Spoiler alert! The following contains spoilers for season 6 episode 3 of The Walking Dead.
The thing about a show that takes place in a post-apocalyptic, zombie-laden hellscape is that, when it comes down to it, not everyone gets to make it through alive. No matter how experienced you are or how fast you are or how strong you are or how smart you are, one day or another, a zombie is going to get in a lucky bite or a lucky scratch. And that will be that.
The third episode of The Walking Dead's sixth season hammered home this point, constantly asking the question of who deserves to survive and why. Do Rick and Glenn (MUCH more on him below) and co. actually deserve to live, because of what they've been through? Should they leave the weaker Alexandrians behind and save their own skin? Is the impulse to save others the very weakness that will get you killed?
Or, inevitably, does survival really just come down to luck?
The horn of the problem
From the very beginning of this episode, the lines are drawn between our survivors and the Alexandrians, and our guys are the ones expected to make it through this thing (a presumptuous assumption, to be sure). We start with a group that includes Rick, Michonne, Glenn, Nicholas, Heath and a handful of otherTeam get-back-to-Alexandria splits off from Rick and then encounters a whole host of zombies that leave them with a whole host of problems. One gets shot, another sprains an ankle and still another gets bit (let us pour one out for this nameless Alexandrian, who just wanted to stay alive long enough to say goodbye to his wife -- alas poor whatever your name is, we hardly knew ye). As they go through a random town they are forced to take refuge in a shop while they regroup and the zombies around them hopefully disperse. And then Glenn, wonderful Glenn who has gotten us through so many ups and downs on this show, comes up with the best worst idea ever. Still thinking about the Army of Zombies and the community, he suggests trying to set one of the stores on fire so that the Army gets distracted and goes there. And the cherry on top of this terrible plan? Worst Person in the World Nicholas decides he can help and the two set off.
It's in this moment when we should have started to get suspicious about Glenn. Michonne (who telegraphed Beth's death so well last season with the line "BETH'S ALIVE") feels the need to say "Glenn, you have a wife." He takes out the watch Hershel gave him and has a nice moment with it. He gives a speech to Rick over the walkie that functions as a goodbye. He BRINGS NICHOLAS WITH HIM. We should have seen this coming.
You won't actually get there
After Glenn and Nicholas leave, Heath patches up the two wounded Alexandrians, who just end up asking to be left behind so the rest don't die. It's a significant change in sentiment, considering when that Dude in the Hat (so many Alexandrians die so many horrible deaths in this episode I'm not even trying for names that aren't Nicholas and Heath) ran away and left them at the first zombie battle, they were all "he left us behind." Now they're asking to be left.Heath, who we have a feeling is going to be more and more a moral center for the group especially if You Know Who is really You Know What, isn't leaving anyone behind. He's also not too pleased with Michonne, and he gets his first this-is-how-hard-it-is-on-the-outside-you-spoiled-Alexandrian talk from her, which is basically a new rite of passage for any Alexandrian that we might like. But, all things considered, the two are on the same side. Michonne refuses to take a note from Already Bitten by a Zombie Guy to his wife (a stupid move considering he's basically already dead) in favor of delivering him a message of positivity in the moment. Too bad that couldn't last very long.
Because this is what they do best, the Army of Zombies arrives and notices the people stowed away in the pet store. Our team's brilliant plan is to bust out the front door with guns blazing, an excellent strategy in other situations and a terrible call in this instance. Sprained Ankle Girl is the first one down, followed quickly by Already Bitten by a Zombie Guy (who died an UNNECESSARILY graphic and agonizing death when Michonne or Heath or Shot in the Leg Guy could have easily killed him but instead they watched him scream to death and zombies trampled the note he wrote for his wife -- even for this show, the violence this week was simply excessive). Our remaining team (Michonne, Heath and Shot in the Leg Guy) manage (because they climbed a magic fence or something?) to make it back to Alexandria, where they find the ruins after the battle we saw in last week's episode, but so far, no people. What a homecoming.
Are you there, Glenn? It's me, Nicholas.
Poor, poor Glenn. In a completely predictable turn of events, Nicholas ruined everything, again, as the two ran off on their pyro plan together. Nick leads Glenn to an already destroyed building and then getting the pair trapped in an alley by the Army of Zombies. And then -- perhaps because he was at the site where he lost friends in the past or because he was facing the inevitability of the situation or any other number of reasons we can never understand -- he shoots himself, falling into the hoard and dragging Glenn down with him (but not before uttering the words "Thank you"). And then Glenn is ... dead? Right?OK, here's the thing. If Glenn actually died because he tried to help Nicholas, it is a little bit like the show is arguing that saving others, that helping people, will get you killed. The other survivors of this episode made it through because they eventually were willing to just keep moving on as others were literally eaten alive in front of them. But then again, another casualty died because he ran away and left the weak and injured behind. So it's a moral toss up that Glenn's death might decide.
And yes, falling into a mosh pit of zombies in a dead end alley seems like a sure-fire way to to kick the bucket. And (if you could bear to look at your screen) there was A LOT of blood. And guts. And other things (did I mention how excessive I found that this episode? Of course there's violence on a zombie show but COME ON this was just too much). It appeared that it was Glenn who was being torn apart by the hoard.
But, and bear with me here, maybe it wasn't Glenn. The scene was shot with enough ambiguity -- it could be Nicholas the zombies are eating -- that it might be physically possible for Glenn to survive. Other factors, including the fact that this happened with so much time left in the episode, the fact that we've already had one Glenn death fake out involving Nicholas, the fact that the episode telegraphed his death so hard and the fact that the show has been reluctant to kill off the few season one characters it has left (opting for redshirts instead), lead me to believe that perhaps Glenn will make it out of that alley. I couldn't begin to guess how, but I think there is a chance. It would be a real shame for the show to lose Glenn, who has always held up the moral center without being cloying and who is a consistent character without being boring. And considering how far Rick has gone off the rails recently, we need Glenn around to help ground him. And oh, yeah, speaking of Rick...
Rick Grimes, savior
Rick got to spend this episode doing what he loves best: Taking charge, giving orders, running off on his own, fighting Walkers and killing people while wasting bullets. It might as well have been his birthday.In his attempts to help save the community from the oncoming Army of Zombies, Rick doesn't manage to do much to actually help. He fights quite a few as he runs through the woods, at one point injuring his hand. I couldn't tell if that was a cut or what, but if it was a cut he should be REALLY CONCERNED considering all the zombie blood that is on his person at any given time (seriously the fact that most of these guys haven't gotten the infection from zombie blood in cuts or their eyes or mouths while fighting is beyond me). Of course he powers through it and makes it back to the RV with the ridiculous balloons on top, only to be attacked by a guy who appears to be a wolf who had just left Alexandria. Rick kills him, sees his friends and then, for reasons passing understanding, blindly shoots THROUGH the RV with an automatic rifle, wasting countless bullets and potentially not hitting his attackers. Real smart, Rick. It's no wonder that, in a truly great metaphor for powerlessness, the RV won't start after that. It's seriously bad news for Mr. Grimes, considering the Army of Zombies (which is just everywhere the plot needs them to be this episode) is surrounding him.
Too bad he keeps telling people not to help each other.
