‘The Walking Dead’ Recap: [SPOILER] Dies Trying To Save Alexandria

There is no way to prepare yourself for the ‘The Walking Dead’s season 6 mid-season premiere episode. Check out our FULL recap to find out who dies, who survives, and whether or not Alexandria stands a chance.

On the Feb. 14 mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) desperately leads the pack of survivors through a walker obstacle course in hopes of saving their safe haven, Daryl (Norman Reedus) has an uncomfortable run-in with The Saviors, and Glenn (Steven Yeun) will risk anything to save Maggie (Lauren Cohan).

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As the episode opens, we’re picking up almost exactly where we left off in the mid-season finale. Daryl, Abraham, and Sasha have been stopped by some of Negan’s goons, and they are forced to hand over everything in their possession before being accompanied back to where they come from: Alexandria. But, it’s not that easy. While Daryl is forced to help one of the biker guys search their truck for any more possessions that now belong to Negan, Abraham makes the mistake of asking who the villain at large is.

The lead biker decides it’s time to kill Abraham and is quick to point a gun directly at him. He explains that they usually kill people right off the bat, but that they thought there was something worth saving in these three. He admits, or better yet assumes, that he was wrong, and that’s when Sasha butts in in an attempt to save Abraham’s life. As you might remember, things between those two got a little, um, interesting in the first half of the season, so it’s no surprise to see her trying to keep him alive.

Thankfully, before the lead biker can pull the trigger on either of them, Daryl uses the military grade rocket launcher that Abraham found in the town they were hiding out in to blow up the entire group. It works!

However, back in Alexandria, walkers are still taking over the land.

Father Gabriel Takes Judith’s Life In His Hands

Rick, Michonne, Carl, and the rest of the group are doing surprisingly well as the walk among the walkers covered in guts. But Rick decides to change the plan, so he pulls everyone aside and says that they need to round up the walkers and lead them out. Jessie is in on the plan, but she doesn’t think that Judith, who is hidden under the sheet Carl is wearing, will make it without making a sound. Father Gabriel, desperate to be someone’s hero, offers to take Judith and protect her at the church until they return. Rick looks skeptical, but it’s Michonne who speaks up and questions if he can even manage doing such a thing. Father Gabriel assures her he can.

Carl passes off Judith to Gabriel and I have to admit, I’m feeling pretty confident this is the last time we’ll see either of them.

Before Gabriel leaves for the church Jessie insists that he takes her youngest son, Sam, with him, but Sam refuses to go. The usually quiet and terrified young boy seems to have changed in the moments he walked through those walkers. He demands to stay with Jessie, and after a little back and forth she finally agrees to let him. As Father Gabriel slowly walks away with Judith, the group watches before stepping out on their not-so-merry way.

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Inside some of the empty town homes where they usually keep prisoners, Rosita is trying to calm Tara down. Tara wants to go after the wolf who kidnapped their doctor, Denise, but Rosita knows there is know way they can walk out onto that street with all of those walkers. Instead, Rosita tells Tara they need to make sure Carol and Morgan are okay before they do anything. In the background we see Eugene helping up Carol, but Morgan is still out cold on the ground.

Meanwhile, Glenn and Enid are desperately trying to get inside the walls of Alexandria without getting bitten or killed. They head into the church outside of the walls to do a sweep, looking for anything and everything that can help them. There isn’t anything to be found though, and instead Glenn tries to get Enid to stay behind while he goes to save Maggie. She refuses and even comes up with a plan to get Maggie off of the platform. She also reminds Glenn that even if he tells her to stay she’s going to follow after him, which we all know is true. Well played, Enid.

At the same time we are seeing Denise and the wolf hovering down behind a wall to keep safe of walkers. Denise is totally freaking out though, and it doesn’t help that the sun is setting and night time is slowly but surely creeping in.

You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out, Kid

Once nightfall arrives we get to see what Rick and the group are up to. They are making really good progress, but then Sam starts to hear Carol’s voice replaying over and over in his head. The monsters are gonna eat you alive, etc. Out of nowhere he spots a little boy walker, and that’s when he freezes. No one else seems to see the little boy so it’s unclear if he really existed or not, but as both Jessie and Ron try to coerce Sam into walking again, he gets bit. Not by one, but by two walkers who take him from both sides and devour him. Ouch.

The worst part? Jessie is still holding his hand as the walkers completely take over her son’s body. Now it’s Carl and Rick who are doing the coercing, but Jessie doesn’t move fast enough… and a walker grabs her. As Jessie gets eaten Rick tears up, shakes his head, and can’t believe what’s happening. Flashes of Jessie alive and smiling cross the screen, but Carl interrupts because her now lifeless body is still gripping his hand. It takes Rick a moment, but he finally uses the axe he’s carrying to chop her hand off.

Once Carl is free it’s time to go, but Ron isn’t ready for that. Instead he grabs the gun that hit the floor while Rick was freeing Carl, and he points it right at Rick. This is the moment Ron has been waiting for, the moment he can finally take out Rick without any consequences, and given the fact he just watched the only two remaining members of his family get eaten alive, he’s going to take it.

But not on Michonne’s watch. She stabs him right through the heart right before he shoots, and once his arms go haywire he fires off a random shot in the air before collapsing. Rick is stunned, he can’t believe that he’s still alive after that, but he’s in for a shock when his son, Carl, turns to him and his missing his right eye. Ron shot his eye out! (Those of you who read the comics are probably excited this moment finally arrived. No shame in that!)

Carl collapses and it’s unclear if the bullet went into his head or just through his eye. Rick scoops him up off the ground and runs after Michonne who has taken the lead, slicing everything in her way. Man, that went to crap pretty quickly, didn’t it?

You can RE-WATCH that intense moment with Jessie, Sam, Ron, and Carl by clicking HERE.

A Wolf Saves Denise’s Life Not Once, But Twice

Back to the town homes, the wolf forces Denise to make a run for it with him so they can attempt to get over the wall. When Denise gets stopped by a walker, the wolf runs back to save her and ultimately gets bit on the wrist. Denise tells him that if he brings her to the infirmary she can save his life, and it’s safe to assume she’s going to cut his arm off. He believes her when she says she can save his life, and instead of heading towards the wall they run back into Alexandria towards the infirmary.

Inside the town home where Morgan was keeping the wolf, Carol is doing a sweep of the inside of the building. She fears there are more surprises waiting for them thanks to him, but all she finds is a third-floor view of the walker-filled streets of what should have been her safe haven. This also gives her a clear shot at the wolf with Denise, which she takes as soon as she can get. Once Denise is free she runs directly into the infirmary, where some of the Alexandrians have been keeping safe.

When they look out the window to see how many walkers are out there, they spot Michonne slicing and dicing her way through the crowd and, more importantly, Rick carrying Carl’s limp body. Denise immediately jumps into action and tells people what she needs to save him, so when Rick comes running through that door she’s ready to go.

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Rick places Carl down on the table carefully and asks Denise if she can save him, but he doesn’t wait for a response before completely zoning out. We’ve seen Rick zone out in a blood thirsty, ready-to-kill everyone in his path kind of way, but not like this. He’s lost. He watched Jessie die, the woman he thought he had a future with, and now his son, Carl, who he has survived through so much with could possibly be dying. Before Denise can even get started on Carl Rick whips out the axe he’s been carrying around and opens the front door, walking outside as Michonne calls for him to come back. He can’t hear her, because he needs to protect the infirmary so that Denise can protect his boy. It’s all that matters.

Rick kills at least 16 walkers in a matter of seconds before we’re taken back inside the infirmary where Michonne is completely losing it. She’s helping Denise suture Carl, but she’s begging to be let go because she knows Rick needs her. The men, Heath, Aaron, and Spencer, know that they, too, have to go help Rick. Michonne leads the way, but not before placing a kiss on Carl’s head. If that doesn’t bring tears to your eyes, I don’t know what will.

Alexandrians Finally Step Up To The Plate

As the group joins Rick, we see Alexandrians peeking out through their windows and watching. Suddenly we see them coming out into the streets, killing walkers, and fighting alongside Rick, Michonne, and the others. It’s what Rick has wanted, what he’s been trying to teach them for so long, and now it’s happening.

Even Father Gabriel and Eugene join the fight, not because they are forced, but because, in Eugene’s words, “No one gets to clock out today.”

Taking a break from the war against walkers, Glenn and Enid finally get to the guard stand where Maggie is trapped. Once he sees that the walkers are about to knock the stand over, Glenn loses it. He tells Enid to go get Maggie, and in order to distract the walkers away from where she is he just starts shooting, yelling, and punching them. It works, but only until he is cornered against part of the still standing wall by walkers. Just as you think we’re about to watch Glenn die, again, gunfire rings out and takes out all of the walkers around him. It’s Abraham and Sasha, and they’ve got rifles!

Once they help Glenn, Maggie, and Enid out of Alexandria, Daryl reveals that he has a plan. He backs the fuel truck they have up to the small pond in Alexandria and lets gas pour into it. Then he gets on top of the truck and shoots a rocket into the water which not only causes a loud explosion, it starts a huge fire on the water. The walkers are immediately attracted to it and start to herd their way there, but Rick and the rest of the people fighting them keep killing as many of them as they possibly can.

As the episode ends we see the remaining Alexandrians on the porch of the infirmary the next day. They are covered in blood and dirt, but they defeated the biggest batch of walkers in the show’s history. Inside the infirmary Daryl is getting stitched up, Glenn is tending to Maggie, and Michonne is cradling Judith. In one of the rooms Carl is lying in a bed with a bandage wrapped around his head and covering his right eye, which is now gone. Rick is at his side, and he gives one of the best, most powerful Ricktatorship speeches we may ever hear.

“I was wrong. I thought after living behind these walls for so long that, maybe they couldn’t learn. But today… I saw what they could do. What we could do, if we work together. We’ll rebuild the walls, expand the walls, there will be more, there’s gotta be more. Everything Deanna was talking about, it’s possible. It’s all possible, I see that now. When I was out there, with them, when it was over, when I knew we had this place again, I had this feeling. It took me a while to remember what it was, because I haven’t felt it since before I woke up in that hospital bed. I wanna show you the new world, Carl. I wanna make it a reality for you. Please, Carl, let me show you.”

And with that Carl squeezes his father’s hand to let him know he’s still there.

Tell us, HollywoodLifers — Were you surprised when Jessie and Sam were killed? Do you think Rick can really keep Alexandria safe now? Comment below with your thoughts!