Season 5 Episode 13: Forget – Recap and Discussion

I’ve been monitoring you show-only fans to see what you make of Alexandria so far and the overwhelming consensus is that it is bad news. Can’t say I blame you. This is The Walking Dead, after all. Death will follow our group wherever they go. But hey, it’s a nice town, right? And showers! But also some sketchy characters. Will we learn more tonight? Let’s find out!

Sasha can’t sleep, so what’s a girl to do? Take all the framed pictures in the house, check out a gun from Olivia (who we learn used to make some kick ass pickles), and head outside the wall for some highly aggravated target practice. She constantly looks around like she hears something. Is she losing it? Or is something up? With no more family portraits to destroy, she sits on a stump and says “Come and get me.”

After the credits, Rick, Carol, and Daryl meet outside the walls by the abandoned house with the blender trash heap. They hatch a plan to get some guns back from lock-up. They’ll just leave a window unlatched and sneak in. Daryl points out that someone in Alexandria now has a gun, referring to the blender gun that’s missing.

A walker approaches and Carol proceeds to put about 12 rounds in it. She told them they were going shooting, couldn’t come back with a full mag. That Carol, man! As they head back they see a downed walker and wonder about the W carved in its head…

Michonne tries her new uniform on for size. Rick shows up and wonders what kind of game Deanna might be playing to put two strangers in charge as cops. They go talk to Deanna to get their marching orders. “You patrol, walk the wall, watch out for the kids, if there’s a conflict, solve it.” Deanna is looking long-term: If they’re going to make it as a civilization they’ll need a police force. In fact, she has Maggie working with her in order to help build a government.

Rick wants to talk about security. He walks them all along the wall. He points out that people could climb the walls using the supports. He wants people patrolling, checking for possible entry attempts. When Sasha shows up and volunteers to be one of the lookouts, we find out that they have no lookouts. At all. Rick is disgusted. Deanna says they’ll create shifts and Sasha volunteers for as many as possible. Deanna’s a little dubious of Sasha’s enthusiasm. She says she’ll consider making Sasha primary if she attends the party she’s throwing for them that night.

Carol plays Suzy Homemaker with the neighborhood ladies while they swap recipes. She slips away to talk subterfuge with Rick instead. The party will offer the perfect opportunity to steal some sweet ass biscuits—errr guns—from the armory.

She heads to storage and chats Olivia up about recipes, grabs some chocolate, plays dumb about guns, and unlatches the window.

Later, Carol, Rick, Carl, and Judith show up for the party. Abe and Rosita show up soon after. Everyone looks very presentable and fairly uncomfortable. Abe’s pretty unsure about everything until he finds out they have beer, at which point he’s willing to make an effort.

Deanna introduces Rick to her husband Reg. Reg admits to being awed by Rick and what his group has said about him and the things he’s done. Rick says he thinks the wall is a pretty big deal as well. Rick agrees to have a drink with him after initially refusing. Rick’s maybe accepting this place a bit..?

Jessie, Pete, and their two boys arrive, which Rick definitely notices.

A bit later in the evening Noah, Glenn, and Maggie are off to the side. Noah says he might leave and Maggie and Glenn stop him. “You’re here with family.”

Carol notices that Olivia has arrived so she throws down a smoke bomb and jumps out the window. Or just walks off. One of the two. She’s off for some sidearms in the now-vacant armory.

Jessie introduces Rick to her husband, Pete, and the two act like they did not meet the night before. Was Pete too drunk to remember? Or do they both want to play off the incident like it didn’t happen? In any event, Pete offers to refill their drinks and Rick is left alone with Jessie. She gives a sort of awkward monologue about how things are better and trying to appreciate what they have. Rick takes it all in and ultimately agrees.

Sam runs up, complaining about cookies. When Rick tells him that he knows the baker Sam points out that Rick doesn’t have a stamp. He gives Rick a big, red “A” stamp on his hand. I guess for Alexandria? All I can think of is the scarlet letter.

Sasha arrives. Spencer Monroe, Deanna’s son, answers the door. Spencer’s really friendly (he offers to guard Sasha against Mrs. Niedermeyer’s rambling discourse on her need for a pasta maker), which I think might be too much for Sasha, who quickly excuses herself.

Abraham heads out to the porch and finds Michonne contemplating her plastic cocktail sword. Perhaps talking about more than a 3 inch piece of plastic he says, “Pray to God you don’t have to use it again, pray to God you don’t get used to not using it again. It’s on your back, even when it’s off your back.” And then admits that he’s drunk. He tells her that things have turned out pretty well for him. And then he tries to get her to admit how things are going for her but she seems reticent.

Carol breaks into the armory, steals some chocolate (I think it’s chocolate), and then starts packing up the guns. Everything’s going perfect and then… Jessie’s youngest, Sam, shows up. He was following her hoping she was going to make some more cookies. Carol offers to make him cookies in exchange for keeping quiet. And then threatens the shit out of him. Telling him she’ll tie him up outside the walls if he tells anyone. Jesus, Carol.

Jessie is carrying around Judith, and happy to be doing so (babies are pretty rare in an apocalypse). Rick lets her know that he agrees with her, that Alexandria isn’t so bad. He takes Judith back and then leans in to give a really meaningful kiss on the cheek. They both kind of look at each other and then Jessie walks off. Rick kind of looks a little stunned.

Deanna asks Sasha to come join a conversation. When Sasha hears the banal subject matter and sees how casual everyone is about food and drink she starts flashing back to the awful things she’s seen and what they’ve been through. An Alexandrite starts pushing her for her favorite meal so she can cook it for her. When she says she’s worried she’ll cook the wrong thing, Sasha flips. “THAT’S WHAT YOU WORRY ABOUT?!” and then storms off.

Meanwhile, much earlier in the day, Daryl’s still outside the walls after his meeting with Carol and Rick when he comes across Aaron. A salty Daryl lets Aaron tag along hunting. Before long they come upon a horse. Aaron’s been trying to catch him for months. His name is Buttons. [BUTTONS LIVES!!! Comic fans rejoice!] Daryl takes some rope and slowly approaches. Daryl fans are swooning and passing out all over the place. That doesn’t last long because some walkers show up and Buttons bolts. They kill the walkers and follow. Along the way Daryl lets Aaron know that he’s into motorcycles and Aaron commiserates with Daryl about being an outsider. He lets Daryl know that people feared him and Eric less the more they got to know them, trying to get Daryl to open up to everyone.

Buttons is in a field, surrounded by walkers. Daryl and Aaron move in to kill the walkers. Aaron gets tripped up by a walker that was hidden in the grass. Daryl comes over and stomps its head. Aaron in turn shoots a walker headed for Daryl. They run for Buttons but it’s too late—The walkers pull him down and tear into him.

Daryl and Aaron kill the walkers. Daryl tells Aaron to put Buttons out of her misery. “He always ran,” Aaron says. “You were trying to help him,” Daryl tells him. Metaphor. They head back to Alexandria.

That night we see Daryl, who’s cleaned up a bit, looking into the welcoming party from outside the house. Apparently deciding against joining he walks off. Aaron sees him as he walks down the street and invites him in for dinner.

At the dinner table, Daryl slurps down spaghetti like a damn savage. Eric asks Daryl to keep an eye out on his travels for a pasta maker for Mrs Niedermeyer so she’ll shut up about it. When Daryl looks at him like he has no idea what “travels” he’s talking about, Aaron brings Daryl to garage to show him a half-built motorcycle and a garage’s worth of parts. It’s revealed that Aaron wants Daryl to help recruit new people. The bike will be his. He thinks that not only is Daryl highly adept outside the walls but Daryl knows the difference between a good person and a bad person. For a second it looks like Daryl is genuinely touched.

The next day, Deanna meets Sasha at the gates with her gun. She tells her she’s trying to figure out what Sasha’s deal is. Sasha says that Alexandria isn’t real and Deanna tells her that’s bullshit and opens the gate for her.

Carol, Rick, and Daryl meet by the abandoned house outside the wall to hand out the stolen guns. Daryl questions even needing them. He doesn’t think they’d even need them if things did go bad. He says he’s trying and doesn’t take one. Rick does and tucks it in his pants under his jacket.

Inside, Michonne hangs up her sword. Without the case (which seems weird to me).

Rick, Daryl, and Carol get back inside the walls and go their separate ways. Rick sees Pete and Jessie walking. She says hi and flashes her “A” stamp. Rick smiles and flashes his back. As he watches them walk away we get a close up of Rick reaching back and putting his hand on the stolen gun. EASY RICK!

He hears a ruckus by the wall and heads over. He stands there and puts his hand on the wall. We can see a zombie on the other side banging against it. Rick stares down at the A on his hand and the music starts to echo. The last shot is of Rick just standing there at the wall, frozen.

END

Sasha: death wish? Is she trying to destroy her own past? What’s the symbolism of shooting old pictures?

Week two of Alexandria. NOW what do you guys think of it? Still think Deanna is a baddie (like so many of you do in our poll)?

What do you make of Daryl making a little room in his heart for Alexandria after being taken in by Aaron and Eric?

Rick and Jessie? Is that going to be a problem?

What’s up with Rick and his weird moment at the wall? Is he losing it again?

SPEAK! We are listening!

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