THE WALKING DEAD Season 5 Episode 6
Episode Title: “Consumed”
Writers: Matthew Negrete & Corey Reed
Director: Seith Mann
Previously on “The Walking Dead”:
While “The Walking Dead” quickly disposed of Gareth (Andrew J. West) and the Hunters from Terminus, it looks like the show is dragging its heels with the hospital storyline to free Beth Greene (Emily Kinney).
Don’t be too shocked if this storyline is drawn out to episode 8. We should just hope that it doesn’t set up a midseason cliffhanger and extend into the second half of the season.
The New Adventures of Old Carol
Throughout the episode, “Consumed” offered flashbacks to the recent tragedies of Carol (Melissa McBride), including a few of her own creation. The most compelling sequence took place in the opening moments, as Carol’s initial expulsion from the group allows her to witness the destruction of the prison from a distance.
From there, the flashbacks check in on Carol as she and Tyreese (Chad Coleman) bury Lizzie (Brighton Sharbino) and Mika (Kyla Kenedy), before jumping to the two murders that Carol committed in the prison to save the group from the plague and Carol’s emotional breakdown after helping the survivors escape from Terminus.
Back to Atlanta
A few episodes back, Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) spotted a car that resembled the vehicle that kidnapped Beth. So he and Carol jumped into a car and took off in pursuit. Despite a limited supply of gas, Daryl and Carol follow the car back to Atlanta and manage to stay undetected.
Unfortunately, their car runs out of fuel in downtown Atlanta. Undaunted, Daryl and Carol fight their way through a small herd of walkers and make their way deeper into the city. Carol tells Daryl that she knows a place where they can get shelter.
Shippers’ Lane
Carol’s sanctuary turns out to be a battered women’s shelter, where she and her late daughter, Sophia had stayed before. And for the first time in five seasons, Daryl and Carol end up in bed together. It’s totally platonic, but that scene will probably launch thousands of fan fiction stories.
That brief moment of rest is interrupted by the sound of walkers inside of the shelter. To their horror, the duo discovers that the walkers are a woman and her daughter, which apparently reminds Carol of her own lost daughter. Seeking to spare Carol from more emotional pain, Daryl takes it upon himself to put the walkers out of their misery and burn their bodies.
Camp Zombie
While entering an office building to get a better view of the city, Daryl and Carol discover the remains of a group of survivors turned walkers who have apparently been trapped for months in their camping equipment. Who knew that sleeping bags and cheap Walmart tents could hold the undead in place?
Presumably someone murdered this group for their supplies. Daryl and Carol put down the sleeping bag zombies but they don’t bother with the ones in the tents. They soon spot an abandoned van with the white cross insignia hanging precariously on the side of a bridge. But on their way out, they are held up by Noah (Tyler James Williams), who takes Daryl’s crossbow and unleashes the tent zombies on them.
Carol tries to take a shot at Noah before he can escape, but Daryl prevents her from hitting him. Annoyed, Carol states that she was only going to shoot him in the leg. But now they might die without weapons to protect themselves.
Over The Edge
Carol’s warning turns prophetic when she and Daryl are surrounded by walkers after reaching the abandoned van. In order to survive, Daryl and Carol strap themselves into the van and allow the zombies to push them over the bridge. Miraculously, both of them survive… but Carol appears to be more badly injured than Daryl.
That was a very Jack Bauer moment, even though it was more unbelievable than the idea of the world being overrun by zombies. On the plus side, Daryl and Carol finally figure out that Beth is being held at a hospital and they correctly guess which one.
Assault on Hospital 13
While scouting the hospital where Beth is a prisoner, the duo once again encounter Noah. Daryl traps Noah under a heavy bookcase and he retrieves his crossbow. However, Daryl almost lets Noah get eaten by a walker despite his pleas for help. But eventually, Daryl relents and Noah reveals that he needed the weapons to go back to the hospital to save Beth.
The shots attract the attention of the corrupt cops running the hospital, so the newly formed trio attempts to escape. Carol makes it outside first… and she is promptly struck by a police car. It’s a pretty bad hit, which means that Carol wasn’t faking her injuries at the end of episode four a few weeks back. But she survived an episode that seemed to once again foreshadow her death.
Noah convinces Daryl to let the police take Carol back to the hospital since they are the only ones who can save her life. Realizing that they are outnumbered and outgunned, Daryl and Noah escape the city in a truck with the intention of bringing Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the rest of Daryl’s group back with them for a real rescue mission.
Now we know that Noah was probably the one that Daryl had hiding in the bushes at the end of episode 3… but that still doesn’t make that cliffhanger any less awkward. Barring a gruesome death in the next two episodes, it looks like Noah might stick around a while as one of the new survivors.
I hope that this hospital storyline is worth all of the screentime that it’s been getting. I’m already bored with it, but the show doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to get past this.
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