The Walking Dead: The Next World Recap

Synopsis of 6×10: Rick and Daryl go on a Dukes of Hazzard style adventure for supplies and meet a new survivor, while Michonne helps Spencer to complete his own quest.

Rating:★★★★☆

This episode, jumping two months ahead of the mega herd that blew through the Alexandria Safe Zone, features so much ridiculous music that it’s really tonally confusing. While “More Than a Feeling” plays, Rick puts another notch in his belt (figuratively, physically comes later). He, Michonne, Carl, and Judith have once again reached their domestic baseline and they’ve seemingly enmeshed themselves with the Alexandrians once and for all.

As Daryl readies to go on another run for supplies, he’s approached by Denise, who awkwardly explains that she’d like some soda for Tara if he manages to hunt any down. Not one to be left out of awkward encounters, Eugene stops Rick and Daryl at the gate and tries to sell them on the magic of sorghum. They give him twin bewildered looks before leaving, but suffering Eugene’s terrible advice actually pays off.

Giant, flashing signs should be… a sign in the apocalypse, but Rick and Daryl chance checking the garage with ‘SORGHUM’ spray-painted on it and are rewarded with an entire truck full of supplies. They quickly decide to abandon their product-placed car for the box truck and take the scenic route past a gas station. Secret marshmallow center Daryl has them stop when he spots a soda machine and they go about breaking into it.

Unfortunately, while trying to come up with the best method, a stranger slams into Rick while running from walkers. Rick and Daryl both draw guns on him and he warns them about the small herd following him. He offers them good luck in their endeavors and runs away from Rick while he tries to ask the stranger, whose friends call him Jesus, the three questions. Daryl’s not sad to see him go.

They momentarily argue about the standoff before hearing gunshots, running around the building. It only takes them a moment to realize that the sound is actually firecrackers in a trashcan and that Jesus lifted the keys off of Rick when he ran into him. They rush back in time to see Jesus jump into the box truck and drive off with the soda machine still chained to it.

Outside of the walls, Michonne comes across Spencer on his own and hesitating to put a walker down. She steps in and helps him, following him when he continues to walk the perimeter with his shovel and a mysterious mission he won’t share with her.

Also outside the walls, Enid and Carl find a balloon with a note attached. It’s been damaged beyond readability, but she still finds it comforting that they’re not alone. Once they settle in to read comics, they spot Spencer and Michonne making their rounds. Enid admits that she doesn’t want to come outside anymore and a very blasé Carl says okay and walks away from her.

Tracking the box truck, Rick and Daryl manage to run down the soda machine. Daryl salvages the sodas he can find and Rick pulls out a pack of mints before they keep going, while still arguing about whether or not they should continue to recruit for the Alexandria Safe Zone.

When Enid catches up to Carl, he’s courting an unknown walker and she gets upset. He won’t let her kill it and rather forcefully tells her to go home. She says that she doesn’t understand what the hell is wrong with him and leaves in a huff.

Rick and Daryl finally catch up to Jesus and the truck as he changing a flat tire. They approach through the woods and manage to catch him by surprise, but Daryl and Rick both get their asses handed to them before they cheat the fist fight and pull guns on Jesus. When he questions their amount of ammunition, they both shoot a lone walker that’s shambling towards them. They end up leaving Jesus loosely tied up as they reclaim the truck and head for home.

Thanks to Rick’s terrible taste in loud car music, it takes them a while to hear the sounds on the roof indicating that Jesus managed to join them on their road trip. Rick slams on the breaks to throw him off while Daryl jumps out to chase him down. The ridiculous series of events that follows seems wildly out of place tonally and would have been at home with some ridiculous old-timey chase music.

While Daryl struggles with him, and Rick dispatches the walkers in the area, Jesus manages to take his gun and shoot a walker that was threatening Daryl. They continue the fifth-grade slap fight and one of them manages to hit the brake on the truck, sending it rolling into the lake. It’s a giant comedy of errors and Daryl just wants to leave him in a tree somewhere, but Rick insists.

Spencer is still out in the woods with Michonne, insisting that he has some unfinished business that needs to be taken care of, when they spot Carl. He’s slowly leading Deanna through the woods and Spencer puts his shovel down and draws his knife. This is what he was out there for and she was the walker Enid wanted to take down. Michonne holds Deanna back while Spencer puts her to rest. They bury her and Michonne reminds him that he has a family and a home in Alexandria still.

Hilariously, Daryl got stuck in the back with a passed out Jesus, who keeps flopping onto him in his unconscious state. A perturbed Daryl continually elbows him away while they discuss their now-swapped ideas of recruiting. Rick thinks they should and Daryl thinks they shouldn’t. Either way, they still bring Jesus in, get him checked out by Denise, and leave him with a note in a make-shift jail.

Michonne later confronts Carl about how he was out in the woods and what he’d done, sparing a walker. We know how it ended up last time (R.I.P. Dale), but he argues that someone who loved her needed to put her down – someone in her family. They hug and probably squish Judith. Who was watching her all day by the way? Carol? Gabriel?

Later, Michonne and Rick are sitting on the couch talking about their days. Rick didn’t manage to get her toothpaste, but he presents her with the mints. Which is good since they proceed to make #RICHONNE canon and tumble into bed.

It’s only later that they fly out of bed, naked and armed, when a whispering Jesus wakes them up and wants to talk…