Opinions seem to vary on the most recent episode of “The Walking Dead,” Season 6 Episode 6, “Always Accountable.” Me, though? I really liked it. Before I get give you the 6 things that caught me most, here’s your one and only SPOILER ALERT.
A quick recap. This episode opens to Daryl, Sasha and Abraham peeling away from the walkers (whom they led 20 miles from Alexandria), only to find themselves in the midst of a full-blown ambush. They manage to escape (Daryl, somewhat unbelievably), but they’re split up in the process. Daryl finds himself in the woods while Sasha and Abraham hole up in some sort of military office facility and wait for Daryl to come get them. Because as Sasha points out, he is a tracker, after all.
Two storylines ensue. Daryl happens upon the people for which the ambush was intended (a dude and two women) and becomes their captive for a bit. Till he pulls a Daryl and escapes with their bag which contains his crossbow (which the trio had absconded) and a cooler that held insulin for one of the women.
Daryl, ever the tough-guy-softie, pulls another Daryl and goes back to his former captors because of the whole sick-girl-needs-insulin situation, but as soon as he finds them, they’re discovered by the group which had ambushed Sasha, Abraham and him. (Or so I presume.) Some dude named Wade is in charge. We never see his face.
The trio who’d detained Daryl appears to have once been a part of their group. They also seem to have taken something from them, thus their beef. Something which the trio feels justified in taking. Anyway, thanks to some quick thinking by Daryl, Wade’s group retreats after they’re forced to amputate Cam’s arm (pesky walkers), thus rendering the trio safe and sound.
They thank Daryl by stealing his crossbow (again) and his bike, this despite the fact that Daryl was trying to bring them back to Alexandria with him.
Well, two of them do all that to Daryl. Because insulin girl met her fate right after the confrontation with Wade, serving as an important PSA in the process.
Never place a makeshift memorial next to the dead. Even if they used to be your bestie.
Meanwhile, Sasha sleeps next to an office-caged walker while Abraham does Abraham things, getting right in the face of an impaled-yet-suspended walker being chief among them. A few deep exchanges are sprinkled in between, most of them laden with metaphors that real people don’t bust out in normal conversation.
But it’s the apocalypse, which I suppose would bring out the dimestore Aristotle in even the most vapid of us.
Anyway, there they sit till, TADA, Daryl arrives in a big-ass fuel truck he found hidden in the woods after the man and woman make off on his bike with his crossbow. The episode ends with Daryl, Sasha and Abraham driving toward Alexandria in their new ride. Daryl tries to dial up Rick on the walkie talkie, and on the other end, we hear a mystery voice yell HELP!
The internet at large freaked out and presumed it was Glenn.
All of which leads to my 6 things:
1) Mystery Group
Immediately after Daryl escapes the ambush, he finds himself in a stretch woods that’s been burned. We learn later that the fire was set by Daryl’s captors, presumably when they were a part of their larger group, during a time when the mystery group was “fighting back.”
Sidetrack: Remember at the very beginning when Daryl finds himself lying next to a badly burned dude in some sort of helmet? Reminded me of this guy:
Minus the scrub brush, green tutu, red unitard and enormous kicks. But that’s probably just me.
Interesting the burned guy (a motorcyclist?) was featured at the beginning and the end of the woods sequence. But more interesting still is the mystery group in general. I suspect that Wade, Cam and them will somehow lead our friends to Negan who is (from what I’ve gathered by reading online) a villain in the comic series that makes The Governor come off like Little Lord Fauntleroy.
Long story short: a really bad dude is coming and these guys were probably the gateway to him.
2) The Betrayal of Daryl
After insulin girl suffered Death by Dipshittery (seriously, who lays flowers between two potential walkers?), Daryl is betrayed by the two who remain. The betrayal is the theft of his motorcycle and, perhaps even more notably, his crossbow. And that’s bad.
But it’s made even worse by the fact that they did such off the heels of Daryl inviting them to Alexandria. And, as one of Alexandria’s recruiters, that slight probably stung Daryl on multiple levels.
The girl tells Daryl “I’m sorry.” Daryl’s “You’re gonna be” is easily the line of the episode. Because, first, it’s just a badass line, tailor made for a badass like Daryl. But because, second, you know it’s true.
He mad.
3) Abraham’s Freak Out
Sasha and Abraham make for an interesting duo, no? Sasha was clearly a little loco after Bob’s death, and Abraham’s not so sane himself. And they’ve sorta vacillated on who’s further off the reservation than the other. Currently it’s Abraham.
This is evidenced by his desire to kill any and every walker he comes across. Even freshly dead humans, such as the ones he and Sasha shot in the ambush. Such behavior could easily get him killed, and we see the manifestation of that when Abraham goes absolutely nuts and yells in the face of the impaled, suspended walker and seemingly damn near dies in the process. (Worth noting: Abraham comes away from that scene with some serious rocket/grenade type things that will clearly come into play later.)
Anyway, after seeing all that, I had an epiphany of sorts.
Abraham’s one of those dudes who’s super touchy when he’s drunk. Likely a big ass-slapper as well. Your basic meathead by day, overly physical/emotional drunk by night. The kind of guy who, after a few pops, hugs you so tight that his stubble actually hurts your face.
That said, I’m 100% pro Abraham. If for no other reason than my next takeaway.
4) Abraham’s Libido
If there’s a spinoff show to The Walking Dead (well, another spinoff), I recommend we call it “Abe’s Babes.” Because that guy’s clearly out for ass.
And we see that when he tells Sasha he’d like to “get to know her better” a euphemism, I suspect, for get drunk and hit it after I get done wrestling with a coupla my dude friends.
Sasha’s like “You need to work on some stuff and what makes you think I’m even down with that?” Abe comes back with some sort of “A guy can tell these things” line.
Reasonably effective if you ask me. He gets an A+ for confidence, that’s for sure.
But an F on consideration. I mean, he and Rosita seem to have, I dunno, a convenient post-apocalypse thing going. I’m praying this doesn’t turn into the female-lopsided version of the Rick-Shane-Lori thing.
Last thought. How in the world is Daryl not running tail?
5) Reunion, Anyone?
As I said up top, I was good with this episode. I actually liked it a lot, particularly in comparison to the one or two that preceded it. But we’re now six episodes into this season and we’ve still not had a legit post-zombie-parade reunion, and I think it’s high time that happen. There are only two more episodes this calendar year. I hope we get some of the A-teamers back together between now and then.
It might be imminent as “Always Accountable” ends with Daryl, Sasha and Abraham driving a fuel truck toward Alexandria where the rest of the gang (aside from Glenn) awaits. And while we’re on that, am I the only one who thinks that’d be a really dangerous ride? As in, I’d literally opt to walk instead. Should they fall under ambush again, they’d get BLOWED UP.
6) Who Said Help?
Even if most weren’t wondering about the safety of the highly combustable fuel truck, I know for a fact that I wasn’t in the minority about wondering if the walkie talkie responder was, in fact, Glenn.
But Norman Reedus (the actor who plays Daryl) insists it’s not. In this interview. Yes, he could be guilty of being smokescreeny and whatnot. But he could be straight up, too.
Regardless, they need to at least broach the vague manner in which Glenn’s supposed death was portrayed, and they need to do it soon.
I suspect that goes down next week.
