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Well, that was certainly a hard-hitting and downbeat episode by the time all was said and done. Despite starting off relatively mundane, East rocketed along to a conclusion that saw nearly every possible thing go wrong.
With Carol having last week up sticks and left Alexandria, the troubled ‘don’t make me kill you’ Walking Dead veteran soon ran into trouble in the form of some of Negan’s Saviors. But due to Carol’s disappearance, certain members of the Alexandria community took it upon themselves to go out in search of one of the show’s longest-standing characters.
Elsewhere, Daryl is clearly struggling with Denise’s death, particularly as the guy who killed her, Dwight, was someone Daryl let live earlier in the season. Oh, and Denise’s death was also executed using Daryl’s own, iconic crossbow. Double ouch.
Much like how our familiar group went out looking for Carol, the same applied for Daryl, although the guys going after Daryl certainly ended up in a worse predicament come the end of East. And then there was that final moment…
This latest Walking Dead offering was most definitely one to set the pulse racing as we head into next week’s season finale, and it was an episode full of shocking, surprising and random WTF moments… and here’s the best of them.
15. The Calm Before The Storm
The opening moments of East were ominous in their calm approach to what lay ahead.
Having rescued Maggie and Carol from The Saviors and apparently wiped out “Negan”, all is far too calm in Alexandria. Glenn and Maggie are showering together, Rick and Michonne are enjoying some alone time in bed, and the rest of the group are going through the motions of mundanity. Well, apart from Daryl, but when is Daryl ever relaxed.
Considering that the audience all know that there’s a sh*t-storm coming, it was a surprising WTF moment to see our familiar faces so oblivious to what promises to be some game-changing happenings.
14. Road Warrior
Seeing Carol driving along a quiet and calm road was pretty standard affair, but what was WTF here was the rather badass upgrade that had been applied to her vehicle.
Decked out with piping that gave it a safety and a “don’t f*ck with me” vibe, the car looked like something that could easily have been plucked from the realm of a Mad Max movie. All that was needed was a leather outfit, some sort of jet engine, and some disposable bad guys to be taken down.
Yep, definitely in need of some disposable bad guys. If only there were some on the horizon…
13. Nancy
It has to be said, Carol isn’t exactly the best of liars.
When confronted by a group of Saviors, she gives her name as Nancy from Montclair. After a quick Google search, Montclair is apparently a small town in Essex County, New Jersey. Considering that the majority of The Walking Dead action takes places in and around Georgia, this in itself is a little bit of a giveaway that Carol is maybe talking out of her ass.
Whether Nancy was Carol merely trying to distance herself from Alexandria and protect her pals, or maybe it was her trying to distance herself from what she’s become, it didn’t work and the cracks soon started to show in her story when her car was a dead giveaway that she’d come from Alexandria. Oops.
12. Reluctant Killer
Carol has been a massively complex character during her time on The Walking Dead so far. From feeble abused housewife, to strong-willed independent sort, to unhinged ‘Crazy Carol’, to child killer (“look at the flowers…”), to a Rambo-type warrior, but now she’s firmly portraying a tortured reluctant killer.
Now becoming the ultimate ‘please don’t make me kill you’ kind, the past few weeks have seen some interesting changes in the Carol character – although it still remains to be seen whether she’ll make it past the end of this season.
During East, we got to see the perfect example of Carol as a reluctant killer; she came up with a different name, she was holding on to her cross, she even started hyperventilating and shaking at the thought of what was about to happen. Ultimately, she’d snap and unload a whole load of bullets into the group of Saviors who stood in her path.
Reluctant? Sure. Badass? Most definitely.
11. Pickle Break
So Maggie is pregnant yet still having to balance working shifts at Alexandria and generally doing her best to survive in a world gone to sh*t. That’s a tough act, and one that is going to leave the wife of Glenn certainly popped on a regular basis.
Still, with that said, it was still all a bit of a random WTF moment to see Enid insist on taking over from Maggie’s patrol shift so that the preggers one could have a break. Well, that in itself wasn’t so much WTF, more-so the fact that Enid’s instructions of rest were for Maggie to put her feet up and eat some pickles.
I know Maggie is pregnant, which brings along many a random urge, but it still felt all a bit off for her to just take some time off and munch her way through some pickles given what was going on elsewhere.
10. “Where Is She?”
We all know by now that Rick Grimes is a man who is impatient at best, a complete asshat at worst.
Even then, though, it was a bit stupid to see the ever-grizzled Grimes not waiting for answers here.
Upon discovering the battered bodies of the Saviors who Carol had whooped, Rick snarls at one of the barely-breathing group to tell him where Carol is. But then, within about half a second, Rick proceeds to stab the guy in the head.
Sure, time is of the essence, but Rick’s actions here were just a tad ridiculous.
9. Rick’s Pride
As well as being an impatient sort, Rick Grimes is also one who isn’t afraid to say what he thinks, be it for better or for worse.
Here, in a nice nod of respect to one of his most longstanding cohorts, he talks of his pride at how Carol took down four of Negan’s Saviors all on her own.
Rightly so, Rick describes one of his BFFs as a force of nature. Unfortunately for this now-deceased Saviors, they just so happened to run into Hurricane Carol.
8. Warning Shot
Talk about a frosty welcome…
With Rosita, Glenn and Michonne all out to find Daryl before he gets himself killed, the threesome manage to locate their angry hornet-like pal. Only thing is, he’s got a slightly itchy trigger finger.
Upon hearing the group in the bush, Daryl fires a slightly too close for comfort warning shot towards them, with an arrow firmly crashing into a tree just a few inches away from Rosita’s face.
Yeah, good to see you, too.
7. Angry Daryl
It feels like an age since we last see it, but East finally gave us an angry, edgy Daryl Dixon. And it was great… well, apart from that it totally, totally got himself and others into trouble. But, I digress.
When we first saw Daryl, he was a ball of rage who was largely out for himself and brother Merle. Over the years, though, he’s softened a little. Sure, he’s still a badass when called into action, but he’s not got quite as many chips on his shoulders nowadays and he rarely goes out looking for trouble.
With East, though, that all changed. Mightily pissed off at what happened to Denise, that she was killed by his own crossbow which was fired by a man he let live, Daryl is out for some cold-blooded revenge, and it made for some great TV.
6. Whistle While You Work
In terms of ominous warnings, the faded noise as a singular whistle was a pretty big one.
As Glenn and Michonne are gearing up to help out Daryl with his Rambo-esque crusade, the slight fuzzy noise of a whistle is head. Then another. Then another. Then another.
Before we know it, the pair are surrounded by gun-toting members of Negan’s Saviors, including Dwight. And with this moment, things went from bad to worse to total sh*t.
5. Walker Carol?
What’s that in the distance? It’s… it’s… it totally is her, isn’t it? It’s Carol!
Oh, wait, no it’s not. It’s just a walker who just so happens to be decked out in clothes that look conveniently-similar to what Carol would be wearing.
Morgan and Rick seeing what they thought was Carol or an undead Carol was WTF in its randomness and its corny convenience, but at least that means there’s hope that Carol is still out there and alive and well.
4. Shoot First
We know that Rick is usually dying for any excuse to exercise his trigger finger, but it was still WTF to see him take aim and fire at a poor guy who was seemingly just trying to avoid a group of walkers and find his horse.
Granted, Rick seemingly now lives by a mantra of taking no changes, but it was good to see Morgan pull him up on this and explain how one action can lead to another action and to another action, etc.
Then again, the guy who Rick took aim at could well have been up to far more no-good than just trying to find a horse. But that’s the risk that’s always going to be there as far as the post-apocalyptic Walking Dead world is concerned.
3. Rocky IV, Much?
Any chance of a Rocky nod or reference is always much appreciated by me, and East saw Morgan seemingly going all Rocky IV on us.
Having pulled Rick up on how people can change, Morgan spouts a line of “I knew he could change, we all can change, man” – a line of dialogue that is merely a Soviet Union crowd and a drug-infused machine of a boxer away from mimicking the closing moments of Sly Stallone’s fourth turn as the beloved Rocky Balboa.
Whether Morgan’s words will have the same impact as Rocky’s remains to be seen, though.
2. Haircut
Walkers getting you down? Worried that your friends and husband are about to get attacked by a bunch of savages at any moment? Why, why not try a haircut to make things right.
That’s the idea of Maggie here.
To the wife of Glenn, her logic is that a haircut means that she’s keeping on going, that she’s trying to live her life in a way that doesn’t mean everything is dictated by the sh*t situation she and the rest of the group now find themselves in.
Unfortunately for Maggie, though, her trimmed hair couldn’t stop the WTF baby pains that she suddenly started suffering from as this was just one facet of an “everything’s gone to sh*t” ending for East.
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