The Walking Dead’ recap: Gore gone wild

Plenty death, and owl-sculpture destruction

I must say it has been a while since I felt uncomfortable watching someone die at the hands (and teeth!) of walkers. Typically, it’s the human-on-human crime in the zombie apocalypse that one finds hard to watch, because, well, they’re human. We tend to forget that outside of the Governor’s, Gareth’s, and Joe’s of the world, there’s always going to be walkers; relentless, flesh-eating bastards whose taste buds don’t discriminate. Last night’s “Spend” gave us a double dose of walkers-on-human death, as well some interesting storylines going into our last two episodes of the season. Warning: Spoilers (and gore) ahead.
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?Last week: ‘Come and get me’

????If there’s one thing we know to be true of “The Walking Dead” it’s that when characters decide to go on supply runs bad shit tends to happen. So, when we see Glenn, Noah, Eugene, and Tara getting ready to head out for some power supplies with Aiden and his goon, Nicholas, I’m sure all of us had the same thought: “Someone’s going to die!
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?The crew descends upon a warehouse where Aiden decides to unload on a soldier-walker, armed with a helmet, and strapped with grenades. Naturally, Glenn picks up on this before Aiden does, but it’s too late, and Alexandria’s most spoiled brat hits one of the explosives, which leaves Tara bleeding from the head. And at first glance, it looks to have made a fatal mess of Aiden, but turns out he’s alive, and has a couple of metal spikes piercing through his body. Long story short: Aiden does the most admirable thing he’s done all season, by telling Glenn, Noah, and Nicholas (<<<back to this coward in second)  to leave him to die, so that they can have a chance. In our first gruesome walkers-on-human death, we watch Aiden rendered, more or less motionless by the metal spikes, get eaten alive.
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?Things actually got worse.
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?Nicholas, who wanted to leave Aiden to die waaaaaay before Glenn insisted they try and save him, tries to make a run for it. He gets caught in the Revolving Door of Hell, and in an effort to help him out Glenn and Noah also get trapped. Thanks to a distraction from Eugene the fellas have a fighting chance, but Nicholas is all about that going for self life and squeezes out of the trap door, leaving Glenn and Noah to fend for themselves. You can argue that what happened next might’ve be the most gruesome character death we’ve seen on the entire series, as we watch a horde of walkers literally rip Noah apart with hands, and teeth. The effects, though slightly on the campy side, worked enough to make it hard to shake the image out of our heads. Match that with Tyler James Williams’s screams, and the look of terror on Glenn’s face, and you have one scene I will soon not forget. The fact that Glenn didn’t kill Nicholas, or least beat him senseless says a lot about the awesomeness of Steven Yeun’s character, but I worry that he maybe should have let the Rick Grimes out on this guy as a preventative measure.
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?Speaking of Rick and the rest of gang back in Alexandria, there wasn’t the same amount of action, but things were definitely in motion. Outside the walls, Abraham takes over as the field general of a crew working to improve upon the town’s current barricades. The guy he replaces tells Deanna Abe’s a better leader, and knows what he’s doing. Though she should be happy, the First Lady of Alexandria seems a little miffed that little by little, Rick’s crew is taking over the most important leadership roles in the town.
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?Inside the walls, it’s town with a lot movement on the surface and behind the scenes, as we see Carol, by way of cookies and being the meanest pastry chef tutor ever, finds out that Jessie and her son Sam are being physically abused by Pete. A domestic abuse survivor herself, Carol tells Rick, Pete has to die. No questions asked. Yeah, because that makes total sense. Maybe, not but it should make for good TV? (So much for all that Broken Window Theory talk Rick tried to spit at Jessie when someone destroyed her owl sculpture. That someoene turned out to be Sam.) 
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?In one of the more intriguing (and possibly dangerous) Alexandria storylines from last night we see the return of Father Gabriel. Apparently, this whole time he’s just been hanging out in the chapel, ripping pages out of the Bible, and wondering if he’ll ever shake the title of the cloth’s biggest scumbag. Not so much. Ol’ Father Gabriel decides to throw Rick’s gang under the bus, telling Deanna they’re not be trusted, that she made a big mistake letting them inside Alexandria’s walls. He throws in some loose Bible references in there (Word bruh? I thought you were done with it.), but all he’s really trying to get across is that Deanna should find a way to get rid of them. This coming from a guy who led an entire congregation out to walker-pasture. Problem is, Deanna doesn’t know that fact, and thus, now doesn’t know whom to trust.
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?BEST LINE
?“I have a lot to think about.” — Deanna in response to Father Gabriel throwing Rick and Co. under the bus
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?WTF/MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT
?Noah’s death scene probably got a lot “What THEEEEEEEEEEEE fuck?!” reactions from a lot of people. Too brutal? 
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?RANDOM ASIDES
- Two episodes left. Predictions anyone?
?- I’m buying commenter Bill Hughey’s theory from last week, that Enid is a spy for the Wolves, and they’re arrival may be coming sooner than later.
?- As evidence of previews for next week, looks like Tara’s “stable” after her head injury, but Sasha’s gone AWOL.
?- How are Deanna and Reg going to react to news of Aiden’s death? Will they blame Glenn?
?- Oh yeah, fuck Father Gabriel!
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