(Spoiler Alert: Do not keep reading if you have not seen this week’s episode of “The Walking Dead”)
This week’s episode of “The Walking Dead” offered up some lighter moments than previous episodes this season, while still keeping the very real danger of death on the front burner.
The episode opens with a woman, Cyndie (Sydnie Park), and a young companion named Rachel (Mimi Kirkland) exploring a beach. Rachel happily kills a walker lying in the surf, and rushes over to what appears to be another one. Only it not a walker: It’s Tara (Alanna Masterson).
We flashback to Tara and Heath (Corey Hawkins) some time earlier out on a scavenging run, unaware of the terrible fate that has befallen the group courtesy of Negan. Heath has lost hope in humanity after he joined Rick’s group in killing a large number of Saviors at the satellite station during the events of Season 6.
Later, he and Tara try to cross a barricaded bridge but are separated by a group of walkers. The last we see Heath, he has run away in fear. We then flashforward to the present. Tara is still unconscius, but Cyndie has hidden her among some trees and leaves food, water, and a makeshift spear behind.
When Tara regains consciousness, she quickly eats and drinks and strikes out to tail Cyndie back to her camp. What she finds is an entire community sprung up around an old cabin motor court populated entirely with women. As she looks on, shots suddenly ring out and Tara is on the run.
She is able to outmaneuveur another woman, Beatrice (Brianna Venkus), and get a hold of her shotgun. Tara stands able to kill her, but instead knocks her out with the butt of the gun. She continues to run but is cornered by Rachel. Cyndie intervenes and begs that Tara’s life be spared.
Masterson makes the most of the tense moments with some good awkward banter while her character’s life is on the line yet again.
Tanya, the group’s leader, asks Tara why she came to their camp. Tara lies and says she has been living on the road with a friend and that they were separated on the bridge, with Tara washing up on their shore.
Later at dinner, Tara asks where all the men are. Tanya tells her that they got into a fight with another group and all the men were killed. She then offers Tara the chance to stay and work in their community. Tara says she can’t, but Tanya lets on that she knows Tara is lying about living on the road.
Tara, knowing she is caught, begins to tell them about Alexandria and the benefits of an alliance. Cyndie begs that they reach out and begin working with other groups, but everyone else is paranoid. Tanya agrees to let a guide show her the way back to the bridge, but is vehement it not be Cyndie.
Out in the woods, Beatrice and another woman, Kathy (Nicole Barré), tell Tara to kill a walker that lie in their way. Tara, sensing something is wrong, takes off running just before bullets begin whizzing by her head. Beatrice gets the drop on her, but Cyndie appears out of nowhere and tackles Beatrice.
Cyndie then presses on to the bridge with Tara. She covers Tara with her rifle as she runs through the walkers left on the bridge. We again flashback to Tara’s earlier run with Heath, and we see that Heath did indeed return and try to save Tara before she was knocked over a guard rail into the river below.
As Tara runs across, she sees a black walker with braids just like Heath’s, but she is relieved to see that it is not him. She makes her way back to Alexandria, only to find Eugene crying at the gate as she enters. Tara leans her girlfriend, Denise, is dead and that Negan has taken over.
'The Walking Dead': The Most Shocking and Disturbing Deaths So Far
"The Walking Dead" has never been shy about gore and death, but some characters' demises hit harder than others. Now that the final season is upon us, let's take a look back at the carnage from past seasons.
Andrea's sister Amy (Emma Bell) was the first sympathetic named character to go, when a random walker bit her at camp.
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The death of Jim (Andrew Rothenberg) in Season 1 showed the characters how to treat a bitten person for the first time.
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Sophia (Madison Lintz) was beloved by all, but Rick did not hesitate when it came time to pull the trigger when she became a walker.
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Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) was the moral compass of the group, so it was upsetting on several levels when a zombie ripped his guts out.
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Shane (Jon Bernthal) was ready to kill Rick over his love triangle with Lori, but Rick acted first.
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T-Dog (IronE Singleton) gave his life to save Carol from walkers when the group tried to take the prison.
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Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) died during childbirth, prompting Carl to shoot her in the head to prevent her reanimation.
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Daryl's brother Merle (Michael Rooker) finally tried to be a good man by defying the Governor -- and it got him a bullet in the heart from the Governor himself and a new life as a zombie.
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Andrea (Laurie Holden) failed to see The Governor for what he was -- a bad guy -- and paid the ultimate price.
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Hershel (Scott Wilson) wanted peace, but The Governor took his head to prove a point to Rick.
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Tyreese (Chad Coleman) let his guard down for a just a moment, but long enough to get bitten by a walker.
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Lizzie (Brighton Sharbino) killed her sister Mika (Kyla Kenedy) before Carol shot Lizzie in the back of the head.
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Beth (Emily Kinney) finally had enough of Dawn, the tyrannical overlord of Grady Memorial Hospital, stabbing her with a pair of scissors as a parting gift. But Dawn immediately shot Beth in the head -- prompting Daryl to in turn shoot Dawn.
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Noah (Tyler James Williams) endured one of the most gruesome deaths in "Walking Dead" history thanks to Nicholas.
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Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge), Ron (Austin Abrams) and Sam (Major Dodson) all died within seconds of each other. Sam got eaten when the horde invaded Alexandria. Jessie died as she tried to save him. Ron then attempted to kill Rick, but got stabbed by Michonne and was subsequently eaten.
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Abraham (Michael Cuditz) was the one we had to wait six months to see murdered by Negan. He, of course, got his head beaten in with Negan's barbwire-wrapped baseball bat, Lucille.
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But Abraham wasn't Negan's only victim that night. After Daryl punched Negan, Negan decided he had to make another example out of someone in the group -- and he chose Glenn.
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Spencer (Austin Nichols) thought he could use Negan to kill Rick in order to assume control of Alexandria. But Negan had other plans, gutting Spencer in full view of everyone in the community.
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Olivia (Ann Mahoney) suffered plenty of indignities at Negan's hands, and he eventually repaid her by having her shot.
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Ole Dr. Carson (Tim Parati) made a critical error by saying mean things about Sherry to Dwight over and over again. So Dwight framed the good doctor for helping Daryl escape from the Saviors -- and Negan threw him into the furnace for it.
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When King Ezekiel's crew was short one cantaloupe in its tribute for Negan's Saviors, Benjamin was shot in the leg as punishment. Unfortunately, the shot hit an artery, and young Ben bled out.
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It turned out that Richard had tossed one of the cantaloupes because he wanted to start a war between the Kingdom and Saviors -- and he thought they would kill him for being short. They shot Ben instead, but Morgan strangled Richard the next day after Richard confessed.
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Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) used Eugene's suicide pills to kill herself while she was theatrically locked in a casket because of some ridiculous thing Negan was doing. When Negan opened the casket she popped out as a walker and saved Rick and the residents of Alexandria in a clutch moment.
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Morales (Juan Gabriel Pareja) returned in Season 8 after having been gone since Season 1, but that return was short-lived. Now a member of the Saviors, Morales was around again for about 10 minutes before Daryl shot him.
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Eric (Jordan Woods-Robinson) got shot during the Alexandrians' battle against the Saviors, and then bled out and turned into a walker after a tearful goodbye scene with his boyfriend Aaron (Ross Marquand).
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Shiva the tiger bit the dust while saving Ezekiel, Carol and Jerry from a bunch of walkers in Season 8. There were just too many and they swarmed and ate her.
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Carl (Chandler Riggs) died in the Season 8 mid-season premiere after suffering a zombie bite in the first half of the season.
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Gregory (Xander Berkeley) got his long-overdue death when he was executed by hanging for trying to murder Maggie in the Season 9 premiere.
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Jesus (Tom Payne) was killed when he tried to decapitate a zombie only to discover that zombie was actually a living man disguised as one -- this was Alexandria and Hilltop's first real contact with the Whisperers.
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Near the end of Season 9, the Whisperers made a big statement by killing 10 named characters at once and putting all their heads on spikes. The most notable among those killed were Tara (Alanna Masterson), Enid (Katelyn Nacon), Henry (Matt Lintz) and Tammy Rose (Brett Butler).
Siddiq (Avi Nash) was killed in Alexandria by Dante, who it turned out was a Whisperer infiltrator, because he discovered that Dante had poisoned the town's water supply.
Earl Sutton (John Finn) was killed during the battle with the Whisperers at Hilltop when he was bitten by one of their zombie horde. Over the course of this conflict, the Whisperers got his wife Tammy Rose and his son Kenneth as well.
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As the final season kicks off, we look back at some of the emotional devastation this show has wreaked over the past decade
"The Walking Dead" has never been shy about gore and death, but some characters' demises hit harder than others. Now that the final season is upon us, let's take a look back at the carnage from past seasons.