This episode of The Walking Dead, titled East, continues the story of Carol leaving Alexandria, and also Daryl on the hunt for Dwight. Check out Josh’s recap for this week’s episode, as well as Josh and Violet’s thoughts!
- See Violet’s thoughts on The Walking Dead‘s East here
- Check out Josh’s thoughts on this week’s The Walking Dead episode, East!
This week’s episode of The Walking Dead has a few different storylines going on. Let’s look at Carol’s storyline first. The episode starts off with a mysterious scene involving what looks like a confrontation between two people, a lot of blood, and eventually we hear a man seemingly attacking, then we hear a gunshot–then cut to the intro.
After the intro, we see Carol getting ready for her leaving we saw last episode. She is sewing a jacket, and has her letter prepared. Carol gets her bags packed, but then hears Tobin coming. She tries to appear cheery, but you can see in her eyes she is already gone. She listens to Tobin, sort of, but basically is tuning him out. The two seem to share one last moment in bed before Carol sneaks out in the middle of the night.
In the morning, Rick and Michonne have had another good night together. The two wake up, and are in seemingly high spirits. But Michonne insists the two get up to meet with Maggie, as she is worried about an attack. Rick seems less worried, saying they will “end the whole thing”.
Rick Learns About Carol Leaving
Michonne meets up with Glenn and Maggie, and while this happens, Rick learns from Tobin that Carol had left. Rick questions Tobin about Carol leaving, –when, did she take a car? Tobin has few answers, so Rick has to do some investigating.
Rick arrives at the gate, and learns about Michonne, Glenn, Daryl and Rosita leaving from Sasha and Abraham. At the gate, they realize that a car is missing. Morgan insists that he is going to look for Morgan. Rick goes with him, but insists no one else leaves the compound.
Carol is Still Dressed to Kill
Cutting to Carol, we see she has taken a car, armed with several pole-spikes, assuming to stop walkers when it was sitting outside Alexandria (how does this thing run with so many spikes?). She runs across another vehicle, which she seems hopeful to just avoid. But they open fire on her. We see her thinking about her next move, and she puts her rosary in her sleeve.
We have a pretty tense standoff, and she gets out of her car, playing her typical “fragile woman” card. The seeming leader of this vehicle demands to know where she is from. He decides she is not being completely truthful, recognizing her vehicle from Alexandria. This man insinuates that he is going to forcibly take her back to Alexandria so they can be let inside.
Carol begins to hyperventilate and says, “it doesn’t have to be this way, no one has to get hurt”. Suddenly gun fire is heard, and we see most of the men fall dead. We then see Carol’s sleeve–she had a stowed gun in her jacket. One of the men still alive comes after her, and after a brief fight, Carol impales him with one of the spikes from the car. The leader of the group has also survived, and makes a lunge at Carol. We then hear the grunting and gunshot we heard from the introduction of the episode.
Rick and Morgan Find Carol’s Car
On the road to find Carol, Morgan and Rick have a much needed conversation–Morgan seems to have a philosophy–There is no right, only what one believes, and what is wrong. The two still seem to be on opposite sides of what is to be believed though.
Flashing to the aftermath of Carol’s fight scene, one man is still alive, but wounded. We see that Carol was able to get a shot off on the leader, who lay dying. This last man standing wanders off just as Morgan and Rick pull up to the scene. They look around, and find no sign of Carol. They find the dying leader, and Rick questions him. He gets no answers, so Rick knifes him in the head.
Rick and Morgan Discuss Their Differing Philosophies
Rick finds the spear one man had, deducing that this could be from the saviors. Rick remarks how tough Carol is, taking down these four. Morgan comments that Carol left because she couldn’t kill anymore, but as Rick has observed–she killed because she had to. Morgan finds what appears to be a trail, so the two follow it.
We then see the wounded attacker pop back out of the woods, finding Carol’s rosary. He then heads out into the woods.
Rick and Morgan continue to follow their path. Morgan talks to Rick about what happened with Rick sending Carol away. Rick seems to admit that, today, he would thank her for what she had done. Rick seems to think in retrospect she was right. Morgan remarks how she came back–and says that people can “come back”.
Rick and Morgan’s Run-in With a Fleeing “Knight”…?
They find a walker that is similar to Carol in appearance, but it is not her. The two then move into investigating a farm they have come across. We see a man who is taking on a walker flee when Rick and Morgan show up, hiding in a barn. He says he doesn’t want any trouble. Some walkers show up, and the man flees while Morgan and Rick deal with the small herd. Rick took a shot at the man but Morgan blocked the shot. The two argue again, and Rick again insists he does not “take chances anymore”.
Morgan then tells Rick everything about the Wolf he had captured in Alexandria in the episode Here’s Not Here. Rick is pretty irritated about learning this. Morgan further explains that this Wolf saved Denise in his final moments, and that caused Carl to be saved, since Denise saved Carl after that. Morgan then insists that Rick go home, and that he will find Carol. Rick reluctantly agrees. Rick insists that Morgan take a pistol though. Morgan refuses at first, but then does. The two seem to part ways amicably, with Rick joking about Michonne really stealing his protein bar.
Back at Alexandria, Rick finds out from Abraham that Michonne and the others are still outside. The two share a moment, about how scary it is getting close to someone in this world. Abraham says, “any second now, any second” as they wait for the four to return.
Daryl Seeks Retribution on Dwight
The other main storyline revolves around Daryl. Outside, Michonne meets up with Glenn and Maggie, who are planning to hide a few guns around the town in case they are attacked (which is roughly the same time Rick meets up with Tobin). They then see Daryl head “out” on his motorcycle, but he doesn’t tell Abraham, who is on guard duty, where he is going.
Michonne, Glenn and Rosita Look For Daryl
Michonne, Glenn and eventually Rosita (after she tells Abraham to stay put) head out after him, feeling it is not safe for him to go out alone.
Glenn, Michonne and Rosita come back to the scene of Denise’s death, and find Daryl’s bike. Rosita seems fine with letting Daryl go on his mission, but Glenn as the voice of reason says this plan might not work, and this other group might learn a lot more about them.
Moving over to Daryl, he is tracking through a open field, and we see that Rosita, Glenn and Michonne have found Daryl. Daryl is pretty angry because of his past run-ins with Dwight. Glenn tries to talk Daryl down, but Daryl refuses.
Rosita and Daryl March On – Glenn and Michonne Try to Turn back…
Rosita also refuses to go back, and the two march on. Glenn and Michonne head back, but they are stopped by the very man Daryl is after–Dwight. The two give up, clearly outnumbered.
Daryl and Rosita find the two being held, but too late–Dwight has found Daryl and Rosita. Dwight aims a pistol at Daryl, we hear a gunshot, blood spatters on the camera, and we hear Dwight say, “You’ll be alright”….
Maggie’s Baby and Other Quick Scenes
A couple of other things we see this episode–Carl decides to arm up with a pistol that seems engraved with a baseball bat with barbed wire on the hilt.
We see Abraham and Sasha share a moment as guard duty changes, and Rosita sees this, seemingly jealous. She has her own new pal though, Spencer. Spencer asks her out to a formal dinner date, but Rosita at first is skittish about this, but eventually agrees to come.
Glenn and Maggie spend a romantic shower together, but we see Maggie is still shaken from her recent experience. Later in the episode, Maggie meets up with Enid, who insists on taking Maggie’s shift so she can rest.
Later, Enid comes by again, and gives Maggie a short haircut. It seems to be a symbolic move. When Enid asks why she cut it, Maggie says, “I need to make sure nothing gets in my way”. This moment turns bad though, as Maggie seems to have trouble with the baby, screaming in pain.
Josh’s Thoughts: The Walking Dead, Season 6 Episode 15: East
The Walking Dead has really been building up the Negan introduction. We will have to see how this goes, as I am sure we are going to be seeing him and Lucille tonight on the season finale. If you don’t know who or what Lucille is, you’ve seen it if you watched the previews for tonight’s episode. Based on that preview I think we will be saying goodbye to a character tonight. As far as who? I am not sure yet. There are a few candidates though:
The four just captured–Glenn, Rosita, Michonne, or Daryl
Of these four, I think the highest probable two are Rosita or Glenn. Glenn for obvious reasons I won’t get into, but Rosita could be on the chopping block because it would be a way to advance Abraham’s story potentially. He might get racked with guilt, and this could lead to some craziness with Abraham depending how it plays out.
As for the other two, I think Michonne is still too important to the show to kill off, and I think Rick has lost enough women in his life already. Daryl has just been shot, so I think it would be odd to take this injured man and kill him off. Besides, he is another big character in the show, that fans would be upset losing.
Carol or Morgan
These are another two potentially that could bite it. I could see a scenario where Carol comes across the four captives, Glenn, Rosita, Daryl, and Michonne, finds a way to save them, but on her escape route, she is captured. There has to be a way most of the 4 escape Dwight’s clutches, as I don’t see all 4 dying. As for Morgan, I think he could be interesting to see go. It would be a way to further reinforce Rick’s beliefs that he should “not take chances”. Or it could swing the other way for Rick–his decision to raid the Saviors all culminated into the death of Morgan, the one person who was against it all in the first place. Hmm….
I am excited to see the introduction of Negan though. Based on the comics he seems like a very good villain, and hopefully that transfers to the TV show well. Time to get prepared for tonight!
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 6 Episode 15 of The Walking Dead: East
It seemed a bit sudden and maybe not the smartest decision for Daryl to take off like that alone to find Dwight. But I can certainly understand his motivations, and wanting to finish Dwight off, as he regrets not having done so the first time around. Now with Dwight and the others so close to Alexandria, and having shown how threatening they can be, I’m sure Daryl feels like this is unfinished business that he personally is responsible to take care of.
It’s interesting how the attitudes of so many of the group members have changed since recent seasons. Before, most everyone was on the side of avoiding killing others. Now it seems like more of the group members are more open to killing others in order to protect themselves. Even Carol, who had very recently changed her openness toward killing, is still willing to kill if she feels forced to. A few episodes ago, I would have thought the way that Carol behaved toward the men who confronted her in the road was just an act, but now, it seems like that was the real her. While she did somewhat put on an act to make herself seem meek and frail, the things she was saying to them, and the way she felt, was genuine. She didn’t want to kill them. She’s tired of killing, which is why she left Alexandria in the first place, because she doesn’t want to kill anymore, if she can help it. But in this case, she felt she had no choice. Plus, it helps when she does seem harmless. It almost feels like she’s devolving into her old self, yet she still has the skills to kill if she needs to. I’m already missing the strong-willed Carol. So, where has Carol run off to? Will Morgan find her? If so, where, and also, will she decide to return to Alexandria with him, assuming that they both survive the next episode? And what about that guy that walked off with Carol’s rosary? I’m sure he’ll figure into the story in a big way.
I am glad that we got an episode where we see Rick and Morgan spend some good quality time together, like the good ol’ days. Though a lot of things have changed since they first met in Season 1, it was almost like seeing those two characters as they were before.
The big question is, how will this season end? Will we get any sort of resolution about anything, or just get a cliffhanger? We know that this entire season has been leading up to Negan. Will we actually have any interaction with him, or will the episode end with barely meeting him? What will happen to the four who have been captured? Who will die? Who will live? It seems like someone has to die tonight. They can’t all make it out alive. What will happen to Maggie? Will she and the baby be okay? They no longer have a doctor, so it seems like the only person who could really help her is the doctor from Hilltop, though I’m not sure how that would happen.
In any case, the season finale is going to be a 90-minute episode, so I’m expecting something epic!
I have been watching this show since the beginning and am so excited to find intelligent and thoughtful write ups about it here on your website. Will have to bookmark this for future reference.
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