It takes less than a minute for things to get out of hand on The Walking Dead‘s Nov. 15 episode, with Sasha, Abraham, and Daryl getting caught in an onslaught of unexpected gunfire. They had just left the walker herd behind and were headed home, but unfortunately they get split up by their attackers. It’s unclear if it’s the Wolves behind this attack or something worse, but whoever they are they were definitely waiting for their victims. Multiple cars were ready to follow them with armed passengers, and when Daryl took off into the woods to escape he was followed.
It’s worth noting that the people who attacked Daryl, Sasha and Abraham do not appear to be Wolves. We never get a clear look at any of them, but the Wolves always seemed to be on foot as well as without guns. These people? They not only had multiple cars, but they had some heavy weaponry on-hand for this assault.
After Daryl loses his tail he tries to walk through the woods with his bike, but he’s injured — shot in the arm, apparently — and has trouble carrying on. However, once he stops to check in with Sasha and Abraham on the walkie he hears something, and that leads him right into a trap.
When Daryl discovers two women hiding in the bushes he doesn’t expect to get clocked in the back of the head by a third person. For the next few moments we see flashes of what’s happening around Daryl as he goes in-and-out of consciousness, but when he does finally wake up he has a gun pointed at his face. He’s forced to follow along as his three captors trek through the woods, and that’s where he learns that they are responsible for the fire that charred the area. As you may have noticed while watching, all of the trees and everything are blackened from being burnt. Apparently, it was a fire started “in the beginning” in hopes of controlling the walkers. Obviously, it didn’t work.
Interestingly enough, whoever these people are they are running from someone. Or lots of someones. “They find us, maybe we give you to them,” the man tells Daryl. Could these be the same people that just attacked him, Sasha, and Abraham? And if so, where did they come from? They aren’t too far from Alexandria, are they?
When Daryl makes the mistake of calling them stupid, the man puts the gun in his face again. He calls Daryl “one of them” and says “we should have never trusted your people.” But for whatever reason he decides not to kill Daryl, and they continue on to a fuel company which was apparently their final destination. The three people were looking for someone named Patty, but they give up hope when they see the parking lot is filled with walkers. That’s when the young girl collapses, and Daryl seizes the moment by grabbing their bag and running into the woods. The man fires a few shots but misses, allowing Daryl to disappear among the trees.
Once he finds a good enough hiding spot he manages to get out of the rope that has his wrists bound together, and then grabs the walkie talkie out of the bag to call for Sasha and Abraham. Nothing. It’s not long until a walker comes out of nowhere, and Daryl puts up a desperate fight against the bag to pull his oddly shaped crossbow out. Once the walker is down he notices something: a little red cooler that reads “insulin” sitting inside the bag. Well, that explains why the young girl collapsed.
It’s actually not surprising when Daryl brings the insulin back to the three people that kept him hostage. Daryl has a heart of gold, and he hides it underneath all of the leather, long hair, and motorcycle stuff. Unfortunately, he couldn’t have seen what happens next coming even from a mile away.
Before Daryl can leave the three people behind a large truck comes barreling through the woods and stops just a short distance away from them. Daryl hides behind a tree and keeps watch as the three people and the man who get out of the truck, who they call Wade, face-off. Interestingly enough, we never get to see Wade’s face. Daryl is quick to notice that they are surrounded by armed men, and his heart of gold helps the three people make a clean escape. He finds a decent hiding spot and uses a trapped walker to distract the one guy from the group who seems to be closing in on them. The man immediately calls for Wade after he gets bit, and the faceless man comes running to cut off the injured arm. It’s pretty gross, but then again this is The Walking Dead, so it’s not surprising at all.
Wade, whoever he is, calls off the search and tells his men to go back home. Just like I mentioned earlier, he is clearly not part of the Wolves, and could instead (dare I say) be connected to Negan somehow. (In case you missed it, click HERE to find out who will play Negan!)
Once Daryl and his new, um, friends, are back on foot through the woods they tell him a little bit about where they came from. We still don’t know exactly where that is, or who is there, but we know that they have “batsh-t” rules and an unruly population which is why they took the insulin and bailed. It sounds a little Woodbury-ish, doesn’t it?
Eventually they stumble upon a greenhouse that has been burnt almost entirely to the ground. Inside are two bodies covered in melted glass, and the woman with Daryl tells him they were two people she and her younger sister, Tina, used to babysit. When Tina goes to place flowers by their bodies they wake up — as walkers, obviously — and break through the glass to snack on her. While Daryl and the man are burying their bodies he starts asking them questions, and once he gets the answers he’s looking for he offers to take them back to Alexandria.
It’s when they see Daryl’s bike that they start asking questions. Where are his friends? How many of them are there? How does he know they are alive? Daryl doesn’t have any answers, but the second he turns his back he hears the man cock his gun. They take his crossbow, his bike, and leave him with some medical supplies before taking off. Ouch.
Sasha & Abraham Bond While In Hiding
After Daryl disappears into the woods Sasha and Abraham try to figure out what happened. They both realize pretty quickly that whoever attacked them had it planned, but it’s still unclear if they were the original targets or not. A frustrated Sasha calls for Daryl on the walkie and gets nothing, which is when Abraham suggests he’s on his way back to Alexandria. It’s Sasha who says that he will come back, and that because he’s a tracker they need to stay put. Abraham is pretty against this, but Sasha doesn’t take no for an answer. While looking for somewhere safe to hide Sasha leaves a few obvious hints for Daryl to find before they hole up inside an old office building.
Abraham opts to “stand watch” while Sasha tries to get some sleep, but neither of those work out for them. Instead Abraham raids the office looking for things to take back to Alexandria, and Sasha is restless. Of course it probably didn’t help that Abraham was making so much noise, and the trapped walker banging on the glass.
But there is also something happening between Abraham and Sasha. As we already know, he jumped on the chance to ride along with Sasha because she was just coming off of her walker killing nervous breakdown. Now Sasha is the sane, level-headed one while Abraham seems to be unraveling at the seams… and she is not afraid to call him on it. She reminds him that he can act as crazy as he wants, but that he has choices and he doesn’t need to let the you-know-what hit the fan just to feel in control. The speech seems to make Abraham uncomfortable until he realizes she’s right.
The next morning Abraham has a real come-to-Jesus moment when he discovers a uniformed walker hanging off of an overpass. He discovers a box of cigars and ammo for an RPG gun, but then realizes the gun is attached to the walker. He climbs out onto the fence and puts his life in the walker’s hands just to get the gun, but fails and eventually gives up. That’s when fate kicks in, and the pole holding the walker’s body up in the air finally rips through it’s body and lets him fall. The only thing left? The RPG gun, obviously. Well played, Abraham.
Abraham brings his goodie bag back to Sasha and admits that he’s been living “check to check” until now. He finally realizes that he has a future ahead of him and a good thing going on at Alexandria, and it’s all thanks to her. He tells her that he likes the way she calls bullshit and that he wants to get to know her “a whole lot” better. She laughs it off and asks if this is one of his plays, then asks him how he knows that’s something he wants. Abraham, in all of his self-aware glory, steps forward with a grin and tells her, “A man can tell.” Wait, did Abraham and Sasha just become… a thing?
The Trio Reunite & Finally Head Home
After his belongings are taken away, Daryl discovers one of the fuel company trucks hidden in the woods. It works, and he heads back to town to get Sasha and Abraham. Before leaving, Abraham puts on the military dress blues he discovered in one of the offices, and that’s what he wears home. Sasha seems to approve of it, too!
Wait, Is Glenn Still Alive?
At the very, very end of the episode Daryl calls out on the walkie as he’s driving back towards Alexandria with Sasha and Abraham by his side. When he calls out a second time something, or someone, responds… but it’s unclear. He asks them to repeat and all you hear is a desperate cry, “Help.” And yes, it sure sounds a lot like Glenn.
Tell us, HollywoodLifers — Do YOU think those people were associated with Negan? Do YOU think that was Glenn at the very end of the episode?
— Lauren Cox
Follow @Iaurencox