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"Walk With Us" is the twelfth episode of the tenth season of AMC's The Walking Dead. It is the one-hundred and forty-third episode of the series overall. It premiered on March 15, 2020. It was written by Nicole Mirante-Matthews & Eli Jorné and directed by Greg Nicotero.

Plot[]

Alpha and the Whisperers attack Hilltop, with Negan's help.

Synopsis[]

The survivors have retreated behind the Hilltop's walls, while the fire continues to spread, now engulfing most of the Barrington House. On the walls, Carol shoots several arrows at the herd, to little effect. With the gates down, the herd begins to pour into the Hilltop, while the survivors desperately try to hold them off. Earl and Alden use catapults to rain stones on the herd, as the Whisperers also begin to attack the defenders, camouflaged among the rampaging walkers. Mary tries to persuade Lydia not to participate in the combat, since she knows what Alpha wants. Lydia assures her that she will never walk with her mother. Ezekiel rushes the children to safety, before suddenly realizing that Judith is missing. Judith downs several walkers on her own, but it is revealed that the last "walker" was in fact a Whisperer. Judith stares in shock, having killed her first living victim, before Earl fetches her. While fighting walkers, Eugene notices the fire is about to reach the house's attic, so he frantically rushes inside to save the radio equipment while Rosita chases after him. Despite successfully slowing down the herd, the survivors are overwhelmed and are forced to retreat after the defensive wall falls, letting the horde past the Coalition's defenses. As Yumiko fights off the walkers, she pauses in horror when she spots a blood-covered Magna moving amongst the herd. However, Yumiko quickly realizes that Magna is still alive and using the walker guts trick to hide amongst the walkers. Explosions continue to rock the Hilltop.

In the aftermath of the battle, Negan finds a badly wounded Hilltop survivor and puts him out of his misery by bashing his head in. Alpha chastises him for destroying the survivor's brain instead of stabbing him in the heart. She then laments all the walkers they lost. Negan thinks they should savor the victory, but Alpha does not share his sentiment, since she doesn't have everything she wants. Negan quickly deduces this to be Lydia and inquires, but Beta dismisses him, and vows to Alpha that he will find Lydia and bring her back. When Alpha turns to leave, Negan attempts to follow her, but Beta blocks his path and orders him to gather the scattered walkers.

Negan attempts to steer a lone walker, but quickly gets bored and decides to kill it instead. As a few more walkers approach, he prepares to steer them, but he notices Lydia limping off in the distance and decides to follow her. Meanwhile, Aaron is dragging an unconscious Luke to safety, when he runs into Negan. Aaron is furious at Negan's betrayal and prepares to kill him, while Negan tries to explain that things aren't as they seem. Before a fight can break out, the walkers that were following Negan show up and shamble past Negan and towards Aaron. With Luke incapacitated, Aaron has no choice but to kill the walkers while Negan escapes. Further out in the woods, Negan finally catches up to Lydia, and while the latter is at first glad to see him, her smile fades once she notices the Whisperer mask he is carrying. She tries to attack him, but Negan disarms and restrains her.

Elsewhere, Alden, Kelly, and Mary make their way down the road, while Alden tries to comfort a crying Adam. Mary offers her help, but Alden rebuffs her, warning her to keep her distance. He eventually reluctantly agrees, however, as he fails to pacify Adam. In Mary's arms, Adam quickly stops crying. After the trio make camp, Alden asks what the name of Mary's sister was, and she reveals it was Frances. Mary goes on to state how Adam meant everything to Frances, and laments that if she had to do it all over again, she would give her life so her sister could be reunited with Adam. Mary is suddenly alerted by a noise coming from the woods, and tells her companions that they need to move. The trio hurriedly look for shelter as more and more walkers show up, attracted by Adam's crying. They eventually find an abandoned minivan and are barely able to pry the doors open. While Alden and Kelly take shelter with Adam inside the car, Mary decides to stay outside and distract the walkers away from them. She leads a good chunk of them to a nearby stream, where she then kills her pursuers. She briefly enjoys her triumph, but is abruptly stabbed in the stomach by Beta, who reaffirms that she will walk with them. Mary tries to fight back and, in her struggle, rips a part of Beta's mask off. This prompts her assailant to finish her off by disemboweling her. Another Whisperer shows up and recognizes Beta from before the apocalypse, noting that his voice sounded familiar. Beta slits the Whisperer's throat to protect his real identity. He then patiently waits for Mary to reanimate. As soon as she does, however, she is brought down with an arrow shot by Alden. Beta runs off before Alden can shoot him as well.

Meanwhile, Carol, Yumiko, Magna, and Eugene are resting in the woods. As Eugene is desperately looking over the little equipment that he was able to salvage, a traumatized Magna recounts her experiences to Yumiko, explaining that she and Connie searched the cave for a way out, but got separated after running into the horde. Magna was unable to find Connie afterwards and doesn't know if she survived or not. Carol turns to leave, but she is stopped by Yumiko, who angrily yells at her and even punches her in the mouth for her seeming indifference to Magna's plight. When Carol does leave, Magna criticizes Yumiko's response to the situation and then breaks up with her, with both women agreeing that it's for the best and parting on amicable terms. As Carol sits alone, a walker slowly emerges from the ground and tries to grab her. Carol just watches it at first, but eventually stabs the walker. It is then that she notices Eugene standing next to her, who wanted to offer his companionship after Carol and Yumiko's altercation. Carol asks Eugene if he knows what it feels like to want something so badly that you put all your efforts towards obtaining it, resulting in anger towards you, maybe even getting people killed, only to still have nothing to show for it. Eugene, indeed, confirms that he does. He explains that he arranged a meeting with Stephanie, which he describes as the biggest of his life, but he will now be unable to attend. Carol encourages him to go anyway, to which Eugene smiles and tells Carol he hopes she gets what she wants. When Eugene leaves, Carol discovers Lydia's staff lying on the ground.

Daryl, Rosita, Dianne, Jerry, Nabila, and a few others make their way to the rendezvous where Ezekiel should be waiting for them with the kids. Once there, however, they discover the house to be empty, save for a lone walker. Nabila despairs about the whereabouts of her and Jerry's children. At another cabin, meanwhile, Earl is watching over the kids. He tries to lift their spirits and gives them all some water, going to the back room and closing the curtains behind him. Earl proceeds to flip over a table and drive a spike into it. Just as he is finished, he rolls up his sleeves, revealing a bite wound. Just then, Judith walks in, and notes that Earl lied to them. Earl acknowledges that he did, but only to protect them. Judith is upset at Earl's planned suicide, and offers to stay with him until the end so he is not alone. Earl assures her he won't be alone, but with Tammy and Ken, and knows Alden will take good care of Adam. He tells Judith how strong and brave she is, but adds that he needs her to keep the other kids safe from him. He then asks her to go back to the other room and not come near him again. Judith briefly holds Earl's hand, then leaves as instructed.

Daryl and Jerry travel back to the ruins of Hilltop, and discover Ezekiel still alive under some debris. Ezekiel tells them that Earl has the kids. Back at the cabin, Earl commits suicide by headbutting the spike he drove into the table. As the other kids are asleep, Judith goes to check on Earl and discovers him dead, though he failed at impaling himself on the spike. As she approaches his body for a closer examination, Earl suddenly reanimates and grabs her. When Daryl, Ezekiel, and Jerry approach the cabin, they are relieved to find all of the kids alive. Further inside, Daryl discovers Judith sitting next to Earl's body, having just put down his reanimated corpse. Daryl sits next to her and hugs her in comfort.

Out in the woods, Negan approaches Alpha and informs her that he found what she was looking for. Meanwhile, Lydia wakes up tied to a chair in a small cabin. As they travel to the cabin, Alpha observes a walker and dubs it beautiful and pure, although Negan does not share her sentiment. Alpha is certain he will see it at some point, maybe even soon. Negan states that he is not ready to die, but Alpha explains that she wishes to leave the Whisperers with him and start a new group, comparing him to a lion cub who must leave his pride, become a lion, and start a new pride. The pair continue their journey, as Lydia struggles to get out of her restraints. Negan points out that Beta is no "Alpha", and asks if it should be the young lioness who takes her mother's place, to which Alpha simply tells him to keep walking. Negan goes on to tell Alpha about how he lost his wife to pancreatic cancer, and notes that the disease put things into perspective. He claims that his wife was never more beautiful than right before the end, despite her hair loss and frailness. Alpha thinks Negan should be grateful, since death set his wife free. Negan goes on to state that, after his wife died, he didn't really feel emotions anymore, and describes this as his strength. He then compares himself to Alpha, noting that while he is dead to the world, Alpha is just pretending. He asserts that her philosophy of denying emotions are real and acting like animals is "bullshit", and she knows it, as well as her claim that she needs to kill Lydia to be strong. Alpha retorts that it is Lydia's destiny to be killed by her hand. She says, like the disease that set Negan's wife free, she needs to set Lydia free. As Lydia starts to break free from her restraints, Negan and Alpha approach the shed. Negan notes that Alpha still loves Lydia, but Alpha informs him that she has to kill Lydia because she loves her. She kisses Negan and thanks him, before approaching the cabin. Lydia finally breaks free of her restraints and rushes to the door. When she opens it, however, she only finds a foggy clearing. Alpha, meanwhile, opens the door of a different cabin and finds it empty. Confused, she turns towards Negan, only for him to suddenly slash her throat. Negan then kisses and holds her as she is dying.

Later, Negan meets up with Carol and dumps Alpha's reanimated head at Carol's feet. Carol smiles and tells Negan "took you long enough", revealing that they were working together the whole time to take Alpha down.

Other Cast[]

Co-Stars[]

Uncredited[]


Deaths[]

Trivia[]

  • Last appearance of Troy. (Alive)
  • Last appearance of Mary. (Alive)
    • With Mary's death, Adam is the last known member of her family confirmed alive.
  • Last appearance of Earl Sutton. (Alive)
    • With Earl's death:
      • There are no known original members of the Sutton family left alive.
      • Adam is the only remaining member of the Sutton family.
  • Last appearance of Dee. (Alive)
    • With Alpha's death:
      • Lydia is the last known member of her family still alive.
      • Beta is the only of the three dominant Whisperers still alive.
  • Last appearance of Quan.
  • This episode marks Melissa McBride's 100th appearance on the TV Series, making her the third person to achieve this mark after Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus.
  • The title of the episode, "Walk With Us", refers to Beta's last words to Mary when he kills her, telling her that she will walk them (the Whisperers) again. It also refers to Lydia's words to Mary, where she tells the latter that she will never walk with the Whisperers again.
  • This episode's title is nearly identical to the title of the Season 3 episode, "Walk With Me".
  • This episode was made available for streaming to subscribers of AMC Premiere on March 13, 2020.
  • This episode was filmed as the 13th episode of the season, and "What We Become" was being filmed as the 12th. The two episodes were switched.
  • This episode reveals that Carol was the one who released Negan from his jail cell in "Silence the Whisperers" and that the two had been working together all along to take down Alpha.
    • This is also the first time that Carol and Negan have interacted on-screen.
  • This is the first time we see Judith Grimes, Eugene Porter, and Luke Abrams directly kill someone.
    • Judith's reaction suggests that it was also her first direct human kill.
  • Magna and Connie are revealed to have survived the cave collapse in "Squeeze", ultimately using the walker guts trick to hide amongst the herd. However, Connie's fate remains unknown as she and Magna got separated.
  • Beta's face is partially revealed when Mary rips his mask.
    • Beta's celebrity status and profession is hinted at when a Whisperer recognizes him and says that his voice sounded familiar. In Fear the Walking Dead, Beta's face can be seen on a record, revealing him to be a musician.
  • Lydia uses her staff as a walking stick after being injured, similar to Henry following the events of "Chokepoint" and Morgan Jones in the first half of Season 4 of Fear the Walking Dead and later in "... I Lose Myself".
  • The Talking Dead episode that was meant to follow up this episode was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tom Payne (Jesus) was set to be on the show with two surprise guests.
    • The Talking Dead for "Look at the Flowers", done via video conferencing due to the pandemic, covered both "Walk With Us" and "Look at the Flowers" instead.

Comic Parallels[]

  • The survivors fighting off the Whisperer horde while the Hilltop is burning is adapted from Issue 160 and Issue 161.
  • The Hilltop Colony burning down is adapted from Issue 161.
  • Lydia telling Mary that she will never walk with her mother again is adapted from Issue 160 when Lydia tells a Whisperer during the battle that Hilltop is her home and the 'time of the Whisperers is over'.
  • Negan calling Beta "Frowny McTwoknives" is a nod to Issue 154, where Negan gives Beta this nickname the first time they meet.
  • Carol's hesitation to put down a walker that was reaching out for her could be a nod to her comic death in Issue 41.
  • Beta disemboweling Mary is adapted from Issue 158, where he disembowels Gabriel instead.
  • Beta's mask getting damaged is possibly a nod to Issue 155, where Michonne slices his mask with her katana.
  • Beta killing a Whisperer for seeing his face is adapted from a similar scene in Issue 159, where a Whisperer tries to see Beta's face while the latter is unconscious, but is swiftly killed.
  • Negan and Alpha's conversation before her death is adapted from Issue 156.
  • Negan slitting Alpha's throat and decapitating her is adapted from Issue 156.
  • Negan "romantically" holding Alpha while she is dying is a nod to the cover of Issue 156.
  • Negan bringing Alpha's reanimated head to Carol is adapted from a similar scene in Issue 157, where he brings it to Rick instead.

Episode Highlights[]

  • Alden makes peace with Mary shortly before her death.

Goofs/Errors[]

  • In the premiere version of the episode, an iPhone could be seen in Beta's inner pocket when he rested Mary against the tree. This part of the scene was quickly changed after the realization.
  • When Mary is killed, she is laid against the tree and is facing down. When Beta walks away from her, she is staring forward. When Mary starts to turn, she is facing up and away.
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