"JSS"
**SPOILER WARNING**
You've been warned!
The second episode in the sixth season of The Walking Dead proves to all of us true die-hard fans, that these last several months waiting in agony for the return, has been well worth the wait! I loved the first episode of the season, and this next installment is complementary. We get to see what happens when there's an attack on Alexandria. The question everyone's been wondering since last week "Who's blowing the horn!" But, I think the silent killer is the back story of Enid, while she's still a mystery, at least we get to see some of her origin story. Plus, Carol the Badass or Hero, is back!!
JSS opens with Enid traveling with her parents in their SUV, and while her parents are trying to figure out where they are going, or fixing the vehicle, they're overtaken. It's a great edit: it goes from Enid letting her parents know that there are Walkers surrounding them, she starts to yell, then to her in the car surrounded by the aftermath. The opening sequence with Enid shows some of her survival after her parents are eaten, until she arrives at Alexandria. Through out her time walking around, she keeps leaving "JSS" everywhere. At one point, for survival, she crosses paths with a tortoise, as she savagely eats it raw, mirroring how the walker ate her parents. The actress who portrays Enid was on Talking Dead and she talked about this process.
We meet the new resident doctor, Dr. Denise. I love the actress who is playing her, so I'm excited to see how the character develops through the show. She's super anxious about being the new doctor, she explains how shes only a psychiatrist, she has minimal training, so she's super anxious. So, I'm excited to see where she goes. But, am I the only one still concerned about Tara? Why is she dizzy and why does she need Tylenol. Granted, she probably is still recovering, but I'm still leery, I think something else is going on with her. Jessie and Ron have a scene where he demonstrates more of his teen angst. I think the actors did a great portrayal of mother and son and really being in that moment. I felt like it was a real situation, the attitudes colliding, the reactions, and results. But, by far my favorite scenes this episode were with Carol. When she's in the pantry with other town women, the entire time I'm thinking "they have no idea who they're talking to". One even makes the statement how she's an honest-to-goodness hero. They might have been talking about her cooking skills, but later we'll see, she is Carol the Hero who saves Alexandria. There's another great scene where Carol tells her neighbor off about smoking, it was great. She's harsh, but they're living in a harsh world. Meanwhile, Maggie is telling Deanna how they can continue to build Alexandria, by planting and being their for the people Deanna's been leading.
An interesting scene is when Carl is out walking Judith in her stroller, he comes across Enid with Ron. But, Carl is interrupted by Father Gabriel who talks to him and says he wants to try. At first, Carl wants nothing to do with him, but Father Gabriel seems sincere in his desire to learn now, everyone goes through their breaking points differently. So, Carl tells him that he'll try and they set-up a meeting time, so Carl and give him the pointers he desperately needs. As he leaves Father Gabriel, he looks back toward Enid who is now hugging Ron, and she looks directly at Carl, it's not like she's hugging him and cares, you can tell she has no affection for Ron, it's more of an obligation or something. Then it cuts to Carol in her kitchen putting one of her casseroles in the oven, she stops to watch her neighbor outside smoking. You can tell she's thinking about what she told her in the pantry, and you just think Carol could totally go out there and take care of business, when out of NOWHERE this huge dude wack the neighbor with a machete!! What?!
Town is being brutally attacked by a group of Wolves. Rick's group that is left in Alexandria jumps into action, they're well prepared, while the other Alexandrian's are struggling with what to do, most of them are being slaughtered by the Wolves. One of their tractor trailers barrels toward the watch tower, busting through it, and the horn blows continuously from the driver dying. At least that question was answered.
Tip #1 Don't put a guy in the watch tower with a sniper that can't shoot!!
Holly was severely injured during the attack and is brought to the new doc, she's really anxious and doesn't want to operate on her, Tara and Eugene talk her into it, explaining how she has to try. Eugene has this real moment where he's explaining to her how she needs to do it because she doesn't want to battle with being a coward, he should know, right? Morgan arrives to take care of the horn and has a brief interaction with Spencer. When he basically asks Spencer if he's going to help, and Spencer hesitates, Morgan tells him to hide. Morgan goes into Alexandria to face the attackers. Carol has already entered her survival mode and argues with Morgan about killing people. Maggie, Deanna, and Spencer are trying to get a handle on what's going on, Maggie leaves them to go help the town after Deanna explains to her that she is of no use in helping and takes refuge in the truck. While the Wolves are chasing people down, one finds Ron and starts chasing him, as Carl saves Ron by shooting the wolf in the leg and eventually killing him. Carl tells Ron to go into the house, he can keep him safe, but when Ron sees that Enid is already there, he refuses and runs away. Jessie had locked herself and her younger son in the closet, but when she hears Ron entering the house, the wolf that was inside scampers off, she goes to warn Ron and ends up brutally killing the wolf with a pair of kitchen scissors. You shouldn't mess with a Momma Bear!
Carol proves to be the towns hero as she goes through taking care of buisness. Morgan saves Father Gabriel, as Morgan is tying up his captor, Carol arrives and shots the wolf in the head. Aaron is also going through the town shooting any wolves he comes into contact with. Morgan has a really difficult time with all the killing. Aaron and Rosita join the fight too, killing any wolves they come into contact with. There is a great scene with Morgan interacting with a group of wolves that surround him. They recognize him, and he starts talking to them in a detached language pattern, he probably can understand their level of crazy, because he's been there. But, he sends them off with their tails between their legs, as he closes the gates to Alexandria.
Are you Team Morgan and want to spare the living at all costs? Or, Team Carol, shoot to kill so they don't come back?
Once it seems all the wolves have retreated or have been killed, Carol is having a moment, you can see her breaking a little, taking the moment to mourn. But, you know right after she'll get up and keep being her fabulous self. Interestingly though, she had disguised herself as a wolf, even painting a bloody W on her forehead. During this moment when she's letting everything sink in, she goes to rub the W off, and as she turns to the left there is the red A on the porch that we've seen through out some episodes. Aaron's going through the town making sure none of the dead turn, when he eventually finds his old backpack, that one of the wolves had, filled with the Alexandria pictures he use to show people, you can see the torment that he led these people there, the wolves. I can't recall how he lost it or where he left it. But, you can definitely see the torment going through him as he realizes the scope.
The rest of the episode is everyone dealing with the immediate aftermath. It's basically Rick's group helping the Alexandrian's deal with what is going on. They've been around the block a few times, where the Alexandrian's have been secluded really. There are some great scenes; Spencer asks Rosita basically how they live with it, and she answers along the lines of "have something worth living for." Maggie and Deanna come to the burnt guard they had seen previously, when the attack first began, and as Maggie ends the walker, she tries to comfort or guide Deanna and says "We're still here", Deanna's retort "Not all of us." Carl is still guarding Judith and their house, he calls for Enid, but finds a not she left "just survive somehow" - the mystery of JSS solved! Which I didn't pick up on until watching Talking Dead and they pointed it out. Morgan comes across the wolf he had the interaction with in the woods last season, they fight. The wolf even comments how Morgan can't kill, and Morgan apologizes before hitting him with his staff.
The episode ends with Morgan walking through the streets of Alexandria, Carol is also patrolling. They don't say anything, they just cross paths, and continue their patrols. Like I said, this episode was amazing, I loved last weeks premiere episode, and I love this one too. It has me super excited about the rest of the season!
Kevin Smith & Jarvis and The Vision, Paul Bettany were tonight's guests. It was a great therapy session after this episode. I love Kevin Smith, he was funny, smart, and he's a real fan, so I could totally relate with his train of reasoning pertaining the show. Mr. Bettany provided the sultry British accent, and his different perspectives were appreciated. They also had the actress who portrays Enid on and she gave some insight into her character. On that note: I was on the fence about the theory that Enid is with The Wolves. Then, tonight during the Play Dead interactions, one of the questions was about the characters' name of the wolf Carol was disguised as. His name was Aphid, which seems too similar to Enid, there just seems to be too many bug references there for my liking, or similarities. What if, all the wolves had bug names, or different packs have themed names. Also! When she's talking to Carl during this episode, and she's explaining to him how Alexandria is too big... it just seemed like maybe she had heard it before, maybe she was repeating what the Alpha or the leader of their pack was saying, she could have been there this entire time scoping things out. During this scene with Carl, she starts to say "that's how we [wolves] were able to..." but, Carl interrupts her!
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| Is she or isn't she?? |
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