The Walking Dead: Swear Recap

Synopsis of 7×06: If you were wondering what happened to Heath and Tara when they went off to (film 24 and have a baby respectively) scavenge for supplies, this episode has some of the answers.

In a flashback, Heath and Tara are arguing in an RV about how their scavenging mission is going. It’s been two weeks like they’d originally planned and they went further than they were supposed to, but Tara wants to push forward while Heath wants to go back. He’s still affected by the satellite station massacre and coming to terms with the philosophies that Rick’s group brought to Alexandria.

Cyndie, the young woman who saved Tara, goes back to leave her some water bottles, fish, and a spear while Tara is still unconscious. But unknown to her, Tara was only faking and follows her back to her camp, where she wanders around silently observing for a little while. The compound is well set-up, but there only seems to be women throughout the place.

Dog training clickers alert the women to the presence of a threat in their midst and the children quickly file inside while the rest of the women arm themselves. Tara is startled to find herself shot at and takes off running. She manages to knock one woman, Beatrice, down and take her gun, but knocks her out rather than killing her.

Another flashback shows Tara and Heath finding an abandoned bridge settlement that is full of dangerous blind spots. They climb down to check out the area when they come across a giant dirt pile concealing some bags. When Tara goes to pull a bag free, she disturbs the entire pile and unearths a lot of dusty walkers. They’re immediately attacked and separated.

Before beginning their interrogation, Natania, the leader, asks Tara if she needs to use the restroom and introduces Kathy and Beatrice, whom Tara met previously. The audience is shown the Oceanside sign and Natania explains that the bells redirect walkers away from their settlement.

When they start to question her, Tara lies terribly about being from Atlanta, but having been on a fishing boat for years. She stumbles through the lie and then tells them the truth about how she was separated from her friend on the bridge. She also explained how she accidentally made it to their settlement by following Cyndie. She just wanted to make sure it was safe before revealing herself, but she’s totally cool with leaving too.

Unfortunately, it’s not smart for them to let her go now that she knows they exist. However, they treat her to some Oceanside hospitality and bring her to dinner to give her more background on them – including that Cyndie is Natania’s granddaughter. Cyndie also quietly explains to her that she’s trying to teach Rachel not to be so ruthless and admits that she’s had to kill outsiders before because she’s “a really good shot.”

Shoveling stew in, they ask Tara when she last ate and admit that they’re hoping to convince her to stay. She’s everything they want in a new member and offer both her and Heath safety. This leads her to asking about the lack of men at Oceanside and Natania admitting that they got into a “skirmish” with another group, who killed all the men.

While packing up and saying goodbye, Tara gives the middle finger to Rachel and leaves with Kathy and Beatrice. Unfortunately, once they get into the woods, Tara takes off and they try to shoot her. She gets into another skirmish with Beatrice, who reveals that they know about the Saviors and the outpost Tara was talking about. She’s adamant that it’s too late for her friends, revealing that the Saviors killed all of their men over the age of 10 after they tried to fight back.

They’re terrified that Tara will somehow lead the Saviors back to the Oceanside women, so they can’t let her leave. Cyndie saves Tara’s life again by tackling Beatrice and letting her run. when Cyndie catches up to her, she makes Tara swear to keep Oceanside a secret before taking her to the bridge and giving Tara her backpack full of supplies.

She even stays with Tara to help her get across the bridge, to which Tara is confused as to why she’s not as jaded as the rest of the women. Cyndie asks the same of Tara and shoots multiple walkers to help her escape.

A final flashback reveals that Heath came back for Tara, trying to save her only to see her topple over the bridge into the river. Luckily, the walker she thinks might be Heath is revealed not to be and Tara finds signs that he might have escaped after quietly watching Beatrice and Kathy drag Cyndie back towards Oceanside.

Relatively carefree, Tara travels back to the Alexandria Safe Zone on her own, picking up souvenirs along the way. A tearful Eugene meets her at the gate and presumably fills her in on all of the things that have happened in her absence.