After The Walking Dead’s mid-season premiere broke our hearts, we see how Rick and the group are dealing with all the personal loss in episode 10, and whether they’ll be able to live with what they’ve gone through even if they find safety anytime soon.

The episode opened with a tearful Maggie, clearly grieving over the loss of her sister. As a walker comes up behind her, she seems to ignore it entirely, until taking it out with knife to the head.

We’ve been waiting to see how Maggie would be feeling after Beth’s death, and she’s miserable. This episode was all about giving up hope, and maybe gaining some by the end, which also introduces us to an entirely new character who claims to be a friend.

The Essentials

Everyone is miserable, with Daryl and Sasha joining Maggie as they make it to the road. The group is starving to death and they’ve been out looking for food as they make their way to the rest of the group, who have also been unsuccessful in their hunt for food and water.

Maggie seems a bit more broken than the rest of the group at first, which is expected, as we thought that’s how the second half of season 5 would start last week, but instead we got yet another blow to the group with the death of Tyreese.

They finally run out of gas, with roughly 50 miles to D.C., and Rick says they’ll walk the rest of the way. Rick mentions it’s been three weeks since Atlanta, and Daryl heads out to see what he can find in the woods.

Broken

Father Gabriel tries to talk to Maggie about the loss of her family, saying he’s willing to listen if she wants to talk, but Maggie has lost her faith, and hits Gabriel with a reminder that he left his flock to die.

As Carol and Daryl make their way through the woods in an attempt to find any type of food, she talks to Daryl about the way he’s feeling. She tells him he’s not dead, as she tries to get him to come to terms with the fact that he has to move on from not being able to save Beth back in Atlanta.

The group makes a stand at a bridge, where Rick tosses a walker into the ditch. They don’t have any strength left so they plan to use a tactic of letting the walkers fall down off to the side until Sasha stabs a walker out of anger, messing up their plan. Rick nearly gets bit by a walker on the arm when Daryl comes in and rips its scalp off, saving him.

Michonne and Sasha have some words, since her anger is endangering the group’s safety, and Sasha seems to be losing her mind a bit at she stares back at Michonne.

Dog treats

They’re getting desperate, and as Maggie raids a car’s trunk she finds a tied up walker, which is also gagged. She closes the trunk back on the walker, but when she goes back to kill it, the key gets stuck and she nearly shoots the lock as Glenn stops her. Glenn gets the trunk open and knifes the walker, and brings Maggie back from what seems to be a very dark mental state.

Eugene speaks for the first time since being knocked out cold after exposing himself as a liar. Some wild dogs approach them, but as Rick gets ready to defend the group, Sasha shoots them. Everyone only has one thing on their mind: Food.

Noah has a tough time not thinking about the dogs being eaten, but Sasha reminds him not to think, just eat. Everyone else doesn’t seem to have a problem as they gobble down the dog meat, but a line has clearly been crossed, where survival has erased nearly everything these people once knew.

Downpour

Daryl kept randomly leaving to go into the woods, where he said he was looking for water, but he seemed to just want to be alone as he took a smoke break and then put his cigarette out on his hand without flinching. After thinking he feels nothing anymore, he finally breaks down, crying alone in the woods about the loss of Beth and their current situation.

When Daryl gets back to the group, Rick gives him a note that has been attached to a dozen or so bottles of water. They’re afraid to drink the water, though, as it could have something in it from whoever left it. Ironically, it starts to rain after Abraham knocks a bottle of water out of Eugene’s hand.

A big storm rolls up along with the rain, and they head to the barn where Daryl had been sitting in the woods. Maggie sees a Bible, and then finds yet another walker behind a door. This time she knifes the walker as it crawls to her, and she tells Carol the person had a gun and could have killed themselves. Carol says, “Some people can’t give up, like us,” but Maggie doesn’t seem too impressed.

Pretending you’re dead

Around their campfire, Rick tells a story about how he asked his grandfather how many Germans he killed during World War II, and he said he wouldn’t answer, but when he asked him how many Germans tried to kill him, he said he just pretended he was dead for four years, but made it out of the war alive.

Rick says the trick to living in horrible conditions is pretending you’re dead, and then says, “We are the walking dead,” but Daryl disagrees. Daryl walks away, repeating, “We ain’t them.” The group is finally together, but they couldn’t be more apart mentally.

During the night, walkers have swarmed the barn. Daryl tries to hold the door closed, but there are too many of them. Maggie and Sasha join in to help, and then the rest of the group run over to hold the doors closed. Carl even puts Judith on the ground as he goes to help his group survive the night.

It was an incredibly intense moment, but the scene faded to black, with the group waking up after the storm had passed, having held off the walker attack. Maggie confronts Daryl, who is off by himself again, and tells him he should get some sleep.

Good News

Maggie and Sasha head outside where they see trees torn down by the storm, with Walkers pinned down by tree limbs. They can’t believe the horde didn’t tear them apart, and Maggie brings Sasha to see the sunrise. Sasha finally reveals that she doesn’t know if she can make it, but Maggie says she can, and winds up the music box when a stranger shows up.

A new character named Aaron introduces himself, and says he needs to speak with their leader, because he has good news. The episode ends as the music box starts playing, and with the oddly clean Aaron asking to speak with Rick.

What will the good news be that Aaron has for Rick and the group? We’ll find out next week when episode 11 airs Sunday, February 22.