After last week’s episode of the Walking Dead where Rick finally seemed to be letting his guard down enough for the team to head into Alexandria, this week’s episode gives us our first real peek. So what is Alexandria like?
Walking Dead Episode 512 spoilers follow.
[divider]The Walking Dead Episode 512 Recap: The Distance[/divider]This episode picks up where the last one left off. As the gate to Alexandria opens, Carl sees a girl inside a building that is outside the walls. Then as they inch closer, a noise spooks them, and Darryl shots, killing a possum and proclaiming “We brought dinner.”
Once inside, the gates close and they are asked to give up their weapons, which leads into a discussion about how they haven’t decided if they are staying are not. Aaron sticks up for them and says that they can keep them at least until they meet with Deanna, whom they presume is the leader of Alexandria.
Sasha then snipes a zombie outside the walls, as a symbol of both protection and skill. And the opening credits roll!
Rick meets with Deanna first and this scene is interesting from both a character development standpoint and an exposition dump. Turns out that Deanna was the congressperson for the 15th district of Ohio, which, because I go the extra mile for you in research, is a district that encompasses Columbus and some of the surrounding counties.
When the apocalypse hit, she and her family were working back roads in an attempt to get home when they were stopped by the army. They were directed to this independent community that was being built to be off the grid and self-sustaining: solar power, separate natural water filtration system, and waste processing. Her architect husband designed and built the outside perimeter walls from what was a nearby under construction shopping mall.
When Rick pushes Deanna about why she would allow them to come inside, she says that they basically have lived in the walls and that they need people who are outsiders, who know how to survive in the midst of what is outside the walls. But she also says that Team Rick is the first large group they have ever considered letting be a part of Alexandria.
Rick then goes into a description of just how bad things are outside, asking Deanna to keep the gates closed. When Rick gets to the point of his speech saying that he no longer knows how many people he has killed, Deanna confesses to having exiled 3 men outside the camp. (With this and things that happen a bit later, I am wondering if Alexandria is some kind of Amazon-ish, woman led compound.) Rick slowly comes around and confesses to her that he used to be a sheriff.
As the team are collectively surrendering their guns, you see a variety of reactions from the team. While the guns remain their property, they have to check them in and out when they leave the compound. Carol is the last to put her guns on the cart, and does so in an almost comical way, showing little propensity with them, clearly acting much more helpless than we know she is.
Aaron shows Rick and Carl to their new house. While they both move through it very quietly, studying it, it is clear that this nice home (“From the low 800,000s” according to Deanna), they attempt to make it seem more like home. Rick goes to work and removes his beard. Then a neighbor Jesse shows up with food from her job in the pantry and she is willing to cut Rick’s hair. (It makes you wonder if Andrew Lincoln was like “Guys, seriously, I NEED to shave already.”)
Darryl is then on tape with his interview with Deanna, who is recording all of them for what she calls “transparency” reasons. When asked why he is here, he simply states that the boy and baby deserve a home. But then we get a shot of Darryl skinning and cleaning the possum he killed on the front porch, which seems to be about as far as he can get comfortable with.
Carl and Carol are looking around, definitely suspicious that the town would be giving away such nice places. Later, Rick, Carol and Darryl realize that by giving them all different houses, they are getting split up and decide for the whole family to bunk down in one house, slumber party style. Carl then discovers a bit of a teenaged man-cave in an unfinished attic space, where he finds books, comics, etc. clearly from people near his age.
That night, everyone is in the same house, with Michonne announcing her magnificent dental hygiene skills having just brushed her teeth for 20 minutes. (I think this explains the muscles she has in using the katana.) As they are all settling in for the night, Deanna stops by and explains how she will be giving everyone a job and work to do. She says she already has one for Rick and Michonne, while she is figuring out Darryl. (My gut instinct on the immediate job for Michonne was simple: butcher. Best match of skills and needs.)
When we cut to Michonne’s video with Deanna, Michonne is convincing Deanna (and herself?) that the group is really ready to settle down. When pushed by Deanna, Michonne affirms that all of them are.
As we cut to Darryl, it is clear again that he isn’t at peace or at home here. Again, as he hangs out on the front porch, he and Rick chat and we get an unexpected Lori reference, as Rick says this kind of thing would have been her dream home back in the day.
He and Carl go for a walk, he loses them somehow and is freaking out when hairstylist Jesse finds him and shows him that Carl and Judith are fine at some loving old couple’s house. Carl then gets invited over to Jesse’s, where he meets the teenagers of Alexandria, including the young woman he saw at the beginning of the episode, Enid. After a little bit of a flirtatious jostling from Enid, Carl agrees to play video games.
But later, Carl and Rick have a little heart to heart conversation about how weak the people are inside and how Carl doesn’t want to be weak too. It is an interesting dilemma for them, as they want to settle down but they don’t want to lose their edge.
That night, Rick and Michonne talk about jobs and ultimately why they are not quite fitting in. Rick awakens worried in the middle of the night. Going on a night walk, Rick runs into Jesse’s husband, who seems less than friendly.
On the video with Carol and Deanna, Carol chats about her housewife skills, how she has become the Den mother who would be completely useless without the family to protect her. The con she is running is beautiful; I love the idea of her working the system so that when the time comes, she can do whatever it takes to survive and keep the group alive. In some ways, Carol has risked the most and made the tough decision over and over again to save the family. And that hardened warrior is being hidden away in a nice sweater and khakis, as Carol gets a job cooking for the old people of the town.
In his video, Glenn is worried that they were almost out there too long.
Carl watches a girl climb over the wall and when he follows her, he eventually loses her. But he stumbles on to his dad, who was looking for the gun he hid in a blender last episode, but is now gone. Just because Rick needs something to take his rage out on and Carl has come along, we get a truly bizarre Father-Son slaying party, ending with Carl asking for and getting the right for the last kill, this one with a large piece of metal rebar.
Glenn, Tara, and Noah are on a raiding team and meet Aidan, Deanna’s son and former ROTC student. Aidan is to be showing them the ropes and they discover that the imbeciles have kept a zombie on a chain after some friends died the previous week. Of course when they get there, the thing has escaped and after a debate with Glenn, they make noise, the thing comes out and nearly kills Tara before she and Glenn knife it to death, much to the chagrin of Aidan and the other guy.
When they get back, Aidan is ready to offload them to another assignment because they don’t follow orders and don’t know what they are doing. This escalates as Glenn says that maybe they know exactly what to do and Aidan is the imbecile.
Aidan stares down Glenn, continues to escalate it, until it ends with Aidan being knocked on his butt by Glenn, then Daryl, who has been ready for a fight, jumps in. When Deanna shows up and finds out what has happened, she sides with Rick and his people, announcing that she would like to make Rick and Michonne constables for their little English hamlet. They both accept their jobs.
As night falls, Carol and Rick (looking normal) chat with Darryl, who is still a greasy, grizzled man on the porch. As they chat Rick says, “We won’t get weak. Not in us anymore. If they can’t make it, we’ll just take this place.” And that may be the scariest line of the series so far.
[divider]The Walking Dead Episode 512 Final Thoughts[/divider]Walking Dead Episode 512 was a solid all around episode. It moves the plot forward, gives a new setting and introduces three or four major characters:
- Deanna, the leader,
- Aidan, the asshole,
- Jesse, Rick’s soon to be lover,
- and the random teenage vagabonds.
Daryl is a man out of water. We have never seen what a pre-apocalypse Daryl was like but the closest we have come was the rundown place he and Beth shared for a bit. He is clearly not at home here and it will be interesting how long it takes before he leaves or he gets exiled.
Carol is such a bad-ass. The scam she is running and what it will buy her when she needs it is going to be really important. She does whatever it takes to protect the family.
Is Rick crazy? Is he becoming the Governor, Jr.? This plot line really worries me.
Solid 8.9 out of 10. Too many other characters whose stories haven’t been shown yet but I suspect we will see via videos with Deanna in the next episode or so.
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