Trust Issues. Those are two words which I think describe The Walking Dead perfectly, and in this week’s episode: ‘The Distance’, we see that Rick has a lot of them.
The episode picks up directly after the last, with the group still inside the old barn. This barn must have a mighty interesting floor, because everyone is staring at it. Maggie and Sasha return with Aaron, the stranger they encountered at the end of the last episode. Of course, this wakes everyone up, and makes them realize, maybe there are more interesting things to do than stare at the floor.
Sasha tells Rick that Aaron has a camp close by, and that he wants them to “audition for membership”, which is an awfully strange way of putting it. The awkwardness begins to intensify, as Aaron explains that he thinks Rick’s group would make a good addition to his community, but it isn’t his choice to make, as he was merely sent to convince them to follow him back to his camp.
He shows them some pictures of his camp that he took with a camera that-judging from the picture quality-probably dates back to 1894. Aaron continues trying to explain himself, stating that the most important resource in this kind of world is the people, but he doesn’t impress Rick, apparently, 
because Rick’s only response is to punch Aaron out cold.
Michonne questions Rick’s sudden outburst of violence, which he essentially ignores. Rick commands the rest of the group to look through Aaron’s stuff, and keep an eye on the woods for his friends who are inevitably coming to attack the group, much to Michonne’s irritation. Carl finds a flare gun in Aaron’s backpack, and apparently Carl doesn’t know what a flare gun is, stating that he’s never seen a gun like it before. Oh, Carl…
Aaron wakes up, still in a strangely good mood regardless of getting his clock cleaned, and Rick asks him how many people he has out in the woods, noting that the flare gun is obviously to signal them. Aaron tells Rick that it doesn’t matter, as no matter what he’d say, if there were dozens of people out there, or none, Rick wouldn’t believe him.
He reveals that he was the one that left the water out on the road for Rick’s group in the last episode, and that he’s been following the group long enough to know that they’re good and capable people. He explains that he and one other person drove out in separate cars, with enough room to drive the whole group back to their camp, but the storm blocked the road they were taking, so they had to leave the cars a ways off. Rick still isn’t buying into it, but Michonne offers to go check out the cars, stating that they can handle themselves, and that passing up a possible chance for a place to live is a bad idea. Glenn, Maggie, Abraham, and Rosita go with Michonne, while the others stay behind and watch the barn’s perimeter.
Rick stays behind with Aaron, and tells him that if Michonne and the others aren’t back in an hour, he’ll kill him. Harsh.
We cut to Michonne and her group traveling down the road, looking for the cars. Glenn tells everyone to fire on anyone that approaches them, resulting in Michonne again questioning the morality of this entire situation, saying that they could run into someone who doesn’t even have anything to do with this mess, or people like themselves. Glenn responds “If it’s someone like us, we should be afraid of them.”
We then see a mysterious man watching them from behind a tractor in the middle of an adjacent field
We cut back to Aaron and Rick, with Rick attempting (read: failing) to smash up some acorns, presumably to feed a crying Judith. Aaron says that he has some applesauce that Rick could feed her. Rick, being the un-trusting person he is in this episode, forces Aaron to eat some of the applesauce before giving it to Judith.
We cut back to Michonne and her group, as they’ve discovered a car and an RV blocked by trees that fell on the road, meaning Aaron was telling the truth. After an encounter with a few walkers, Abraham and Rosita check out the RV, finding food inside, much to Abraham’s childlike delight. Abraham asks Rosita if she thought he was going to hurt her when he flipped out over Eugene not actually being a scientist, to which she replies “No, it’s not you.”
Michonne and her group makes it back to the barn with the cars and the food, and Rick tells Aaron that the food is their’s now, regardless of if they do or don’t go to Aaron’s camp. Michonne states that it’s clear that Aaron doesn’t want to hurt them, and declares that they have to go with him to his camp. Rick concedes, and asks Aaron how to get to the camp.
Aaron, hesitant to give up the exact location of his camp, tells Rick the way is down Route 16 North. Rick, thinking it could be a trap, tells Aaron they’ll
take a different way, but Aaron objects, stating that his people have cleared Route 16 out, and any other way would be dangerous. Rick, being Rick, doesn’t care, decides they’ll leave at sundown, saying it’ll be safer to get to the camp at night when no one can see them, rather than day.
Outside, Michonne confronts Rick, asking him if it was for real when he said they were going to go to the camp. Rick tells her that it was for real, and then tells her that without even seeing the inside of the camp, he’ll have to decide if he should bring his family inside.
We cut to later that night, as the group is driving down the interstate. Rick, Glenn, Michonne, and Aaron are in the car, while the others are in the RV behind them. Aaron mentions the fact that he has his own house, and tells Michonne to look at the pictures he brought to see. Michonne asks why Aaron doesn’t have any pictures of his people, and Aaron explains (awkwardly) that he did take a picture, but the exposure wasn’t right. This prompts Michonne to ask Rick if he ever asked Aaron “The Questions”, being “How many walkers have you killed, how many people have you killed, and why?” Aaron claims he’s killed several walkers, and only two people in self defense.
Rick finds a long range listening device (I guess?) in the car, and starts freaking out at Aaron, saying that his people could have another and they could’ve heard Rick’s plan. Glenn, completely distracted by the device, looks back on the road just in time to see that they’re about to run straight into a horde of walkers. He hits the breaks, but unfortunately not quickly enough, as we see the car plowing through walker after walker after walker, resulting in a wonderful new paint job for the car. When they finally stop, they get out and realize the RV is nowhere to be seen, assuming that it got away. They attempt to start the car back up, but due to the copious amounts of guts lodged in the hood, it won’t. Suddenly, a flare shoots up in the distance, by a water tower. Aaron starts going nutso, demanding to be let out so he can leave. He kicks the door out and makes a break for it, while Rick tells Glenn and Michonne not to bother going after him, as their own people are priority. Michonne says that the others will have thought that Rick shot the flare, (He still has the flare gun from Aaron) and that’s how they’ll end up finding the others.
Rick, Glenn, and Michonne get surrounded by walkers in the darkened woods, in probably my favorite scene from this episode. It’s been a while since we’ve seen this sort of action, with our heroes helpless before a horde of walkers, making the scene very tense. Glenn gets split from Rick and Michonne and finds Aaron being harassed by a walker, Glenn saves Aaron, and they both attempt to find Rick and Michonne. Several walkers start getting closer to Rick and Michonne, as Rick has used up all of his ammo, and, in a very Alan Wake-ey moment, takes a walker down with his flare gun. Glenn and Aaron make their way up behind Rick and Michonne, and open fire on the walkers, killing them all.
We cut to Rick, Michonne, Aaron, and Glenn finding Daryl keeping watch outside of a building near where the flare went off. We have a short little reunion, but Aaron breaks the mood by shouting for someone named Eric. He runs inside of the building to find another man, presumably Eric, lying down, with a broken ankle. Eric tells Aaron he’s okay, and they kiss, I guess proving that even when the world goes into the toilet, anyone can find love.
Rick calls Aaron back for a moment, and Aaron thanks the group, telling them that he owes a great debt, and he’ll pay it in full when they get to “Alexandria”. Rick is still a bit uneasy about Aaron, to which Glenn tells him that there’s only two of them, they’re both unarmed, and one has a broken ankle.
We cut to the next day, with the group driving down the interstate towards Alexandria. Aaron is in the back of the RV watching ovr a sleeping Eric. Noah comes back and offers Aaron some water and painkillers. Aaron asks Noah about his leg, and Noah tells him that he hurt his leg after a car accident with his father. Aaron tells Noah that Alexandria has a gifted surgeon named Pete that would probably be able to help Noah with his leg.
We see Abraham and Rosita in the front of the RV, with Abraham driving. Rosita points out a huge city in the distance (presumably Washington), which encourages Abraham, saying they’ll make it, regardless of the RV’s dying battery. They don’t make it, much to Abraham’s annoyance. Glenn shows Abraham a compartment on the side of the RV that has a backup battery in it. Abraham asks Glenn how he knew about that, and Glenn smiles. A nice callback to when Dale was teaching Glenn all about the wonders that are recreational vehicles. *sniff*
Michonne tells Rick that the fight is over, and he has to let go of it, even though fighting is what’s kept them all alive, but it’ll turn on them. Rick tells her that Bob was trying to tell him the same thing. They manage to start the RV up, and Rick goes off by himself for a bit before they leave. He finds a house, and a pile of junk. Rick picks up an old blender, and puts a pistol inside, presumably in case things go sour. 
We cut to the group arriving at Alexandria, and after a brief pause, they hear the laughter of children from the other side, laying Rick’s concerns to rest. Rick gets out of the car, and picks up Judith, who, for whatever reason, was just lying in the back seat with absolutely no restraint whatsoever. Carol tells Rick “Even though you were wrong, you were still right.” Rick chuckles, and walks to join the others outside of the gates, leaving us to wonder if this really is a good thing after all.
I had mixed feelings about ‘The Distance’. Rick’s sudden 180 into stubborn paranoia came across as a bit distasteful to me. I realize after all that’s happened, I’d probably be weary too, but his treatment of the situation seemed a bit much. I also found it strange that this central conflict on “Should we or shouldn’t we go” was primarily between Rick and Michonne, while everyone else seemed borderline indifferent to it all. In fact, most of the other characters barely even had lines besides Rick, Michonne, and Aaron. You’d think the others would have a bit more of a say in the matter.
Still, the idea of a new home for our heroes is a nice change of pace, and it was tense and exciting to see an action sequence where the group wasn’t as capable of handling the walker threat as they usually are. I’m interested to see what Alexandria is like. Maybe it’ll be everything that was promised, or maybe it won’t. Knowing this show, though, I’m not holding my breath.
Catch new episodes of The Walking Dead Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.
The Walking Dead
Pros
- Intrigue surrounding the nature of Alexandria
- Exciting and tense action sequence halfway through
Cons
- Rick's extreme amounts of paranoia were annoying
- Everyone except Rick and Michonne seemed indifferent to the idea of a new home
He was weary. But, I think he was wary and he needs to be, as Carol tells him in her lines before they enter the community.
He was weary. But, I think he was wary and he needs to be, as Carol tells him in her lines before they enter the community.