"The Walking Dead" Recap: "Always Accountable"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

After weeks of crazy intensity, The Walking Dead decided to slow things down last night...sort of. We finally find out what Daryl, Sasha and Abraham have been up to in the midst of Alexandria being under siege and it turned out their reasons for not getting back to Rick on the radio make perfect sense. So without further ado, let's take a look back at "Always Accountable".

The Good: I have to say that I think this was without a doubt, the sneakiest filler episode that I have ever seen when it comes to this show, and I say that because the more I think about it and talk it over with people, I really feel like some big plot points were set in motion last night and if I'm right about one particular thing, season six just became a whole lot more awesome.  But before we get into that, I have to say I absolutely loved the character development from this week's episode. Lots of important things happened to our intrepid trio after finishing their mission to move the herd, but the biggest growth came from Abraham and Daryl. 

Now Abraham's journey was a little darker and we will be getting to that later today in my weekly breakdown because the focus for right now is Daryl and the crazy journey he went on last night. This was really the first time we've seen Daryl on his own like this, forced to make some tough decisions and well, this was hands down the best Daryl episode to date on the series because we learned one big thing about him last night...the man is infallible when it comes to his faith in humanity. This is incredibly poignant, especially after all he's been through with the group and even though that group of survivors threatened him, and stole his bike and crossbow at the end, his actions speak louder than his fury and I like the fact that Daryl is in a place now where he will indeed do what needs to be done, but will take time to do the right thing when the opportunity presents itself. 

But, I made mention of something bigger on the horizon and I think last night...we met the Saviors from the comic book. I'm fairly certain Negan's band of thugs were the people hunting the folks that Daryl tried to help last night and there were plenty of hints to support that, especially the discussions revolving around taking what was fair and Wade telling the group they had to pay back what they owed. Plus, Wade made mention of "He" on a regular basis and one has to wonder...if the He in question is Negan himself...

The Bad: I really liked this episode so...I guess the only thing I can fuss about is leaving us with that cliffhanger of an ending since I'm dying to know who was on the other end of that radio.

The Verdict: Like I said, I really enjoyed this episode. I'm always a sucker for big time character development and it was available in spades here and I love the ominous foreshadowing this episode produced with that mystery group of armed assailants. I have a feeling it won't be long before we see them again...

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