Sunday night's "The Walking Dead" was the episode fans had been waiting for.
(Spoiler alert! This is a recap, and recounts what happened on Sunday's show! This is your last chance to look away!)
Four weeks after the hit AMC show left viewers hanging, wondering what happened to Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun), the show gave us an answer.
Michael Traynor as Nicholas and Steven Yeun as Glenn Rhee in 'The Walking Dead' Season 6, Episode 3 (AMC)
Here's what happened on "The Walking Dead" Season 6, Episode 7 – "Heads Up":
It's a rewind to events of four weeks ago, when the episode opens -- to a black screen. "Thank you," we hear Nicholas saying. As the picture fades in, we see Nicholas fall, taking Glenn to the ground. Glenn writhes in physical and emotional pain. And then we learn Glenn's fate (as moving piano music plays). If you had Glenn-crawls-under-the-dumpster-to-safety in the office pool, prepare to do a victory dance on Monday, because that's exactly what he does as Nicholas' torso is ripped apart by walkers (Nicholas fell on top of Glenn). Although a few walkers try and paw at Glenn under the dumpster, he kills them with his knife and they provide a blockade of sorts from the others trying to get at him. And then there's an aluminum food can that somehow rolls past the walkers near the entrance to the alleyway, distracting a large number of them away from Glenn's hiding spot.
Glenn stays in the spot overnight. In the morning, he crawls out and sucks down the tiny drops left in a water bottle. "Hey, heads up!" someone shouts at him from a rooftop above, as they toss a water bottle to him (it breaks on the concrete) -- Enid! "Sh**," she says as it breaks. "I said, 'Heads up,'" she says before disappearing. Glenn jumps inside an open window nearby to try and find her.
"There's another water bottle in the corner, take it and go," Enid says, from her hiding spot. Glenn grabs it and takes several swigs, looking over the place. She's been staying here.
"What happened in Alexandria? We heard that sound. The gunfire?" Glenn asks. "What happens is what always happens -- people die," Enid replies. He gets no reply when he asks her if the walkers broke through the walls or if his wife, Maggie, is all right. Enid is on her way out of there, sprinting down an alley. Glenn goes after her.
Back at Alexandria, Rick is busy with his daily check of the walls. He sees Morgan practicing Aikido, and Maggie atop the wall, waiting for a sign. "You don't have to be up here so much," Rick tells her. "When we go out there, it's never easy, it's never simple, it's always a fight. We've come back from harder things, from further away. Glenn, Abraham, Daryl and Sasha – they will too," he tells her. Instead of waiting, Rick has an idea -- they should work on clearing the walkers so their friends can "walk right in" when they get back.
But first, Rick has some training to attend to. Despite Jessie's request, Rick, with the help of Carl, is giving Ron a gun lesson. "You've got to be strong enough to wait for your moment," Carl tells Ron, as Rick talks to the young man about aim (this is a bad idea!). Since he's practicing with an unloaded gun, Ron asks if they can use silencers so he can do some real target practice, but he's met with an are-you-joking look from Rick.
Once gun training for the day is complete, Rick finds Morgan (who has been hinting to Denise about some medical stuff he needs help with) and says the two should talk. Five people with W's on their foreheads tried to kill him when he was at the RV, Rick tells Morgan, as they sit inside a house. "Carol says she saw you -- that you wouldn't kill those people?" Rick says. "Did you let any of them go?" Carol asks, as we quickly see she and Michonne are part of this conversation too. Morgan tries to explain his philosophy, about how people can change and "all life is precious."
"That idea changed me, it brought me back and it keeps me living," he tells them. "Things aren't as simple as four words. I don't think they ever were," Michonne responds. "Making it now, do you really think you can do that without getting blood on your hands?" Rick asks. "I don't know," Morgan replies.
On a porch a short while later, Michonne and Rick discuss the herd, which is continuing to put pressure on the walls and tower at Alexandria, which is starting to crack. Rick suggests his gang can get to work on the problem, but Michonne thinks all of them – including the Alexandrians need to be involved.
Somewhere outside of Alexandria, Enid is taking a breather in what was once a diner. She opens the door to see if the coast is clear before her next move, but there are walkers outside. A hand covers her mouth and yanks her back inside – it's Glenn. "What the hell are you doing?" she demands to know, once the door is shut. "I'm taking you home," he tells her. Maggie wouldn't want him to leave Enid behind, Glenn tells her. Enid, though, isn't going anywhere and she pulls a gun on Glenn. He manages to disarm her quickly, and explains they have to get back fast – half the herd broke off and are headed toward their home.
Glenn's a little out of date on his information for obvious reasons. As we know and the Alexandrians know, the herd is already there and continuing to cause major damage on the walls and the crumbling tower. Rick isn't about to let the walls fall, so he's got his hammer and nails out, as he tries to reinforce it with some cut wood. Tobin sees him working away and jumps in to lend a hand.
As Enid and Glenn get closer to Alexandria, she kills a walker, and then spots some balloons that were put out earlier as a marker for those moving the herd. She grabs them and tells Glenn she can use them to distract walkers. It's a good idea and so Glenn lets her know there's a helium tank, more balloons and string nearby.
Back at Alexandria, as they work on the wall, Tobin tells Rick that he terrified them when he first came to Alexandria with that beard and "the way you looked around like you were seeing things we weren't, hiding around the corners." "Turns out you were. Things moved slow here, and then things just started moving fast, too fast. But don't give up on us," Tobin says.
On the road, as Enid blows up more balloons, Glenn asks her about who she stayed with back at Alexandria. Olivia, she tells him, but that place is not her home. "I get that you're scared," he tells her. "You don't want to lose anything again, so you give up and say that's just what happens. … You honor the dead by going on, even when you're scared. You live because they don't get to," he tells her. When he brings up her parents though, Enid grows quiet, and tells him they don't have to talk.
Speaking of Olivia, she's in the pantry at Alexandria, reading a hefty book when she hears a strange noise. Walking around the corner, she sees some cans have fallen over – only, we find out it wasn't an accident. It was Ron! While Olivia cleans up the mess, Ron tip-toes into the armory and grabs bullets for his gun.
A short while later, Glenn and Enid finally make it to Alexandria's walls. After seeing the terrifying herd outside the gates, Enid tries to bolt, but Glenn stops her. "The world is trying to die. We're supposed to just let it," she says. "No, you're wrong. We're not supposed to let the world die and I'm sure as hell not going to let you die. … The walls are still up, the houses are still up. We'll find out the rest, OK?" he tells her. Glenn's words get through and Enid decides to stick around – for now.
Back inside Alexandria, Rick and Tobin are walking along the fence when they spot Spencer doing something dangerous. Deanna's son is trying to crawl across a rope that could take him outside the walls. Rick runs over and shouts at Spencer to crawl back to safety, while Tara, from a nearby post, tries to shout instructions to help him too. But Spencer's weight is too much for the rope, and he falls to the ground outside of Alexandria. Immediately, Tara jumps on a ledge outside the wall to get better aim as she fires at the walkers who move toward Spencer. Rick grabs the rope and tries to pull him up. Tobin jumps in and grabs the rope too. Tara manages to take out enough walkers to save Spencer from being bit as Rick, Tobin and Morgan (who jumps in too) pull him to safety.
"Tara, you almost died once for these people. What the hell were you doing?" Rick screams at Tara, who replies by giving him the finger. Rick then turns his anger to Spencer, who reveals he was trying to get to a car to distract the herd away from Alexandria. "You wanna help, don't make us come running to save you," Rick says, telling Spencer to come to him next time he has an idea like that.
With Spencer now safe, Morgan heads back to the medical ward, where he speaks to Denise, asking questions about how to tell if a wound is infected. He hints he's got a situation to take care of, but doesn't want to get her involved. Denise decides to come with him anyway. Carol spots the two of them walking somewhere and immediately is suspicious. She follows them for a bit, but then heads to Jessie's to ask her to take care of baby Judith. While she waits for Jessie, a scared Sam (who is still upstairs in his mom's house) asks Carol about the monsters. "If you kill people, do you turn into one of the monsters?" he asks her. "The only thing that keeps you from becoming a monster is killing," Carol replies (as she probably has a flashback to her conversation with Morgan from earlier) . Jessie comes back in, Carol hands her Judith and walks to where she last saw Morgan. He meets her at the door to the place he is keeping the wolf. "Who the hell do you have in that cell?" she asks him.
Out on the quiet streets of Alexandria, Carl is walking along, hat on. He's being followed by Ron, who reaches into the back of his belt and begins to pull out the gun.
Before we find out what happens next, we catch up with Rick, who apologizes to Tara. "I'm sorry about before… I just meant, what you did for him -- you didn't have to. You could have died," he says. "We're stuck with each other, right?" Tara tells him. Deanna thanks Rick for helping to save her son, but the moment is interrupted by something in the sky. Everyone – including Maggie -- looks up and sees green balloons. Maggie runs down the road to Rick. "That's Glenn! That's Glenn," she says. Rick nods. And then, the tower that has been crumbling all day under the weight of the herd, falls, knocking over a portion of Alexandria's wall.
"The Walking Dead" midseason finale airs next Sunday night at 9 PM ET/PT on AMC.
