Recap / The Walking Dead S06 E09 "No Way Out"

Season 6, Episode 9

The Battle of Alexandria.

Alexandria makes its stand in the face of overwhelming odds.

The mid-season premiere.

The Saviors inform Daryl, Sasha and Abraham that they owe everything they own to Negan. After the trio hand over their sidearms, the leader has one of his men escort Daryl to the back of the tanker truck to start combing for supplies. Abe asks who Negan is, and the Savior decides to kill him and Sasha for asking questions. Before he can, the Saviors are suddenly blown to high hell by Daryl, who has killed his Savior and used the RPG. The trio then resume their journey home, the Saviors now nothing but charred bits and pieces.

In Alexandria, Rick brings his small group to a halt and decides on a new plan. Gabriel will take Judith to safety while the rest of them head for the cars. Sam turns down an opportunity to go with Gabriel as he wants to be with his mother. Rick sincerely thanks Gabriel as he heads for his church with Judith.

Carol and Morgan come to after their fight and learn that Owen has escaped with Denise. The group is low on weapons so they're stuck in the house for now. Outside, Owen admits he needs Denise alive to heal his injuries, and tries to give her a pep talk as he prepares a plan to sneak through the herd. Carol and Morgan talk, and Carol says she's acting with the group in mind; he only protected the Wolf for himself and behind the group's back.

Glenn and Enid make it into a church, where Enid stops Glenn and makes him explain his earlier words about honoring the dead. A frustrated Glenn admits he keeps going in memory of his parents, Dale, Andrea, Hershel, and Tyreese. They find some weapons and Enid says she'll rescue Maggie while Glenn distracts the herd.

Night falls. Rick, Carl, Michonne and the Andersons continue their trek. However, Sam begins to have a mental breakdown and remembers Carol's threat. He stops and begins whimpering, and despite his family's attempts to prod him along, Sam is suddenly caught and eaten by the walkers. Jessie becomes catatonic and can only scream as the walkers devour her son. The others try to get Jessie moving, but she doesn't and is swarmed by walkers herself. Rick begins to despair over the loss of his girlfriend, but realizes the now dead Jessie's hand isn't letting go of Carl's hand. Regretfully, Rick chops off Jessie's hand with an axe to save Carl. However, the two see Ron pointing a gun at them in a rage, but Michonne runs him through with her katana just as his gun goes off. Rick takes a breath... Only for Carl to turn to him with a horrific injury in his eye socket, Ron having shot him in the eye. Carl collapses, and a horrified Rick and Michonne take him and make a run for it.

As they traverse the herd, Denise and Owen are surrounded. Owen allows himself to be bit while saving Denise. She decides to save his life, and he accepts her help, and they make a run for the infirmary. However, Carol spots them and kills the Wolf, giving Denise time to make it into the infirmary. Soon after, Rick and Michonne arrive with Carl, and Denise immediately gets to work to save Carl's life. A distraught Rick looks into the herd outside, and goes back out and begins tearing into the herd with his axe.

Aaron, Heath, Spencer and Michonne follow him, and soon so do Olivia, Eric, Bruce, Francine, Carol, Morgan, Rosita, Tara, and even Eugene, who refuses to be kept out. As the battle rages, Gabriel gives Judith to one of his parishioners and declares to Tobin and the others that Alexandria will be saved by God... Because God has given them the courage to fight to save their town. Gabriel then leads most of them into battle.

Meanwhile, Glenn begins ripping into the horde and drawing them away from Maggie, who is elated to finally see her husband alive again. Enid begins to help Maggie escape, but she's horrified when Glenn is seemingly backed into a corner and killed. Luckily, Daryl, Sasha and Abraham have arrived and save Glenn, who opens the gate for them. The group picks up Enid and Maggie and begin pouring the tanker's fuel into the pond...

Despite all of Alexandria fighting, the battle begins to go south for the survivors as they begin to be pushed back by the herd. Daryl then fires the rocket launcher into the lake, luring the herd into a fiery death. This gives the Alexandrians the opportunity they need to begin wiping out the remainder of the herd, finally standing as one.

The next morning, Alexandria is littered with the corpses of walkers. Everyone is resting and getting patched up. Rick is with the comatose Carl, who now has a patch over his eye. Rick confesses that he was wrong about Alexandria; he has seen what they can do together, and that he finally has hope again for the first time in years. Rick says that they can legitimately build a new, prosperous world, and begs Carl to pull through so he can share it with his son. Carl responds by finally showing signs of life, and grasps Rick's hand.

---

• And Then John Was a Zombie: The Alpha Wolf reanimated some minutes after getting shot by Carol.
• Ascended Meme: Abraham blurts out "Who's Negan?!" as a reference to the memetic "Who's Deanna?" line from "Remember".
• Asshole Victim: All of the Saviors, Ron, and the Alpha Wolf.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Used against the walkers during the big fight. Daryl creates a giant ball of fire in the lake using the oil from the truck and the RPG to get the walkers attention and draw them in. Any walkers that don't walk into the fire are easily killed from behind by the Alexandrians.
• Apologetic Attacker: Morgan says he's sorry to the reanimated Alpha Wolf before putting him down.
• Badass Crew: All of Alexandria becomes this.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: We've never had a massive cast-versus-walkers battle until now, and it doesn't disappoint.
• Big Damn Heroes: Abraham and Sasha make it back in time to machine-gun a swarm of walkers about to descend on a cornered Glenn while, earlier, Daryl uses a freakin' rocket to blow up Negan's men and save Abraham and Sasha.
• Book Ends: The beginning of the episode has Daryl come and save Abraham and Sasha with the rocket launcher. The end of the episode has Abraham and Sasha save Glenn, and later all of them save the rest of the town
• Book Safe: Glenn tells Enid to search for hollowed out bibles with guns or supplies in them.
• Call-Back:
  • After Lori's death, Rick lost it and went on a walker killing spree with a fire axe. He does the same thing in this episode with a hatchet after Jessie is killed and Carl is shot.
  • Abraham's "vast ocean of shit" speech back in Season 5 is followed up by "If you have to eat shit, best not to nibble," and "Bite, chew, swallow, repeat" from one of the Saviors, adding credence to Abe's summation of life outside the walls of Alexandria.
• The Cavalry: Sasha and Abraham show up right before Glenn would have been eaten.
• Character Death: Owen, Jessie, Ron, Sam, and the Saviors present.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The rocket launcher Abraham found in "Always Accountable", which Daryl uses to wipe out the biker gang and later to set the remaining walkers in Alexandria ablaze.
  • Sam remembering Carol's Hannibal Lecture from "Forget" is one of the triggers of his panic attack, leading to his death and his mother's.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Glenn mentions his lost loved ones: his parents, Dale, Andrea, Hershel, and Tyreese.
  • Daryl wipes out the Saviors with the RPG-7 that Abe found back in "Always Accountable".
  • Gabriel finally earns Rick's trust after betraying the group last season, and also puts his machete training with Carl to good use. He also is shown protecting his flock in his church, in total contrast to what happened to him at the outset of the outbreak.
  • Michonne saves Rick by stabbing Ron through the back with her katana just like she did to the Governor in Season 4.
  • Alpha Wolf asks Denise to "be still."
• Death of a Child: Sam is eaten alive onscreen, while Ron is impaled by Michonne.
• Decomposite Character:
  • Sam takes Ron's death from the comics.
  • Ron takes Deanna's role in the comics as the one responsible for Carl's Eye Scream.
• Devoured by the Horde: When Sam starts panicking, several walkers descend on him and start biting him. This causes Jessie to scream, which attracts the attention of the other walkers, who proceed to start biting her. Angry at what happened, Ron tries to shoot Carl and Rick, but Michonne stabs him in the back and the walkers descend on the corpses after he drops to the ground.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: A major theme in this episode. Despite the bleak reality of walker-infested Alexandria, the group gains their resolve to keep fighting for their home. It pays off in the end as they successfully clear the area.
• Eye Scream: Carl loses his eye to Ron.
• Finger-Twitching Revival: Carl when he wakes up after being shot.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Alpha Wolf comes to warm to Denise a bit, but dies before it goes anywhere.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Jessie resigns herself to the horde after watching Sam die.
  • Rick enters one after the death of the Andersons and Carl's injury and takes out his frustrations on the walkers, though he snaps out of it as soon as others join.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Done by the Alpha Wolf of all people, even after getting a deadly gunshot from Carol he still helps Denise get to the infirmary.
• Hope Spot:
  • At first it seems that Sam has found the strength to survive. Then the night comes and he begins to remember Carol's words and finds an Undead Child among the horde. Sam then begins to whimper loud enough for a trio of walkers to notice and attack him.
  • Despite the horrific deaths of Jessie and Sam, it looks like Rick, Carl, and Michonne are alright when the latter kills Ron with her katana, and his gunshot has gone astray. Then Carl turns around and we see Ron managed to shoot Carl in the eye.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Ron is run through with Michonne's katana Governor-style.
• Ironic Echo: Morgan tells the zombified Alpha Wolf "I'm sorry" before putting him down, similar to how he said "I'm sorry" before knocking him unconscious back in "JSS."
• The Millstone: Sam had the chance to go to safety with Gabriel and Judith. He decided not to in order to stay with his mother, had a panic attack in the midst of a horde of walkers, and caused the deaths of himself, his brother, and his mother.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Carol after noticing the Alpha Wolf is helping Denise even after she has shot him.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Carol's threat to Sam from "Forget" causes him to get a panic attack in the middle of the horde and get his entire family killed.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Zig-zagged; Jessie watches Sam die before she dies herself, followed shortly thereafter by her other son, Ron.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: In the comic, Carl's eye being shot out also included a somewhat significant portion of his head, cutting through from back to front. As that would be extremely difficult to pull off for a series regular, especially one so often shown, the wound is more or less restricted to the eye socket.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Carol lambastes Morgan for sparing the Wolf only for himself. Morgan seems to take it to heart.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Rick embarks on one against the walkers, after Jessie and her sons die and Carl is gravely wounded. Fortunately, he is joined by most of the rest of Alexandria.
• Rousing Speech: Gabriel rallies Tobin and his flock to battle. Alpha Wolf also gives Denise a pep talk. And then Glenn gives one to Enid.
• Spared by the Adaptation: A number of characters who didn't survive this event in the comics, made it out here. Namely; Morgan, Tobin, Bruce, Scott and several Alexandrian Red Shirts. While he still dies, Ron outlived his mother here unlike in the comics mainly due to becoming a Decomposite Character (see above).
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Daryl blows the Saviors to pieces with Abraham's rocket launcher.
• Title Drop: Courtesy of Eugene.
• Took a Level in Badass: ALL of Alexandria does this, from the likes of Rick to the likes of Gabriel and Olivia.
• Unstoppable Rage: After Sam and Jessie are killed and Carl loses an eye, Rick proceeds to grab an axe, march into the horde and start racking up an impressive body count of walkers through sheer rage alone.
• Undead Child: Sam spots one among the horde, adding up to his panic attack.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In hindsight, Carol's Hannibal Lecture to Sam from "Forget" caused his death, along with the death of his mother and brother, which in turn caused Carl to lose his eye.
• Villainous Crush: Greg Nicotero claims that Alpha Wolf had a crush on Denise.
• Wham Episode: The remaining members of the Anderson family get killed, Carl loses his eye, the Alpha Wolf is killed before having a chance to redeem himself, Maggie and Denise are rescued, Negan's group of bikers meet a rocket launcher, Alexandria as a whole utterly destroys the horde of walkers and the chance of a future conflict with Negan is high right now.
• Wham Shot: Sam and Jessie being eaten can qualify, but it's one-upped a minute later when Carl turns to Rick, missing his eye.
• Would Hurt a Child: Michonne kills Ron when he is about to shoot Rick and Carl. Unfortunately, he manages to shoot and injure Carl before dropping to the ground.