While tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead season 5 wasn’t the most exciting, it certainly connected several more pieces of the puzzle.
Our recap of The Walking Dead season 5, episode 6 looks at Carol and Daryl’s journey into Atlanta, where the two fan favorite characters encountered a slew of trouble and met a new ally who led them to Beth.
The episode kicks off with a little surprise: We jump back to season 4 when Rick and Carol parted ways. After the latter drives away from Rick, she breaks down and cries (Did anyone else want to give her a hug during this scene?). This was an important moment for viewers and Carol because it looked like she really wanted to leave for good.
In this same scene Carol makes it to a law firm office which she uses as a shelter before spotting the big fire at the prison. In other flashbacks we see what Carol was up to after burning the infected at the prison, burying the girls with Tyreese, and the moments after she blew up Terminus. There was one common thread during all of these flashbacks: Carol was doing what was needed in order to survive.
In present day, Carol and Daryl are tracking the car that looked like the one that stole Beth. They’re lead into Atlanta where we see ALL lights are out (and it’s really eerie – we haven’t seen something like this in a while). After stopping for a moment to watch the mystery pair’s whereabouts, Daryl finds himself unable to turn his car back over. Carol suggests a place she knows of near by – some temporary housing she stayed in for a little while.
The two begin to have a chat about their purpose as they lay together on a small bed. Some viewers were hoping for some action to go down between these two – but not this writer! – before the threat of a young walker (one of the few times we’ve seen one) interrupts the discussion. The next morning, Daryl respectfully burns the child and lets the undead’s ashes rise into the sky. It’s a moment appreciated by Carol, who lost her daughter Sophia earlier this series.
With daylight now on their side, Carol and Daryl head into the heart of Atlanta. They enter a building where zombies have been wrapped up in sleeping bags and tents. Whether they transformed there or someone put them there, it’s not clear. “How did we get here?” Carol asks as she peers out a window.
Daryl wants to start over and doesn’t care for the details of what happened between her, Tyreese, and the girls. As they move back to the tents, they come up to Noah, who viewers met at the hospital a couple weeks ago. He steals Daryl’s crossbow, and as he runs away Carol tries to shoot him in the foot. Daryl misreads the situation and stops Carol from doing so, but don’t worry… he’ll get back at Noah in a couple minutes.
Daryl and Carol make it up to one of the suspicious vans that’s teetering on the edge of a bridge and tear through it for clues. Meanwhile, a swarm of zombies starts surrounding the van. Daryl finds a stretcher in the back of the vehicle, which is when he realizes that the mystery team could be at the nearby hospital.
The zombies continue to swarm the van, leaving Carol and Daryl trapped inside. They’re forced with only one way out: Make the van fall over the bridge. They force it over and it lands upright, with the zombies landing on top of the van and killing themselves.
The fall wasn’t too kind to Carol. Moments later they catch up with Noah, who makes her injuries even worse by pushing a zombie on her (does he have a death wish?). Daryl steps in and gets his crossbow back, then lets a shelf pin Noah to the ground as. A zombie gets ready to dine on the kid’s head, and Daryl is ready to let him die, but Carol pleads otherwise, so he begrudgingly sends an arrow through the zombie’s head.
Saving Noah ends up being a good idea. He tells Daryl and Carol that Beth is at the hospital.
Carol leads the way out of the building and gets herself hit by a car owned by the hospital (now we know how she ends up there). Noah advises Daryl to stay out of sight so that Carol can get treatment without disruption, but he warns that they’re going to need more weaponry before breaking in.
The puzzle pieces are now in place. Daryl will be bringing Noah back to the church in episode 7, and previews for next week reveal that the whole group will be heading to the hospital to rescue Beth and Carol.
With two episodes left before the mid-season finale, we can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed with where this story is going. Without a major goal for the group, the show’s upcoming highlight may only be taking over the hospital.
Miscellaneous notes
– “Treating Survivors of Childhood Abuse” was a book that fell out of Carol’s bag. Presumably she grabbed it for Daryl, who was abused as a child. Sad.
– Tyler James Williams, who plays Noah, is best known for his role as Chris Rock on Everybody Hates Chris. Considering how big of an ass Noah was on this episode, there were many places for fans to point out that the actor’s new character is living up to his old character’s show title.
Are you liking where ‘The Walking Dead’ is headed?
Convince us that we have something to look forward to.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.