The Walking Dead "Remember"

**This review is based off of the televised episodes (not the comic book storyline) of The Walking Dead, covering events that have already aired. May contain spoilers for those who are not caught up.**

Season 5 has been a rough one for our intrepid survivors. We've lost three major characters pretty close together, which has my whole family watching each new episode with great trepidation. Each of us wonders how the writers plan to rip out our hearts next. We are just as weary as Rick and his crew when they reach the Alexandria Safe-Zone, a community seemingly untouched by the horrors that exist right outside their gates.

Simple comforts like running water, electricity or clean, stocked houses are just as foreign to us as Rick's group. The juxtaposition with our feral little gang is striking. Unlike their arrival to the farm in Season Two, where everyone still had traces of what the world was like before, all of this "normal" is frightening as hell. Each of them handles it in very different ways, though their cohesiveness generally remains strong throughout the episode (up to sharing one house without divvying up private bedrooms. It's a Walking Dead Sleepover!)

We start the episode with Rick and Deanna, the leader of the Alexandria Safe-Zone. Deanna is a former Congresswoman, which immediately makes us suspicious of her and her motives. Power is often established by titles, lest we remember what happened with The Governor. And they have a pretty cushy setup that hasn't been ravaged by marauders or zombies, which is kind of amazing given everything Rick and his group has been through. Two years without any major dust-ups, even though neighboring communities have been torched and run over? Seems suspect, given what we've seen of them so far. Rick even says at the beginning, after Sasha handily blows the head off of a walker heading towards the gate, "It's a good thing we're here." He doesn't trust their ability to keep them safe from the moment he walks in the door. Deanna reiterates that their inclusion to the new community is both deliberate and rare. Rick tells her point-blank they shouldn't be letting anyone through the gates, because it's all about survival now. He tells her that he's done some awful things to protect his family and himself. Methinks that's her only warning of what's to come if they fail to keep Rick's group safe.

Note that he doesn't ask her the three questions, which leads me to believe that he does see how inept/naive they are. He practically transcribed what they could expect from their group - which, at the very least, would re-establish leadership and power. Everyone has an agenda, using others to survive. This line is repeated twice in the episode, which sounds like a warning against outsiders in general... but keep in mind those in Rick's group are the outsiders now. (Her question of whether he was warning her about his group or already looking after hers went unanswered. With Rick, it's always been more about what he *doesn't* say.) Almost immediately he accepts the hospitality, even gets cleaned up in a titillating shower/shave scene that was long overdue. God, I hated that beard. I'm not a fan of beards overall, but Rick was a few months out from joining ZZ Top. This established the primal, throat-chewing Rick, so much so I kind of forgot what kind of hottie was living under there. In a show that routinely has me peeking out behind finger shields, it was nice to have something pleasant to look at for a change. (More of that, please.)

Sadly, we didn't get a naked-in-the-shower scene with Daryl, who refuses to acclimate into this new community as easily as his fearless leader. From the moment he kills a possum on the way into the Alexandria Safe-Zone ("Brought dinner,") we're shown - repeatedly - that Daryl refuses to compromise the person he's become in the wake of the zombie apocalypse. He's there for the others, not himself. "The boy and the baby, they deserve a roof. I guess."

To be fair, Daryl wouldn't easily acclimate into this kind of Mayberry scene prior to the world falling apart. This reestablishes him as an outsider who doesn't fit in, where his behavior stands out against the "normal" setting. He's smart and quick-witted, so the audience buys the tension he's selling - that this place is too good to be true.

Michonne, however, wants to believe that this is a place they can stay and even thrive, which is a stark difference from how she felt about Woodbury upon first arriving. She didn't like the Governor, she didn't trust the facade of security and normalcy - she was a lot like Daryl upon entering the Alexandria Safe-Zone. Now the long-suffering Samurai just wants to believe, to hope... something she once ridiculed in Andrea, who so quickly drank the Woodbury Kool-Aid.

So what has changed? The most glaring difference is that she's not the same person who arrived at the prison in Season 3. She's opened up to Rick and his group, adopting them as family. This was why she opted to find them after the prison burned. She *couldn't* go back to the person she was. Rick and particularly Carl knocked down her formidable walls one by one. One gets the feeling that there's an extremely protective mother figure under all that badassery. With Judith and Carl to protect, she knows they can't stay on the road. But, as we learned from the last episode, her desire to find shelter and safety doesn't override her keen sense of self-preservation. When she asked Aaron the three questions, we knew our katana-wielding Michonne might desire safety, but she's not willing to sacrifice her common sense for it. (Unlike Andrea.)

Also unlike Andrea, Carol is playing a master strategist in this new community. She's come a lot way from the mousy little victim she was in Season 1. Everyone has an agenda, or so Rick says, and Carol was playing a part from the moment she took off her gun. We knew what she was doing the minute she talked so lovingly about Ed during her interview with Deanna. She played it off with such finesse no one in this clueless town would ever have an inkling that she can go Rambo at any minute and single-handedly wipe out a whole community. Unlike Michonne, who carries her sword like an appendage, Carol can still camouflage herself and fly stealth, which appears to be exactly what she's doing by involving herself with the community.

She encourages Daryl to play a part as well, but he ain't having it. I, for one, hope she makes good on her threat to hose him down. (I love you, Daryl. Please take a shower.)

Carl, who has spent the last few years of his young life on the road in survival mode, doesn't know quite what to do now that he's surrounded by kids his own age, who are allowed to be kids their own age. They talk about things like school and video games and Carl is completely out of his element.

Carl later tells his father that these people are weak and he doesn't want their group to become weak too. They get to flex their muscle when they head over the gate, Rick to fetch his hidden gun (which is gone,) and Carl to chase after Enid, another teen "from the outside," who disappeared beyond the gate for reasons yet unknown. Instead of being angry with Carl for leaving the fortress of their new home, he accepts his presence outside the gate silently as they take on some errant "roamers."

There's nothing like father-son bonding when you get to ram a steel rod through the heads of zombies.

One of conditions of living in the Alexandria Safe-Zone is that each of them gets to have a "job." The Good Congresswoman holds off assigning tasks for Rick, Michonne and "Mr. Dixon." Glenn, Tara and (oddly) Noah are selected to go on a run with her son, Aiden, and his buddy, gate-keeper Nick. Aiden's a Talker from the get-go. He brags about his ROTC qualifications, calling their weapons 'sweet biscuits.' Fairly soon into their journey beyond the walls, we figure out that Aiden is completely full of shit, totally inept in doing the very thing Glenn has been doing from Season 1, Episode 1. And Glenn is rightly bothered by it, especially when it nearly costs Tara her life. (*Finger Shields Alert: Under Your Skin Walker.) Aiden tries to squash the rebellion immediately, but the timid little pizza delivery guy is long gone when Glenn (rightly) lays Aiden on his ass for being an arrogant jackhole.

Things very briefly turn to shit when Daryl tackles Nick during the scuffle that ensues. Rick has to contain the angry Archer, who paces like a caged tiger before finally stalking off in disgust after Deanna, who sides with the outsiders and with Glenn (and even thanks him for punching her son,) assigns Rick and Michonne to be the law in their humble little community. Both readily accept.

(Remember what I said earlier about titles establishing power? That's *Constable* Friendly now.)

I have to admit I had forgotten how much I missed Sheriff Rick until he walked out in that uniform. He's not the same man that he was before, not by a long shot. And we know this by the end of the episode, despite all the physical changes. He tells both Carol and Daryl that he's "trying it on for size," (i.e. playing the game.) He also lets both of them know that the weakness of the community doesn't bother him. His group is too strong to be weakened... and if it comes down to it, they'll take the Alexandria Safe-Zone as their own.

(Shiver.)

Like our group, I think we viewers are road-weary. We need a place to stop and catch our breath, and the Alexandria Safe-Zone seems as good a place as any. (For now at least, we all know how these things never last.) My biggest concern, obviously, is Daryl. Deanna already told Rick she had to exile three men, which she considered a "death sentence." Rick and his gang already proved that those who are willing to do anything to survive generally do, so that isn't necessarily true. If Daryl resists assimilating, which could be seen as posing a threat to her community, Deanna could exile Daryl as a result, which would remove him from the canvas without necessarily killing him, though everyone might assume he was good as dead.

(No one said, "If Daryl disappears, we riot!" Loopholes, people. Loopholes.)

But even if he was able to blend in at this point, if that were part of some bigger plan, like what Carol is doing, the question is could he? Even in Season 2, when they had the sanctuary of the farm, he opted to stay off to himself. He needed a purpose to earn his place in that group after Merle disappeared. Back then it was locating Sophia. After the prison fell, it was protecting Beth. What is Daryl Dixon's purpose now, particularly when Michonne has replaced him as Rick's right hand in the new group? It's entirely possible that he doesn't even know, which will make the coming episodes a challenge for him. He's subtly being distanced from the group, which worries me going forward.

For now, at least, our group made it through another episode without a major loss. At this point in the game, that may be the biggest win. With only four more episodes to go until the season finale, my hopes are not high that it will last.

Two questions going further:

1. Ron told Carl that Enid was from the outside, too. Deanna had already told Rick that they hadn't let anyone else from the outside in for a long while. How long has young Enid been a part of the Alexandria Safe-Zone? And where does she go when she hops the gate and roams on the other side of the safe walls?

2. There are all sorts of warning bells regarding Jessie's husband, who didn't seem all that welcoming when he talked to Rick during his late night walk. Jessie never mentioned a husband during her little visit to Rick, where she offered to go into a half-naked stranger's house to "cut his hair." That, and Mike's "overly strict" father mentioned by the kids, as well as Aiden's overinflated ego/superiority complex, hints to discord already running through the community. Is that why Deanna was so eager to invite their group inside the walls, and virtually hand power over to Rick?

Guess we'll have to wait till next week's episode, the ominously titled "Forget," to find out.