We are at the mid-season finale until TWD returns in February and things are not looking good for Team Rick or Team Abe. We ended last week’s episode of “The Walking Dead” with the attempted hostage exchange botched and Sasha left unconscious. Carol and Beth are at the mercy of the wicked witch of Grady Memorial. Will Rick be able to make Dawn an offer she can’t refuse?
Rick
I don’t know why people make the stupid mistake of pissing off Rick, but they do. After officer Bob knocked out Sasha, he took off with a horde of walkers on his trail. The walkers were the least of his problems. Rick has stepped into the Terminator role while Carol is out of commission and when he tells you to stop… you better listen. Was anyone surprised when Rick hit Bob with the police cruiser? Or when he put a bullet in Bob’s head? I like this Rick. He’s only giving you one strike and then you are out! Bob should have listened.
With Bob 2 dead, Rick has to question the remaining cops, but they’re not very helpful and they don’t like Dawn. Team Rick has to make a decision on how to get Beth and Carol back from Dawn, the female version of the Governor.
Beth
Looking more like Sally from Tim Burton’s film, The Nightmare before Christmas, our stitched up Beth has a heart to heart talk with Officer Dawn. It seems that Dawn knew about the trap Beth had set up for her, but she’s okay with it. Dawn is trying to be a buddy to Beth. Dawn’s not bad, she’s just misunderstood. So what if Dawn killed her former boss and friend, Captain Hanson. She had a good reason for it. The man got no respect from his officers and in Dawn’s sick little mind, this was unacceptable.
When Dawn gets into an argument with Officer O’Donnell, I never expected Beth to help. Are we witnessing Stockholm syndrome? Is Beth identifying with her captor? While Dawn and Beth chat on the ethical aspects of the apocalypse, Carol wakes up. I’m guessing that epinephrine did the job after all.
Gabriel
As far as I’m concerned, Pastor Gabriel has already earned Rick’s “one strike and you’re out” bullet to the head. Not only does he sneak out of the church, but he then returns with a horde of Church Going Walkers on his heels and then endangers Carl, Judith and Michonne because of his sorry ass. Luckily for our guys, they are rescued by Team Abe who arrives via fire truck. Everybody heads for Grady Memorial to help save Beth and Carol.
Hostage
Rick and Daryl have to decide on their next move. Should they go with the original plan, the one that Rick suggested or stick with the plan suggested by Tyreese? They stick with Tyreese’s plan and while Tyreese, Daryl, Noah and Sasha do sniper duty on the roof; Rick makes contact with two officers. Tyreese confides in Sasha that maybe he should have killed cannibal Martin when he had the chance, but we knew it wouldn’t have happened. Tyreese is a good guy and he’s kept his integrity unsullied. Integrity is usually the first thing to go during an apocalypse.
Conclusion and Spoiler Alert
I didn’t expect the ending and I know I’m not the only one. The hostage trade was going so smoothly. First Carol is traded for one of the hostages and then Beth is escorted over to Team Rick by Dawn herself. It was time to go home… but Dawn had to open her big fat mouth. “Give me Noah,” she says. It happened so fast that I wasn’t sure what I’d witnessed and I’m guessing that other fans of the show felt the same way. One minute Beth is there and the next…
The realization of what happened hit me when I saw Daryl break down in tears and when he lifted his gun and shot Dawn dead center in the head. Beth is dead. Was it an accident as Dawn claimed before the bullet took her down? Maybe and Beth did stab her with the scissors, but after hearing Dawn brag to Beth earlier about killing her friend Captain Hanson, I doubt it was an accident. It takes skill for an actress to make us wonder if her character is worthy of our pity. Christine Woods did a great job on this episode of making us think we saw a spark of decency in Dawn. She made us feel sorry for her, but it didn’t last long.
Beth is dead and this was a hard death to handle. We’ve watched Emily Kinney grow in the character of Beth both physically and emotionally. She had become family to Team Rick and to us and now she’s gone. I wondered how Emily Kinney was handling this ending, and on “Talking Dead” we found out. Emily cried while trying to sound upbeat about how great it was to be on the show. She apologized for her tears, but still she cried and we with her. R.I.P. Beth
We’ll have to wait until February to find out what was in that note that Morgan (Lennie James) found. Morgan has been keeping up with our team and is now at the church. See you in February, my little walkers and maybe we’ll find closure over Beth’s death by then.
