Finally, we get some Daryl action. The latest episode of The Walking Dead brought us up to speed with our favorite bad boy with a soft side, Daryl, and his partners on the walker diversion mission, Sasha and Abraham. And though it wasn’t nearly as intense as previous episodes in this season so far, it was definitely a welcomed change of pace. Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham get ambushed on their way back to Alexandria, causing Sasha and Abraham to separate from Daryl and endure different trials on The Walking Dead: “Always Accountable.” Spoiler alert.
Ambushed
Last week on The Walking Dead, we caught up with most of the folks in Alexandria following the home invasion by the Wolves, and Rick tried, unsuccessfully, to make contact with Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham via walkie talkie. This week, the storyline resumed with Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham, following the apparent successful completion of Rick’s walker diversion mission. As the three were making their way back to the community, they were ambushed by some unknown attackers—likely some more Wolves—which caused the group to split; Daryl was forced off on his own and Abraham and Sasha remained together.
Daryl, poor Daryl, was hit almost immediately by the gunfire, but managed to barely escape into the remnants of a severely burned forest. After reaching a quasi-safe place to take a rest and assess his situation, he quickly realized he wasn’t alone. Unfortunately, when he found two young women, who were all too willing to surrender it seemed, he was clobbered over the head from behind by their protector—a man whose name we never really learned. Suffice to say, poor Daryl was then taken captive, such as it was, by the three barely surviving numbskulls who just so happened to be packing heat. Aside from being not-so-bright, they were also paranoid that Daryl was one of “them.” “Them,” of course, referring to the group that they escaped from because of well, really crappy living conditions, among other things we can all be sure.
Meanwhile, after their rinky-dink car crashed during the attack, Sasha and Abraham abandoned their car and tried to take out their assailants while on foot. When the unknown assailants finally vacated the premises, and they couldn’t immediately find Daryl, Abraham reluctantly went with Sasha’s plan to stay put and wait for Daryl to find them; because according to Sasha that’s how you find a tracker: you let them come to you. Makes sense, right? And that’s when things got kind of interesting between those two, to say the least.
Choices
Once inside an abandoned building, Sasha and Abraham were safe and sound for the time being, with the exception of one obvious walker who couldn’t get to them. This was good, given that they were long past due for a serious conversation about control, initially, but the conversation then morphed into another about choices and accountability. After going back and forth all day over literally every decision they needed to make together, Sasha finally confronted Abraham about his choices, compassionately explaining to him that “when you have a roof over your head, food, and walls, you have choices.” And as result, “without walkers and bullets, and shit hitting the fan, you’re accountable to them.” “Them,” of course, referring to the actual choices. Her classy tell-it-like-it-is moment was apparently just what Abraham needed/wanted because it ended up sparking a change of perspective for the emotionally damaged U.S. Army Sergeant. The biggest indicator of that change of perspective, then, being his complimenting Sasha on her ability to call bullshit and then confessing that he wanted to get to know her better—hello! Sasha got his drift immediately prompting a really strange exchange where she acknowledged his coming on to her, but unconvincingly shot him down. One thing is for sure: the way those two left things, we may have a love triangle between Sasha, Abraham, and Rosita sometime in the near future. Run, Sasha, run!
Speaking of running, Daryl was finally able to escape his captors who were too busy being caught off guard by a change of plans, making off with their duffle bag that contained a small cooler marked insulin. And in a classic post season one Daryl move, after discovering the medicine for the sickly Tina, he tracked down his former captors to return the bag and its contents. Needless to say, that turned out to be bad move for him for several reasons including leading to his eventual motorcycle and bow and arrow hijack, leaving him stranded with nothing but his instinct and a knife. That’s ok, because Daryl is a survivor and it didn’t take long for him to get back on track, first finding an abandoned truck, and then locating Abraham and Sasha—just as she said he would—before heading back to Alexandria as if nothing crazy had transpired all day.
In an interesting last minute twist of events, as Daryl attempted to make contact with Rick via walkie talkie, he received a distressed response from a seemingly familiar voice—perhaps our dear Glenn—calling out for help. Maybe Glenn is still alive, given that Nicholas did fall on him. I guess we’ll all find out in due time.
The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9:00pm EST on AMC.