Sasha and Maggie bring Aaron back to the barn, which puts everyone on high alert. Even though the girls stripped him of his weapons, Aaron is still patted down before being tied up. He tells Rick to go through his pack, check out the blurry photos of their community, and tries to tell him about it. Rick punches him out. When he comes to, Rick believes that the flare gun in his pack is to signal an ambush. Michonne is hopeful that what Aaron says of a community is true. Since Rick is ready to kill the kid on the spot, Michonne volunteers to check out his story about his partner parked with two cars a few miles away. Maggie, Abraham, Glenn, and Rosita go with her, while Rick pairs up everyone else and has them fan out, in case this is a setup, too. If Michonne’s group isn’t back in 60 minutes, Rick will kill him.
Rick and Judith remain with Aaron. The baby is crying, and Rick is having a hard time mushing up food for her while she cries. Aaron offers him some of the applesauce from his pack, brought to prove they have apple trees nearby. Rick doesn’t trust him and makes him taste it, which shocks Aaron – how could Rick assume he wants to poison his baby? Aaron finally takes a bite, then Rick takes a bite. He is still suspicious, but he feeds it to Judith.
The group heads out to check on the cars. Glenn has caught Rick’s paranoia, and instructs the group to shoot anyone who approaches. Michonne takes exception to this, but it doesn’t matter. Aaron was telling the truth: they find a car and an RV, with no other people around (not really sure where his partner, Eric, is at this time). The RV is well stocked with canned goods. The group drives the two vehicles back to the barn.
Rick pulls the most jerk move possible at this point: he declares all the food in the RV theirs, regardless of whether or not they go with him. Carl wants to know why they wouldn’t go, and Michonne puts her foot down: they are going. Aaron didn’t lie, and in her mind, he deserves a chance. Rick agrees, but he insists they drive the cars back. Aaron doesn’t like that plan, but Michonne is with Rick on this one. Aaron won’t tell where his community is, and Rick, still believing an ambush is likely, decides they will take route 23 – not route 16 like Aaron suggests. He also insists that they travel under cover of darkness.
Night comes. Glenn drives, Rick in the passenger seat, Michonne in the back with Aaron (still bound). Michonne is impressed when Aaron says he has his own house in his community, but as she thumbs through the rest of his photos, she realizes there is not a single person in any picture. She becomes concerned, and asks him the three questions (which Rick forgot to ask): he has killed lots of zombies, but only two humans, because they tried to kill him first. Michonne seems settled with this response, but then Rick finds a listening device and all hell breaks loose. It turns out that Aaron was right to direct them to route 16, which was already cleared. Glenn drives into a massive flock of zombies. In an instant, the windshield is blacked out with gore and blood. The wall of walkers seems to go on forever. They finally make it through, then realize the other truck is missing. Unfortunately, the car engine is flooded with zombie limbs and it won’t start.
A flare goes up and Aaron is scared. “It’s over,” he says, and fights to get out of the car. Everyone rushes from the car, into the dark, and towards the flare. They are quickly set upon by walkers and must fight their way through. As Glenn finishes with his own attacker, he sees Aaron struggling with his own walker. Glenn actually stops and considers whether or not he will save Aaron before he acts. Glenn cuts him free and tells him to run if he wants; he has other things to worry about.
Rick is out of bullets, so he fires a flare into a zombie skull. It is a beautiful scene, lighting up the zombie like a grotesque jack o’ lantern. There are a lot more zombies, so the knives come out, but there are too many of them. Bullets take out the rest, thanks to Aaron. He drops the gun and offers to let Rick tie him back up, but Rick says there is no time. That’s not to say he trusts him; the moment they get onto route 16, he again thinks it is a trap.
The group heads towards where they saw the flare, and a whistle from Daryl signifies things are safe. Aaron rushes inside to Eric, his boyfriend, with a broken ankle. They kiss passionately and chat for a few minutes, showing that they are deeply in love. Rick watches from the doorway, and when Eric notices, he introduces himself warmly. Rick is hostile when he gives his name.
Aaron addresses the group and thanks them for saving Eric, promising them he will repay the debt in full. He starts by saying his community is in Alexandria, and he would rather not drive more tonight. Rick agrees, but wants Aaron to sleep far away from the rest of the group. For the first time, Aaron puts his foot down. “The only way you will keep me from Eric is by shooting me.” Glenn is the one who finally pulls Rick’s head from his rear, and he relents.
The group rolls out in the morning, and people seem more relaxed – until the battery dies on the RV. Abraham, driving at the time, seems dangerously close to falling back into his firetruck tantrum, but Glenn reveals three spare batteries in storage. While they fix it, Michonne has a heart-to-heart with Rick, urging him to let his fight go. “It’s hard,” she acknowledges. “It kept you warm and fed and alive. But the fight turns on you. You’ve got to let it go.” The RV roars to life, but Rick needs a minute before he leaves. In a blender, behind a little house, he hides a gun. Just in case.
The group rolls up to the huge, imposing gates of the Alexandria community. But instead of the ominous silence surrounding Woodbury and Terminus, he hears children playing. Laughter. Conversation. Rick looks terrified that they may have found a home here.
I didn’t care much for tonight’s episode. Rick’s paranoia and distrust is getting tiresome. It is understandable, but enough already. When you jam that much anger into a single episode, it is exhausting. Rick has become less and less likable over the seasons, but at this point I am done with him.
You can check out a clip from Episode 5.12 of “The Walking Dead” in the player below.
