Rick, Michonne and Carl

While they didn’t really play a huge part this week, what happened to them during the episode “Claimed” will become more important – and threatening.  In the meantime, they’re making their way to Terminus and look rather happy.  Carl and Michonne have a bet to see who can walk on the rails the longest, with the loser getting their choice of candy bar.  Michonne falls first and Carl says “I win”, just like he did when the three of them stayed at the house.  He chooses his treat and decides to give some to Michonne because they share everything now.  The wrapper is discarded and Rick just walks on ahead, smiling.

Glenn, Sergeant Abe, Dr. Eugene Porter, Tara and Rosita

They’re also on the tracks and Dr. porter is talking his head off about video games, dinosaurs and just about everything else that strikes him as interesting.  They stop for the night and Tara, who hasn’t slept yet, tells Sgt. Abe that he should get some sleep.  His response is “no offense, but I’m not leaving our lives in your hands.”  They starts talking about what their plans are – their missions,  that is.  Abe sees hers as a girl in love with a guy who is helping the gut find the girl that he loves.  She thinks that he’s some gung-ho Army guy with a bunch of “the mission is your life bullshit.”

The next morning, they’re back to walking and Dr, Porter is prattling on about batteries.  He just won’t shut up about the damn batteries.  Thankfully, they see one of Maggie’s messages to Glenn telling him that she’s going to Terminus.  Glenn begins to run, smiling at the thought of finally finding his wife.   After a while, Abe tells the group that they should stop and rest at a tower – Glenn has a mission but so do they.   A walker appears from the tower and Tara falls while getting out of the way.  The walker falls to the ground, but Tara has hurt her ankle.   She insists that she can walk and Glenn tells the rest of them that if she can go on, so can they.  He wants to keep going, at least until sundown.    Abe agrees to the deal and off they go.

They come to a railroad tunnel and the group weighs whether they can go around it.  When they see that it could add another day to their journey,  Glenn tells the others to he thinks he should just go through it.  Abe reminds him that it’s “a long dark tunnel full of reanimated corpses.”  He thinks Glenn should take the detour around but knows that Glenn isn’t going to do that.  They agree to part ways and say some good byes.  Porter, who provided some real comic relief, and not just from just his mullet, tells Tara that she’s “seriously hot.”  Tara says that she’s into girls and Porter says “I’m well aware of that.”  It seems that Eugene’s been checking her out, as well as noticing Rosita’s attributes.  Glenn apologizes to Abe for punching him, but Abe tells him that there’s no need to be sorry  – “I like to fight.”  After giving them some supplies, Abe tells Tara and Glenn that if they get into trouble in the tunnel and have to turn around, they might be able to catch up to him and his group.

Glenn and Tara enter the tunnel and she starts to tell him about the Governor – how he told them that they might have to kill some people but she never knew exactly what he meant until the prison attack happened.   Deeper into the tunnel, they come across walkers, half buried in rubble from the collapsed ceiling.  They decide that they can make it through them and over them and begin eliminating those close enough to harm them.  When they reach the top of the rubble, they see a sea of walkers – too many to get through by themselves.  Glenn places his spotlight so that it casts light away from them and draws the walkers towards it.  The two start to climb over the rest of the boulders, as quietly as possible but Tara slips and traps her leg.

Abe, Rosita and Eugene have come across some abandoned cars and, after ridding tone van of a walker, they start their journey to Washington, D.C., you know, to save the world.  Eugene thinks he should be the navigator and politely asks Rosita for the map to redeem himself for destroying their last mode of transportation.  Abe takes a nap in the back and Eugene navigates them right back to the other side of the railroad tunnel.   Abe wakes up to find that they’re no closer to D.C. than when he fell asleep but Eugene is already out of the van and running towards the tunnel.  Tara and Glenn can’t get her leg loose and she tells him to leave her in order to save himself.  As the walkers turn towards them, drawn by their voices, Glenn begins shooting at them.  They keep coming until a set of headlights appears and they hear a voice telling them to get down.  There’s a volley of gunfire from automatic weapons and the walkers fall.  A group appears and Glenn sees Maggie, followed by Sasha, Bob, Abe, Rosita and Eugene.  The cavalry arrived, in the nick of time.

Glenn introduces Maggie to Tara and tells her how she helped him.  Maggie looks at Tara and then hugs her.  Later, Tara and Glenn catch up and he drops the picture of her sleeping.  She burns it, telling him that he’ll never need a picture of her again.  The group then decides to go on to Terminus; it’s only a day’s walk away.  At that point, Abe Eugene and Rosita will resume their journey to Washington.

Daryl

Daryl’s been traveling with Joe and his hunters, and it looks like he got the short end of the stick when it came to joining a group.  They’ve set up a temporary camp but Daryl is out hunting food for himself.  He aims his crossbow at a rabbit, but Len, one of the hunters, firs an arrow at the same time and the rabbit is killed.  Len claims the rabbit is his because that;s how the hunters do things – they just claim it and it’s theirs. Daryl isn’t on board with the right to claim something and starts to walk off with the rabbit.  Len starts to taunt him, telling Daryl that he looks like someone who just lost a piece of tail and asks him if she was a little one.  Daryl reaches for his knife, but Joe stops him.  Joe explains the rule about claiming – it can be food or a bed or anything you want.  There are some other rule, like not lying, and anyone who violates the rules will be punished.  Daryl says that he’s not claimin’ nothin’ so Joe cuts the rabbit in half.  As he hands one half to Daryl, he says that the ass end is still an end.

Joe and Daryl walk together and Joe wants to know what Daryl’s plans are.  Joe tells him that he needs a group to survive.  Daryl says that maybe he doesn’t.  Joe goes over the rules again – you claim and you don’t lie.  Daryl asks what happens if you break the rules and Joe says that you get a beating – if you cooperate, the world belongs to us.  Daryl says ‘I ain’t no us.”  Joe says, “If you’re not leaving, then there’s an us.”  He asks Daryl if he likes cats and then offers a little redneck philosophy –  “Ain’t nothin’ sadder than an outdoor cat  thinks he’s an indoor cat. ”

They join the rest of the hunters and find a garage for shelter.  The hunters begin to grab things yelling “claimed” as they go along.  Daryl lies down to sleep.  When he wakes up, Len is claiming that Daryl stole his half of the rabbit.  He demands that Daryl empty his bag but Joe steps between them.  He searches Daryl’s bag and finds the missing rabbit remains.  Len accuses him of stealing it.  Joe says that either Daryl is lying or Len planted it, then he punches Len.   He tells the others to teach Len a lesson and they descend on him like mad dogs.  Joe tells Daryl that he told the truth and Len lied.  The next day, the hunters, along with Daryl leave the garage.  Daryl sees Len’s body, with an arrow through his head, outside the door and starts to cover him up.  The group starts off towards the tracks and finds a sign for Terminus.  Daryl asks Joe if he’s seen it before and Joe says that he has, but that it’s all a lie.  He tells Daryl that they’re not going to welcome people like them with open arms.  He then tells Daryl about the “living piece of excrement” who killed one of his men and left him to turn at a house they’d found, and the only reason they’re going to Terminus is to set things right.  As the walk along the tracks, they step over Carl’s discarded candy wrapper.

Terminus

“Lower Your Weapons.  You Will Be Met.  You Have Arrived at Terminus” – sign at the entrance

Abe, Glenn and the group have found Terminus.  It’s an old railroad station and it looks like Paradise.  It’s all neat and clean with vegetable garden and grass and trees.  They approach the first gate and find that it isn’t locked.  When they get to the next gate, that isn’t locked, either.  They walk a little farther and see a woman cooking meat over a fire.  She turns towards the group, introduces herself as Mary  and welcomes them to Terminus.  She then tells them to get comfortable and offers to make them some plates of food.

I have some questions – Just what is it that Mary’s cooking up on that barbecue?  Where is everybody else who made their way to Terminus?  Where is Beth?  Will Joe even know who Rick is?  Lastly, is Eugene really going to save the world or is his battery in need of a charge?

Next week is the season finale – see you on the other side.

Empress