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“The Walking Dead” recap (5.12): Remember

Ah yes, ye old town of Alexandria-a sustainable community that was once built on solar energy for families looking for homes in the “lower 800,000s.” So says Deanna, a former Ohio congresswoman who has been here since the whole thing began and seems to head the community as lead mom. She wants to film Rick in her living room, which looks straight out of a Nancy Meyers movie, as does she in her ironed linens. Maybe her husband’s Jack Nicholson, or maybe she’s a dyke-I’m obviously hoping for the latter. I bet she hosts Cards Against Humanity nights.

Of course, Rick is seasoned from the road, so he’s still skeptical of this charade, and Deanna has questions of her own. We know Rick still has a gun nearby stashed in a blender if anything goes to shit. For a show that love to foreshadow, I don’t want to believe this act of “blending”-integrating the road group into this relaxed, eco-friendly community-will prove chunky later on, for lack of better words.

Deanna probably makes a killer apple pie.

Two mini-mansions-that’s what Rick and his whole group are told are now all theirs. Carl and Rick are checking out their digs. Carl approaches the sink. YES! There’s running water! In a flash, Rick is seen taking a long, hot shower. Remember in the first season when the original group made it to the Center of Disease Control and giggled to themselves the whole time they were showering? Time out there on the road, seeing everything this group has seen, is a stark contrast against this new, white-walled, laundered clothes, friendly-faced community tucked away in Northern Virginia. Is it too good to be true? Is any formal semblance of the life we once had possible in this new world, even in a community so sheltered, even if the right groups come together to make peace?

After Rick shaves off his road beard, he meets Jessie, a self-proclaimed “stylist” who acts like a Jill of all trades-she works in the pantry and offers to give Rick a fresh haircut. (Just don’t lay those trimmers on Dr. Porter’s precious mullet!) Watching Rick take a long hard look at himself in the mirror of the bathroom, and now through Jessie’s hand mirror, is a strange thing. Rick is a weathered man; a hardened man. Will he ever be able to let his walls down again?

Outside, the group hands over their weapons. Carol is all smiles, as she struggles to lift the machine gun off her little body. Why is she acting so demure all of a sudden? Daryl is seen pacing through Deanna’s living room with that dead opossum he killed. Deanna seems humored by Daryl, like he’s dragged his pet in as a security blanket. Carl wanders upstairs through their new house, clearing rooms like he’s been taught to. It’s second nature, to fear what’s behind that closed door. What he finds is interesting. Upstairs is an unfurnished room with a pillow and blanket propped against a wall, some drink bottles, books, as if someone was crashing there before they showed up. Other than that, the house is immaculate, so what’s the explanation here? Deanna mentions she had to exile three men who didn’t “work out” in the community. Could this have been theirs, or are those men still out there lurking, waiting to come back for revenge?

At nightfall, the group decides to sleep in one of the two houses-all together. Michonne can’t stop brushing her teeth, and she’s never seen Rick with this new face. Deanna comes by to check up on them. She takes notice of their family-like vibes, smiling from ear to ear. She says she’s got a few jobs lined up for them-one for Rick, for Sasha and Michonne, and for “Dixon.” (Of course she means Daryl, who’s still a ball of strange energy.) What we have to remember is that Daryl (and many others) not only acclimated to the outside world, but also gave up their ghosts to be survivors in that world, a process of discovery that started long before the world ended. Daryl is one with that world out there. When he was squatting in that house with Beth sipping on moonshine, his life story began to come out; Daryl never really had a home-never had a strong sense of family, sans his brother, may he and the hand Rick cut off of him rest in undead peace.

Rick, you have a face under that beard!

As everyone begins to explore the area the next day, Rick loses the group and freaks out. He knocks himself into something that looks like a shopping cart until he runs into Jessie again. Just the night before, Rick was creeping through the house and winds up in the kitchen, pulling a knife out of the drawer. Old habits die hard. This morning only proves he’s still very much on guard. Jessie says Carl and Baby Judith are probably at this older couple’s house who had a billion grandkids and haven’t pinched baby cheeks in a minute. She says her son Ron still wants to meet Carl, so that’s exactly where we go next. Ron introduces Carl to two other kids, one being this girl Enid who he swore he saw earlier from when they were standing outside of the gates. She doesn’t say much. She, too, has been on the outside, and it shows. She doesn’t need to be fussed over and she doesn’t trust anyone. The two boys are clueless about this type of life and are dressed like they’re attending prep school in The OC. They mention that there’s school and work, like having a regular life-there’s even video games, bro. Carl’s overwhelmed. Just yesterday he was protecting his baby sister in a shitty smelling barn from a terrible storm, a hoard of walkers were about to eat them all up for dinner, and the possibility of starving to death remained ever present.

Video games are sooo pre-zombiepocalypse.

Carl is a teenage boy now. The writing is on the wall for Carl and Enid. I could see them together, and that’s a big duh. He isn’t the little kid he used to be. (Wink, wink.) In between scenes, we see everyone from Michonne (holding the fittingly perfect book for this moment, Crimes and Punishments by Fyodor Dostoyevsky) at the chair in Deanna’s living room, to Carl and Baby Judith taking their turn in front of the camera lens. Carl mentions having to kill his mom. It’s the first episode in a long, long time that we’ve heard mention of dearly departed Lori, Rick’s wife. It happens again when Rick asks Daryl if he wants to go explore and says Lori and he used to drive through neighborhoods like this saying, “One day…” Are we about to meet a Rick we’ve never met before?

Night two at Alexandria offers a new feeling. Rick is taking a walk when a voice asks if he’s Rick. This man sitting in the shadows gives a half-ass welcome and introduces himself only by saying, “My wife cut your hair,” as he puffs away at his cigarette on the front porch. Rick offers a smile and continues walking. Perhaps thanks to recent events, like the many pep talks from Michonne or Glenn, there’s a side of Rick that has the ability to keep his poker face on-point, unlike before, when he was easily rattled by strangers. He has to hold his cards close to his chest now. He can’t tip anyone off-certainly not Jessie’s husband. (Also, bummer Jessie has a man. For a second, I thought she’d make a great girl for Rick, right?) As the camera lingers on Jessie’s husband, we see a glaze in his eye we’ve seen before. (That and we also know that any character in the history of ANY work of art, seen puffing at a cig in the dark-is probably ominous.)

“Rick, I forgot to mention, I have a husband. Sorry!”

It’s so weird, these sessions with Deanna on film. Carol tells her about being the “good wife.” She even goes so far as to say she misses Ed, who she calls a “wonderful man.” Say what? Ed, the guy who beat you? She smiles a smile we haven’t seen in ages, but this side of Carol is telling. Tough, badass bitch Carol has worked so hard to regain her strength, reclaim her status as a strong woman-that light can’t soften now. Her life before the world ended was life-and-death every day. She was belittled, broken down, and even if she did have dinner on the table every single night, the pleasure it gave her to be good was not reciprocated or appreciated, it was abused. Soon, Carol’s wearing a cardigan and khakis and talking about casseroles. Daryl hasn’t showered yet and he’s doing what he does best-fixing stuff. But he ain’t buying what Carol’s putting down. He gives her one look and thinks, That’s not Carol. But, maybe this is old Carol, the Carol we never knew that she is not necessarily regressing backwards into, but meeting again with all the lessons she’s learned in tow. Is it at all possible that this community will bring that out in others, too? Carl brings up something we are all hoping is still on their minds though: They can’t get weak.

Daryl: “You look ridiculous.”

Glenn, Tara and Noah meet Aiden-Deanna’s son, a former-ROTC jock who tells them a lame joke and later admits to being an “asshole and a douchebag.” You said it, Aiden. Tara’s less than impressed. But hey, our girl gets a line in this episode, so yay for that! Aiden is going to take them on a dry run so they can see what it’s like to bring supplies in. That’s obviously Glenn’s forte, but there’s Alexandria boys and then there’s Glenn and his group of survivors. How will these runs work out? Meanwhile, Carl sees Enid escaping over the wall into the woods but loses her and then runs into his dad. He’d gone back to look for that gun he hid in the blender, AND IT’S GONE. He seems really pissed, but then a group of walkers emerge and he and Carl have a field day, exchanging looks after they kill the group of walkers like, “Yeah, we still got it.”

On this “run” Aiden says things will be done his way, and his way only. They begin to talk about some people they lost to walkers-they’ve apparently hung the walker up so that they can “get their heads on straight” as they pass it. We can already see the wheels turning in Glenn. This is not good. As they come up to the chain, they notice the walker’s gone and it almost bites Tara as Aiden and his pal taunt it and toss it back and forth. Tara is only trying to defend them by knifing it when she gets caught in its flappy, dead skin. Glenn comes to her rescue, but he’s pissed about this. It’s a trigger to see a walker getting tossed about. If they really knew better, if they’ve really seen death, they wouldn’t fuck with it. They seem to think that when you lose someone in this world to a walker, you get to treat the walker like your slave. (Cough, Governor…) Of course this is old news to Glenn, Tara and Noah. They’ve all lost someone, and they’ve all killed people they love to defend another. Noah killed his little zombie brother to try to save Tyreese. Everyone’s eyes are rolling out of their heads, maybe even the walker they just killed.

Tara hates a douchebag.

Back inside Alexandria, everyone’s gathered around to watch this fight go down. Aiden throws a punch at Glenn who ducks out of it. Deanna breaks the fight up and thanks Glenn for knocking Aiden “on his ass” and setting it straight. She asks Rick and Michonne if they’ll become the town’s newly appointed constables. They both say yes, and later on, as Rick is trying on his uniform, we hear him talking to Deanna from earlier in her living room, saying that the world has changed now, that people will find your weaknesses and use it to their advantage. Is this one of those moments? Carol, standing on the porch in her Martha Stewart garb poses the same question Carl did. Will this make them weak? Rick says, “No.” He even says they should all sleep in their own homes and settle in. This won’t make them weak-they were out there for too long to ever lose that. And, if this town can’t make it, they know they can. And Rick says, “They’ll just take over.”

No one tells Glenn how to make a supply run.

What did you think of The Walking Dead’s latest twist? How long do you think a good thing can last before it turns ugly? Has that switch already occurred because of people like Aiden? When will Daryl take a shower? Is Enid going to give Carl a smooch? Why is Deanna such an awesome mom? Sound off in the comments and tweet me @the_hoff.

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