Episode 9 marked the midseason premiere of Season 6 of the American holocaust survival horror drama TV series “The Walking Dead” on AMC. It aired on February 14 with its promised Valentine’s Day massacre plotline.
Consistent with the comic book plot, Jessie, played by Alexandra Breckenridge, and her two boys, Sam and Ron, were the key victims of the episode titled “No Way Out.” Then there is also Carl, who accidentally got shot in the eye by Ron before Michonne killed the latter by piercing his heart from the back with her sword after Ron attempted to kill Rick.
Ron was obviously mad at Rick for chopping off the hand of his mother after she got swarmed upon by walkers and not letting go of Carl’s hand.
The good news for the long-time fans of “The Walking Dead” is that no one from Rick’s original group got killed during the episode. The even better news is that they all came out at their best the way they were known in the past, with the exception of Carl who fell into a coma after being accidentally being shot in the left eye by Ron, notes Forbes.
The trio to the rescue
Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham came through in the episode with the big guns literally. The first scenes showed Daryl blowing away bike-riding members of Saviors with a rocket-propelled grenade.
Rosita, Tara, and Eugene, along with some members of the Alexandria community making a fight back against the walkers after Rick decided to vent his ire on them following the disaster that happened to Carl.
The unlikely Father Gabriel also came through as he protected and took Judith to safety away from all the walkers.
Glenn was back at Alexandria with Enid and nearly made a fatal error of trying to save Maggie from her predicament when he got himself cornered in the walls, only to be rescued by Sasha and Abraham.
Rick and Michonne were smoking but the arrival of the trio from the outside gave them a big lift in practically eliminating almost all of the walkers inside Alexandria.
Carol was still mad at Morgan for keeping the Wolf leader alive although it was shown later on in the episode that there is still some conscience remaining on him when he protected Denise from being eaten alive by the walkers. As the official nurse of Alexandria, Denise was able to run to safety and be there when Rick and Michonne brought the injured Carl in.
She also encouraged the rest of the Alexandria residents to join Rick and his group in fending off the walkers and free the community again.
An extremely satisfying return
The return of Season 6 of “The Walking Dead” from its midseason hiatus was extremely satisfying for hardcore fans of the TV series since Day 1.
Although there were some scary moments including the near-death yet again of Glenn when he got himself into the corner as Maggie shouts and cries her heart out, it was clear that the showrunners simply wanted to toy with their audience. Because, after a short while, Abraham, and Sasha came out with their automatic guns and started spraying all the walkers with bullets, knocking all of them, and rescuing Glenn and the whole of Alexandria.
The showrunners skilfully created tension by putting beloved characters at risk before saving them, which seems to be their mantra for the season – to keep trolling and mess with the audience’s head just for fun, notes The Verge.
After most of the walkers in Alexandria have been neutralized, Rick sat by Carl’s bed. He explained to his eyeless son that he was wrong about the people of Alexandria. He said he saw them fight and had realized what everyone can accomplish if they simply work together.