The Walking Dead, “Remember” (5.12) - TV Review

By Mike Surerus on March 2, 2015 Television, The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead, Season 5, Episode 12, “Remember”

Sunday, March 1, 2015, 9pm, AMC

At the end of last week’s episode, Rick and company were standing at the gates of Alexandria. Rick was still apprehensive about bringing his family in there, though he was able to hear the sounds of children laughing and playing. “Remember” gives us an insight into what Alexandria’s about and whether or not Rick’s group will fit in.

Despite suggesting that they could’ve started injuring people as soon as they entered, the group is forced to give up their guns. Considering they’ve been out surviving for a long time, I’m a bit surprised they didn’t take their knives, Daryl’s crossbow or Michonne’s katana. Perhaps it was a compromise to make the group feel more secure.

Rick meets the leader of Alexandria, Deanna Monroe. She talks to Rick first, recording their conversation. We quickly learn that Alexandria was built to survive on its own before the apocalypse. Deanna tells Rick she wants survivors because they know how to live and stay safe. Rick cautions her letting outsiders in, telling her to “keep the gates closed. It’s all about survival now.” It sounds as though Rick wouldn’t let his own group in, knowing what they’ve had to do to survive. Deanna doesn’t seem to mind, especially since they’ve followed Rick’s group for some time before sending Aaron to talk to him.

Even though they’re provided with several homes to live in, the group stays in one house the first couple of nights just to see what happens. They also get to enjoy basic comforts, like showering, brushing their teeth, shaving, etc. Rick’s beard sadly goes away, though it’s nice to see him clean cut again. Almost makes it feel like the apocalypse never existed. He’s given a haircut by a member of Alexandria, Jessie. She brings some supplies too as she talks to Rick about the town and that she has a couple sons that want to meet Carl. Rick is still skeptical of the place and freaks out when Carl goes out of sight for just a moment, only to realize everything’s fine. He bumps into Jessie again, and the two of them seem to hit it off, though we’ll see if that goes anywhere.

Though it seems most of the group is having trouble adjusting to not having to watch their backs for walkers constantly, we get to focus a bit on Carl, Carol and Daryl.

Carl doesn’t seem to know how to act like a kid. Jessie’s sons introduce him to Edith, another outsider who’s only been with them a short time. Not much else is said about Edith, whether she’s in Alexandria alone or with family. When asked if he wants to play video games or something, Carl just stands there, not knowing how to really respond. It’s pretty sad to see him not able to be “normal”, though that’s not a word most people would use to describe Alexandria. Carl admits to Deanna in his interview that he killed his mother and that it had to be him. While nothing comes about it in this episode, one has to wonder what Deanna thinks of a child that appears to not have any psychological issues from killing his own mother.

Carol’s adjustment at first makes us question if this is the same person we’ve become accustomed to, but in the end is probably the most brilliant play anyone made. First, she acts very clumsy when handing over her guns, despite being quite competent with them. She then lies to Deanna about being a housewife and missing her husband, Ed, before everything started. She then gets a job so she can get an insight into what the community truly is about. Carol knows what has to be done to keep the group safe, and she’s doing it in the best way possible.

Daryl is the odd man out here. He’s the most reluctant to adjust to the new environment. He’s truly a man of the land, as shown when he kills an opossum before they walk into Alexandria. He even carries it around when talking to Deanna, later skinning it and pulling guts out on the front porch of the house. It’s quite the interesting juxtaposition, showing this very clean, well-kept community while this dirty man walks around scoffing at everything. Hell, he was still the only one to not shower by the end of the episode. This could end up being a good thing to have one person still acting as an outsider. On the other hand, perhaps he doesn’t like being confined by these walls and would rather live outside, but keep close in case things don’t work out.

We quickly find out not all is what’s shown to be in Alexandria. When roaming the perimeter, Rick comes across a couple walkers, and instead of shooting them, he draws them to where he hid the gun in the blender. He’s surprised to find it missing, though Carl shows up when he loses track of Edith when she scaled the fence to wander off somewhere. Carl and Rick take down the walkers with ease, though a walker appears seemingly out of nowhere from the pile of garbage where Rick hid the gun before. It’s possible the walker wasn’t paying attention the first time, though I have to wonder if someone put the walker there as a trap. Glenn, Tara and Noah help out Nicholas and Aiden (Deanna’s son) go on a trial supplies run to see how they do. They quickly realize that Nicholas and Aiden kept a walker tied up so they could have a pre-run ritual. We find out the walker killed people who were on the supply runs previously. After the walker escapes and almost kills Tara, they head back to Alexandria, where Aiden confronts Glenn, telling him he needs to follow Aiden’s every word. Glenn knows Aiden’s full of it and doesn’t actually know how to keep people safe. Aiden gets knocked out when he tries to punch Glenn. Interestingly enough, Deanna thanks Glenn for knocking her son on his ass. Was this a test to see how violent the group would react, or does she know her son is truly an ass and deserved it?

At the end of the day, Rick and Michonne are assigned the jobs of constable for Alexandria. Right before he heads out, Carol and Daryl tell him they’ll get weak if they stay and become complacent. Rick responds, “If they can’t make it, we’ll just take this place.” Well, I guess we know how this is going to end up for the citizens of Alexandria. The true test will be to see if Rick takes it by force ala The Governor, or if they’ll slowly but surely make changes to fit their way of thinking.

[The Roundup]

”We brought dinner.” Thanks, Daryl. Always a good way to introduce yourself to the neighborhood.
Did Deanna have someone scouting Rick hiding the gun, or is someone else lurking about Alexandria, waiting their turn to get in?
Edith’s behavior makes me think she’s communicating with others outside Alexandria.
It was nice to see Rick and Carl have father/son bonding time over keeping up their walker kill skills.
I like how unnerved most of Rick’s group is to keep encountering people who appear to be genuinely nice, and have no ulterior motives.

9.2 Amazing

The group is introduced to Deanna, the leader of Alexandria. All appears well so far with the town, but we can already see there are potential issues the group will be dealing with in the not so distant future.