‘The Walking Dead’ Recap: Season 6, Episode 2 — ‘JSS’

Last week, it was go time for Rick and company at the
quarry as they attempted to divert the largest herd ever on “The Walking Dead.”

On Sunday night, the time had come for those left at
Alexandria to step up too, as we found out the origin of the blaring
horn that threatened to divert tens of thousands of walkers off the road. 

Here’s what happened in Sunday’s episode of “The
Walking Dead” – Season 6, Episode 2 — “JSS”:

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Enid’s Backstory

Arguing over how to get a car started can attract unwelcome attention, and sadly for Enid’s (pre-Alexandria) family it does. After some of those
always-hungry, undead eating machines overhear the spat, Enid’s parents don’t make it
out of the argument alive. Their daughter and witnesses
the carnage from inside a locked car.

Not initially equipped for solo survival, the teen
struggles at first, crouching in the dirt to hide from walkers. She uses the
moment to remind herself of something by writing the letters “J-S-S”
in the dirt.

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A wandering turtle Enid comes across becomes her food source, and she tears into it Daenerys Targaryen style, eating it raw –
her mouth and hands coated in its blood. She uses its bones to write
“J-S-S” again, as she continues her battle to stay alive. 

Hungry, tired and alone, Enid stumbles across the fence
at Alexandria sometime later and hears voices — happy voices. For a moment,
she pauses, unsure of what to do. And then, she decides. After scratching
“J-S-S” on her hand, she heads inside the gate.

Alexandria (Before The Horn!) 

Back at Alexandria, while Rick and the gang
are presumably assessing the herd situation, we catch up with an undercover
Carol.  She makes small talk about cooking with the other ladies in the pantry area. Jessie tries
to (unsuccessfully) have a heart-to-heart with Ron. Maggie works on inspiring
Deanna. And then there’s Eugene, who is complaining to Tara that the biggest
building in Alexandria won’t be turned into a “sweet a** game room,”
but used as a church instead. As they discuss the building, they head into the
medical unit, where we get our first introduction to Dr. Denise Cloyd (Merritt
Wever from “Nurse Jackie”).

Only, Denise is not a physician. She turned to psychology
after panic attacks forced her out of the surgical field. With Pete now gone, she has no choice but to step into the role, Denise tells Tara and Eugene.

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Outside, Carl takes Judith for a stroll. Father Gabriel
spots Rick’s son and begins to try and make amends. “It was about me, not
your group. I know that now. I want to help,” Gabriel tells the young man
(about the warning he gave Deanna last season). Carl listens to his mea culpa attempt and says they’ll
meet at 3. He can start training Gabriel in how to use a machete.

But that training won’t be happening. 

In Carol’s kitchen, while she is prepping a casserole,
Carol sees one of the women she was speaking to earlier smoking outside.
As Carol watches the woman take a drag, the woman is attacked by a man with a sizable hunting knife. 

“They’re coming in from all over,” Carl tells
Carol as they get ready to spring into action. He’s gotten a look at
things from the second floor window. She instructs him to keep Judith safe.
Then, like she did when her group was in mortal danger at Terminus, Carol heads
out in an attempt to save everyone.

Enid rushes into Carl’s house. She’s strangely calm and
we quickly learn why – she’s planning on leaving. Not now, Carl insists,
enlisting her to help protect baby Judith. As they get ready for the
intruders, Enid worries Alexandria is too big to protect. “They got in the
walls, and they’re gonna die. All of them,” Carl replies.

While creeping through the brush, Carol watches as an
intruder cut down an Alexandrian, and use the dead person’s blood to write a
“W” on his forehead. A screaming neighbor prompts Carol into action,
and just like Rick had to do with Carter (in the Season 6 premiere), Carol
tries to cover the mouth of the dying woman. And then, just like Rick, Carol is
forced to kill her, ending her suffering and screaming with a knife to the back
of the head.

Spencer Monroe, Deanna’s son, is terrified, but doing
what he can from the tower – shooting and mostly missing. Spotting an
18-wheeler barreling toward the gate, the not-very-good marksman takes aim and
some of his bullets seem to have an effect. The truck veers off-course, slams
into the steel fence, and its horn goes off – and stays on. (It’s the noise
from the end of the Season 6 premiere!) 

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“Holly!” Denise screams as she sees Aaron and Rosita bring the gravely injured Alexandrian into the medical unit.
Immediately, Denise tends to the patient, while Aaron and Rosita volunteer to
go outside to help. But not Eugene. He’s terrified and insists he can better
help out in the medical unit.

With the horn still blaring, Spencer has to do something,
so he gets out of the tower, runs to the truck and pulls open the cab door.
There’s no human inside, just a walker. As he readies himself to go in and
fight, the door opens from the other side. Morgan to the rescue!

“What happened?” Morgan asks, after taking care
of the walker. “A group. They got inside the walls. They’re killing
people,” Spencer says. He’s too terrified to go back in and fight.
“Hide,” Morgan says, before running inside and taking on one of the
wolves. 

The intruder and Morgan stare at each other in the
street. “Leave. Please,” Morgan says, an almost-pleading tone in his
voice. But the man refuses and heads in for combat. Just then, a cloaked figure runs up, and before the fight
even begins, the person cuts into the man, killing him. It’s Carol!

“I could’ve stopped him,” Morgan says. But
Carol has no time to argue post-apocalypse philosophies. She needs to know if
the others are back. “No, it’s happening,” Morgan tells her,
referring to how the rest of the group is trying to redirect the walker herd away from Alexandria. Crouching down, Carol dips her
fingers into the dead intruder’s blood and draws a “W” on her
forehead.

After quickly assessing the situation, Carol realizes the
wolves don’t have guns. She and Morgan need to get to the armory, stat.
Morgan, though, isn’t done dealing with what just happened. “You don’t
have to kill people,” he tells her. “Yes, we do,” Carol insists.
“We’re going to get to the armory and I need your help,” she says, as
she pulls a bandana back over her face.

Elsewhere in Alexandria, Ron is running for his life,
chased by one of the wolves. It’s Carl who saves him, firing a shot through the
doorway, knocking the man down. The intruder begs for mercy when Carl
walks up to him, but when he lunges for Carl’s leg a second later, Rick’s son has no
choice and fires a kill shot. “Come inside,” Carl tells Ron. But the teen
refuses safety. Instead, Ron heads home just as his mom finishes fighting for her
life. He watches Jessie butcher a female intruder with her hairdresser
scissors. 

To get to the armory safely, the in-disguise Carol is
pretending Morgan is her prisoner. The wolves even compliment her when she
walks by with him chained up. A few paces away though, the two split up as
Morgan heads over to help Father Gabriel, who is being attacked.

At the armory, Carol shoots two of the wolves, but
approaches cautiously when she hears a rustling in a closet. “Please don’t
kill me,” Alexandrian Lydia cries as Carol opens the door. She pulls the
bandana down and reveals to Lydia she’s in disguise.

Outside, Morgan is practicing pacifism, tying up the
intruder who attacked Gabriel, but Carol walks out of the armory (after leaving
Lydia to defend it) and dispenses her form of justice — killing the murderous intruder. She then puts the gun in Morgan’s hand. As soon as she runs off to
fight more wolves, he hands it to Gabriel.

Morgan is still practicing pacifism when he encounters a
man who recognizes him (it looks to be one of his Season 5 camp attackers). And, he has
friends. “Leave. My people have guns,” Morgan says, as he takes
wolves down left and right. “You keep choosing this life, you will
die,” Morgan says. “We didn’t choose,” the man replies, before
calling his friends to retreat with a few clicks of his teeth. As the man runs
out, he grabs a gun off the ground. A worried Morgan chases after him, but
they get through the gate. Morgan closes it and locks it tight.

And finally, the attack is over. They’ve won. Carol
starts to tear up on the porch as she scrubs the “W” off of her
forehead. Aaron also faces an emotional moment when he finds his old backpack –
the one he left behind in that car he and Daryl were trapped in (in Season 5).
It’s under a dead man. As he leafs through his old black-and-white photos of
the town, Aaron realizes his pictures were influential in bringing the
intruders to Alexandria. 

From the window inside his house, Carl looks outside. He
hears the door open. “Enid?” he calls out. He finds a note by the
door. It reads “Just Survive Somehow” (“JSS”). The timer goes off
on Carol’s casserole. Carl walks over and takes it out.

Out on the street, Morgan finishes clean up, spotting
a walker and killing it. Something is up, though. A door on the street is open.
He heads inside and encounters one of the wolves – the other man Morgan
met in Season 5 who tried to kill him. The two brawl their way across the
living room, the intruder out to kill. “You can’t, can you?” the man
asks when he realizes Morgan won’t use deadly force. “You should’ve,”
the man adds, attacking Morgan.

“I’m sorry,” Morgan replies as he gets the
better of the man and hits him with his stick. Outside, he walks past the carnage in the street. He and Carol pass each other
in the road. They exchange a look but share no words.

“The Walking Dead” airs Sundays at 9 PM ET/PT on AMC.

— Jolie Lash