Check out Josh’s episode recap of Season 5 Episode 13 of The Walking Dead, titled Forget. We’re getting close to the end of the season! Check out our thoughts on whether the group is acclimating to their new possible home after the jump!
Don’t need the The Walking Dead episode recap for Forget? Click here to jump directly to Violet’s thoughts on the episode!
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The Walking Dead, Season 5 Episode 13: Forget
This episode of The Walking Dead begins with Sasha having a hard time trying to get some sleep. She has been though a lot, and apparently the photos in her newfound home cause some resentment for her. She checks out a gun, and goes practice shooting outside the wall. Her targets? The photos from inside her house. She goes a little off the wall though, seemingly egging the unseen walkers on. She even mutters for them to come get her after she finishes shooting the rest of the photos while we hear walker audibles haunting Sasha’s mind. Kind of wonder if she is looking for death, or just wants some walkers to take her anger out on.
After the intro, there’s a small meeting of Carol, Rick, and Daryl outside of the town walls, out in the woods. They seem to have a scheme in mind, which is to steal some handguns from the armory. Rick seems to not be on board with their newfound friends even though he has his new sheriff-like job. Rick interestingly wants to keep this plan among just the three of them. They head back to Alexandria and come across something curious–a “W” carved into the head of a walker. They don’t think too much of it, but it certainly is going to be something that comes up later. Michonne, meanwhile, preps for her job as a “cop” as well. We see Michonne officially hang up her katana though, mounting it on the wall for decoration. She seems to be buying into what Deanna is selling. Maybe not fully though, since her katana isn’t too far away.
Deanna meets with Rick, Michonne, and Maggie. She senses Rick’s hesitation, but Rick changes the discussion to security for Alexandria. Sasha approaches, overhearing the conversation, and volunteers to man the clock tower. Rick is amazed to hear that no one is currently manning that post. Deanna doesn’t seem excited to have Sasha up there, seeing the edgy demeanor. She does make a deal with her though–if she comes to the welcoming party for Rick and company, then Deanna will consider it.
Rick then meets up covertly with Carol, and it looks like the conniving Carol will be stealing the guns while everyone is at the party. That works out pretty well. What could go wrong? Carol meets up with the guard of both the food and water, and when the woman gets distracted, Carol slips a window lock to allow her to open it later when everyone is at the party. Luckily, no one seems to notice.
Daryl is out on an hunting exhibition, and he finds Aaron following him. Aaron decides to tag along with Daryl. On their hunt, the two come across a horse grazing. Aaron tells Daryl he has been trying to catch this horse, which he named Buttons (he tries to play it off as a kid naming the horse, but c’mon). Daryl decides it is time for himself to give it a try. Unfortunately, Aaron and Daryl are swarmed by walkers though, and Buttons takes off. The two men are forced to fight the zombie horde off.
The two share small talk, and Aaron tries to relate to Daryl, explaining that they both are outsiders (hinting his own gender preference as the reason why). Daryl still seems cold to the idea of warming up to anyone though.
They find the horse again, but have to plow through some walkers, who end up devouring the horse. Daryl and Aaron put the poor equine out of his misery. It is clear what this horse symbolizes though. This horse is Daryl if he keeps running. He can run for a long time, but eventually he will be caught. If Buttons/Daryl find a home, maybe they would survive. This horse chase certainly has done a lot of the work Aaron was trying to accomplish on this little mission.
The welcoming party begins, and the gang has mostly shown up. It is a stark difference between the Alexandrians and the nomads that make up Rick’s gang. Rick meets Reg, Deanna’s husband, who is enamored with how long that Rick has survived. Rick at first turns down booze, but after Reg insists, he loosens up to the idea. The rest of the group tries to as well, even though most are clearly uncomfortable. Daryl even tries to attend after returning home, but decides against it, not ready for that step yet. Aaron conventiently spots Daryl and suckers him to come in for some dinner. He has some spaghetti with just Aaron and Eric, a bit-size group more suitable to Daryl. Eric asks Daryl, when he is out on a run, to grab a pasta maker. Turns out Aaron and Eric had a miscommunication about something.
Aaron then takes Daryl to his garage, and it looks like a ton of motorcycle parts have been salvaged. Aaron seduces Daryl with these parts, because he wants Daryl out on recruiting runs with him, rather than Eric. He doesn’t want Eric out risking his own life anymore. But he also thinks Daryl is really good outside the walls and more importantly, great at identifying whether people are good or bad. Daryl seems thankful, and joins the recruiting team.
At the party, Jessie and her husband approach Rick. The husband decides to get some drink refills for himself and Jessie, conveniently giving Rick some alone time with his new crush. Jessie oddly seems okay with the world ending, and looks at the cup half full I guess–telling Rick how these people all from different worlds have come together, which wouldn’t happen under “normal” circumstances. Jessie’s son, Sam, gives Rick the official “A” stamp, which seems to maybe symbolize Rick’s official steps to joining the group. We’ll have to see how Rick reacts in the next few episodes. But Sasha shows up to the party too, and she tries to acclimate. Unfortunately, she is still suffering some PTSD from all of the tragedy that’s hit her recently and has to leave.
So Carol heads out on her mission for handgun recovery. She sneaks in the window she left open for herself, but she was followed. The person who caught her? Sam, Jessie’s son. He apparently was looking for Carol to make more cookies. Carol offers Sam more cookies in exchange for Sam keeping this little break-in quiet. Sam doesn’t seem to be a team player though, and wants to tell his mom. Carol then goes into creepy mode, threatening this poor kid with being locked outside the walls forever if he tells a soul, or more cookies if he keeps his mouth shut. Carol is still as heartless as ever, even willing to put an innocent kid in jeopardy if she has to. It seems that maybe Carol could have been more strategic on this, telling the kid she was getting more ingredients to make more cookies. She could try to make this sound more innocent, so she wouldn’t terrorize a kid, and would have a better explanation if she did get ratted out.
Back at the party, Rick meets up with Jessie again. This time they have a weird exchange–which ends with Jessie pulling away from a creepy kiss that Rick gives her on the cheek. I guess it has been a while for Rick, and maybe his morals have loosened up some…? Seriously Rick, there is probably a single woman in here. I mean, there are single people within his own group!
The next day, Deanna meets with Sasha, and Sasha tells Deanna this (Alexandria) isn’t real. Deanna seems frustrated with her.
Meanwhile, Rick, Carol and Daryl reconvene. Daryl has second thoughts about this stealing guns thing, and seems to be softening up. Rick might not be quite yet, and gladly takes the gun. Back inside Alexandria, Rick has a weird moment. He sees Jessie and her husband walk by. After the two pass Rick, Rick reaches for his pistol oddly. He doesn’t pull it though. Rather he heads to the wall, listening for the walker on the other side. I wonder what he is thinking….
Josh’s Final Thoughts: The Walking Dead, Season 5 Episode 13: Forget
The Walking Dead is kind of uncomfortable to watch now. This isn’t an insult either, as I think lately, the episodes are meant to be uncomfortable. I think that right now, we are witnessing these “nomads” being “redomesticated” much like Daryl and Aaron were trying to do with Buttons this episode. I am annoyed with Rick though. For most of the show, he has been the moral compass, but as of this season, those morals seem to be getting more flexible every episode. Frustrating, as what appeals to me most about The Walking Dead is that this group is supposed to be the exception to the dirtbag rule.
It was interesting watching Daryl, Michonne, Abraham and a few others in various stages of their “surrender” to Alexandria. Some people, like Rick, Carol, and Sasha aren’t willing to let go that easily though.
But the creepiest scene this episode was definitely Carol. I have a feeling that Sam will be ratting Carol out sooner or later, which is going to cause a big rift between the Rick group and Alexandria group. I kind of would like to see that happen too.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 5 Episode 13 of The Walking Dead: Forget
Of course they killed the horse. When I first saw the horse, and that there were walkers around I was like noooo, don’t kill the horse! But you just knew they were going to. I was kind of hoping that they would catch the horse and bring it back to town, and that Daryl would get the job of like, Horse Whisperer, and then Sheriff Rick could ride a horse around again like he did in Season 1. But then, that horse got eaten by walkers, and so did this one. So sad 🙁
However, I guess in a way, Daryl did get a similar job to Horse Whisperer, but more like a Human Whisperer, since he’s going to go out with Aaron trying to recruit people to join Alexandria. Personally, I don’t really see Daryl as much of a people person. He’s more of a lone wolf, really. But I suppose if he’s taking Eric’s role, then Aaron would be the one actually talking to the people, like he did with Rick’s group, while Daryl would stay out of sight for the most part, like Eric did, merely advising Aaron whether certain people seemed good, and hanging out in case Aaron needed backup.
Wow, so that was the most awkward party ever. But it had to be such a shock for the group, going from fighting for survival, to something that they probably thought had disappeared from society for good. To be honest though, the awkwardness that most of the group members felt at the part is also how awkward I feel at parties that I go to, and I haven’t been out on the road struggling to survive for several years! I did notice how they were all drinking though – what would Bob say about that, and how they had shunned him for drinking?? I guess they all feel safe enough now that they no longer have to be on guard, and now feel free to drink.
Rick’s kiss with Jessie though — whaaaat? I mean, sure we could see there was some kind of romantic connection that the show was trying to put forth, I just didn’t realize that Rick would act on it so fast (even if it was just an “innocent” peck on the cheek), and especially not at a place where pretty much the whole town was present! Last episode, Jessie’s husband seemed creepy, but this episode, he actually seemed pretty normal, which made it harder to be okay at all with Rick’s kiss. Then at the end, when Jessie and and husband are walking along, and he has his arm around her, and Rick reacts by reaching for his gun?! It seemed that he was kind of in the mentality of “that’s my woman.” It also seems to go back to Rick’s statement at the end of last episode that they’re going to take what they want. And Rick wants Jessie, so he is going to take her. I wonder how Jessie feels about all this, whether she returns Rick’s affections, and whether she will act upon those feelings, or stay faithful to her husband.
Creepiest moment of the show goes to Carol, though. I thought she was going to make up some story, not threaten the kid! It wouldn’t have surprised me if he went running straight back to his mom crying and told her what happened. Sure, he would be scared about what Carol said, but kids usually think their parents can protect them, so it would make sense that he told his mom what happened, since he said that he already tells her everything. Or did he really want more cookies that much?
In any case, there’s a lot of weird stuff going on in Alexandria, and I’m definitely curious to see how this all plays out!
Scenes from The Walking Dead, Season 5 Episode 14: Spend
Here are scenes from next episode of The Walking Dead, titled Spend:
