The Walking Dead
Episode 6.15 “East”
Directed by Michael E. Satrazemis
Written by Scott M. Gimple & Channing Powell
Starring Andrew Lincoln, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Lauren Cohen, Steven Yeun, Norman Reedus, Chandler Riggs, Michael Cudlitz, Lennie James
AMC
Air date: Sunday, March 27, 2016, 9pm

Warning – SPOILERS for The Walking Dead Season 6…

This week’s The Walking Dead, Episode 6.15, “East,” deals with the aftermath of Carol’s unexpected departure from the Alexandria Safe Zone, as well as Daryl’s need to avenge Denise’s death and set things right.

After the previous episode, it becomes obvious that a new battle will begin between the Alexandrians and Negan’s Saviors. But Carol has been struggling recently with the fact that her human kill count is well into the double digits. At this point, she feels like she can no longer kill. And she won’t kill. So, she plans to leave her friends at the Safe Zone, but for what we do not know. Talk about bad timing.

Meanwhile, Daryl is struggling with Denise’s death at the hands of Dwight, one of the Saviors who he had previously tried to help even after the man took him captive. Daryl feels like if he had killed Dwight when he had the chance, then Denise would still be alive. He wants revenge. He wants to finish Dwight like he should have before, and feels that he was soft to let the man live.

But Carol’s inner conflict and Daryl’s quest for vengeance and resolution put the people of the Safe Zone in danger. Carol says she won’t kill for her fellow residents any more, yet when she leaves and is confronted by more Saviors on the road, she has to kill them in order to survive. And Daryl, he races off without thinking what his Alexandria family will do.

Both Daryl and Carol told the others not to follow them, but these people are family at this point and they look out for each other. Of course they’re going to follow!!!

That Carol would sneak away leaving only a note is surprising, only because she doesn’t factor in how it could harm the people she’s living behind “” people she professes to love. While all the killing has become too much for her, she still not a pacifist like Morgan is. When she encounters men on the road who shoot at her car, she warns them to put their weapons away so no one gets hurt. But the men, lead by a man named Jiro, laugh at the seemingly defenseless woman who’s crying and clutching a rosary. They think her tears are of fear, but we know it’s of regret for what she must once again do “” kill the living. When the men threaten Carol and reveal their plan to take her to Alexandria so they’ll get in, she unleashes a storm of bullets from a submachine gun hidden in her sleeve. She kills or injures all the men, and then finishes off those who come after her.

Where Carol is going to go from there is unclear, but her rosary was left behind in a pool of blood, which Rick and Morgan come upon. The two men raced off to look for Carol, although each are unclear why the other is on this mission. Morgan reveals that he has gotten to know Carol recently, and then reveals that he had captured a Wolf when the Safe Zone was invaded, and had kept the man in a cell. Carol found out about it, and was against it, but when the Wolf escaped and ended up saving Denise, it made Carol see that people can change and perhaps she no longer could be judge, jury, and executioner. Rick was surprised to hear the story, and explains that Carol is family to him, which is why he’s looking for her. But Morgan brings up the fact that after Carol had killed two of their people when they were sick with a highly contagious disease, Rick had cast her out. Things are different now, Rick explains, he doesn’t take chances anymore. Perhaps Rick believes that’s true, he took a risk by racing out of the Safe Zone to look for Carol without formulating a plan, and during a time when their home is at its most vulnerable.

Morgan and Rick encounter a man at a barn who claims to just be looking for his horse. “Takes no chances” Rick takes a shot at the man, even though he’s far away and wasn’t attacking them. Morgan pushes him to make Rick miss the shot, stating that they do not know who the man is and what his situation is. After this, Morgan tells Rick to go back home where people need him; Morgan will go forward alone to look for Carol and bring her back. But, Morgan says, if he doesn’t come back, don’t come looking for him.

Again, there’s consequences to leaving the Safe Zone. Even if no one comes to look for them, the person who leaves is putting the Alexandrians in danger now that the Saviors are lurking. Like they did with Carol, they are looking for leverage and expect their Safe Zone captors to “talk” and give details about their home. This jeopardizes the Safe Zone “” why don’t people like Carol, Morgan, and Daryl realize this?

And about Daryl: Glenn, Michonne, and Rosita take off without a plan either to follow Daryl, with Rosita claiming to know where he’s going “” and we do too: back to those dangerous tracks where Denise was killed. By the way, this was a great, brief interaction between Rosita and her former lover Abraham, who’s now apparently with Sasha. Abraham initially wants to go with Michonne and Glenn to look for Daryl, but Rosita put him right in his place and was like, “No, I’m going, you can cover my watch shift,” and that asshole (yes, I’m still mad at him) could do nothing but step aside.

Anyhow, off Glenn, Michonne, and Rosita go looking for Daryl, and they find him at the tracks. They try to persuade Daryl to return to the Safe Zone, but he refuses; he’s going to finish what was started, and Rosita decides to go with him. But, as Glenn and Michonne try to make their way back home, they’re taken captive by Dwight and his men. SHOCKER!!! Except, nope, it’s not, because these men have been lurking around that area and since the Safe Zone residents are making a lot of stupid moves, of course they were going to get caught.

At the start of the episode, we saw Michonne and Rick in bed together in the morning. They’re eating a fresh apple, they’re smiling, they’re savoring this wonderful time in their lives. Rick looks more content than we’ve ever seen him, but even when they are at their most vulnerable, he assures Michonne that everything is going to be fine. They will defeat all their enemies. That right there tells us that Rick is clueless as to what evil lurks beyond their walls, and that while they’ve always been fighters, they don’t know what the Saviors have in mind.

It’s jarring to see Michonne and Glenn bound and gagged, but oh look, here comes Daryl and Rosita to save them!!! Except, oh look, here comes Dwight behind them with a gun to Daryl’s head. Glenn tried to warn him, but Daryl is caught off guard. Dwight says “Daryl,” and then shoots his gun, but all we see is blood splatter, and then Dwlight’s voice say, “You’ll be all right.”

Did Dwight just shoot Daryl? If so, is Daryl dead? Why did he say “You’ll be all right”? – Was that mocking?

As we’ve seen on this show before, it’s not uncommon for it to seem like a character’s been killed only to find out “” sometimes two episodes later “” that they are actually still alive. Daryl’s impulsiveness should actually get him killed in this scenario, but the way this latest episode ends, it’s unclear what Daryl’s fate is.

Next week sees the 90-minute Season 6 finale, where we’re likely to find out where Carol went; what happened to Daryl; what will happen to Glenn, Rosita, and Michonne; if pregnant Maggie is OK after she was screaming in pain holding her stomach; and finally meet Negan and his barbed-wire wrapped baseball bat, that we saw a few episodes ago that he uses on people’s heads. Who’s head is going to roll at this season finale? You know it’s going to be someone we love.

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Video

Episode 6.15: The Walking Dead: East

The Walking Dead Preview Episode 6.15.

Rick and Michonne discuss the future.

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