Season 5, Episode 14:
Spend
- Deanna grows wary of Rick's group becoming prominent leaders in Alexandria at the same time a supply run goes disastrously wrong.
In the town's chapel, Gabriel is getting himself set up for the day's prayers. He sees a welcome note written by members of the town and begins to have a breakdown, tearing pieces of his Bible out and crying to himself.
Noah meets with Deanna's husband, Reg Monroe. Reg tells him about how he built the walls surrounding Alexandria, and Noah asks to learn more about architecture because he wants to be a builder. Reg gives him a book and tells him to write down everything he hears in preparation.
Soon after, Deanna tells Aiden and Glenn that the town has been suffering power outages due to a lack of proper parts for the solar generators, and both men elect to take Aiden, Tara and Nicholas for a scavenging trip to a warehouse, along with Eugene, who can identify what parts they need. They set off as Aiden's vehicle blares obnoxious dubstep music.
When they arrive, Aiden tries to get them to rush into the building, but Glenn orders him to wait while they check the perimeter for the available exits. Once they do so, everyone splits into groups of two to search for the supplies. They eventually find the parts and break boxes open to get what they need, while Aiden notices several walkers behind a fence. Suddenly, an armored walker (presumed to be a former warehouse guard) comes shambling towards him.
When Aiden shoots it multiple times to no effect, Glenn tells him to stop. Aiden accidentally shoots a grenade on the walker's belt, which causes an explosion that injures Tara and causes him to be blown back and impaled on a broken shelf. Nicholas tells the group that he's dead, and they pick up Tara and flee into an office to help her.
Once inside, they realize that Aiden is Not Quite Dead, and Eugene stays with Tara while Glenn, Nicholas and Noah go to rescue Aiden. Eugene realizes that walkers are approaching and valiantly carries Tara out, shooting walkers down along the way.
The three men get to Aiden, and after unsuccessfully trying to pry him from the shelf, Nicholas runs away and abandons them. Glenn keeps trying to rescue Aiden, who tells him that he was responsible for other scouting members dying because they didn't listen to him. Noah and Glenn are forced to flee as a pack of walkers descend upon Aiden and begins tearing open his body as he screams.
Just outside Alexandria in a construction zone, a man named Tobin is leading a crew including Abraham to help expand the wall. When a pack of walkers attacks, Tobin orders them to retreat, though not before a sentry named Francine falls from her perch. When Abraham realizes Tobin isn't going to save her, he carves his way through the walkers and rescues her, then carves up the rest of the pack after getting her to safety. Tobin later goes to Deanna and tells her that Abraham should be leading the crew instead of him.
Carol is once again visited by Sam, who asks for more cookies. She orders him to steal some chocolate for her, and he obliges. Afterwards, she makes him cookies and he reluctantly tells her that he broke his mother's owl statue. When Carol asks why, he tells her it was because he was angry, and that he needs a gun for protection before running off. Carol realizes that Sam and possibly Jessie may be getting beaten by Pete.
Glenn, Noah and Nicholas attempt to escape the mounting pack of walkers, but are caught on opposite sides of a revolving door. When all hope looks to be lost, Eugene drives in with the van and begins blasting the dubstep music, which lures the walkers away from the outer exit of the door. Glenn tries to break the glass, but Nicholas panics and shoves his way outside, causing the section Glenn and Noah are in to open up towards the walkers. The pack grabs Noah and drags him away as Glenn screams, and he's forced to watch as the walkers devour the screaming teenager in front of him.
Nicholas returns to the van and tells Eugene that they're leaving before attempting to commandeer the vehicle. Glenn arrives and beats Nicholas unconscious in anger, then tells Eugene to throw him in the back before driving back in tears.
At Deanna's house, Gabriel arrives and tells her that Rick and the others are dangerous people who will destroy everything she's built, and Maggie listens unseen from a stairway before Glenn's cries for help are heard in the background.
At Rick's house, Carol arrives and informs that about Pete's possible abuse of Jessie and Sam, and tells him that the only way to deal with the doctor is to kill him...
Tropes:
- A Death in the Limelight: Noah gets more lines than usual, and tells Reg that he wishes to integrate himself into Alexandria a little more by becoming a recordkeeper and architect. Naturally, this being The Walking Dead...
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Abraham shows that he's a better leader than Tobin when rescues a lookout that the others thought couldn't be saved and massacred a horde of walkers and got back to working without a second thought. Tobin accepts that Abraham's the real badass and gratefully gives him The Leader position of his group.
- Big Damn Heroes: As part of his transition into a Cowardly Lion, Eugene shows up in the van to lure away the Walkers that are outside the revolving door, giving the others an opening to escape. This is unfortunately downplayed though, since Noah still ends up dying due to Nicholas’ own cowardice.
- Character Death: Aiden gets impaled when an explosion knocks him onto a broken shelf and he’s soon Devoured by the Horde. And later in the episode Noah gets trapped behind a revolving door thanks to Nicholas’s cowardice and is also Devoured by the Horde while Glenn is Forced to Watch.
- Continuity Nod:
- Eugene mentions that his idea of going to Washington even without a cure was a large factor that played into the group journeying there.
- Gabriel is clearly still traumatized by the group slaughtering the Hunters.
- Carol quickly realizes Pete's abusive nature thanks to her experience from being a victim of abuse at the hands of Ed.
- Cowardly Lion: Eugene is morphing into this as he bags a few walkers to save Tara, and that's just the beginning...
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Aiden and Noah suffer what may be the most horrific deaths on the show so far.
- Devoured by the Horde: Aiden and Noah both suffer through this. After accidentally shooting a grenade on the walker's belt which causes an explosion, Aiden is blown back and impaled on a broken shelf but still survive only for several walkers to descend onto him and tear him up. Noah gets trapped in an revolving door as the pack of zombies grabs him and drags him away as Glenn watch in horror as he's being devoured.
- Dirty Coward: Nicholas. It's unlikely that he really thought Aiden was dead when he was first stuck, bails out of trying to save him, and then abandons Glenn and Noah. He tries to force Eugene into leaving before Glenn returns.
- Domestic Abuser: Carol realizes that Pete is one, after Sam nearly requests a gun for his mother, and when Pete exits his house heavily panting, refusing to let Carol speak to Jessie.
- Forced to Watch: Aiden is forced to watch the walkers rip into and eat his insides. Then Glenn has to watch Noah get torn apart, including chunks of his face getting chewed and ripped off, less than a foot away.
- Gorn: Aiden's death is one of the most graphic so far. And Noah's goes beyond that, with a walker tearing open his face.
- Graceful Loser: Tobin gladly hands his position over to Abraham when he shows them how he handles a tough situation.
- Hypocrite: Gabriel outright compares Rick's group to Satan, citing the horrible things they've done to survive, when he's been tearing himself up for his hypocrisy all season long.
- Lady Macbeth: Carol has become a platonic version to Rick.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Eugene got rid of the walkers menacing Glenn apparently without exiting the van or firing his weapon.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Glenn beats the crap out of Nicholas for trying to abandon them again after Noah's death.
- Redemption Equals Death: Aiden comes to respect Glenn and his friends, only to die.
- Sacrificial Lion: Noah's death destroys the innocent optimism Glenn had for Alexandria.
- Shown Their Work: Although not mentioned by name, the faulty solar grid parts the crew needs are micro-inverters. These are both vital in real residential solar systems (they convert the DC coming off the panels into usable AC) and notoriously finicky.
- Tempting Fate: The supply run remix playing in the van is interspersed with a woman saying "You are going to die." Guess what happens...
- Too Dumb to Live: Aiden for refusing to listen to Glenn to stop shooting the armored zombie even after it was on the ground, hitting the grenade on the walker's bandolier, causes an explosion that impales him on a forklift leading to his demise.
- Took a Level in Badass: Tara tries to enforce this on Eugene, and arguably succeeds. Granted, he's still not much use in a fist fight, but he's spurred into action.
- Undying Loyalty: Eugene nobly stands up to Nicholas when he tries to leave without Glenn.
- Ungrateful Bastard: After all the work the group did to keep him safe from walkers, the Hunters, and everything else, not to mention accepting him as one of their own after the night in the barn, and with him doing little to earn his keep, Gabriel still decides to tell Deanna that they're bad people and are dangerous.
- Visual Pun: The episode opens with Father Gabriel in the corner, losing his religion (as he tears half the pages out of his bible).
- Would Hurt a Child: Carol suspects that Pete is hitting Sam as well as Jessie.
