This episode of The Walking Dead is another focus on a few characters–namely Maggie and Carol. Check out what happens to them after Rick and the gang take down the base they seized. Also, following Josh’s recap, check out our thoughts on the episode!
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Episode Recap of The Walking Dead, Season 6 Episode 13: The Same Boat
Season 6 Episode 13 of The Walking Dead focuses in on the situation Carol and Maggie are in from last week. At the end of last week’s episode, a woman seemingly takes Carol and Maggie hostage, and radios Rick telling him so. This week’s episode does a little bit of going back in time, and we see the situation play out from Maggie and Carol’s point of view.
Carol is still arguing with Maggie regarding why Maggie is even here. Carol is really concerned for this baby Maggie is carrying. But Carol, firing a shot, ends their arguing, as a man had appeared. Maggie wants to “finish him off”, but Carol seems to not want to. But before a decision can be made they are captured by a group of three women.
We see one woman—who we learn is named Paula, seems to be the leader of this group. At first, I wasn’t sure these people were a part of Negan’s group, but that is cleared up pretty quickly in the episode. We see her watching Rick and the group, who take down the man on the motorcycle from last episode. His name is “Primo”.
Paula debates how to proceed, but then radios to Rick, the message we saw last episode—that she has Maggie and Carol. Rick asks for proof, and Paula allows them both to say they’re ok briefly. Rick tries to negotiate a trade for Maggie and Carol with Primo, but Paula delays saying she will “think” about it. The group backs up to their “safe house” which is a rundown slaughterhouse. It seems to have a bit of a walker problem though, as the Savior team has to kill a few to get into the place.
At the slaughterhouse, the team of Saviors further debates what to do. Donnie is wounded pretty bad, so he is asking for the trade as apparently Primo has some sort of medical knowledge. Paula doesn’t seem to want to though, after seeing what Rick’s group did, she feels it could be a trap. Additionally, apparently there is another team of Saviors rendezvousing with Paula, but their timing might be too late, leaving the Saviors in a conundrum.
As for Maggie and Carol, they have been thrown into a room, bound hands and feet. Carol has mastered the art of looking submissive when the situation suits her. Carol has managed to grab a rosary from a walker that had been killed and dragged out of the slaughterhouse, which was an excellent prop for her to portray this fearful character she was trying to convey. The story seems to work well as Paula and Michelle give her a hard time, calling her a “little bird”, and treating her as a scared person.
Carol also tries to appeal to the “motherly” aspect of these women by outing Maggie’s pregnancy. The women seem to not really care, with the exception of one—Michelle. She seems to have some sort of personal connection based on the way she looks at Maggie, and this is explained later…
Donnie keeps demanding the trade though, so he doesn’t die. It gets to the point of him getting in Paula’s face about it, and even hits her. Carol and Maggie step in though, knocking him over. Carol actually takes a few kicks when he knocks her down. Paula ends this though, knocking Donnie out. Frustrated, Paula orders Maggie into another room to be interrogated about where they are from. Michelle does the interrogating.
Maggie tries to appeal to Michelle, and it sort of seems to work. Michelle talks about her losing half her pinky for trying to steal fuel. She talks about losing her boyfriend and her baby. But ultimately, Michelle tells Maggie that she should tell her where they are from to save the baby and that it is likely only one of them is going to walk out of there alive.
Meanwhile, Paula is debating her next move, and Carol tries to convince Paula to make the trade. Paula radios to Rick, and it seems as though she is agreeing to the trade. She picks a meeting place in an open field. But after the radio message, Paula gets freaked out, namely because the static on the radio has disappeared. She figures that Rick must be very close. She then radios to her crew coming to pick them up, and they seem to be very close as well.
The women then head out to make preparations for their party to show up, and they plan on backing out of the deal it seems. Carol, hearing this, decides it is time to get into action. She uses the rosary that she had grabbed to free herself. She moves to the next room, and finds Maggie, who also has freed herself. Carol wants to sneak past them all, but Maggie has gotten bloodthirsty, demanding that they kill the rest of these people.
Their first target is Donnie, who is still unconscious on the ground from Paula’s hit. Turns out he is not actually unconscious though—he died. Maggie decides to search the body, and then we see the next victim of Maggie and Carol—Molls. Maggie and Carol tied up Donnie, let him turn, and he gets a chunk out of Molls’ arm. Maggie then comes in and bludgeons her to death with the hilt of a pistol.
The pair then makes its way to the exit, but there are walkers blocking the path. Paula shows up, as does Michelle, and Carol wounds Paula, as Michelle and Maggie fight. Carol seems hesitant on what to do, but when Michelle takes a swipe at Maggie’s stomach, Carol aims squarely at Michelle’s head and blows it off.
Paula then fights back, and interestingly, Carol gives Paula the option to run, despite Maggie’s protests. Paula refuses though, and Carol and Paula come to blows. In the scuffle, Paula becomes impaled, next to other walkers who have been impaled on the makeshift trap Paula had set. She is eaten and screams as it is happening. Carol seems really freaked out by this scene.
Then the radio receives a transmission—the Savior team that was on the way has arrived. Carol tries to get herself together, and impersonate Paula, telling the man on the other side of the walkie that they are on the “kill floor”. This is aptly named. When the men arrive and go to the kill floor, Maggie and Carol lock the door behind the men, and toss a lit cigarette into the room. Gasoline has been doused on the floor, so the men are burned alive.
The two then head outside. Rick and the group greet them as they have just arrived at the building. Daryl comforts Carol, who seems to not be doing well after this ordeal. Of course, Glenn and Maggie reunite as well. Rick tries to get Primo to talk, and asks him if Negan was at the raid or here last night. Primo replies both, and declares, “I’m Negan,” to which Rick responds by shooting him in the head. Carol grips the rosary so tight that her hand bleeds.
Josh’s Thoughts: The Walking Dead, Season 6 Episode 13: The Same Boat
This was one of those episodes where the show focuses on a couple characters, and this time it was Maggie and Carol. These episodes seem hit and miss with me, but I enjoyed this one for the most part. I thought it was a little odd how murderous Maggie wanted to be–killing all of them before they left. I was wondering–did Maggie tell her captor any information, and that is why she wanted to make sure they all died? She was worried that what she had said would get back to the big group? Or was it just the fact that they were alive a problem?
Carol, on the other hand, showed herself this episode as much more vulnerable than she has let on in recent seasons. She has her kill count, and despite her seemingly trying to act meek to fool her captors, I think part of this vulnerability shown was real. I think this is proven when we see her try to convince Paula to run away.
This episode seemed to be mirror images of the two female characters though–with Paula being a more twisted version of Carol while Michelle was a more twisted version of Maggie. Or maybe with the way the group is going now, it isn’t so cut and dry who are the “good guys” anymore, since these women just witnessed Carol and Maggie’s group murder their entire base…
I do wonder when we get to see the full Negan gang though, They are going to eventually find Rick’s group, and it will probably be the last episode, if not before then. Hopefully Carol has her ruthlessness meter turned on!
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 6 Episode 13 of The Walking Dead: The Same Boat
So this was pretty cool to have a female-centric episode of The Walking Dead. If I’m not mistaken, I believe this is the first time that this has happened. Although there have been times where a female has been the dominant character in an episode or storyline, or there has been a female dominant storyline, from what I can remember, I don’t think there’s ever been an episode where the majority of the characters were female, whereas I can think of plenty of episodes that were predominantly male, so this was a nice change of pace.
In this episode, the women proved that they can be just as ruthless as the men, in case anyone was not yet aware of that. I was so sure throughout the episode that Carol was just putting on an act, pretending to be weak, in order to fool their captors and be able to catch them off guard. Although the things she was saying to the captors all had a grain of truth to them, I figured she was just using these things to her advantage, to make her story and her demeanor more convincing. However, after the episode, others have thought that maybe she wasn’t just faking it, that maybe she really did have a breakdown. It’s certainly plausible, given the fact that she seemed regretful of her kill count, and has seemed more protective of life in the past few episodes. I hope that’s not the case though, and that she hasn’t reverted to her old self, back in the days when she used to cower to her abusive husband. She’s come so far since then, I wouldn’t want to see all of that undone.
The question still remains, who is Negan? That was somewhat answered this episode, with Molls telling Carol that they’re all Negan, and Primo later saying that Negan was both at the raid and at the slaughterhouse, and that he is Negan. If I hadn’t already known about the casting news of Negan, and had general knowledge that there is a character from the comics named Negan, then at this point I would just be thinking that there was not one single person named Negan, and that Negan is the name of their whole group – or gang, or whatever you want to call it. But now I guess it is both a person and the name of that person’s group. Although, why are they both Saviors and Negan? Are the Saviors a smaller group within the Negan group? In any case, with Carol’s information, assuming she shares it, Rick’s group is just going to think that Negan is just the group, and that there isn’t a person named Negan. I’m not sure what sore of disadvantage that will put them at, if any. Guess we’ll soon see!
Scenes from The Walking Dead, Season 6 Episode 14: Twice as Far
Here are scenes from next week’s The Walking Dead episode titled Twice as Far:
