Surviving The Walking Dead Season 6 Premiere: Was It a Good Plan?

What about Morgan? He’s evidently the show’s new moral compass, along with Glenn. The camaraderie between him and Rick is special because it’s a callback to the first days of the outbreak when we were introduced to them. Morgan represents that sense of relief that a person in this world feels when they find out an old acquaintance is alive. Someone somehow survived and made it, which has to be a good thing for your psyche. Still, is it smart for Rick to trust Morgan? Yes and no.

Morgan cryptically says he’s learned his fighting skills from a “friend,” which could be anybody, including the Wolves (those people who might be carving the “W” on undead foreheads).

If anything, though, Morgan is the type of person you put faith in; he’s more upstanding than, say, Shane, and isn’t afraid to challenge Rick. Their bond is evident in a conversation during one of the black-and-white flashbacks when Rick walks in on Morgan practicing fight moves with a big stick. They’re feeling each other out, playing catch up and Morgan says, “The way I look at it, sometimes you’re safer when there’s no way out. We gotta get to know each other again, for the first time. Again.” And there’s your episode title: “First Time Again.”

Then, of course, there’s Glenn and Nicholas. It’s fitting that Glenn, as the calm antithesis of Rick, would give Nicholas (the dude who let Noah die) a second chance. Glenn is that necessary grounding force. And Nicholas is worth trusting because he’s got a debt to pay off.

Trust issues also briefly come into play between Eugene and Heath (the actor who plays Dr. Dre in Straight Outta Compton), when Heath appears at the gate, back from a two-week trek. Eugene weighs whether to let Heath into the community, but only for a few seconds, confirming that Eugene would be be literal worst club bodyguard.

“Who the hell are you?” says Heath.

Eugene: “You first.”

I’m into this new guy, if only for the hair, which will surely be the death of him. Their banter adds the perfect amount of lightness to an anxious episode and Heath has a solid comedic energy with Eugene, who’s just happy to have a mullet (somewhat) friend.

2) Would we roll with Rick’s plan?

Yes, well, the plan is pretty brilliant and dumb as most plans are at this point. But it’s the only plan. And as usual no one presents a worthy alternative. Even if they did, it would likely be inferior to Rick’s because he seems to have logged a lot of hours of Black Ops.

The idiot walkers kept falling into this ditch (which was created how?) and getting trapped. So the plan is to lure them there, blocking them off with the trucks and cars to force them away from the community. Daryl (on his bike) and Sasha and Abraham (in a car) are tasked with drawing the walkers to their final destination. Rick, Michonne, and Morgan group together and use the sound of flares to further attract them.

There seems to be some clear shepherding imagery here, right? The walkers are being blindly led into this canyon just as Rick is doing with Alexandria. This long-term strategy, mixed with all the overhead shots of zombies and darting black-and-white flashbacks, gives the episode a crisp cinematic feel.

(Note that when Rick reveals the plan, the group’s wild card Carol, who’s still disguising her badassness under coyness, says to the group, “This is terrifying” and fakes a look of terror. It’s a good thing they left her behind, given how this episode ends. Alexandria will need her.)

Rick often buoys his decisions by taking away other people’s choices and being the only logical and loud person with a strategy. Most of the walkers are in this ditch, so it makes sense to try to get rid of them. Zombies move in herds, like Rick says, so might as well take advantage of their group think.

In the beginning of the episode, Deeana tells the village coward Father Gabriel that he was wrong about Rick’s crew being evil (remember when Gabriel snitched?). Completing this dichotomy, Morgan later tells Rick he was right (“You were right. It wasn’t over”), in reference to their initial meeting. Rick is the one person who’s highly skilled at dealing with the burden of right and wrong choices.

3) Would we end Carter’s life?

Yes, Rick should’ve done it the first time he had the chance. Instead, Carter gets a Get Out of Being Murdered by Rick Free Card and tags along with the group instead of staying at camp. Rick accurately describes him as somebody who shouldn’t be alive and says, “I wanted to kill him,” because he knew he would screw up at some point.

Sure enough, Carter gets bitten and Rick has to kill him in the woods anyway. The episode ends with an airhorn that distracts the zombies and all but ruins Rick’s plan, like we expected. Carol and Carl are still in Alexandria and now a community that wasn’t even prepared for a few zombies will have an entire clan on their hands. Time for Carol to show out.

Images via AMC