'The Walking Dead' Recap: Thanks for Nothing

Warning: This recap for the “Thank You” episode of The Walking Dead contains storyline and character spoilers.

The storytelling structure being used to unfold Season 6 so far has been an interesting one: First, we got an overview of current events in Alexandria, then we switched to the happenings inside the safe zone in Episode 2, while Episode 3 went back outside the gates to catch us up on how Rick, Glenn, Michonne, Daryl, Sasha, Abraham, and the Alexandrians have been dealing with the walker herd.

While we’ve enjoyed the breakneck pace of these timeline and focus shifts so far, Episode 3 also included what might turn out to be the most heartbreaking and shocking event of the entire series so far. And if the story continues to play out the way it has, that could lead to a two-week wait — or longer — for the plot to turn its focus back on action outside of Alexandria, meaning the life of one of the most beloved members of Rick Grimes’s crew hangs in the balance until then…

Into the Woods

Picking up with the end of the Season 6 premiere, the sounds of the horn blaring from Alexandria has sent everyone scrambling, as half the giant herd of walkers that Sasha, Abraham, and Daryl are trying to lead away have been drawn back towards the safe zone by the noise. The trio of vehicles continue to lead the other half of the herd down the highway, but Rick, Glenn, Michonne, and the Alexandrians are running through the woods, headed back towards home base.

Related: Take a Bite Out of Our ‘Walking Dead’ Recaps

Rick takes a break and doles out instructions: He wants Glenn and Michonne to get back to Alexandria, no matter what, while he runs off to get the RV and try to help corral the roaming roamers. Rick stresses to everyone to just get home safely, but he takes Glenn and Michonne aside and tells them to move ahead, taking the Alexandrians with them if they can, but to leave them behind if they can’t keep up. Heath overhears the private chat.

And, as if on cue, the group hears screams, which turns out to be one of the Alexandrians getting eaten by a walker. He was among the many who continue to question Rick’s insistence on training the townsfolk to defend themselves.

With yet another stubborn Alexandrian dead, Rick heads off to the RV, and Glenn, Michonne, Nicholas, Heath, David, Scott, Sturgess, and an injured Annie (who twisted her ankle earlier) forge onward and run into a pack of walkers. Glenn tells everyone not to shoot — use knives instead — but, of course, ‘fraidy cat Sturgess takes out his gun and fires. It misses the walkers, but hits Scott in the leg. Sturgess runs off, but David loses a giant bite of his shoulder to a walker, meaning Annie and Scott are hobbling through the woods and David is bleeding pretty badly as the group kills the walkers and heads into another little town, trying to make their way to Alexandria.

The streets are filled with abandoned cars, but none of them work, so the group is resigned to traveling the rest of the way on foot. As they move forward, they spot Sturgess… being noshed on by walkers. That freaks an already unsteady Nicholas out even further, and he goes into a trance-like state. Glenn shakes him out of it, and with more walkers approaching — part of that herd has followed them — they take refuge inside an old pet store.

The roaming zombies are blocking their way out of town and back to the safe zone, so Glenn concocts a plan: He’ll run out and set another building on fire, hoping it will distract the walkers so the pet shop boys (and girls) can continue on, without the walkers on their trail. Michonne tells Glenn she should do it — he has to get back to Maggie — but he says it’s his plan, and he’ll do it while she leads the others home. Besides, Glenn says, if he gets stuck, he’ll find a way to let them know he’s okay. Glenn has to do one thing first; he looks at his treasured possession, that pocket watch Hershel gave him, and gets Rick on the walkie-talkie to share his plan. And he has a message for his friend: “Good luck, dumb-ass,” a throwback to Rick and Glenn’s first meeting in Season 1’s “Guts.”

Michonne tries to keep everyone inside the pet store calm. Annie and Scott say the others should leave them behind, as their injuries will put everyone else in jeopardy. Heath refuses, and Michonne backs him up, but the two get into a confrontation about what Heath overheard Rick say about how they should abandon any Alexandrians who can’t keep up. Michonne, in a very impassioned speech, makes it clear to Heath that he doesn’t understand what Rick, and she, have been through, the things they’ve had to do to survive. “Have you ever done things that make you feel afraid of yourself afterward? Have you ever been covered in so much blood that you didn’t know if it was yours, or walkers, or your friends?”

Related: 4 Different Ways to Dress Up as Carol From ‘The Walking Dead’ for Halloween

Glenn and Nicholas, who continues to show signs of a PTSD-type breakdown, are off to burn down the local feed store, but Nicholas sees a once-familiar face along the way: zombified Will, a member of his crew who Nicholas says he left behind back in his not-too-distant weasel days. Glenn assures him he’s not that guy anymore, but Nicholas again starts to space out after stabbing Will in the head. When he and Glenn arrive at the feed store to find the building already destroyed, he zones out again, and Glenn has to prompt him into picking another burn-worthy building. Instead, with a big chunk of the herd hot on their trail, Nicholas leads them down an alley, trapping them, with zombies closing in on all sides.

And it’s bleak at the pet store. Michonne discovers a pair of walkers behind a wall inside, and the ruckus created by killing them draws the herd outside towards the store doors. Injured Scott and Annie plus David, Heath, and Michonne make a break for it while they still can, shooting at the door and trying to battle through the walkers, but Annie falls and tells the others to move on as she’s swarmed by hungry undead.

Michonne, Heath, Scott, and David run through town and down an alley that traps them at a tall gate with another part of the herd literally chomping at their heels. Heath makes it over the gate and helps Scott to the other side, too, which leaves barely enough time for Michonne to climb over the top before the herd gets David. Michonne, Heath, and an increasingly-in-pain Scott head back through the woods and finally make it to Alexandria, where they’re greeted by the fallen lookout tower and the Wolves’ truck that crashed through the front gate.

RV Rick

Rick is running full-out straight towards the RV that was used to lead the herd through a certain path, but he’s stopped along the way by a small crowd of walkers munching on a victim. He quickly dispenses with them all, but cuts his own hand in the process.

It’s still hurting quite a bit — which we know because Rick usually ignores such things altogether — when he arrives at the RV and takes off, stopping at the point he guesses will allow him to intercept the broken-off herd.

Rick tries to get Glenn on the walkie-talkie, but can’t. He touches base with Abe and Sasha, telling them he heard gunshots coming from Alexandria, but insisting they stick with his plan to lure the herd away instead of returning to Alexandria. “This is for them,” Rick says says. “Going back now, before it’s done, that’d be for us.”

Just as he concludes his chat, Rick is nursing his hand when two people burst through the RV door and start shooting. It’s Blond Wolf, with the gun he took from Alexandria before running away from Morgan. He and another Wolf attack Rick, who, even with one bum hand, fights both them off before shooting them. Just as he finds a jar of baby food in the pocket of one Wolf — letting him know they’ve been to Alexandria — he sees another group of Wolves approaching along the side of the RV. He picks up an automatic rifle and starts blasting the whole side of the vehicle, shooting right through it and killing the Wolves.

He’s safe, from them, but all the gunfire has drawn a large portion of the walker herd his way, and when he tries to start the RV again, the engine is dead.

Glenn

Glenn and Nicholas, who is in full meltdown mode, have managed to climb onto the temporary refuge of a trash bin, but walkers are closing in on them from every direction, with their mouths open and chomping and their hands in the air grabbing at their next meal. Glenn sees that Nicholas is checking out, and he tries to talk to him. But Nicholas has had enough, seen enough, done enough, and he snaps back to the present long enough to say “Thank you” to Glenn, then put his gun to his head and pull the trigger.

Glenn’s face is splattered with blood, and Nicholas’s lifeless body falls towards Glenn, pushing them both off the trash bin and right down into the zombie pit below. The walkers pounce, sending giant spurts of blood and entrails through the air. Is it Glenn’s blood? Nicholas’s entrails? We know Nicholas is already dead, and Glenn is on the ground, seemingly with Nicholas’s body on top of him, screaming.

Is Glenn — a character we’ve known and grown to love more and more since we met him in the second episode of the series, a character who has so often risked his own life for others — really dead?

Zombie Bites:

* Ah, David, we hardly knew ye. Michonne is likely to be haunted by his death, as he had shared with her how he met and married his wife Betsy post-apocalypse, how “finding [Betsy] in all this is everything.” He even wrote her a goodbye note just in case he didn’t make it, but Michonne refused to take it, insisting they would make it back alive.

* In deference to those who haven’t read the comics: No specifics, but to those who have read them, do you think that hand injury Rick suffered might turn out to be more serious? Like, a lot more serious?

* Look closely at the walkers right in front of the trash bin where Glenn and Nicholas found a short-lived sanctuary from the walkers. One of the zombies is played by TWD co-executive producer/director/special FX makeup whiz Greg Nicotero. Can you spot which one he is?

* Despite a brief solo excursion by Daryl, who planned to ignore Rick and head back to help his friends in Alexandria, Mr. Dixon met back up with Sasha and Abraham to continue Pied Piper-ing the herd. At this point, though, how many people have actually survived Rick’s plan and the Wolves’ attack on the town? Will Rick be forced to go along with Daryl’s assertion they need to recruit more people, just to have enough people to rebuild Alexandria?

OK, Dead-heads, let’s hear what you think about the episode’s biggest question: Do you think Glenn is really dead? Is there any possible way he could have survived falling into that walker mosh pit?

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.