In Michonne’s living room. She puts her katana on the wall, and then takes it down and straps it on her back. She’s still wearing her police uniform. Looks like she’s feeling that her walker-killing days aren’t over yet.
A walker creeps by an abandoned car with the words ‘wolves not air’ written on it.
Back to Rick and Morgan at night as Morgan sees that Rick just killed a man (from the end of last season). Cut to morning. The walkers are blocked out of their city by two semi-trucks angled together. One of the trucks is edging over the cliff of the quarry. Rick screams – ‘it’s open now.’ The walkers are going to get into their city if they don’t stop them. They have to make a plan! Rick is ordering people around so that they can deal with the huge horde. Nick, the guy who Glenn didn’t kill at the end of last season (Glenn would have been justified because it almost got Glenn killed, and got Noah ripped to shreds in the revolving door of doom), is there to help. Everyone takes their positions. Rick says ‘NOW!’, and a flare goes off. We’re in black and white and then color. Really gross walkers now – really decayed. And all of them are heading toward the settlement. Some of their clothes are a little clean for being out there in the open for two years, but in general they look pretty good.
Credits! Great opening!
Night – black and white. Deanna sits in the dark by the huge pool of Reg’s blood. A huge loss for her. Gabriel walks up, and Deanna tells him he was wrong. Abraham carries Reg’s body to a graveyard. He’s drinking and pours a bit of the alcohol on Reg. He notices Reg’s wedding ring – he’s probably thinking of his own dead wife.
Jessie is sitting with her son Sam on the couch, also black and white. They’re both upset.
Cut to Rosita and Tara. Tara is a bit better. Glenn brings in Rick. Glenn and Maggie are happy to see Tara awake and more or less okay. Eugene comes in and says ‘thank god’. He’s so happy to see her. Good thing he stepped up at the end of last season to rescue her. Tara makes a comment about his mullet-hairdo.
Carl and Enid, sitting on a dock. Just sitting and doing nothing.
Daryl and Morgan are sitting in the kitchen eating some food. Morgan tells Rick he was right, it isn’t over. Rick says he doesn’t take chances anymore, and Morgan agrees, he shouldn’t.
Abraham is so drunk it takes him two tries to set Reg’s ring on top of the whiskey bottle. Sasha is there below keeping an eye on him, and things in general.
Morning. They’re blowing flares everywhere to attract or distract walkers. Daryl is riding noisily up on his motorcycle.
Black and white – morning. Daryl and Rick are talking outside, and Daryl is working on his bike. Rick doesn’t want to bring in more people to Alexandria. Daryl kind of does.
Color – Sasha and Abraham are in a car, Sasha is driving. She asks Abraham if he’s so worried about her, then why is he in the car with her? He looks at her and thinks, and in the end doesn’t say anything. Whatever their plan is, Sasha regards it as living. They’re waiting for the ‘parade’. This can’t be good.
Black and white – Rick walks in on Morgan who is practicing aikido with his stick (a jo?). Some slick martial arts moves there, Morgan. Rick wants to know if he learned how to do all of that before or after. Morgan says he learned after. ‘After everything’. Morgan says they need to get to know each other again.
Black and white – Eugene, by the gate. Heath wants in. Eugene won’t let him in because he doesn’t recognize him, and wants to know how he knows Heath won’t kill him if he does. Heath says he won’t, but if Eugene doesn’t let him in right now he’ll beat his ass. Eugene lets him in. Heath’s been out on a supply run for a couple of months.
The rest of Heath’s group comes in, a man and woman. They are sorry for Eugene’s loss of Noah. They don’t know Noah’s name, but get that Eugene’s group lost a member when Eugene corrects himself about the number in their party. Eugene says there was a meeting, and that Heath should talk to Deanna. Eugene likes Heath’s hair – long dreds held in a pony tail. He references his own mullet.
Black and White – Rick and Morgan. Rick is worried that the inhabitants here won’t be able to fight when they need to. They’re weak and unprepared.
Gabriel and another man are digging graves by the wall. One is for Reg and the other for Peter. A grim-faced Deanna comes up and says to take Peter outside the gates and ‘let the trees have him’.
Morgan and Rick put the body in a car trunk. Morgan observes that they are both killers.
Color – Rick calls Glenn and wants to know if they’re in place. Morgan, Michonne, and Rick are in place. Morgan and Michonne discuss whether or not she took his last peanut butter protein bar back when they were in Morgan’s town and he was nuts. She says she didn’t, but we remember that she did. They discuss about how they always feel that that there was one more peanut butter protein bar. We start to hear the walkers gather.
Black and white – Ron sees a car go by.
Morgan and Rick are out in the woods to dispose of Peter’s body.
Morgan starts to dig. Rick keeps watch. Rick tells Morgan to stop. Rick hears a sound. They climb on top of the rocks and see a boatload of walkers. Ron runs and Rick pushes him out of the way – he could have gone over the side of the cliff. Walkers approach, which they have to fight. Several of the walkers end up falling into the quarry. Woah, good thing Ron ran by or they might not have known it was there!
Color –here comes Daryl as the pied piper on his bike, leading his horde of walkers away from the settlement. It’s a huge horde – hundreds and hundreds of them. He’s quiet and resolute. A car pulls in front of them. It’s Sasha and Abraham.
Black and white – at the quarry. Rick wants to know what Ron is doing out here. Ron says he wants to know where his dad is buried. Peter must be his dad. The quarry is filled to capacity with walkers.
Rick says this is how the community was able to take root. Most of the walkers are trapped in the quarry. Not many get out, but periodically a handful of walkers get through the small gap between the two trucks. Rick tells Ron he shouldn’t be out here. Rick tells him he’s coming back with them and to not make it hard for Rick. He describes to Ron the horrors that will happen to him if he stays out there when he’s not prepared (which he isn’t). After being eaten alive, he’ll ‘live’ the horror forever because after he dies, he’ll turn into a walker.
Still black and white, Rick and Morgan, where’s Ron? Ah, he’s coming. They go back to digging the grave for Peter.
Color – the plan is almost in place. Walkers are trying to get out of a construction building with lots of glass windows. Much banging on the glass windows by the walkers. Glenn is telling Nicholas to open the door carefully and let out only two walkers at a time. They’ll kill those and then let out two more. Heath looks skeptical. He says this is supposed to be a dress rehearsal only and it seems very dangerous to him. Glenn says he’s supposed to be delivering pizzas, so lets get to it. They open the door to let them out and are faced with – a corrugated steel wall!
Daryl, and Abraham and Sasha are in place.
Black and white – Heath gives a debrief of his adventures. He explains about the semi-trucks. Rick says that if one of those semis falls into the quarry, the walkers will come for them and overrun the settlement. It will happen, and it’s only a matter of time – not if, but when. Carol, in stealth mode, says it sounds terrifying but it doesn’t look like there’s any other way. She’s being a great shill for Rick. Deanna says they’ll do what Rick says.
Daryl will lead the walkers away. Sasha says she’ll take a car to back up Daryl. Abraham volunteers to go with her. Glenn says to Maggie – stay with Deanna – keep an eye on her. She’s fragile. Maggie reluctantly agrees. Gabriel volunteers to help and Rick shuts him down fast with a one word answer – ‘no’.
Carter wants to build up the wall, and Rick says no. Carter isn’t keen to follow Rick after Rick waves around a gun and shoots a man in the face. Heath and a woman volunteer to help as does a random guy. Nicholas volunteers, and he and Glenn have a moment – Nicholas looks him in the eye and Glenn glares at him. Glenn is so not amused. Seems like Nicholas either wants to sabotage them or make amends.
Color – we can hear the walkers, more flares go off, Daryl and Sasha lead them to the RV. Rick, Morgan and Michonne are behind the RV waiting.
Black and white – they plan to use the RVs as blocks, and to draw away the walkers. Eugene has a plan to move them to the construction area. Carter is really skeptical. He’s the one who built the walls to Reg’s specifications.
Color – Daryl and Sasha lead the walkers away from the wall. The flares help. Michonne is looking at something with a look of revulsion on her face – she sees the horde of walkers through the gap in the corrugated steel. They’re just inches away from her. The walkers look at the flares. There’s so many of them that they bang their heads against the walls which causes them to fall apart, the rest keep walking, crunching the fallen walkers as they step on them. Walkers are going down Redding and Marshall Streets.
Black and white – everyone digging. Rick and Jessie catch their eyes. Daryl tells Rick they should get more people. Carol brings Rick something cold to drink. Rick tells her to stay back and get a feel for how people are doing now. She tells Rick that he’s in charge now.
Color – Rick and co. They have a new plan to open the building. Maggie and Tara discuss Glenn and Nicholas. Maggie tells Tara that Nick got Noah killed and almost got Glenn killed. Maggie tells Tara how important Tara is to her. And that they can make things better. They hug. Glenn looks on and smiles.
Color – Glenn shoots out the large glass window, and walkers stream out. Heath and Glenn shoot walkers, one by one. They keep streaming out. Glenn and Heath both have to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the walkers. Glenn almost gets bitten, Nick comes in to help, and saves Glenn. They kill all the walkers as they work as a team. Nick kills the last one. They take off to do the next part of their plan.
Black and white – Morgan is building part of the corrugated fence. Carol brings him something to drink. He looks at her and asks her if she was a cop. She says no, and asks why. He says because she’s always watching and is always keeping a read on things. She says ‘aren’t you sweet’. We now have a situation where the watcher is being watched. She walks off.
Color – Abraham jumps out of the car in hopes of getting the walkers back on track, and Sasha drives slowly on in front of him. She’s worried about his reckless behavior and is not paying strict attention to the road, and it seems like she might get into an accident – which would really suck. Abraham lures the walkers away, kills a few, and then jumps back in the car. The walkers are now back on track. It was all very daredevil-y.
Abraham talks to Sasha about Reg’s death. He says it was a mess, and then Peter’s face blowing up like Pompeii. Shasha gives him a worried look. Abraham checks his face in the rear view mirror as well as the walkers. The walkers are following them again, as is the plan. It seems he’s going crazy – between his drunkenness with Reg’s body, and this. Will he be able to keep it together?
Black and white – Rick says to Deanna that he’s sorry about Reg. He was a good man, smart and kind. He then tells her they’re doing the right thing by building the wall as they are. Corrugated steel. The first of the walkers are coming toward the group. He tells them to use their shovels, not guns, so as to not make so much noise. These people are so not ready. They are petrified, back away, and generally don’t know what to do first. Rick, Daryl and Michonne dive in to kill the walkers before anyone gets killed.
Morgan comments to Rick that he thought Rick didn’t take any chances anymore. They all give each other meaningful looks.
Black and white – Eugene is raiding the pantry, and is kind of eavesdropping and kind of not. He just hears voices and it sounds like they’re plotting. He goes to investigate and hears ‘how many more of us have to die?’ Carter is talking to a small group of people about killing Rick before Rick gets them killed. Eugene knocks something over and Carter sees him. Carter says ‘he heard’. Eugene says ‘no, I didn’t.’ Good deadpan delivery. Love Eugene. Carter points a gun at Eugene and decides whether or not to kill him. Rick and his group come in and ask what is going on? Rick knows and appears to let it all go, and says ‘we should set up some lookouts.’ Then he quickly takes the gun from Carter, while Carter’s guard is down. He says Carter can’t take the city away from all of them, not Daryl, Glenn, or Michonne. Rick does not kill Carter and tells him to try to work with them.
Color – the vast horde. It’s probably a thousand of them. Rick and his group are in the woods hiding from the walkers. Carter says the plan is working, that Rick was right. They shake hands. They want to keep the walkers on track. They each go to their positions. The horde walks on by in the middle of the street.
Carter runs to his new position, and is grabbed by an unnoticed walker and bitten. Not just bitten but his whole cheek is bitten off.
Black and white – Morgan is waxing his jo and Rick is holding Judith. He tells Morgan he should stay with them. Michonne walks up, stands behind them unobserved and listens. Rick asks Morgan if he would like to hold Judith. He would. He’s still wearing his wedding ring. Morgan sits down with Judith.
Morgan says Rick is still Rick. They talk about Carter. Rick wanted to kill Carter, so he wouldn’t have to worry about Carter screwing up. But he didn’t. Michonne watches. But then Rick realized he didn’t have to do it. Carter doesn’t get it, he either has to learn or he’ll die. The towns-people are going to die no matter what (people like Carter) if they don’t get with the program.
Color – Rick pulls the walker off of Carter. Carter is screaming, and screaming, and screaming. Rick tells Carter to stop screaming, but he won’t. Rick knows that if Carter doesn’t quiet down, the currently distracted walkers will stop being distracted and come after them. Rick quickly kills Carter with a knife so as not to make any more noise. Morgan and Michonne watch.
The gunfire brings the walkers back on track. Michonne and Morgan look at Carter and say they know how it is. They are grim-faced as Rick kills a walker in the background.
Color – the horde walking down the street.
Black and white – Jessie counting guns. Rick comes in and says he’s just getting more flares for tomorrow. He tells her about Ron being outside the gate. She tells him you can’t talk to him like that. Rick says he needed to hear what he told him. Jessie says no, you can’t talk to him like that, he won’t hear you. She then says Rosita will teach her to shoot, and then she’ll teach Ron and Sam. It’s all reasonable enough but sulky teenagers who can’t be told anything are probably not long for this world.
Color – back to the horde. Rick and Michonne are walking through the woods.
Black and white – final orders from Rick. Abraham and Sasha – Abraham asks her if she’s doing this because she wants to die. She smiles up at him and says no. Her smile looks genuine, so maybe she’s fought through her PTSD, at least for the time being. Good thing too since Abraham is starting to go.
Color – Abraham and Sasha in the car, Daryl on the bike.
Black and white – at the construction store – with Glenn and Nicholas. Glenn tells Nick that Nick isn’t ready. But Glenn lets him know that he won’t hold a grudge against him. It’s all about experience. A walker is trapped under a car.
Color – Nick, and group skulking through the woods.
Black and white – Rick says that they’re in an insane world and they have to come for the walkers before they come for them.
Color – the horde shuffling down the street, Rick and company are paralleling them under the cover of the woods next to the street. Then a horn goes off. Everyone is shocked. Glenn runs and the horde turns toward the sound which is by the settlement.
Where is the horn is coming from home? Sabotage? Accident? The horde is now heading straight for the settlement. All of them.
Then there is a an aerial shot of all the walkers – so many of them. It could be a thousand of them. The episode ends.