Recap: The Walking Dead Season 6 premiere —I (don’t) love a parade!

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Lennie James as Morgan Jones, Ethan Embry as Carter and Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes - The Walking Dead _ Season 6, Episode 1 - Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

We’ve all been waiting long enough, fellow fans, and The Walking Dead Season 6 has finally begun. Boy, has it ever! I’m pretty sure you’ve heard somewhere that “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” And if you haven’t, I’m pretty sure you’ve lived long enough to know that Plan B is usually just as good as Plan A, and neither one is all that great. (I usually just plan for the worst. That way, I’m never disappointed.) And with that in mind …

Episode 1, “First Time Again,” is artfully constructed with a flip-flop between converging segments shot in black and white (the past)  and color (the now). It’s confusing at first, but eventually it all makes sense … somewhere around the end. That said, there is much to be missed with just one viewing, so if you haven’t the chance, watch it again. It helps.

Before the opening credits roll, we see a gigantic pit chock-full of walkers. Rick is up top shouting directives at anxious new and not-so-new faces. He seems pretty confident in what he’s saying, until Sasha points out a semi-truck grinding its way down the side of the pit, creating an exit for the currently corralled corpses. Rick screams, “It’s open! We have to do this now!” Then, chaos ensues. I’m into it, but at this point, I feel like I missed a season somewhere between five and six. I don’t know about you, but I was grateful for the opening credits just to get my bearings.

So, how the hell did we get here?

RELATED: The Walking Dead Season 6: Who’s Friend And Who’s Foe In — And Out — Of Alexandria?

After digesting the initial scene, we are — whew! — yanked back to the familiar.  A segment in black and white reveals a bloodied, grief-stricken, super-pissed, Deanna. As she frets over the death of her husband and a town meeting gone wrong, Father Gabriel ( pfft!) steps out of the shadows (a popular move among creeps) to offer his condolences. He doesn’t get that far, because Deanna all but spits, “You were wrong.” Well said, though I would have included a profane personal insult. Gabe drives me nuts. If you disagree, let’s throw down in the comments section.

On the upside, this segment also reveals some feel-goods. First off, Tara is awake, which makes Eugene very happy, of course. The fact that nothing has happened to Eugene’s hair makes Tara very happy, even if the rest of him weirds her out. Glenn returns after his ordeal with Nicholas, which makes Maggie very happy. Glenn brings Nicholas back, which doesn’t necessarily make me happy, but at least we know that Glenn is still his good old selfless self.

Elsewhere, Morgan and Rick – Oh yeah! Morgan has made it to Alexandria! — get a chance to catch up, but Rick is too tired to talk. Before shuffling off to bed, he informs Morgan that he no longer takes chances. Morgan replies, “And you shouldn’t.” I’m wondering exactly when Rick decided to swear off chance-taking, but I’m eager to see how that works out for him.

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Lennie James as Morgan and Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC

Color us back in color: Vehicles flank either side of a road. A lone walker squeezes between two of them just in time for Abraham to take it out drive-by style. As he and Sasha speed off, we hear Rick’s orders on the walkie: Daryl will lead them out; Sasha and Abraham will meet up with Daryl; Glenn and his crew will take care of the walkers at the tractor store. The importance of Glenn’s mission is emphasized.

Says Rick, with that endearing drawl, “You all have your assignments. You know where to rendezvous.” Oooh, thinks I! I mean, I still have no idea what’s going on. But Rick knows, so all is well. When I see Daryl slowly riding his cycle down the road with a stoic expression, I feel even more confident (and all mushy inside) because the cacophony of about a zillion zombies droning on behind him appears inconsequential. Man, they don’t make ’em any better than Daryl. If you don’t agree, I challenge you to a comment duel! If you do, let’s wax philosophic about his awesomeness.

In black and white, Daryl is working on his cycle within the confines of Alexandria, and he and Rick are chatting. I think it’s about Morgan and what he saw while traveling, as there’s mention of the “W” heads. Maybe you can shed more light on this conversation. I’d love more clarity. Anyway, Rick keeps talking, and then out it comes: Right after stressing the need for more watch points, he tells Daryl there will be no more recruiting missions. Daryl, who we know would rather be trapped in a car surrounded by walkers than behind the walls of Alexandria, doesn’t respond, but gives Rick one scorcher of a stink-eye. Later, Rick will eat those words. At this point, I made my own head movie of Rick sauntering away, thumbs in his belt loops, whistling with unwarranted self-assuredness, then catching his toe in the gravel and landing on his clean-shaven mug.

Color flash! Sasha is driving with Abraham, riding shotgun – literally. To check her mental status, he asks if she’s OK, because he doesn’t want her going “buckwild.” I find this humorous coming from Abraham, but I have to admit, her cheese came dangerously close to slipping off its cracker last season. When she says, “Listen, doing something as big as this, that’s living,” Abraham seems satisfied. At the red balloons where they’ll meet up with Daryl, Rick announces via walkie, “Here comes the parade!” I hate parades because I hate clowns. Clowns might even be scarier than walkers.

Back in the colorless world of Alexandria, Rick unlocks Morgan’s door and finds him practicing some bad ass moves with his trusty staff. Rick apologizes for locking Morgan up, but, you know — not taking chances anymore. Morgan, in his infinite wisdom, dismisses this with “sometimes you’re safer when there’s no way out” and adds, “Gotta get to know each other again … for the first time, again.” This is a profound statement, people.

Enter Eugene begrudgingly guarding the gate. We can always count on Eugene to add levity to tense situations. A truck full of Alexandria natives pulls up and, one, Heath (Corey Hawkins) requests entry, which Eugene initially denies. After repeated requests and the threat of an ass beating, Eugene finally obliges.

Heath, having been out on a run for a few weeks, asks what he’s missed. Eugene, in his signature monotone, mentions the meeting and directs him to Deanna for clarification. As Heath walks off, Eugene feels a kindred spirit has arrived and says, “It’s good to see someone like me. I fully respect the hair game.” Ah, Eugene – you lovable dork!

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Josh McDermitt as Dr. Eugene Porter – The Walking Dead – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

While Morgan and Rick discuss the disturbingly clueless Alexandrians, Rick sees Tobin and Gabriel digging two graves, Father Gabe clothed in his holy garb once more. Eye roll. Rick snaps and tells Father Faker to stop digging — only one grave is needed because they aren’t burying killers within the walls of Alexandria. Huh? Seems they better start digging lots of graves outside the walls, then, including Rick’s. Morgan shares in this sentiment and lets Rick know it, but Deanna takes Rick’s side. It’s down the road for good old Pete. This is bad because Jessie’s eldest, Ron, witnesses the exchange, but it’s also good because it leads to the discovery of the walker pit. I mean, I guess that’s good. You don’t want to be surprised by that sort of thing.

A few miles out, Rick pulls over. He just wants to toss Pete into the woods, but Morgan refuses and starts digging. That’s when Rick hears it — that walker chatter with which we’ve become so familiar. Rick and Morgan look out over more walkers than we’ve seen in the past five seasons combined. Holy pit!

Enter Ron, who has followed them to keep tabs on dear ol’ dead dad. Rick saves him from nearly becoming a nosh, scolds him for being an idiot, and the three stare in horror at the reason Alexandria hasn’t truly experienced walker mayhem, trying to make sense of it. Thus begins the mad scramble back to Alexandria to formulate The Plan. But not before giving Ron’s dad a final resting place.

Back to color and the tractor store, where the importance of Glenn’s mission is revealed. There are a bunch of walkers milling around inside making a bunch of walker racket which will throw a wrench into Plan A if they aren’t silenced. Why a tractor store? I’m picturing a bunch of walkers wearing overalls inside. Glenn proposes a seemingly reasonable plan to wipe out the walkers a few at a time. Heath questions it, but Nicholas pipes up in Glenn’s defense. Suddenly, he realizes Glenn does know what he’s doing.

Later Glenn realizes he’d rather still be delivering pizzas when his plan does indeed go completely to s–t.

Back in Alexandria, we get our first introduction to Carter (Ethan Embry) at the meeting where we learn how the walker pit came to be from Heath. Yes. Just when we thought Father Gabe was the only moron left to contend with after Pete’s demise, we get Carter. As Rick informs everyone of the impending turdstorm to the east, Carter insists they can handle it ’cause they got walls. The second he opens his yap, I want to reach through the TV and smack him on the forehead. Rick just eyeballs him and continues explaining how they can all work together to lure the walkers around and away from Alexandria, keeping the community intact. Then he asks for volunteers. The entire Grimes Gang steps up. All the Alexandrians raise their hands! OK, none of them do — but Father Gabe offers! I lost it when Rick, without skipping a beat, says, “NO! Who else?” Finally, Heath steps up and, bit by bit, the others follow suit…except for Carter, who keeps ‘yeah butting.’ Finally, Deanna shuts him up — at least for the moment.

From this point on, things are less confusing as black and white has caught up to color. For the sake of time and the part where we switch back and forth at breakneck speed, I’m going to go ahead with how Rick’s plan plays out in realtime, since we’ve all seen the episode anyway.

Rick throws down a map and charts out the best route to lead the walkers as they vacate the pit. He knows they’ll follow each other in one big herd, because that’s what walkers do. Carter begs to differ. Now the vehicles along the road make more sense: Eugene suggests reinforcing their perimeters with large metal plates, which will also serve to deflect walkers much like the rails on a pool table deflect balls. Sometimes I don’t know how Josh McDermitt delivers his lines with a straight face. Also, Carter begs to differ. Morgan tries flattery to see if that helps.

We get a little color flash forward and then building begins. Tara and Maggie eye up Glenn and Nicholas working side by side and have a talk about forgiveness. Rick has a moment to reiterate to Deanna the importance of training her people, and this little talk is punctuated with a few walkers who wander onto the construction site. To avoid making noise, Rick tells everyone to use their shovels instead of guns. Well, of course the Alexandrians stand there with mouths agape while Michonne, Morgan and a few others quietly eliminate the issue all by themselves. Morgan bluntly reminds Rick,  “You said you don’t take chances anymore.” Quick! Pick your favorite chance Rick has taken and paste it into a comment. You don’t have to choose just one!

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Lennie James as Morgan Jones, Ethan Embry as Carter and Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

After this fiasco, Carter sees an opportunity to further bash Rick to his fellow Alexandrians. He holds a super-secret meeting about how they ought to kill Rick and take back the town. Eugene overhears this secret meeting, but breaks a bunch of stuff whilst overhearing it. Suddenly, Carter is standing over Eugene with a gun that we all know he isn’t going to use. Thank goodness Rick shows up and snatches it and Carter’s pride in one quick move. Rick gives Carter a lesson in respecting authority … and then returns his gun. Huh? I’d call this chancy.

The Plan seems pretty solid, and as Rick wraps it up at the “finish line,” where Daryl, Sasha and Abraham will continue to lead the walkers twenty or so miles away from Alexandria, there seems no need for a Plan B, so …

Of course, Plan A goes to hell  (please refer to paragraph #3 of this recap). Daryl has the walkers in line behind his cycle. Check. Glenn’s group makes it to the tractor store just in time. Check. Close to Alexandria, Sasha and Abraham meet up with Daryl to continue on. Check. Michonne, Morgan and Rick are covering a corner of concern to ensure the walkers actually make the turn instead of plowing straight on through into Alexandria. Check…

Daryl’s part goes alright, even if it is a day earlier than expected. Good thing he’s Daryl.

As we saw earlier, Glenn and his group have much more difficulty. The plan included early removal of the tractor store walkers. Now it has to be done while the pit walkers are en route. At first, Glenn thinks Heath and Nicholas can work the doors, letting walkers out in tiny killable clusters. Unfortunately, metal barriers block the doors, and they have no choice but to shoot out the storefront windows, taking down walkers as they come. Glenn continually tries to keep Nicholas out of the action, but Nicholas saves Heath while Glenn is reloading. Even though he tries to hide it, Glenn is grateful and lets Nicholas kill the last walker all by himself. I know it’s goofy to think this scene would have been better if Glenn tousled Nick’s hair proudly afterward, but I thought it anyway.

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Corey Hawkins as Heath and Michael Traynor as Nicholas Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Daryl, Sasha and Abraham meet up and continue to lead the walkers toward the sketchy corner. Eugene’s idea seems to be working. Between the distraction of flares and bouncing off the metal plates, the walkers appear to be making the corner as planned. When Rick thinks all looks well, he leads a team into the woods to deal with stragglers. This is where the Alexandrians really have to step up — and, lo and behold — they do!

In the woods, Glenn and his group rejoin the others. Everyone is ready to handle stray walkers like “cops at a parade.” Even Carter is amped and offers to cover the front. On his way there, a walker eats his face and Rick has to kill him, which leads to tense moments with Morgan and Michonne. I’d say more about this, but you saw it, and I’m already over Carter. At first, I felt a tinge of pity, but mostly I just felt relieved I wouldn’t have to listen to him talk like a sausage anymore. Am I heartless?

Then something crazy happens. A siren sounds. What the heck? Is it noon? A tornado? Air raid? Michonne notes that it sounds far off. Like it’s coming from … and Rick says it. “Home.” Walkers take to the woods, flooding past a realtor sign pointing right toward Alexandria. Oh s–t! Did someone leave Gabriel back there with a horn? Rick! Haven’t you seen the movie Legion?

Things I ran out of time to address as much as I wanted to:

  • Morgan’s uncanny ability to know everything. Carol can’t even fool him.
  • Maggie’s conversation with Tara
  • Abraham’s odd and foolish behavior after showing such concern over Sasha’s odd and foolish behavior
  • The tender porch moment between a Judith-toting Rick and Morgan
  • The tension between Rick and Jessie

So were your favorite — and least favorite — moments from “First Time Again”? What’s Morgan’s M.O. — is he on Team Rick or biding his time? Were you shocked to see Carter bite it so soon? What the hell was that noise? And what do you think Rick and the gang will find when they get back home? Sound off in the comments section below.

New episodes of The Walking Dead premiere Sunday nights at 9/8CT on AMC.

17 Comments

  1. As soon as Carter was introduced, I thought, “Man, I can’t hardly wait for this cheeky bastard to bite it.”

    • Well said Justin! This was a very informed and intelligent article..I agree about Carter..he wasn’t the same guy from “Freaky Links” but alas..Carter wouldn’t been a huge pain in the ass especially since we got Gabriel(hypocrite) & we don’t know if Nick the dick is redeemed as of yet! But yeah for Daryl huh??!! =)

      • I’m anxious to see what happens tomorrow! I’m not sure how far away they were from Alexandria when they took to the woods, and as and ambling as walkers may be, I’d think a week would be enough time for them to make it…

  2. my biggest question was, where did they get helium for the balloons? Ok, I have alot more then that but that one is just really bothering me.

  3. I’m personally disappointed by the quick death of a character like Carter. It’s really been since Shane that there’s been any good internal conflict among the group. Shane carried season 2 and having no character to match him made season 3 and 4 bland… at best. The only thing that spiced up season 5 were the quick to move on story lines. Now that there are a ton of people, I feel like more Carters should show up. We need more characters to hate among the group, characters that hide their true selves from the others, and characters that want to assert dominance over the group. In short, we need more Alphas competing with Rick and not just Glenn saying “that’s enough Rick” or Darryl saying “we need him alive Rick”. And before anyone says that the Governor carried season 3 and 4 just fine, I want to put that down right away by saying A) The governor was external conflict and B) He was never all that intimidating and finally C) Michonne had no personal reason besides her paranoia to pluck his eye out (in the show) thus causing the whole mess with Rick’s group.

    • You make some very good points, but I personally don’t think Carter was much more than lip service. Obviously, there is plenty of conflict headed toward Alexandria, and based on the current survival skills of the Alexandrians, I think that might make things interesting for a bit. Additionally, the ‘Wolves’ have only been sniffing around, so to speak. We have yet to see what they are really about. On top of that, and I made mention of it in my blog, Father Gabriel may not be outwardly challenging Rick, but he sure is doing a good job of being a worse threat…he’s sneaky, he’s mentally unstable (or so it seems), he’s more than happy to throw others under the bus to save his own ass, and he’s allowed to just flit around leaving gates open and who knows what else. Carter was an incidental, and the fact that he actually showed some willingness (before meeting his demise) to cooperate for the good of the community tells me that if he had stuck around, he would not have continued to be a source of conflict for Rick. I think in-fighting might have to take a back seat for a bit, though I did note that Daryl seemed a tad irritated with some of Rick’s directives in this episode…

  4. I’m just glad Carter died……that guy was a douche bag……..I don’t know who I was happier about….Ricks slutty wife’s death or Carter. Either way they keep killing off the annoying ones. I just wish they would stop making everyone go through mental break downs. It’s annoying.

    • Yeah, even after he was bitten, Carter sucked…all that screaming and yelling and distracting walkers from the road. If Rick didn’t catch it quick enough to kill him, could you imagine the agony of an episode with Carter the walker? That would be cause for MY mental breakdown.

  5. Mind. Blown. That was a lot of … lot … in one episode. And I think you may be right about the hornblower.

    • That one has jerk written all over his face…first thing I said when his character was introduced was, “HEY! Why do ya think that guy’s name is Gabriel, huh?” I knew he was going to get his hands on a ginormous horn sooner or later!

      • No…that is NOT what that horn is all about…think…..who uses the walkers in their tactics?!?!….. I won’t post spoilers….or even very good predictions

        • The ‘Wolves’…and it sounds like you know something I do not. Clearly, the walker pit was set up by someone…but what would they stand to gain by ‘calling’ in so many walkers at once? I know they are amassing walkers, but Del Arno is still a controlled situation. The intent may be to make some more minions with the destruction of Alexandria, but to what end? Are there enough of them to deal with all of those walkers after the walkers deal with all of the Alexandrians? I know that Alexandria is well stocked, but again…is it worth it to the ‘Wolves’? Wouldn’t their time be better spent heading for the hills and riding it out until the herd does its thing and disburses? As much as they wanted a safe haven, I think Rick and the group, along with every Alexandrian with good sense, probably should have spent THEIR time heading for the hills. Hmmmmm…

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