The folks at Alexandria are so hard to read. We’ve definitely been programmed to suspect that everyone outside of Rick’s group has ill intentions, but should we be suspicious with Alexandria? Despite the Mayberry meets The Stepford Wives vibe of the community, these people seem genuine, but as Rick said in this episode, they’ve been extremely lucky to have survived this long without any sort of confrontation. It almost seems impossible. But it was a bit arrogant of Rick to say that Alexandria just keeps getting luckier as a result of our group being recruited.
As suspected in last week’s review of The Walking Dead, there is a small alliance that has formed within Rick’s group. Much like we would see on any given season of Survivor, when two tribes merge there will always be a small conspiracy that takes shape. Unlike Survivor, Rick, Carol, and Daryl have formed not to look out for themselves, but for their whole group instead. Their goal is to deceive the folks of Alexandria, but it is with the intent to protect themselves.
So, Daryl’s deception is the least involved, he’s just being Daryl. Rick and Carol, however, are putting their acting skills to the test. Rick isn’t denying who he was prior to Alexandria, but he is playing nice with the other kids to give the impression that he wants to make it work inside Alexandria. Carol has been plotting and scheming since she got there, playing the role of a helpless female who’s relied on others for her survival.
If you keep in mind this episode’s title, “Forget,” we can see that Daryl is being seduced, forgetting his purpose, to the point that he questions whether or not they actually need the guns that they plotted to obtain the whole episode. But, a more distant look at the episode reveals that all but our conspirators and Sasha seem to be forgetting. Michonne even hung her sword on her new home’s mantel! Good grief.
Speaking of Sasha, she’s clearly suffering from some serious PTSD, which exploded at Deanna’s welcome party. Her anger was so justifiable too; the people of Alexandria being worried about pasta makers and favorite dishes seem so trite in the face of our group of survivors.
Yes, you can look at Rick’s group as the bad guys, especially with what Rick said at the end of last week’s episode (“We’ll make it work, and if they can’t make it, then we’ll just take this place.”) and with what Carol said to the small boy, Sam, who caught her as she was bagging some small arms. But haven’t they earned the right to be extraordinarily cautious after being attacked by the Governor and being captured and hunted by cannibals?
At their core they are good people who are looking out for themselves and one another. However, that’s hard to believe considering the shocking things Carol said to Sam; telling him to go against his moral compass to inform his mom of Carol’s trespass, threatening to take him far out of Alexandria and to tie him to a tree for the Walkers to feast upon if he does tell on he. And by contrast, telling him that nothing will happen and that he’ll have lots of cookies if he says nothing. That’s just wrong on so many levels!
So, what’s the significance of the stamp that Rick got from that kid at the party. It looked like a red “A,” which could be a reference to Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter, although the meaning is probably far removed. Is it a mark for death? Is it a mark for mating?
We only have three episodes to go, so something dramatic better happen soon.
Questions to ponder:
-What was the significance of the horse? Is there a metaphor there?
-What does the “W” carved into the Walkers forehead mean?
Rock Hard \m/
