Thank you for your service, Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun). Your good deeds were finally rewarded. More on that in a minute as we get to this “The Walking Dead” recap and update on Glenn’s fate.
Episode three of season six was on par with the opening two shows this season. And by the way, Rick is not a dumbass, Glenn. If you people would listen to General Grimes things would work out much better.
Not perfectly each time, but better.
This episode stayed on the same timeline as last week with the focus being on Rick, Michonne, and the rest of the herders, while the Wolves attacked Alexandria. The truck horn was blasting as the episode opened, and Rick instructs Daryl to keep moving forward to draw the herd away from the town.
As Michonne and crew head back to Alexandria, shotgun guy gets bit. No big deal. We don’t even know his name. But he is holding a shotgun and knows he has a death sentence so he could become volatile at any time. He stays sane somehow and actually helps the small group move forward.
Rick’s orders to Michonne and Glenn to leave behind any stragglers is overheard by Heath ( a guy with dreads who may get killed anytime since the townies are pretty expendable).
To Michonne and Glenn’s moral credit, they disregard these orders and try to save everyone even after some are injured to the point of endangering the group. Michonne even managed to keep herself from killing shotgun guy after he suffered a bite. He did have a pretty moving story about finding a new wife after SHTF with the rise of Walkers.
Nicholas and Glenn tried to create a diversion to keep the half herd that’s following them busy. Too bad the feed store had already been burned to the ground that they planned to blow up. Nicholas has come a long way from his coward days but starts tripping when they come upon the little town where he and Aiden had left team members to die.
Rick ends up with a busted hand but does make it to the RV, and he heads to…..hell I have no idea. I think he’s going to Alexandria, but his plan has gone so far off the rails, who knows.
Once the herd is upon Michonne’s group, the survivors have no choice but leave the girl with the hurt ankle. One thing to try and be as moral and heroic as possible. Quite another to attack 1000 zombies when the outcome is obvious.
If you’re wondering how such a slow group of zombies can catch the survivors, it’s simple. They are relentless. They don’t need to stop to rest, think, or talk things over. They have one thought….move forward. That’s the same one Rick has and is the only way to make it in this world.
We see the shotgun guy bite the dust as he got dragged down off the gate beside Michonne, who was lucky to make it over the gate. His sweet letter to his wife got trampled by the walkers as his body was torn and mashed against the metal by the horde of killers.
There is no beauty in this Walking Dead universe. No place for love notes. It is an ugly existence with only brief moments of goodness. Survival takes all the energy each survivor has inside them. Not many poets or artists will spring up from this Walker Age.
OK, now for the big scene that had Chris Hardwick acting like his dog got ran over just before Talking Dead aired. I get it, Chris. Glenn was a great character that tried to do right throughout the series and according to the after-show counselor had not killed another human ever.
I know one human Glenn should have whacked. Nicholas.
Had he killed Nicholas in the woods at the end of last season then Glenn would not have been knocked under the herd when old Dickless offed himself on top of that damn dumpster. Rick’s way is THE WAY, and because Glenn was softhearted, Maggie is now a widow. I doubt Glenn even had life insurance.
I know. It’s possible Glenn is still alive, and he was watching Nicholas’ guts being torn out on top of him. Possible, but unlikely. We shall see. If he is alive, I can accept that he made it out somehow. It’s not too far-fetched, I guess.
Glenn’s apparent death was not the show ender. We still got to witness Rick deal with the Wolves as they attacked him in the RV. I found it telling how Rick was informing Sasha and Abe how he believed those left in Alexandria could handle whatever attack was going on there. Keep in mind both his kids were there.
Most of his faith lay in Carol being there I am sure, and we saw last week that she did not disappoint.
How badass is Rick? He got jumped in a sneak attack by two Wolves and ended up killing both. Then for good measure he blasted the remaining Wolfpack with the assault rifle through the side wall of the RV. Nice move.
See, he didn’t try to figure out if he could reason with these animals. Rick didn’t think over his emotions before squeezing off a hundred rounds into humans that he couldn’t even see beside the camper. He had one thought, survive.
The people he killed were in his way and he removed them.
Rick’s way is THE WAY…..not forever, but for the foreseeable future. His lieutenants had best get on board with his orders going forward. Soft equals dead and each week the death toll is mounting. But Rick did look somewhat defeated after killing off those wolves that Morgan should have killed back in Alexandria. It’s been a while since he’s looked this downtrodden after the RV won’t start, and it feels like he’s getting close to having visits from Lori again.
GLENN UPDATE:
Glenn’s storyline has not ended yet as Executive Producer Scott M. Gimple has this to say:
“In some way we will see Glenn — some version of Glenn or parts of Glenn — again. Either in flashback or the current story to help complete the story.”
So, we have three possibilities for Glenn:
- He’s just plain dead, and there’ll be flashbacks with him.
- He’ll come back a walker, and Maggie gets to see him for the last time to say goodbye before Carol sticks a screwdriver in his brain;
- If you watch the scene again, Nicholas’ body falls on top of Glenn’s so it could be plausible that he’s walker food/shild for him. Will Glenn roll under the dumpster? How could he get out when there’s walkers on both sides of the fence?
The other big giveaway is that IMDB has Glenn still listed all the way through this season’s 2015/2016 finale. Glenn lives!!!