The Walking Dead: Spend Recap

Synopsis of 5×14: Abraham finds a new purpose, Glenn struggles to control a supply run, Carol and Rick aren’t going to be friends with Pete, and Father Gabriel pulls a Judas.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Hey, we haven’t seen Father Gabriel in a while! Bet he’s making all sorts of friends and returning to civilized society with relish, right? Nope! He’s seemingly alone in Alexandria and ripping apart the Bible in his makeshift church. Well alright then…

Daryl got that motorcycle of Aaron’s up and running. We get about twenty seconds of him leaving the gates of Alexandria and that’s his appearance for the episode.

In the morning, Noah is meeting with Deanna’s husband, Reg, and admits that he wants to learn to build things from him. Reg marvels at the fact that Noah seems to be in it for the long haul and gives him a notebook to begin writing down everything, agreeing to teach him about building things for the community.

Elsewhere, Abraham seems to be struggling again (still?) with his purpose. Rosita is still in the bed while he broods over his reflection in a mirror for a bit.

A faulty energy grid inside of the Alexandria Safe Zone is the reason that Eugene must go on the next supply run – he’s the only one that really knows the parts they need, even if he’s reluctant to go out with them. Noah, Tara, Glenn, and Deanna’s son, Aiden, and his friend Nicholas accompany him. As Deanna and Reg see them off, they spot Gabriel in his makeshift church and he awkwardly acknowledges them before returning inside.

Rick stumbles upon Jessie in her garage, fussing over the knocked over and broken owl sculpture. He insists that he’ll look into it for her and see who did this, but she tries to wave off his concern. But he needs something to do (and a faster way into her pants, duh), so he insists that he’ll try to get to the bottom of it.

Nicholas and Aiden pull up to the warehouse, ready to go in full-force, but Glenn tries to talk them down and has them run a perimeter check before they blindly run into the building. Tara and Eugene are together checking things, arguing over the fact that Eugene is the reason they made it to the Alexandria Safe Zone, but otherwise he’s a self-admitted coward. Noah and Glenn scope out the front of the building, noticing the walkers and commenting on how Aiden’s plan to ‘get out the front’ never would have worked.

With the perimeter safe, they head into the dark warehouse. Glenn comments on the walkers they can hear, saying they’re obviously stuck behind something. Aiden is impressed that he knew that when they find a bunch of them corralled behind a fence. Tara and Eugene locate the supplies they need as one single walker in armor approaches Aiden. Glenn tells him to wait for it to get closer, since he can’t shoot it from there, but Aiden things he has it under control. He shoots the walker’s legs out from under it and continues firing at the armored walker, only to hit a grenade and cause a massive explosion.

As the dust clears from the blast Glenn had tried to prevent, everyone is disoriented. Glenn makes it to his feet first, Eugene is alright, Aiden was blown back into some shelving and has been impaled multiple times, and Noah makes it to his feet and back to the group. Unfortunately, the blast freed the walkers from behind the gate and one is coming for Eugene and the knocked out and bleeding Tara. Eugene is almost overtaken by a surprise walker before Noah and Glenn save him and Tara.

Carol finds Sam hiding in her pantry downstairs and she swiftly tries to throw him out. Her answers are curt and she doesn’t even bother to try to hide her annoyance with him. Ultimately, she settles on telling him that she’ll make him cookies if he steals the chocolate from Olivia – a bar for the cookies and a bar for her. What’s up with Carol and this chocolate? She’s up two bars now.

Not that their group really cares, but Nicholas survived and rallied with them in the office they holed up in. Aiden is apparently still alive, but they’re running out of time for Tara and her head wound. Eugene urges them to go get Aiden, as that’s what Tara would want to do, and he promises to keep her safe.

Abraham is still struggling with himself at the construction site where they’re expanding the wall, but as soon as a herd of walkers stumbles out of the woods after them it’s on. He saves Francine, a woman that the lead construction manager wants to leave for dead, and gleefully takes on the walkers nearly on his own.

Pete shows up at Rick’s house, too drunk to realize what a terrible idea that probably is. He brought Rick a beer! And then belligerently pointed out that Rick drank at Deanna’s when he declines it by saying he’s pretty much always on duty. Pete tries to wave him off of his owl hunt and then reveals he’s heard about Rick’s dead wife, continuing to talk about uncomfortable topics and insist he bring his kids to Pete for a check-up. On his way out, he claps Rick on the shoulder and Rick makes a pretty unamused face at the whole run-in.

Eugene has his hero moment, picking up Tara and carrying her to safety while Glenn and the others are trying to unstick Aiden. Nicholas tells Aiden that this is what they do, leave people behind, when it seems like hope is lost. Ultimately, they do have to abandon him and Aiden gets brutally eaten alive. For as much of a clueless dick as Aiden was, that’s a rough way to go.

Abraham confronts the man running the construction site for his willingness to give up so easily and basically usurps control. The man goes to Deanna and explains to her what Abraham did, how he saved Francine, and how he should be in charge of the project. Deanna seems skeptical, but he assures her it’s the right decision and, when he leaves, Maggie also speaks in Abraham’s favor. She’s not so sure about another one of Rick’s people in charge though.

Sam returns to Carol with his two bars of stolen chocolate and she lets him in, only to tell him that once these are done there are no more and he can’t come back. He tries to ask her about her cooking and she shuts him down. He gets kind of upset about that and she starts questioning why he’s really there. He asks why she stole the guns and if he can have one. When she presses him for the reasoning, he runs away.

Glenn and Noah follow Nicholas towards the front of the building, as the guy is freaking out. They end up on opposite sides of a revolving door – Nicholas in one side, Glenn and Noah in the other, with walkers on either side of that. Eugene rolls around with the van and makes enough loud noises to draw one side of the walkers away. Glenn tries to break the glass so that they can all crawl through and be saved. Unfortunately, Nicholas freaks out and squeezes his way out of his side. It moves the door enough that Noah is grabbed through the other side and Glenn is forced to watch as he’s pressed up against the door and ripped apart. It might be the most graphic death to date.

Nicholas and Eugene fight over the vehicle when he gets to it – Eugene predictably gets his ass kicked – before Glenn catches up to them and knocks him unconscious. Eugene asks for Noah, but all Glenn can do is look devastated. Glenn is driving the van back while Eugene holds a gun to Nicholas.

Father Gabriel finally makes it to Deanna’s home and asks to speak with her privately. He starts spouting off crazy talk about how Satan disguises himself as the angel of light – insisting that Rick and his group have done unspeakable things and that they will destroy everything eventually. Maggie is on the stairwell listening in to his Judas moment.

Spliced with this moment are shots of Abraham taking over the wall project and Rick and Carol talking about Pete abusing Jessie and the kids, with Carol’s solution being, “You’re going to have to kill him.” Deanna thanks him and says she has a lot to think about just as we hear Glenn’s voice screaming for help.