The Walking Dead season 7, episode 6, “Swear,” brought the focus to Tara and Heath who run into a new community on accident.
‘The Walking Dead’ season 7, episode 6 recap:
After the attack on the Saviors, Heath and Tara left Alexandria to go on a long trip for supplies. The idea was that going further out might have benefits, but this means that they’ve been separated from the rest of the group for a few weeks.
The pair have no idea what happened with Negan and that their friends are gone forever, this will be especially crushing for Tara who was in a relationship with Denise. Even more crushing, their trip hasn’t yielded any supplies to bring back to Alexandria. They were in dire need of them before, and now that Negan has taken half of their stuff it’s even more important (but again they don’t know that yet).
Heath, who was sheltered at Alexandria, is also having a hard time handling the emotions of killing other humans. Accepting the fact that they live in a world where it’s kill or be killed might be too much for him to handle. Tara still holds out hope, but Heath is all but ready to give up.
Back out on the road, the pair come to a bridge that’s been blocked by dumpsters. Further inspection shows what looks like to be an old camp featuring dump trucks, sand piles, and gun shells. While trying to look for any leftover items, they accidentally let loose a bunch of walkers that were buried under the massive sand pile.
There’s too many to fight off, so Heath and Tara decide to make a run for it. However, they end up separated when Heath gets ahead of Tara while she’s fending off a walker. Just as Tara is pushed over the edge of the bridge, it looks like Heath is being surrounded by walkers himself.
Somehow, Tara survives the fall off the bridge and washes ashore a beach. It’s there that Rachel and Cyndie from Oceanside find her. After thinking that she might be a walker Rachel goes to stab her in the head, but they realize Tara is still alive just before killing her.
Even though Rachel wants to kill Tara, Cyndie stops her and even drags her ashore. Cyndie thinks that they can keep it a secret, but is tempted to go back and check on Tara. After guzzling down the water that Cydnie leaves, Tara ends up following her back to their camp.
Their community is right next to the ocean and hidden in the woods. Had Tara not followed them back, it would have been quite hard for her to find them. After a run in with Negan and the Saviors, the original Oceanside group was killed until only the women and children were left. Still, the community has been able to thrive using the resources around them, and they even have a healthy supply of weapons.
In order to avoid more conflict with outside groups, Oceanside usually kills any strangers that they meet right away. When Tara is spotted observing the group, they start shooting without question. Cyndie steps in again to save Tara but once it’s ultimately up to their leader Natania.
Lucky for Tara, the women actually like her and consider sparing her life. When they begin to question her, Tara gives them a story about traveling with a friend before they were separated. Playing dumb doesn’t impress them, so Tara decides to tell the truth at dinner after they offer to let her stay.
Natania believes that the solution to their problem is for Tara to join their group. They’ve seen the way that she fights and also think she’s a good person. Heath, is also invited to join if they can find them. First, they want the truth from her though, so Tara fills them in Alexandria’s fight with the Saviors at the satellite station.
Her hope is that they will see that others have the same beliefs as they do. What Tara doesn’t know is that Natania would rather keep hiding from the Saviors than fight them. Since they don’t want the Saviors to come back and kill even more of their people, the women decide they do have to follow through and kill Tara.
Trying to trick her, they let Tara think that the plan is to help Oceanside connect with Alexandria. Kathy and Beatrice begin to lead Tara back to the bridge where she fell off, but it
doesn’t take long for Tara to realize what they’re up to. So she takes off from them before they reach the bridge while they’re distracted by a walker.
After a scuffle with Beatrice, Tara learns the truth about what the Saviors did to Oceanside. While begging for her life, Beatrice says that her group has most likely killed by the Saviors anyways. It looks like not all of the group is bad though, as Cyndie helps Tara get away and brings her to the bridge. Despite their bond over staying true to themselves, and not becoming mindless killers, Cydnie doesn’t want to see Tara return and makes her promise as such.
When Tara spots a walker head with similar hair to Heath on the bridge, she worries the worst has happened. Upon closer look, Tara finds that it’s not Heath after all. And when she goes to check on the campers it’s gone, so it looks like Heath made it out alive. Too bad for Tara that also means she has to get back to Alexandria on her own.
On the way, Tara stops at a gift shop and picks up a cute doctor bobble head as a gift for Denise. Only to get back to Alexandria and learn that Denise has been killed. It’s Eugene who greats Tara at the gate, but Rosita who breaks the news to her. Rosita is also quick to try and use Tara’s grief to make her an ally on the push to fight against Negan. Tara breaks her own news that they weren’t able to find anything, leaving out what she saw at Oceanside.
It’s a bit odd that The Walking Dead decided not to actually show Rosita describing what happened to Tara. Fans are left to fill in the pieces that Tara has been caught up on everything that happened. While we see her crying, a conversation about how that makes them feel is left out. I’m assuming the writers are trying to keep the momentum going with the story about a resistance against the Saviors.
It still feels like an important piece is being left out though, since fans have been able to witness many other characters processing the events together. But perhaps that is being left for her to work through with Maggie, after all Glenn was also very important to Tara.
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