By: Suepafly
The long hiatus is finally over, and one of our most beloved show is back. Beth's death rocked the midseason finale, but don't think for a moment that our group of survivors are safe. There were an awful lot secondary cast members, and gulp, one main cast member (GLENN! Steven Yeun) at Stalker Walker Con the weekend before last. Let's hope that doesn't spell the end for them.
Dirt is moved, and the group mourns. A body is laid to rest, but that's not the end for the rest of the group. Life goes on, and the next step of the journey begins. Beth risked it all, paid the ultimate price for Noah. Beth wanted to get Noah back home, and Rick intends to follow through. There's real potential for where they're headed, and its the only hope they have with the dreams of ending the apocalypse in DC exposed as a lie. It's a long trip, but it could pay off hugely. The group loads up and hits the road.
They've lost many, and there are many more to be lost. Beth is in a better place. Mika and Lizzie are together, and they're better now. Just who is being haunted by those little girls? Carol, or the more likely, Tyrese?
Split up in multiple vehicles, and communicating via walkie talkies, they're half way to their destination. Rick checks in with Carol. She gives him time, if he doesn't check in again, she's coming after him. Tyrese has a heavy heart, he had never wanted to kill anyone, but times change. He remembers having to keep up with news as a child. If the news was bad, at least then you could change the channel, you can turn it off, but his father didn't. He kept listening, he called it paying the high price of living. Noah thinks his father would have liked his, but he died in Atlanta. He still has a mother, twin brothers, he hopes that his family is still alive, as they were when he left. Rick makes plans to go in on foot, to stay off the road, just in case.
They find a hidden spot off the road, and Noah leads the way through the woods, past old bones to wire obstacle. It wasn't up when Noah had left, but he tells them that they had wanted to, that the others must have. Rick asks about snipers, they had a perch, but Glenn can see its empty from the tree line. The group heads right up to the gates, but they're locked. Tyrese hears something, and Glenn climbs the wall to get a closer look. Noah, Rick, and Michonne wait to hear what he sees, but when he doesn't say a word Noah climbs up for a look of his own. It's completely quiet. The houses are burned, it looks deserted. There are dead bodies littering the ground, and only a single walker in sight. Noah falls to the ground in grief. Michonne goes to take care of the walker. Rick gives his condolences, but makes plans to gather supplies and head back. Glenn plans for a quick sweep, and Tyrese will stay with Noah. Rick reports back to the others, letting them know that they made it, but that its gone.
Michonne is taking the whole paradise lost thing hard. Glenn asks if he really thought it would be there. Rick admits that when Beth died, Dawn didn't mean to do it, but he wanted to kill her. It didn't have anything to do with Beth. He didn't know if the community would be there, but she had wanted to get Noah home. Taking him home was for her, but it could have been for them too.
Noah is overcome with grief. Tyrese admits that the wanted to die for what he lost, for who he lost. He stepped into a crowd of walkers, wanting to be taken by those things, to take out his emotions on them. But he made it through, and then he was there for Judith. He was able to bring her back to her father, which he couldn't have done if he let them take him. This isn't the end. Noah rises, looks towards his house, and takes off running. Tyrese runs after him.
Glenn reveals that after the prison when he got Maggie back things were better. But then losing Washington, losing Beth after finding out she was alive was too much. If they hadn't caught up with Rick before now, then he wouldn't have stopped, they would have run by. He would have shot Dawn, right or wrong. Michonne puts a stop to their talk. They need to stop. They can be out too long. Glenn toys with a baseball bat. Put down the bat, if that's foreshadowing Glenn's death like in the comics I may start crying.
Tyrese catches Noah before he gets into his house, stopping him. Noah needs to see what's inside though. Tyrese leads the way. The front door is wide open, blood splatters the walls, still Tyrese knocks on the door. On the living room floor is a body, his mother. Her head bashed in. If she ever rose, she won't again. Noah covers her with a nearby blanket. Tyrese goes deeper into the house. There's a walker behind a door. In another room, there's a body on a bed. Tyrese looks at the pictures on the wall, of the twin boys, not noticing the body has risen. It takes a bite out of Tyrese, and Noah stabs it with a toy airplane before running off to get help from the others. Will Tyrese lose his arm, or just give up? I fear this is the end of the gentle giant.
We're back to the house picture. And a flash back of the radio cast that played at the birth of the apocalypse warning people of the spreading zombie virus, long before the farm, the prison, the road, now. Tyrese holds his arm as he bleeds. He sees an unfriendly face from the past, Martin. You know the douche bag Terminus guy, who Tyrese claimed to have killed, but didn't actually do it. He taunts him, he warned him that he wouldn't live. Had Tyrese killed him like Sasha did then things wouldn't have turned out like they did, for one Bob would be alive. Bob appears and tells him that it happened just as it should have, it couldn't have happened any other way. The ghost radio continues. Martin tells him that he shouldn't have lied like a bitch, and just paid the bill. The Governor makes him remember his promise to earn his keep. Mika and Lizzie assure him its better now. Oh Tyrese, don't go into the light. The Governor doesn't think its better now. As he confronts Tyrese he morphs into a walker and goes to take a bite out of him. Armed with his trusty hammer, Tyrese tries to fight him off. The walker bites into Tyrese's arm before he can manage to bash his head in. Come on Tyrese just cut off the arm, you don't need it anyways. Its the left one, and you're right arm dominant!
Michonne thinks of ways to make the place safe. Rick points out that the place is surrounded by a forest, they could be over taken long before they even knew there was a threat, which is what essentially happened to them before. Michonne longs for a home, but as she looks at one outer wall, there is death and destruction everywhere. Glenn tells Rick that it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter which of them killed Dawn, in the end it doesn't matter. Michonne brings up Washington. Eugene may have lied about the cure, but he took an educated guess about Washington. She doesn't want to stay out there anymore, she wants a safe place, and Washington could be it. Rick tells them that they should go. It's 100 miles away, but they could make it. They hear Noah's hollering for help and head his way.
Noah is trapped by walkers on a porch, Michonne, Glenn and Rick kill the lot of them as they rescue Noah. He tells them that Tyrese is at his house, and he's been bit. The foursome race towards Tyrese.
The ghost radio flips stations. Beth sings Tyrese a song as he remembers everything that lead up to now, his journey. The arm is bleeding profusely. Beth tells him that its okay. Bob thinks okay that Tyrese didn't want to be a part of it. Martin thinks that's his problem. He didn't want to be a part of it, but that's all there is now. Mika and Lizzie assure his that he doesn't have to be a part of things if he didn't want to. The Governor points out that he didn't want to see, but he made him see. He didn't adapt or see, or change. He stayed by the side of a woman who killed the woman he loved. This is all there is now, this is it. Tyrese pulls himself to his feet. He knew who he was talking to, he did what he had to to earn his keep. He knows who he is. The Governor didn't show him anything, and now he's dead. Everything that he was is dead. He forgave Carol, and its not over. He falls into tears, he didn't turn away. He kept listening to news so he could do what he could to help. He isn't giving up. People like Tyrese can live, no one has to die today. The lights begin to flash and flicker, the Governor pushes him back down, he needs to pay. Mika and Lizzie take his arm. But it's not really their gentle touch, it's Rick pulling his arm, as Glenn holds him steady. Michonne brings her blade down, severing the limb.
Michonne, and Noah run ahead, clearing the way. Rick and Glenn carry Tyrese as they make their way out. The front gate is covered in walkers. Glenn goes to assist Michonne, Noah tells Rick that he can hold up Tyrese while they clear up the way out, but he falters under his weight and they fall to the ground. Rick, Glenn and Michonne take care of the walkers, but it's a close call as Rick misses a head shot, and a walker nearly gets them. His second shot brings down the final walker. They gather Tyrese back up, and run off towards the car. It's a rough run, through the wires. Tyrese's foot gets caught, and Glenn struggles to free it. They make it to the car. Rick puts the car in gear, but it's stuck in the mud. It suddenly unsticks, and goes slamming into the truck in front of it and zombie torsos spill out. Rick calls ahead to Carol, and lets her know that they need a cautery kit, and that Sasha and Carl don't need to see.
On the car ride back, with Beth behind the wheel Tyrese gives in. Bob, Mika and Lizzie are there too. The girls let him know that it's more than fine, its better. The truck stops, and everyone gets out. Tyrese is gone. The grave from the beginning wasn't Beth's grave. It was Tyrese's grave that Father Gabriel was saying a prayer over. The gentle giant has fallen and he is entered into the Earth. A grave marker is placed with his beanie atop. He was too good for the world they have left.
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