Maybe Beth just smelled something awful or something
Let's start with a first: Maggie finally shows some interest in the fate of her younger sister. To fans, her sobbing at the end, as Darryl emerges with Beth's body, seems a bit too much compared to the utter lack of concern she's showed for, literally, a whole season. Literally, Dawn has shown more concern for Beth than Maggie has. So, when the episode ends with Maggie breaking down after hopefully lowering the rifle, expecting to see Beth walk out, it seems like we've been cheated. Darryl deserves to be weeping like a baby, not Maggie. Instead, he's holding it together as he gently carries Beth to whatever her final resting place will be.
Wait, why is her ponytail red- oh, wait
Dawn and Beth spend this episode as they have their two before. Dawn tries to coax Beth into accepting life at Grady Memorial. Only, now, she's offering Beth the chance to be Dawn's mentee and, maybe eventual successor. Dawn's speeches are all about how tough you have to be to lead her particular group of "officers", and her confrontation with O'Donnell shows Beth that those aren't empty words or wishful thinking. Thwarting betrayals and enforcing the boundaries of human decency are Dawn's bread and butter. If she doesn't know when to push back and when to bend, she could be faced with a silent revolt, where ignoring a call for help is just how people are executed at Grady Memorial. If she isn't ruthless in situations where she can control what the only witness says and kill her challenger quick, she'll just have to face the fucker again, but with his own backup. She lets Beth live, though the girl is responsible for the deaths of two of her officers, because Beth ended up doing her a favor. Sure, Dawn tells Beth that she covered for Beth; but Beth isn't having that bullshit, reminding Dawn that she single-handedly removed two dickheads from Grady, which is more than Dawn could accomplish. Beth's role at Grady, and with Dawn and Dr. Stephen, has been that of truthteller. She can't fight back, being smaller and not as physically strong. But she can throw the truth at people like it's a knife.
And tossing a douchebag down an elevator shaft helps, too
Dawn's struggle for the series isn't between trusting people and killing them before they can try to kill her. It's between letting bad behavior slide by people until they won't protect the group anymore. Dawn seems obsessed with Beth thinking that Dawn really is a good leader. And Dawn shows that she's tougher than her other officers when she beats the crap out of O'Donnell, even after he's tried to choke her. She can't defeat him without Beth's help, and the two stand over the elevator pit, listening to O'Donnell's body hit the bottom, wondering what this shared kill means for their relationship. Before it happens, Beth tries, one last time, to burst Dawn's dream of the cavalry rescuing them from death, and tries to persuade Dawn that the world really has turned, permanently. But, Dawn is stubborn, resisting any calls to base life at Grady on the new reality being permanent.
And, she miscalculates at the end. Sure, she could have just let the detente of the even trade of officers for Carol and Beth end the episode. The Gatos, an early episode, similar but reversed, ended that way when Rick willingly traded guns for Glenn, mostly because the Gatos were guarding their elderly relatives in a zombie-overwhelmed city, and even Rick could see their need was as great as his own. But, Dawn gets greedy. Or, perhaps, she doesn't buy Shepard and Licari confirming that Lambson was killed by zombies, and not Rick. I know I wouldn't. Of course, I would have had patrols scouring the city for my missing officers, and possibly found Lambson's body already (Rick did shoot him- didn't anyone hear the shot?). She and Rick debate whether Dawn can even "claim" Noah as hers, payment for losing Beth, who was Noah's replacement in the first place.
And, why was Noah willing to return. Rick and Co. were more than happy to fight for him. And he literally scratched and crawled his way out of that place. Maybe he, like Tyrese, was committed to avoiding bloodshed that day. Maybe Noah, like the other wards, was willing to trade security for servitude. After all, when Rick offers to take anyone away who wants to come, only Noah follows him out. With Dawn dead and Officer Shepard already in control of the remaining officers, do they hope for a better place to survive? We leave Grady Memorial, not even reeling after losing Dawn, silhouetted in a dim hallway. They've picked up these pieces before.
Was Rick right to persist with his ransom plan, even after Lambson died? Officers Shepard and Licari were more than happy to agree to lie for him. Even Licari, the asshole from the day before, poses no resistance now. Shepard even applies icing to the cake by hinting that even if Rick admits to killing Lambson, Dawn might see it as a favor done her, just as she can't help appreciating that Beth rid her of two out-of-control officers. When he makes his ransom demand, somehow bringing two cops, to his red plastic bag for a parley, with neither of them figuring out that he's got snipers guarding him until Sasha announces herself, the signs are good that the transfer will actually happen. And when both sides holster their weapons for the actual exchange, hope builds. Dawn and Rick are both violent people, but both know their duty is to protect their civilians, and Dawn even goes so far as to just accept that Lambson died from zombies instead of Rick bashing him with a car and shooting him in the head.
The only bright spot in today's show is that Tyrese and Sasha have began consoling each other. Tyrese is damaged and traumatized by losing Karen, the girls, and the clash with Terminus. Sasha still can't get over losing Bob. Tyrese has decided that since he couldn't kill Baseball Cap Guy, and it was Sasha who did, that that makes her his little sister even more. She's even getting his killing hand-me-downs. Tyrese wants her to realize they're alike, despite the obvious differences in temperament.
Now, we can explore Gabriel. We last saw him limping along, desperate to get away from his protectors, worried they were savages instead of friends. The series has brought him 180 degrees around. He limps off to the school, recently the campsite of Gareth and the Hunters. It looks like a fairly regular campsite, and Gabriel looks incredulous that they could have been cannibals, until he's face to face with Bob's missing leg. It's been decaying for a few days, but it's familiar enough that he's horrified at what could have happened to them all. When the zombies at the school break out and chase him, the series shows him now in the position of begging for shelter, as he screams out his pleas to re-enter the church he was safely barricaded into earlier that day.
Yeah, yeah, I love you guys! Now let me in!
Michonne and Carl, instead of giving Gabriel the same fate as his parishioners, launch right into action, and even remember to bring Judith as they first break Gabriel back in, and then get themselves back out. Michonne does a fantastic job of squelching the urge to throttle Gabriel for his stupidity, and I doubt she heard his screamed confession that he totally sees how they had to kill Gareth and his Hunters. But, Gabriel has at least learned to be helpful, helping to barricade the zombies back into the church with Carl. I guess they could go to the school now.
Why can't Gabriel believe without seeing? He has made a living preaching faith, but now he's a Doubting Thomas. While Carol was booted out for murder, and Andrea rejected for divided loyalties, no one's ever been turned out of Rick's group for terminal stupidity. But, Gabriel's so ridiculously harmless, and so apologetic, and as they exit the church, agrees to go last. He sends Michonne down the hole in the floor, telling her it's worth it so she can get away. And he's ready to be taken himself until his own, previously abandoned machete slices a head in half while stuck in the floor. It's a sign from his god, and he emerges from the crawlspace with blood on his weapon.
I am going to try real hard not to kill you today
GreatM manages to fix the fire truck, which Abraham probably should have been doing instead of having his nervous breakdown, and returns to the church just in time to add the firetruck to the barricade holding the zombies in the church. Abraham gives peacefully sleeping Eugene a long, undecided look, before exiting the truck himself. If Abraham hadn't lost his shit, Michonne could have informed Maggie of the news of Beth alive in the city hours before. As it is, Maggie looks both shocked and deliriously happy, and the whole team decides to get to Atlanta ASAP to help rescue Beth and reunite the sisters. As we now know, it will be too late. So, as usual, the expectation of togetherness is denied.
Let's end, with the tease after the credits. Morgan, the only character who can go months without fucking up, has gotten to the school. Remember, it was Gareth who left the trail, so they'd know the way back to Terminus. But now, Morgan has to follow the trail left by zombies to the church, where he finds that GreatM, Michonne, and Carl have driven the firetruck away, leaving the doors open and the zombies gone. The church is abandoned, and Morgan just wants to pray, at first, reverently placing relics of the church and a few of his own on the altar. One wonders, what a bag of GooGoo, a bullet, and a blue rabbit's foot have done for him, but hey, it makes him happy. despite being in a place where awful things obviously just happened, Morgan looks relieved about something that only he perceives. A scrap of paper on the floor gets his attention. In the excitement, Carl and Michonne forgot about the map, especially since they certainly don't need to go to Washington, D.C. now. But it's certainly useful for the corner note that informs Morgan that Rick just passed through. Will Morgan find him?
Wow, Rick and an asshole. Who could resist?
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