Episode Title: Spend
Original Airdate: 3-15-15
A lot happened this week, setting up what will probably be two very intense final episodes of the season. Abraham is put on a construction crew to gather materials to expand the wall around Alexandria, during which the crew is attacked by Walkers. The foreman wants to abandon one of his fallen crew, but Abraham risks everything to save her. At the end of the day the foreman resigns and tells Deanna to put Abraham in charge. Meanwhile, Jessie’s son Sam, whom Carol threatened last week, follows her around, begging for more cookies, but Carol realizes he’s after more, like a gun for protection from his father. Carol mentions this to Rick and determines that the only way to handle a guy like Pete (Jessie’s husband, an abusive drunk) is to kill him.
Father Gabriel is suppose to be setting up some sort of worship for Alexandria, but seems to be overcome with guilt and rips apart his Bible. He then goes to Deanna and tells her the rest of the group is evil and will destroy Alexandria if threatened, all of which is secretly overheard by Maggie. And, finally, Eugene, Noah, Tara and Glenn, led by Deanna’s son Aiden and his friend Nicholas, go on a run to a nearby warehouse to find supplies to work on the town’s power grid. Things go horribly awry when Aiden shoots at a Walker who was a solider and a grenade on its uniform explodes. Aiden is impaled, Tara suffers a bad head injury, and a load of Walkers are released from a gated area. Eugene escapes with Tara, but the others are forced out the front of the building and become trapped in a set of revolving doors as the Walkers press in on both sides. Saving his own skin, Nicholas pushes free through the front which knocks Noah back to be ripped apart by the throng of undead waiting on the otherside.
Noah’s death was a surprise, but with the constant revolving door (pun intended) for POC on this show, it shouldn’t be. After Beth’s death, which occurred because of the trade for Noah, I felt surely he’d be around much longer. I wasn’t particularly attached to him, but Noah had loads of potential as a long term member of the group, unlike others that have been around much longer. Of course it’s always made worse when they show the victims being torn to shreds while alive, and they had two of those in this one episode. And it all leaves me to wonder how many more close calls Glenn has left before his number is up. At least Eugene and his mullet finally proved he’s not a complete waste of space by saving Tara and fighting off Nicholas after he left Noah and Glenn.
The business with Rick, Carol and Jessie’s family is tedious. It’s only being put in place so Rick won’t look like a complete ass going after Jessie. If she has an abusive husband, then it must be okay, right? It’s too much of an easy pass to make Rick look more like a savior of an abused woman. And Carol simply stating that the only way to handle a guy like Pete is to kill him…well, that escalated quickly. I know she has her own history with Ed, so I don’t begrudge her that, but what a leap.
My real interest lies with Gabriel’s betrayal and the death of Deanna’s son, back-to-back, as a nasty cocktail is being mixed to set up a brutal stand off between Alexandria and Rick’s group by the finale.
Channel: Superhero 