The Walking Thread

[Content Note: Violence. Spoilers are lurching around undeadly herein.]


Welp, in case you hadn't gotten the message from eleventy million previous episodes tritely exploring the need for human connection and the psychological and physical safety in numbers, this episode with the totally trenchant title "Alone" hammers home the message of community with all the subtlety of Maggie bashing zombie skulls with a road sign wielded like a dwarven axe.

It was another Grimes-free episode, where we spend our time divided between Team Daryl-Blonde Girl and Team Sasha-Maggie-Bob, which opened with a flashback to Daryl and Glenn finding Bob, all alone (ALONE!) on the road after spending the night on top of a semi trailer, which makes one wonder why the fuck everyone isn't surviving the zombiepocalypse by living on top of abandoned semi trailers.

I mean, why not? As far as I can tell, it never even rains in Georgia. "I don't even know what a rainy night is."—Zombie Eddie Rabbit.

Daryl and Glenn invite Bob to join Grimes Gang, and Bob tells them it doesn't matter what kind of people they are, so long as he's not alone (ALONE!), which is a terrific reversal of EVERYTHING ELSE THIS SHOW HAS BEEN ABOUT SO FAR, where it matters a fuckload what kind of people your community decides to be.

Anyway. We pick up with Daryl teaching BG how to track and use the crossbow, and BG jokes that she's learning so quickly that soon she won't even need him anymore, right before she steps into an animal trap, Daryl has to save her life, and then he has to carry her by piggyback. Ha ha whooooops! Thank the fates there's always a man to step in and rescue a girl gettin' uppity about her competence! Good thing BG isn't alone! (ALONE!)

Meanwhile, Sasha, Maggie, and Bob are stuck in the middle of a thick fog with zero zombie visibility. Fight fight fight fog fog fog. They're just walking in circles looking for Glenn, who Sasha says is probably dead. Maggie sneaks away alone (ALONE!) in the middle of the night and leaves a note in the sand: "Don't Risk Your Lives 4 Me. Good luck. #YOLO."

Despite Sasha's protests, Bob insists on trying to catch Maggie, so she won't be alone. (ALONE!) He was left alone (ALONE!) twice, after being the lone survivor of two different communities, and it stinks. THIRD TIME'S A CHARM!

Daryl and BG find a funeral home whose currently AWOL occupant has been keeping nice and clean, while dressing up zombie corpses for funerals. Neat pastime! Daryl thinks it's stupid, but BG is perennially sunny and chirps about how "beautiful" it is. No, it is not beautiful. It is stupid and this show is stupid.

Daryl and BG help themselves to some undusty food in the undusty pantry, and BG decides to write a thank-you note. OH JESUS JONES. Daryl suggests maybe they could just stay there and make it work with the tidy mortician, and BG blinks at him wide-eyed and says, approximately, "Garsh, Daryl! See, I told you there's still good people in this world! But what caused YOU to have this complete reversal of characterization beautiful epiphany?" BLINK BLINK GORMLESS STARE. Daryl grunts and stares back, and BG realizes OH GARSH IT WAS HER! What a goddamned ray of fucking sunshine she is!

Meanwhile, following the train tracks alone (ALONE!), Maggie uses zombie blood from a fresh kill to leave a note for Glenn telling him she's heading to the sanctuary being advertised along the tracks. In hot pursuit, Bob and Sasha have a cool conversation about why Bob is smiling. He tells her he's smiling because he's not alone (ALONE!) and I wish I were making that up.

Back in Sunshinebarfville, where Daryl now apparently has a crush on the living embodiment of the moral of a Strawberry Shortcake cartoon, something something dog at the door, followed by something something zombies at the door OH NOES BETTER GET OUTTA THERE! Fight fight fight run run run. Daryl makes his way outside just in time to see that BG has been kidnapped by someone in a car. He chases the car down the road until sunrise (or possibly a month later?), and then collapses at a literal crossroads. SYMBOLISM. All alone. (ALONE!)

Following the tracks and trying to find Maggie, Bob and Sasha have more superb and definitely realistic conversation about the importance of not being alone. (ALONE!) Bob accuses Sasha of being scared because she wants to stop walking and build a new camp. Bob says he's going after Maggie because she's all alone (ALONE!), but apparently doesn't have a problem with leaving Sasha all alone (ALONE!), even though, as Sasha points out, Maggie made her choice to go it alone (ALONE!) to look for Glenn.

Bob tries to convince Sasha to come with him by kissing her, but she's all, "Nah. Seeya." So Bob heads off after Maggie alone (ALONE!), while Sasha checks in at an abandoned building alone (ALONE!), where she immediately spots Maggie all alone (ALONE!) out a window, then accidentally knocks out the window, making a huge racket, obliging her to run down to the street and help fight off the descending zombies. More great conversation, and it turns out Sasha really is afraid after all. When will women learn to listen to men when they tell us our feelings?!

Anyway. In the end, Bob reconnects with Maggie and Sasha, and they are all happy they are not alone (ALONE!), while Daryl is sad because he is alone (ALONE!), but he's not alone (ALONE!) for long, because he is surrounded by the dirtbags whom Grimes narrowly escaped a few weeks ago.

Also: Glenn is headed to Terminus along with basically everyone else, because of course he is.