Walking Dead Recap Winter Premiere No Way Out

The Walking Dead midseason premiere is an episode with major endings (read: deaths) and a big beginning for those who’ve been residents of Alexandria for any length of time. Most surprisingly for an installment that includes what is possibly the most devastating three minutes in Walking Dead history — an episode in which so much happens, and most of it not good — things end on a hopeful note. Not that that’s likely to last…


Negan’s Dudes

We saw a teaser of the episode’s opening scene as a postscript to last November’s midseason finale: Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham had the misfortune to have their trip home in the Pattrick’s Fuel Company truck interrupted by a group of motorcycle-riding baddies who identified themselves only as working on behalf of a man named Negan. 

“Wait!” Sasha says, launching into an attempt to reason with HND. Abraham tries to stop her, but she tells him, “I am talking to the man.”

“No, you’re not,” HND says, guns still aimed. “I’m not gonna kill you,” he continues, as Sasha breathes a sigh of relief. “Wait, wait, you know what? Yes, I am,” and he means it this time, which is why it’s great that Daryl has perfect timing. It’s this exact moment that Daryl chooses to step from behind the truck, RPG launcher (found by Abraham in “Always Accountable”) at the ready, and fires it at HND and his crew. They explode, with bike and body parts flying.

“I’m supposed to. I have to. I will,” Gabriel says, and Rick, without hesitation, agrees to put the life of his baby in Gabriel’s hands. Jessie also wants Sam to go with Gabriel, but her youngest, most vulnerable child won’t leave her side. She agrees to keep him with her, in a monumentally bad decision, and Gabriel walks, with Judith under his poncho, towards the church.


And that’s when a walker sneaks up behind him and starts eating him, alive, just like Carol had warned. That begins a brutal, three-minute domino effect in which:

* Sam is eaten by walkers;

* Jessie can do nothing but scream as she watches her child being devoured; 

* Carl tries to get Jessie, who’s still holding his hand, to move on, but she can’t; 

* More walkers, drawn by the commotion and Jessie’s screams, attack Jessie, as Rick watches, saying, “No, no,” as he flashes back to scenes of her smiling and laughing; 

* Carl yells for Rick to help him, as walkers are moving quickly towards him, and he can’t free his hand from Jessie so he can run; 

* Rick has to take out his ax and chop off Jessie’s arm — the arm of the woman who was likely to be his next love — so he can save his son’s life;

* As Carl gets free of Jessie, he stumbles and his gun drops to the ground; 

* Ron picks up the gun, and, having just watched the last two members of his family get eaten, points the gun at Rick, the man who killed his father;

* Ron, saying, “You… you,” is about to fire on Rick, when Michonne stabs him through the back with her katana; 

* As the katana goes through Ron, the gun goes off, but Rick is not shot; 

* Carl, who was standing near Rick, turns around and says, “Dad?” as Rick sees that Carl has been shot in his right eye. Carl collapses; 

* Rick scoops Carl up and runs toward the infirmary, as Michonne chops through the walkers to clear a path to get Carl to medical help.