In season six, Rick Grimes brought his group to Alexandria for safety and was met with a dangerous dilemma.
Is there really ‘No Way Out’ of Alexandria?
Preview for season six of "The Walking Dead"
February 10, 2016
We’ve seen Rick’s (Andrew Lincoln) group clear out a horde of walkers that had taken over an entire prison, but are they capable of getting out of Alexandria alive?
On Feb. 14, “The Walking Dead” returns to AMC and is said to be the beginning of a season that will shed the most blood yet.
The first half of the sixth season of “The Walking Dead” was arguably the most intense season that our beloved group has yet to see, between Glenn’s (Steven Yeun) close encounter with death, Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) pregnancy and a glimpse into Morgan’s (Lennie James) background story with how Eastman (John Carroll Lynch of “American Horror Story”) changed his outlook on life.
The eighth episode of season six, “Start to Finish,” aired Nov. 29, 2015 and left viewers with a huge cliffhanger, a technique that that the writers of “The Walking Dead” love and the audience hates. Because the wall of Alexandria opened up, an enormous horde of walkers began to flood into the community.
We were reminded of season one when Rick and Glenn lathered themselves in walker blood and guts to disguise themselves while walking through Atlanta because Rick led his group in Jessie’s (Alexandra Breckenridge) house to do the same. This tactic gave viewers a spark of hope that they could escape out of Alexandria and start anew elsewhere…but of course, happy moments can never last in “The Walking Dead.”
The episode left us with Jessie’s innocent youngest son Sam (what was up with him listening to “Tiptoe Through the Tulips?” Is this “Insidious?”) calling for his mom in a panic while surrounded by the bloodthirsty walking dead.
In “Start to Finish,” Daryl was separated from the rest of the group when he led walkers away from Alexandria.
While Rick, Carl (Chandler Riggs), Michonne (Danai Gurira), Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam of “Teen Wolf”) and Alexandria’s infected leader Deanna (Tovah Feldshuh) took refuge in Jessie’s house, Morgan and Carol (Melissa McBride) left Denise (Merritt Wever of “Nurse Jackie”) alone to help the villainous Wolf whose group was the sole reason for the walker invasion.
Tara (Alanna Masterson), Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Eugene (Josh McDermitt) couldn’t save Denise and she was taken by the Wolf, pulled into the walker-ridden streets.
In a post-credits scene that I missed the first time around, Daryl (Norman Reedus), Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) were confronted by a group called the “Saviors” and were told that everything that they owned now belongs to someone named Negan (to be played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan).
For those viewers who also read “The Walking Dead” comics, this is a very exciting (and scary) moment of the TV series. Negan is a ruthless character whose weapon of choice is a baseball bat covered in barbed wire that he uses to bash in the heads of walkers – and living people. SPOILER ALERT: In the comics, Negan kills Glenn with his spiked bat, Lucille (yes, he named his bat). Negan will make his debut to the TV show in the season finale and will be the cause of a major death. Who that major death is – that’s the question we’re all eager to know the answer to.
My prediction is that the makers of the show won’t kill Glenn off so soon after the scare that they gave viewers in the third episode of season 6, “Thank You.” After the dumpster scene with Nicholas, it wouldn’t make any sense to kill him now. Because the show often strays from the plot of the comics, it wouldn’t be surprising if they did it once again.
Sadly (and I hope I’m wrong), I predict that Lucille will bring the death of Daryl. He and his brother Merle (Michael Rooker) weren’t even a part of the comics. They were a unique addition to the show, especially when Daryl became Rick’s right-hand-man instead of Tyreese, which is how it was in the comics. The show is known for its unexpected and tragic deaths, which is why I think Daryl will be this season’s major death.
During an interview with TV Insider, Andrew Lincoln touched on what Rick’s life will be like with Negan in it, and how Negan differs from the show’s other bad guys. “The Governor was magnificent and David [Morrissey] did a beautiful job playing him,” Lincoln explained. “But Negan is horrific. He is this incredible tyrant and this very charismatic, funny, brutal beyond words sociopath.”
It sounds like Rick will finally meet his match.
The highly-anticipated midseason premiere “No Way Out” airs this Valentine’s Day on AMC at 9 p.m.