The Walking Dead Recap: “Heads Up”
If you were one of the Walking Dead fans who was insisting against hope that Glenn somehow squeezed himself under the dumpster while the horde of 16,000 zombies was distracted with Nicholas’ guts, that he managed to fend off all the decaying arms that would try to grab him under there, and that he remained under that dumpster for days until the entire herd moved on…..if you were one of those crazy, anti-vax birthers who were supporting this crackpot theory, well…..congratulations, because that’s exactly what happened. To everyone who thought Glenn was going to smear himself in Nicholas’ blood and avoid detection that way…..nope, he took the long road out of this one.
As annoyed as I am by getting my chain yanked, it’s the previous episode that made me realize the show needs Glenn, if only because all the other attempts to couple people up are falling flat and his chemistry with Maggie is the only true heart the show’s got right now. And I’ve seen worse attempts at faking a death (Brian from Family Guy, anyone? Ugh.) We can now safely assume that Glenn will remain a part of the show for a long long time. In unrelated news, someone named Negan is scheduled to appear in the season finale.
It isn’t specified how many days Glenn remained under the dumpster, but it was long enough to face dehydration. When things are peaceful again, he shakes his plastic bottle angrily at the lack of water. Then, suddenly, he’s thrown a container of the stuff. Who could have done that when everyone else is occupied with other events? …..right, Enid got out, I forgot.
Recognizing Enid as an Alexandrian, Glenn chases after her begging for answers about the living status of his wife, but she decides to be a jerk and not tell him anything. Then, when he catches up with her later in a restaurant and saves her life from some Walkers, she decides to be a bigger jerk and pull a gun on him (She’s not a killer, though, and Glenn sees through it). You could say they don’t get along at first, but Enid eventually opens up. It takes some helium, though.
Back in Alexandria, Morgan’s pacifism is a concern for the others. A roundtable is called and Morgan is asked if he let any Wolves get away during the raid. “Yeah, pretty much,” he says. He then flips the argument around and points out by Rick’s rules, he should have been killed when he attacked Mr. Grimes back in Season 3. “I know I could stop them permanently, but I also know that people can change.” What Morgan doesn’t mention is that he has one tied up like a pet in someone’s basement, and they don’t look like they’d be happy to find out.
Of all the random things to run into, Enid finds a helium tank and some empty balloons. They’re just there by the side of the road. Some watchers thought Enid was endangering herself by deciding to carry some around, but I don’t believe so. We’ve seen time and time again that zombies are somewhat attracted to movement, but far more attracted to NOISE, and balloons don’t make noise unless they pop. It was a major missed opportunity, however, that Enid didn’t take the tank. It would have been awesome to have her spray gas in a Walker’s face and have it respond with a really squeaky “raaaaaawrgh!”
So Maggie was going to venture out into the heavily zombie-infested outer grounds to look for Glenn, but changed her mind, and nothing happened. Then Carl thought he might go out to look for Enid, but he didn’t, and nothing happened. I’ve been waiting impatiently for someone, ANYONE, to be stupid enough to go out there. It took a random Alexandrian to do the deed, and boy did he deliver. It was Deanna’s son Spencer, who actually threw a freaking GRAPPLING HOOK over the side in an attempt to reach a car. What could possibly go wrong? He came closer to being chomped than anyone has in entire episodes. Rick confessed later that he considered letting Spencer become food and using the distraction to leap down and get a car himself, but decided “nah, I’ll be friendly to life this week.” Queen Deanna’s reaction: “Okay, that’s cool. Thanks for not killing my stupid kid.”
Speaking of stupid kids and killing, I can’t believe the feud between Ron and Carl has gone so far that Ron would swipe a gun and some bullets, stick a loaded weapon into the back of his pants and casually strut over to Carl. That was as far as he got before some distractions derailed the plans. But really….seriously? And with the knowledge the town has an ersatz sheriff that shoots murderers dead without a trial and dumps their bodies over the wall? He’s beginning to remind me of the protagonist in Weird Al Yankovic’s song “Melanie.” “Now I may be dead, Enid, but I still love you!”
The irony here is that this gun really is going to come in handy in about ten seconds. When that truck smashed into one of the towers, it created an unstable foundation that slowly started to give way. During the last few seconds of the episode, the tower finally collapsed, taking a good chunk of the protective fence with it, and providing plenty of noise for every last Walker still hanging around to come in through the hole. This is when Ron has to suddenly use his gun to protect Carl, and in the chaos, the pair have to buddy up and battle together. They’ll become friends in the struggle, and when the sun sets and they’re perched atop a roof, they’ll wonder why they ever hated each other. Then it’ll accidentally slip out that Ron brought that gun to kill Carl, and Carl will be so hurt he’ll leave Ron and catch a cab to board the next flight across the country. Ron will be sore at first, but a conversation with a knowing wise friend will make him realize “Wait, I need Carl anyway!” and he’ll make a mad dash on horseback across a shining plain to catch Carl just at the moment he hands in his ticket to board the flight. They’ll embrace and cry, and in the next scene at their wedding Enid will say, “I always knew you two would work out if you just gave each other a chance.” Then everybody will start breakdancing and……..where was I? Right; stay out of my booze!