Our first scene taking place in the present of the show features Rick coaching the others on how they'll attack their captors, trapped in what was probably the same dark freight car. Abraham readies a collar loaded with nails. Everyone is making similar makeshift weapons. Rick himself uses Glenn's watch chain to saw off a splinter of wood big enough to stab with. When their captors announce their arrival, the group refuses to listen to the warning to crouch, heads covered, at the end of the car. Which is their first mistake. Because that really was a good warning. Team Rick stands, ready to attack, totally sure they're taking their captors by surprise, but Team Gareth knows this trick. Team Gareth knows all the tricks.
The freight car door opens, and a cannister is thrown in. Abraham recognizes it and shouts out a warning, but he's too late, and all Rick can remember is being kicked in the head and dragged to a mysterious place. Is it bad?
Yeah, it's bad
The space is large, high, and completely mechanical. Everything is, even the way four men from car "A" and four men from car "D" are assembled, bound and gagged, and leaned over a metal trough. Every one of these guys who survived the zombiepocalypse is shitting-in-their-pants scared. Even Darryl. Even fucking Darryl. The show's creators have never made their point so well: zombies are nothing compared to what people will do to each other. They don't even get to know why they're dying today.
Gareth, the welcome wagon from last season's finale and the man held captive at the beginning of the premiere, enters with a pad and pen, recording how many are being killed today. He's all business. He's calm. He's supervised this a million times. He probably devised this procedure himself, and trained the two killers behind the prisoners. Bat Man is already practicing his swing behind the prisoners.
With Gareth's okay, the killers start. Bat Man knocks them out with a blow to the back of the head, Knife Man pulls the head back and slits the throat over the trough. Dark, red blood gushes into the trough. Very little mess. Efficient. Clean, as long as you're not the trough. Each of these men starts freaking out in a way they never have before. But it's Bob, good ol' Bob, whose cries actually interest Gareth. He ungags Bob long enough for Bob to blurt out that they've got a man who can stop the zombie plague, return the world to civilization. Has Gareth heard this before? What other pleas has he good-naturedly ignored, returning gags and telling his men to proceed?
Uh.... don't eat us 'cause we don't taste good?
Today, Gareth has one question. For Rick. Ungagging Rick, he reveals that scouts in the area saw Rick bury a bag before coming into Terminus. He hasn't sent people out to find said bag, because walkers are approaching after the commotion earlier, but he wants to give Rick a chance to reveal the contents of said bag, so Gareth won't kill Bob right then and there with a knife to the eyeball. Bob looks ready to die, but Rick relents. He lists every weapon in the bag, and proclaims that he's killing Gareth with the machete with the red handles. Gareth is momentarily amused, but re-gags Rick.
And then we see something Gareth and his team missed. A piece of splintered wood, big enough to stab with. Still hidden in Rick's hand. It's a slim chance. But, as someone said at the Season 2 premiere, all they've got are slim chances.
Carol and Tyrese are still on the tracks, Carol holding a lovely and healthy Judith (aka Lil' Asskicker), and Tyrese holding almost everything else. They're closer to Terminus, less than a day away, but when they pause for a brief chat, a walker comes into view. Tyrese asks Carol to put it down, which she does after she reminds Tyrese that he's going to have to recover enough to put them down soon. As Carol falls on top of her downed walker, she sees about twenty more approaching from the woods, and hops up to warn Tyrese with a whisper and scamper off in the woods on the other side of the tracks with him, barely hidden from walkers poised to walk right into them.
Oddly, they are saved by gunfire. Lots of it. Coming from down the tracks. The walkers slowly shuffle off, leaving Tyrese and Carol to creep back to the tracks and wonder if Terminus is a good idea. Carol insists on finding out by approaching, but not so close they can't get out if need be. Tyrese reluctantly agrees. Before we go further, let's just say right now: this is the part where Carol just about takes over the episode, and possibly group leadership, from Rick.
While the four guys are in a bad place, and definitely not coming anytime soon, Abraham is wondering how they'll defeat their captors now. Eugene, still with the mullet and inhuman tone, has decided to try to jimmy the door. Maggie tells them Rick will be back for them. Most of the car, is a little doubtful, but Carl appears, magically aging in the hours they've been in the freight car, to back Maggie up.
While Rick furiously works on the plastic zip tie with his wooden knife (is that even possible?), the killers are ordered to proceed, with Gareth watching. The four, unnamed men from car "D" go down, the trough fills with blood, our four heroes are now openly sobbing their fear. Glenn is next. And he knows it. He closes his eyes and keeps his head up. But Bat Man doesn't strike. Oh, he's about to. But, like a batter that sees a high pitch, Bat Man stops mid-swing. There's gun fire. Glenn opens his eyes. There's more gun fire. Then, the building shakes a bit as there's an explosion.
Now, Gareth is concerned. He orders his two butchers to hold up, no one's doing anything until he's checked out the situation. Gareth takes his walkie-talkie and leaves. Now, it's four to two. Rick is furiously working on his zip tie. The killers pace the floor, anxious to get back to work and wondering if they should disobey Gareth. Really? You want to disobey the guy who orders you to carve up people to eat?
Carol and Tyrese, proceeding with caution, get the jump on a young man in a baseball cap, setting up firecrackers around an abandoned shack. He's not really paying attention, just doing his job and talking to someone on his walkie talkie, when Carol points a gun at his head. Baseball Cap Guy keeps his cool as Carol tries to interrogate him. Specifically, she demands to know who Kid With The Hat and Girl With The Samurai Sword are. Which means that she knows there's trouble involving Carl and Michonne at Terminus. And, we know who's she's going to help. When it leads nowhere, Carol decides that they'll tie up Baseball Cap Guy, leave him in the shack with Tyrese and Judith, and she'll proceed to Terminus herself. Oh, and she'll take a couple weapons. Baseball Cap Guy says the area is filled with walkers and she'll never make it anyway.
But Carol's got a plan. Using a butchered walker, she coats an impromptu poncho with its blood. She mixes walker blood with soil and smears it as mud on her face, avoiding her eyes and mouth and nose. She even gets some in her hair. She's full commando now. She's Commando Carol.
And Commando Carol wants to fucking figure out what's going on at Terminus.
Commando Carol takes up her spot to see Rick, Darryl, Glenn and Bob dragged off, bound and gagged. And other humans picking off walkers approaching the fence, and sees them fleeing back when the horde approaches. Carol expertly places a nice-looking mini-rocket up against the fence. Realizing she's got her chance, she takes her sniper rifle and shoots some holes in what she hopes is a still-full, oversize tank of gas just by the fence. Then she takes the mini-rocket and shoots the gas tank. The explosion is a thing of gory beauty. Walker parts go flying, but they keep coming, now on fire. The fence is torn apart, giving them ample chance to wreck some havoc on her friends' captors. Just in time to save Glenn.
Commando Carol's First Battalion
Commando Carol, able to walk among the dead, shuffles in with them, her gun against her leg so no one realizes she's a live human until she's already in and wandering around.
Bat Man and Knife Man are fretting in the butcher's shop, backs turned on their prisoners, when Rick appears from behind to knife Knife Man. Bat Man tries to kill Rick, but Rick manages to stab him too. He collapses next to Darryl, but they quickly regroup, free themselves, and find whatever weapons they can in the butcher room as Rick warns them that they need to kill their would-be killers. Their first step, briefly debated, is to free the one guy left in car "D". But he's literally fucking crazy, screaming at them so loudly, unwilling to believe Rick and the others are there to free him, that they push him away just in time for the dead to grab him. The four use the chance to escape, now sure they can free only themselves.
Baseball Cap Guy decides to start the conversation. As Tyrese lovingly places Judith in a cooler to chill (sorry), Baseball Cap asks her name. When Tyrese stupidly tells him, Baseball Cap Guy knows he's got his in. When Tyrese asks if the guys at Terminus are his friends, Baseball Cap Guy denies liking them, simply noting that he does asshole things to survive with assholes. Because their are two types of people. The cattle and the butchers. And hating yourself for being a butcher is much worse than being a butchered cattle. Trust Baseball Cap Guy, who laughs when Tyrese says no one has to die today.
Commando Carol wanders around. She hasn't found Rick, but she has found a room filled with other people's stuff. Nicely organized. Teddy bears in one pile, watches in another. They're nice watches too, just waiting for someone to claim. Carol notices one watch. It's a man's watch. She last saw it when she told Rick to keep it. She reclaims the watch. Something tells me she's not giving it to Rick again.
Baseball Cap Guy continues to work on Tyrese, and he has one bit of advice. He offers Tyrese his car, parked just outside. He tells Tyrese to put the kid in it, and drive away. He practically begs Tyrese to. Since we know that Terminus, even without a big fiery hole in its fence, isn't going to work, we know it's a good deal. When Tyrese turns him down, unwilling to leave Carol or their other friends, Baseball Cap goes to work. With his back turned for a second, Tyrese doesn't catch him rushing over to Judith's makeshift cradle. Baseball Cap Guy reaches for her head, and holds it, ready to twist little Judith's neck to its breaking point. Ready to kill Lil' Asskicker.
Judith, really not liking this, starts to cry. Which attracts a few wandering walkers, who paw at the windows and the door. Baseball Cap Guy has a less attractive offer now: first: abandon your weapons; then open that door and go outside into certain death. Tyrese, afraid for little Judith, slowly complies. We see him staring at Judith in helpless fear for her as he complies. We hear him scream and the walkers moan. Baseball Cap Guy relaxes when the screams stop. But he gets only a second to relax. Tyrese bursts back into the shack at a weak point in the flimsy wall, grabbing Baseball Cap Guy, and holding him down on the floor. Tyrese, now enraged, just starts beating him in the head, all the while screaming that he won't. Like Phil/The Governor screaming that he doesn't want it while killing Martinez.
We pan out to the shack, surrounded by gruesomely killed walkers, impaled on whatever Tyrese had handy. We can hear Tyrese, still shouting that he won't do it, while we know that he in fact is doing it. Repeatedly.
The Terminus survivors are trying to gain back their shelter, attacking walkers with guns in formation, and advancing on them a bit. But they make the mistake of not checking behind them for Rick, who shoots them from behind. Terminus survivors collapse, still alive, to be eaten in pain and screaming agony, blood spraying everywhere as they are feasted on while still alive to bitterly cry in pain and fear. It's terrible and yet you must watch. They make it to their old freight car, surprising Abraham by actually coming back.
Carol wanders into the candlelit memorial room we saw in last season's finale. She's mesmerized, running through the possible scenarios that could have produced such a room. Mary, from last season's barbecue, appears behind her, holding a gun and telling Carol to turn around. We certainly think Carol's done. But Commando Carol ain't. She turns suddenly, rifle pointed at Mary. Who is more than willing to talk. Her answers are a little cryptic, and will require plenty of gap-filling. But, basically, they were captives here once. Held by savages, they defeated their captors and kept the place for themselves. Mary is all rage- they created their own safe haven. They survived. And now they're being brought down by their former captives. And someone anonymous woman in a blood-stained poncho. Mary attacks, despite Carol's rifle. Commando Carol's heard enough. She shoots Mary in the leg, bringing the woman down. When Mary tells Carol she could have been one of them, Commando Carol declares that she couldn't. As she opens to the door to walkers that ignore her and go right for Mary. Mary's cries are every bit filled of fear and pain and anger as the others'.
Commando Carol says Die Bitch!
The escaped prisoners of freight car "A" emerge from the car, only to see Gareth and his friends on the roof again. But this time, their prisoners know what to do, aiming for their captors. Gareth falls, hit by one of Rick's bullets. Walkers threaten to overtake the escapees. A tarp thrown over the barbed wire fence, reached by climbing over debris is their only hope. Abraham makes it over last. The walkers are left to claw at the tarp.
Rick leads the escapees to his buried bag, which he finds quickly enough. Grabbing the weapons, he wants to go back and finish off Terminus. He decides that the cannibals of Terminus should die, but the others talk him down, especially Rosita and Abraham. They all point out that they just barely made it out themselves. Terminus survivors are either dead or scattered. No one chased them after the prison. So, they'll leave Terminus to the dead.
Carol, now cleaned up and wandering out without any of the people she came to help, finds them. All who know her are stunned. Darryl runs to her first. He doesn't even care who sees her give her the best hug ever depicted on the show.
We waited three seasons for this. Oh, how we deserve this.
Darryl, who knows what she did, and why Rick exiled her. Rick, who actually exiled her, doesn't hug her until he confirms that she made their escape possible. She nods silently, and accepts his hug in good grace. Maggie, who also knew Carol's secret seems as happy to see her as anyone else. And Abraham can't believe he's seen the luckiest bunch of assholes ever. He's even more amazed as Carol leads them back to Tyrese.
And Judith. Rick realizes first who Tyrese is holding, and he can't be happy enough to hold his baby girl. Carl isn't far behind, wanting to hold Judith the second Rick hands her off. Rick can't thank Tyrese enough.
Jesus Dad, lemme hold her for fuck's sake
It's time to move on. But not before Rick practices a little art. Using blood from somewhere, he makes a bunch of quick marks on a sign. We don't see until he's done. He's crossed out most of the Terminus message, leaving only the word "Sanctuary". But he's written "NO" above it. In big letters. In blood. Hopefully, the next people will get the message.
You see, Gareth is a survivor. We go back to the past, when Gareth was a prisoner in that freight car. It's the same freight car, opening with a terrified, crying Mary being pushed in. She's obviously been through something awful, but is still alive. Her throwers, two awful-looking savage assholes, survey the car's other females, all desperate not to be chosen. The one who is pleads not to be taken. Again. As in, they've already raped her. And now they want to again. Imagine sitting in that car after being raped, knowing they could pick you next time for another round. Gareth is ready for a change. He tries to console Mary, but one of the savages tells him not to bother, because they have only worse to look forward to. When he closes the car, Gareth is self-assured as he informs Mary that they're getting out of there. Because, he tells her, there are two types of people: cattle, and butchers. Guess which you'd rather be?
We end with a lone man walking along the tracks, seeing Rick's handiwork on a Terminus sign. He suddenly stops, turning around, and we see he has a handy gas mask. No face bites for this guy. But who is he? Well, we do get to see him when he takes off the mask. Morgan isn't sure why Terminus isn't okay, but he does see another new sign. An "X" in a circle, recently carved into the tree. And another tree about ten feet away. Not sure, but ready for anything, he starts following "X"s.
Guess I better save Rick's sorry ass again
Let's face it. This should have been last season's finale. A plot line is tied up. An enemy is defeated and left to burn and be eaten. And the group, no longer Team Rick (thank fucking Christ), is proceeding on, maybe to save the world. But, what about Gareth? We've seen him in the previews for the season. Did Rick make a mistake when he left enemies back at Terminus alive, and now with a vendetta that will make Joe the Claimer look like a Boy Scout? Why am I asking? Of course Rick made a mistake.
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