Season 5, Episode 15
Try
- Rick's desire to save Jessie from Pete leads to a brutal confrontation that jeopardizes his group's place in Alexandria.
In Deanna's home, a distraught Deanna, Reg and their other son, Spencer, listen to Aiden's mixtape before turning it off.
Carol prepares a casserole for the grieving family and drops it off on their doorstep, along with a note giving condolences. Deanna leaves the casserole on the step, then takes the note inside and burns it as her family watches.
Afterwards, she watches a video recordings of Nicholas' account of Aiden's death. He accuses Glenn of causing the warehouse explosion by distracting Aiden, and adds that he was left to die by the latter. She hears herself telling them that they are not allowed to leave the town until further notice before shutting it off.
Glenn tells his side of the story to Rick, who is angered over the community's stubborn refusal to accept the reality of the current world. Glenn insists that they can be taught, but Rick isn't sure. He goes to Carol and they discuss when they should kill Pete. She tells him that she talked to Sam, who related that his mother often asked him to hide in a closet, and he emerged one night to find her unconscious on the floor.
Rick walks to the town's lake to think, and Pete sees him and awkwardly attempts to initiate a conversation. Rick angrily tells him to keep walking.
The next morning, Rosita tells Michonne that Sasha spent the night in the guard tower and hasn’t returned. As they search for Sasha in the woods, they realize it’s the first time they’ve been outside the walls since they arrived at Alexandria. Michonne says she feels like she’s been sleeping.
Rick confronts Deanna over Pete's actions, but is shocked to learn that she is aware of his abuse and tolerates it because he is the town's doctor. When he suggests separating the couple and kill Pete if he gets out of line, she shuts him down and says that she could send Rick into exile if she so chose to before walking off.
Michonne and Rosita continue searching and find several walkers killed execution-style. They realize it is Sasha's handiwork and that she is hunting them. They eventually find her slaughtering walkers in the woods and help clear out the infestation, despite the latter's attempts to get them to leave. Afterwards, Sasha screams at to leave her alone, and breaks down upon reflecting on what she said to Noah about not being able to survive.
Elsewhere, Carl once again sees Enid climbing the walls and follows her into the forest again before losing track once again. She surprises him and says that he walks very loudly, and they run through the trees together in a rare moment of playfulness. They stop when they see a walker, and she uses a timer to distract it while they run off. They then see a pack of walkers roaming and hide in a hollowed-out tree while whispering to each other about the state of the world. Carl can't bring himself to kiss her, and aborts even an attempt to hold her hand.
At Aiden's van, Glenn confronts Nicholas over his actions during the run. He calls Nicholas a coward and tells him not to leave the town because it will let him survive. When Nicholas asks why he would do that, Glenn replies that he is "saving" him. Nicholas ignores him anyway and goes out into the forest, where it is revealed that he is the person who stole Rick's stashed handgun.
Rick confronts Jessie in her garage and says that he knows about Pete's abuse. She protests that she can take care of herself closes the garage on him, but after seeing Sam, he comes in through her front door to tell her that she will die unless she fights, that he wants to help her. She accepts and, at that moment, Pete arrives home and expresses anger at Rick's presence.
When Rick orders Pete to leave the house with him, the latter becomes enraged and swings, causing a fight to break out. The two men brawl, and Pete is thrown through the living room window and out into the street. The two men continue brawling as multiple residents walk up and see what's happening. When Jessie tries to intervene, Pete punches her before getting knocked back by Rick, who begins choking him out.
Deanna arrives and yells at them to stop. Rick leaves Pete's battered body on the ground and goads her, asking if she's going to kick him out. He then rails at the community's ignorance of the real world, while Sasha is seen sniping walkers from the guardtower. Rick tells them that he won't sit by and let people get killed, but his rant is cut short when Michonne suddenly appears and punches him, knocking him out in a single punch...
Tropes:
- Ax-Crazy: Rick slips into a borderline case of this when he's beating the crap out of Pete and giving Deanna and the crowd a "Reason You Suck" Speech
- A Day in the Limelight: While she's not the focus of the episode, Rosita gets a healthy amount of screen time and lines here.
- Almost Kiss: Carl and Enid hide in a tree while being so close to each other.
- The Berserker: Rick has one hell of a fight when he and Pete come to blows.
- Blatant Lies: Nicholas lies through his teeth to Deanna, framing Glenn to be the Dirty Coward who caused Aiden's death.
- Both Sides Have a Point: On one hand, Rick is right in that Alexandria is full of inexperienced cowards who have no idea what the world is like, and that threatens the safety of their supposed safe-zone more than any walkers or hostile survivors would. On the other hand, the Alexandrians have every right to be afraid of Rick and not listen to them since he's just gotten done beating Pete to a pulp, is covered in blood, and is screaming at them while waving a gun haphazardly at them.
- Broken Bird: Sasha is not well.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Michonne sucker punching Rick when the latter is going berserk.
- Continuity Nod:
- Carol brings up Ed when she tells Rick he should know why she's so concerned about Pete.
- When Enid mentions what happened to her mother, Carl tries to tell her of some of the tragedy in his life, clearly thinking about having to put down his own mother.
- Sasha admits to Michonne and Rosita that she scathingly told Noah he wouldn't survive.
- Nicholas is revealed to be the one who stole Rick's gun he planted outside of Alexandria before entering.
- Rosita recalls how deeply hurt she was when Eugene revealed his lie.
- Michonne gets flashbacks to her various walker kills in the series, including her debut when she saved Andrea in the second season finale.
- Daryl and Aaron come across more apparent victims of the mysterious Wolves.
- The poor woman they see tied to the tree having been mauled by walkers? That's pretty much what Carol threatened to do to Sam in "Forget."
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Daryl and Aaron find the body of a woman who died (so recently that she is just reanimating when they discover her) when she was tied to a tree and then had her insides eaten by walkers. Not to mention the other walkers who were missing limbs, torsos, or heads.
- Destination Defenestration: During their fight, Pete is thrown out the front window of his house by Rick.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Carol does not push Sam away when he holds her while trying not to watch Rick and Pete's fight.
- Faux Affably Evil: Pete dangerously glares at Rick with a jolly smile on his face, asking him to leave.
- Futureshadowing: Several more walkers are shown with "W"s carved into their heads.
- I'll Kill You!: When their fight finally ends, Rick promises that he'll kill Pete if he lays another hand on his family.
- Kick the Dog: Deanna burns the condolence card Carol leaves for her, and rejects her casserole.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Sasha admits she is being torn apart by guilt for telling Noah he wouldn't make it, only for him to get killed a few episodes later.
- Mood Whiplash: Rick gives a speech to the town and it is rather intense..before Michonne knocks him out.
- Not Helping Your Case: Rick, pointing a gun at the innocent civilians, shoving your son aside, and screaming about how their way of life must change now is not going to get you any brownie points.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Glenn gives a deserving one to Nicholas. Rick gives one to everyone in Alexandria.
- Reckless Gun Usage: Rick not only waves his gun indiscriminately at random civilians, he even ends up briefly pointing it at himself during his rant.
- The Reveal: Nicholas is the one who stole the gun that Rick had left outside Alexandria.
- Ship Tease: Enid and Carl.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The Monroe family mourn Aiden's death by listening to their late loved one's favorite alternative rock music.
- Underestimating Badassery: Rick clearly expected Pete to be an easier fight than he ended up being.
- Unstoppable Rage: Pete falls into one when Rick tries to convince him to leave, which results in a vicious brawl in the street when Rick goes into the state as well and decides to retaliate. Michonne has to knock Rick out from behind to finally stop him.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Sasha was nearly killed when she was pinned by a walker, but rants at Michonne for saving her.
- Wham Shot: Michonne knocking out Rick at the very end.
