Rick’s group and the Alexandrians are beginning to bump heads in this week's all new episode of The Walking Dead.
The episode started off with Deanna and her family grieving Aiden’s death by listening to one of his favorite songs. All the while, Carol was making casserole for them to sympathize with their loss while also attaching a “we’re truly sorry for your loss” note on top of the pot of casserole.
That same night, Deanna was on her lap top, reviewing a recording of Nicholas who was explaining the whole solar warehouse incident to Deanna, but he was lying about the entire thing by telling Deanna that Rick’s group members were the ones who wanted to leave Aiden behind. He also said that Glenn and Noah almost got him killed, so he had to squeeze out of the revolving doors to save his life.
In the recording, we heard Deanna tell Nicholas that she will prevent him and Glenn from going outside the walls until she can figure the whole situation out.
On the other side of things, Glenn was explaining the occurrence to Rick and letting him know that Deanna’s group is not worthy of making runs with them because they do not know how to handle walkers, which is of course the truth.
The next morning, Glenn confronted Nicholas about Noah’s death and told him to stay away from making runs or else he is going to get everybody killed. Nicholas did not handle Glenn’s harsh words too well, but Glenn let his words sink in with Nicholas and walked away.
Outside of the walls, Daryl, while on a scouting run with Aaron, found more walkers with the “W” symbol on their foreheads. In addition, he found a body that was cut into pieces, the exact things that were spotted at Noah’s demolished neighborhood, hinting that there definitely is a group out there.
Sasha was Sasha in this episode, as she continued to isolate herself from the group to go on a walker killing spree, leaving the bell tower vacant. Rosita told Michonne that Sasha was missing, and the two headed outside the walls to find her. They eventually located her somewhere in the woods, hunting walkers. As Michonne and Rosita tried to help Sasha kill off a herd of walkers, Sasha went insane again, telling the two girls to leave her alone and let her be.
Meanwhile, Rick was trying to figure out what to do with Jessie’s abusive husband, Pete. He went to Deanna, who knew about Pete’s violent acts, for answers and suggested that they separate the two.
“What happens when he doesn’t want to (be separated)?” Deanna asked.
“It’s not his choice,” Rick said.
“So what happens.”
“I kill him. We…kill him.”
Deanna disliked Rick’s idea of killing Pete because “we don’t kill people.” Plus, she does not want to lose the only surgeon in Alexandria.
After finishing his talk with Deanna, Rick visited Jessie to confront her about Pete. She pushed Rick away and told him that she could take care of herself. An adamant Rick did not want to leave the situation alone, so he jolted back into Jessie’s house and told her that he would protect her and her two boys as long as she allowed Pete out of her life.
Jessie finally agreed to separate from Pete right as Pete walked into their conversation. As Pete questioned Rick about his presence, Jessie told Pete to leave the house, but he rejected her demands and continued to attack Rick. After a few heated words, Rick and Pete got into a scuffle, beating each other back and forth until Deanna came to stop them.
Rick didn’t end up killing Pete, but he pulled out a gun on Deanna and a few other Alexandrians and gave them a harsh speech about the world they live in now.
“You still don’t get it,” Rick said. “None of you do. We know what needs to be done, and we do it. We’re the ones who live.…You want this place to remain standing? Your way of doing things is done. Things don’t get better because you want them to. Starting now, we have to live in the real world. We have to control who lives here…Your ways gonna destroy this place, it’s gonna get people killed. It’s already gotten people killed. And I’m not going to stand by and let it happen. If you don’t fight, you die. I’m not going to stand by…”
And before Rick could finish what he wanted to say, Michonne knocked him on the side of his head, which is how the episode ended.
Certainly, Rick is starting to closely resemble his old buddy Shane, as he is beginning to lose it. He is threatening people, fighting them, and spewing some harsh words. It’s clear that he wants to gain control of Alexandria because he does not believe Deanna is doing a great job.
However, why did Michonne knock out Rick? What will Deanna do now? A lot of interesting things are going on all at once.
This episode made it clear that there is without doubt a group lurking outside the walls, brutally killing walkers and torturing people.
With a one and a half hour finale, we shall see how all these elements unravel to conclude the season.
Episode 15 – Overall Grade: 8.2/10
