distance
This episode was so much better than last week’s episode. This is what an episode of The Walking Dead feels like. Last week was just odd, and kind of a waste of time, I felt. But anyway, the show came back with an episode filled with tension, action, and suspense. The show did a good job of making me feel the way that the characters felt toward Aaron. I had no idea whether to trust him or not, and was very suspicious of him. However, I don’t think it was necessary for Rick to knock him out. At that point, Aaron had already been frisked for weapons, and was kneeling in a submissive position, surrounded by people with guns pointed at him. They could have easily tied him up right then and there.
For someone who is trying to get other people to trust him, Aaron didn’t do a very good job. It was like he was being purposely suspicious for no reason. Why couldn’t he just give Rick a straight answer of how many others were out there, rather than saying random different numbers and making Rick paranoid? He could have truthfully answered, and then given his spiel about how he knew no matter what number he said, Rick wouldn’t believe him. Then the scene with the applesauce? Oh my gosh, just eat the applesauce Aaron! He had to have known it would look bad for him not to eat it! I don’t care if he hates it, if he’s trying to gain Rick’s trust, he should have just immediately eaten it.
I thought it was weird that Rick didn’t ask him the questions. When he and Aaron were alone would have been a good time. I would have thought that would be one of the first things he would do. So I found it odd that they actually decided to go off on this mission without Rick having asked him the questions. Then I started to think that maybe he did ask him, but they just didn’t show it. That is, until Michonne brought it up as she was getting suspicious from looking through the pictures. Why did it take that long from someone to actually go through all the pictures, by the way? It seemed really irresponsible for them to wait until they were driving to do things that they should have done before they even decided to go on the mission.
But anyway, we got a cool zombie fight scene, and I was actually worried for Glenn there for a bit when he got separated from the group. I also started to distrust Aaron more when he saw the flare and suddenly had to go. It seemed like he knew there was some sort of ambush about to happen. But it was just him being worried about his partner, Eric. So far, it seems like Aaron and Eric are good. But we’ll see what happens on the other side of those walls next episode. And I, for one, cannot wait to see.
Scenes from The Walking Dead, Season 5 Episode 12: Remember
Here are scenes from next week’s episode of The Walking Dead, titled Remember:
