‘The Walking Dead’ Retro Recap: ‘East’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

If there is one particular lesson in life that none of us ever enjoy learning, it would have to be that when it rains… it pours. Because no one likes to deal with bad stuff in the first place, but when it hits… it comes in waves or at all once and that just leads to tough times mentally. Where you simply cannot get a grip or wrap your head around it all and well… that particular lesson is top of mind today, simply because that is what the next episode of The Walking Dead features. For after spending weeks of having these characters play the hero whilst trying to reconcile their future, the proverbial zombie goop just hit the fan in ‘East’ and well, that led to a harrowing tale, one that remains uncomfortable today courtesy of three key heartbreaking and intense storylines.
​
One of which, involved Carol. For she wasn’t joking around when she said she was leaving, since we came to learn here, she snuck out in the middle of the night and swiped one of the cars and well… it didn’t take long for this broken hero to find more trouble in the form of more Saviors. Which forced her to do some ugly things again and left her badly wounded, and off into the world and followed by trouble. Since a single Savior survived the firefight she was involved in and was working to track her, and he wasn't the only one. Since Morgan and Rick were eager to find her and bring her home, and well... their journey came up empty handed, despite some clues being present. Leading to a harrowing cliffhanger for certain. Because back in the day, we hadn't a clue if Carol was okay and safe in the slightest and while we know now her fate... the impact of her leaving and the pain she was suffering through here, made for one tough and uncomfortable storyline for certain.

Not to mention, things back home became quite scary quite quickly. Courtesy of Maggie Rhee. Which was heartbreaking because she was doing her best to keep spirts calm and focused while everyone was out doing their respective tasks, and she was in fact, quite successful at keeping morale going. Since she was able to convince Enid to finally join in and help for a change after she’s spent several episodes trying to run away, to the point where Enid was eager to take on shifts and even help Maggie change up her haircut when she felt the need to just spice things up. And it was during that particular trim that quite the surprise came into play. In that she doubled over and cried out in pain, clutching her womb and making it clear to all of us… that something was severely wrong with the baby and that was just scary to see at such a precarious time.

But the most shocking and scary storyline of this episode, came courtesy of Daryl and his friends. Since he, Michonne, Glenn and Rosita went out into the world to see if they couldn’t find Dwight and deliver a little payback for his decision to kill Denise. And while they did indeed find good ol’ D, they were split up and overwhelmed by the fact that he was out there with reinforcements, in the hopes of a moment such as this. Which led to quite the intense sequence of events, wherein Glenn and Michonne were quickly captured and used as bait to draw out Daryl, and sadly that plan worked and put Daryl and Rosita behind the proverbial eight ball, wherein Dwight took the time to say hello before putting a bullet inside Daryl. Not a fatal one mind you, but one that was designed to torment Daryl further. 

Which was quite the bleak way to end this already bleak tale, but that is the point. For this was indeed just dark times raining down upon our heroes whether we liked it or not and well… watching this one a second time around, actually made it feel darker than when it originally aired. Just because we know what’s coming now, and we know that this story is about to go to one devastating place. But while we wait to break down THAT finale, we can bask in the wonder of a supremely horrifying tale, one that really put our heroes on their heels and saw them struggle to maintain balance of any kind and well, that’s definitely something the Saviors took advantage of and well, now that we’ve reached the end of this blasé journey, the time has come… to meet the man and wrap up season six and our Retro Recaps of this magnificent series. Until next time.

---

Powered by JustWatch