No Rest for the Wicked, But Certainly They Deserve Some Downtime

“Crossed”

Sasha is smashing up something in the church. They’re using the organ pipes to construct a makeshift pointy wall of death to protect against incoming walkers. Inventive! Noah has joined the church group. He’s still limping. Gabe the reverend is contemplating the loving message his outraged and shut out parishoners left for him—“You’ll burn in hell for this!” Michonne, baby Judith, and Carl are left at the church with Gabe, who’s acting quite strangely. He’s trying to scratch off the blood left on the church floor, a la Lady Macbeth, presumably from the bloody night showdown in which Rick killed Gareth and his cohorts. Out, out, damned spot! Cut to credits!

Sasha and Tyreese are lounging in the back of a big truck. I guess they are all going to rescue Carol, but it wasn’t too long ago that Bob died, and Sasha is feeling down. Tyreese is unable to comfort her with the usual bromide, “Bob would have wanted…” Carol is lying in the hospital, whilst Beth pushes her ubiquitous mop around. Glenn, the Ginge and a prone Eugene (who was knocked out by the Ginge’s righteous anger after the revelation that Eugene is NOT a renowned scientist destined to save the world from the zombie virus), Maggie and Rosita are all still hanging around the fire engine. Tara has managed to salvage half-filled bottles of water from the fire engine’s tank, but the Ginge is having none of it. He’s pouty, so much so that Maggie threatens to “put him down” with her gun.

The glare from the Ginge's bright red hair causes Maggie to squint.

Rick is having a strategy session with his peeps, the Badasses. Noah is among them, but he hasn’t quite got his badass bona fides yet, in my humble opinion! Rick wants to keep the operation quiet. Tyreese wants to make an “even trade” holding some of the cops for hostage in exchange for Beth and Carol. Doesn’t Carol still need medical care? As far as I can tell she isn’t even conscious yet.

Gabe is still doing some serious scrubbing, but not so excited about choosing a weapon with which to defend himself. He’s still brooding about the fact that all those bad guys got slaughtered in his church. Carl counsels Gabe that he needs to know how to fight. However, the reverend is still too squeamish to kill walkers. Carl starts going on about the zombie skulls not being as soft as you’d like them to be all the time, and even I get a little nauseated.

Dawn the healthcare expert cum cop issues an executive order to take Carol off life support, because, she claims, Beth and her mop decided to butt in. But Dawn likes the way Beth is standing up for herself! She entrusts her with the key to…something important, presumably.

Back with the Ginge contingent, Glenn, Tara and Rosita amble off in the woods in search of water. The Ginge remains in suspended animation, and Eugene is still out cold. Maggie covers the Eugene with a blanket leant up against a ladder, I guess to provide some shade. She advises the Ginge to get over himself. Amen, Maggie! There’s no time for self pity in this crazy new world.

Beth privately meets with the bearded doctor. She asks what he would give Carol if he could. He knows about the key. He says epinephrine, to wake her up.

The water the Ginge break-off group finds is muddy. Rosita makes a homemade water filter and the three of them sit together and get Rosita’s backstory. Boy, does that water look cruddy.

The cops have recaptured Noah, whose limping certainly didn’t do him any favors. However, apparently he was simply bait, because Rick’s crew pops up and makes the cops drop down and surrender their weapons. Another car zooms up to recapture the cops. There’s a lot of firing. I think Sasha took one of the tires out. So it stops, next to the greasiest, grossest immobilized walkers that you’ve ever seen. They’ve practically melted into the ground. The bad guys take off running. The nastiest bald cop has attacked Daryl, who is narrowly avoiding getting bit by the melted walkers. Rick has the nasty bald cop in his sights, but better to keep him alive as a hostage, right?

Rick wields a very large gun.

Dawn doesn’t have too many fans out there, surprise, surprise. The lady cop wants to be set free so they can get rid of Dawn themselves. But nice bald cop wants to help the group, please, pretty please, he implores.

The Ginge contingent has found some nifty mesh and other potential fishing gear. Success! They catch something. Tara finds something special in the backpack…it looks like handfuls of mud, but who am I to judge?

Michonne tries to calm the Reverend Gabe. Her face softens. It makes me admire Michonne even more. She’s one of my favorite characters. However, Gabe is up to something with the floorboards in that room he’s locked himself into.

An old man fakes a coughing fit to distract the remaining cops whilst Beth filches the epinephrine for Carol. She starts an IV for her. Will it be enough for Carol to emerge from her coma? After all C has been through, it would be terrible if she died.

Sasha is angry. Tyreese wants to help her, but it seems like she needs to mourn. Aww, brother and sister hug!

Gabe is now making his escape from the church by inching through the crawlspace. Of course, he steps on a nail first thing. Limping off, he heads for the woods, unarmed. Shall we say he is not long for this bleak world? He’s then attacked by a really ugly female walker. She’s wearing a cross; he can’t bring himself to brain her.

The nice bald guy relates his backstory to a sympathetic Sasha. He mentions the walkers, er people, melted to the asphalt outside with napalm.

The Ginge is still strangely resting on his haunches, quite literally, as Maggie offers him some refreshing water. But wait, has Eugene woken up? Or has he turned?

The rest of the Ginge contingent is returning from their fishing-water gathering expedition. Sasha is having the nice bad cop show her something to shoot. He head butts her and runs away. Of course he could not be trusted! No one can. Will the gang ultimately rescue Beth and Carol? Will Dawn meet an ugly end at the hands of her own minions or Rick’s crew? And if B and C are saved, at what price? Someone is supposed to die next week, so prepare yourself for the sads.