Nerdophiles Catch Up With… The Walking Dead

Season 6 of The Walking Dead premieres this
Sunday, October 11, at 9 pm on AMC

For some lucky fans in New York Friday evening, they’ve watched the premiere with current and past cast and crew! But for those of us that didn’t get the sneak peek, we’ll have to settle with a catch up of season five and another day of avoiding spoilers.

Check out the highs and lows of last season:

• After the buildup of season four, Terminus lasted all of almost the entire season premiere. Carol came in, guns blazing and explosions occurring, while Tyreese stayed home to watch the baby and the prisoner. She single-handedly staged the rescue of Rick and the group and was welcomed back into their ranks.

  

• While wandering in the aftermath, they end up finding Father Gabriel, who has never killed a walker and is plagued by the guilt of locking his parishioners out of the church, effectively sentencing them to their deaths because he is a coward. But they keep him because the church is a pretty good place to set up camp.
• Unfortunately, some of the Termites survive and kidnap Bob. They amputate his leg, which culminates in him deliriously screaming, “TAINTED MEAT!!!” before helpfully being dropped back off at the church. Rick and company retaliate with a good old fashioned church slaughter before saying their final goodbyes to Bob.
• Beth, having been separated from the group, turns up in a hospital in Atlanta where a group of police officers have been trying to bring some kind of order to the apocalypse. With tenuous dynamics in play, Beth wants to leave but is hindered in her escape by witnessing an unconscious Carol being wheeled into the hospital.
• Abraham, Eugene, Tara, Rosita, Glenn, and Maggie begin their trek to Washington DC, only for the bus they’re riding on to malfunction. It’s later revealed that Eugene purposefully sabotaged the bus and he isn’t a scientist with the possible cure. He made it all up because he didn’t think he had anything to offer this new world. This comes as a shock to Abraham, who takes it hard.

• Looking back on how Carol entered the hospital in the first place, she and Daryl followed cars with white crosses on the windows back to Atlanta. Noah, Beth’s friend from the hospital, attempts to rob them of their guns, eventually revealing that he knows where Beth is. Before he can take them to her, Carol is hit by one of the police cars and taken to the hospital – where Beth spots her.
• Daryl, returned to the group without Carol but with Noah, rallies the troops to take on the next big problem. Rick wants to go in, guns blazing, and kill Dawn, the officer who runs the hospital, but Tyreese thinks they should attempt to make a trade with captured officers. The group goes with Tyreese’s plan, though it all goes to hell when one of the officers takes advantage of Sasha’s grieving and escapes.

• Rick brutally dispatches the escaped officer by hitting him with his car, making their trade two officers for three people. Unfortunately, they get Carol and Beth back, but Dawn wants to keep Noah because of the unfair trade. He offers to stay, but Beth attacks Dawn – who acts on instinct and shoots her dead. Daryl kills Dawn and before anything worse can happen, the groups part ways.
• In Beth’s honor, the group wants to return Noah to his home in Virginia, only to find the entire town overrun with walkers. While investigating his house, Tyreese is attacked by one of his younger brothers, who is now a walker. As he’s dying, he hallucinates many past characters from the show before ultimately succumbing to his death.
• The mourning group decide to head towards DC because, while he lied, Eugene wasn’t wrong about that being the best place for survival. Unfortunately, they’re headed there on foot and on the journey someone sets water in the road “from a friend.” After abandoning the water, a violent storm and a herd of walkers push the group into a barn where Rick has to give a rousing speech to boost morale.

• Aaron, the “friend” that was caught by the group, tells them about the Alexandria Safe Zone and tries to convince them to audition for membership. Michonne convinces Rick to try it, but his precautions nearly get the group eaten by a herd, before they’re all reunited and headed towards the safe zone.
• Deanna, the mayor of the Alexandria Safe Zone, introduces herself to the group and they ingratiate themselves into the town quickly, though Rick keeps them separated by keeping the group together in one house. The group does get to clean up finally and Glenn has a run-in with the mayor’s son, who is like the rest of the town – too cocky and uneducated about the world outside their walls.
• As they try to adjust to their newest home, walkers with Ws carved into their foreheads begin appearing outside the safe zone. The group struggles with their adjustment, with Rick and Carol smuggling guns out of the armory for themselves.

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  In keeping with making themselves indispensable to Alexandria, Rick and Michonne become constables, Sasha becomes a lookout, and Abraham becomes the head of the construction team after fending off a walker attack. Glenn, Noah, and Tara are put on a supply run, where Deanna’s son once again causes problems. Both Aiden and Noah die on the run, which causes tension between the two groups.

• Furthering that tension is Gabriel, who goes to Deanna with concerns about Rick’s group, and Rick himself who goes on a rampage about a townsperson abusing his wife and it being overlooked, as well as the weaknesses he perceives Alexandria to have. Michonne is the one who has to stop him before chaos breaks out.
• In the season finale, Morgan, whom we’ve been getting teases of all season, is seen being confronted by someone with a W carved into his head. He explains the mythology of the Wolves before they attack Morgan, who leaves them unconscious in a vehicle rather than killing them. He’s much more zen than the last time we caught up with Morgan.

• Aaron and Daryl fall into an elaborate – and amazing – trap set up by the Wolves before Morgan rescues them. They take him back to Alexandria just in time for him to witness how the town has broken down. A drunken Pete accidentally kills Deanna’s husband, prompting Deanna to let Rick kill Pete, which he does with ease, taking down the town’s only surgeon.
• An ominous post-credits scene declares, “WOLVES NOT FAR” on the trap that Daryl and Aaron fell into that has been reset – setting up the big bad for the sixth season.

When will we get to see fan-favorite Negan? Will the Wolves be dispatched as quickly as Terminus after such a huge build-up? What is going to happen to the Alexandria Safe Zone now that it has destabilized so much? Hopefully these questions and more will be answered in the coming season! Tune in with us and come back for our recaps starting up this Sunday.