It only took The Walking Dead 14 episodes to realize that the more look-ins you have, the more entertaining an episode feels. In “Us” The Walking Dead checked in on the Glenn/Abraham group, Rick’s group, Maggie’s group, and Daryl’s new group. While some characters got more screen time than others “Us” was the first episode since the midseason break that moved faster than a walker’s pace. “Us” also gave a grouping of characters, and the audience, their first glimpse of Terminus.
“Us” mainly revolved around Glenn forging ahead to find Maggie after seeing one of her messages along the side of the railroad tracks. Eugene stole the show as more of his character was revealed. While he is supposedly smart it also seems his main contribution to the show will be comic relief as his overtly truthful and somewhat eccentric character dictates. Eventually Glenn trades his riot gear to Eugene so that Abraham will let Tara continue on with him after she sprains her ankle. The group finally splits as they reach a train tunnel that has zombie groans emanating from it. Despite Tara’s sprained ankle Glenn and Tara go into the tunnel in hopes of catching up to Maggie.
Characters have made some very questionable calls this season but Glenn’s decision to go into the tunnel with a hobbled Tara takes the cake. Look, everyone knows how much he loves Maggie and how badly he wants to catch up to her but what good will it do if he dies in a dark tunnel full of walkers? Maybe if Abraham and his crew accompanied them in it would make a little more sense but once they actually split it was foolish. The fact that Glenn’s idiotic action was met with no repercussions is just another instance of The Walking Dead refusing to kill off any of the main characters of the show. Instead they decide to kill off two little girls for shock value…
Eugene demands to be the navigator once Abraham, he, and Rosita find a car and he navigates them to the nearest railroad crossing in hopes of finding Glenn and Tara. Instead he finds Maggie, Bob, and Sasha. Just as Glenn runs out of bullets defending Tara, who has gotten her leg stuck between the tunnel wall and some fallen rubble, Abraham et al. come out of nowhere and kill the rest of the zombies. Glenn and Maggie are finally reunited – and are more nauseating than ever before. Eugene convinces Abraham to accompany everyone from the prison to Terminus before heading off to Washington.
During all of this with Glenn and Abraham, Daryl is learning the ropes of his new group. There are only a couple rules: lying is not tolerated and if you claim something it’s yours, no matter how much or little work you’ve put into getting it. These guys are a rough and tumble group and Daryl doesn’t want to be around them any longer than he must. Even though the group’s leader, Hadley, realizes this he still seems to take a shining to Daryl as he teaches him the ropes and tries to convince him that everyone nowadays needs a group.
One of the group members, who isn’t as keen on Daryl, plants his half of a rabbit he claimed but Daryl actually hunted in Daryl’s bag. This causes a ruckus that ends with the group member getting beaten to death because he lied about Daryl taking the rabbit half. And any of the “civilizing” Beth had done to Daryl seems to have worn off as Daryl decides to not cover the recently killed group member with a sheet as the group leaves the shelter they stayed the night. By the end of the episode it is revealed the this group is heading to Terminus because they have tracked someone who killed one of their own and fled.
And that person is most likely Rick when he killed the person in the bathroom as he made his escape from the original safe house he and Carl had found in “After”. Not only does it make sense with the description Hadley gives Daryl as to how their comrade died but the next shot is of a candy bar wrapper Carl had dropped earlier in the episode. Combine that with the title of the episode in which Rick was trapped under the bed, which was “Claimed”, and all evidence points to Rick. Whether Rick and Daryl’s new group meet up next week or not seems to be the main question.
At the very end of the episode Glenn, Maggie, Abraham and the rest finally reach Terminus, which is an old train depot. They see flourishing gardens and are met by a woman named Mary, who is grilling something. But that is all they see. While it looks like there are inhabitants, or at least the remnants of people living there, Mary is the only one that they see and no explanation is given as to where the others are. Terminus gives off a very eerie feel, especially with Mary the only one greeting them.
But there are far more questions than answers when they arrive at Terminus. Terminus’s gates are suspiciously unlocked with no one guarding them. You would also expect there to be more survivors in Terminus, and even though Terminus looks well lived in, the absence of anyone besides Mary is a little ominous. Couple that with the fact that Terminus is so highly publicized and it certainly looks like it isn’t the sanctuary everyone expected.
Finally someone has arrived at Terminus. What Terminus actually holds is still a mystery but with only one episode remaining there should be more answers to come. And there certainly needs to be some news of Beth’s whereabouts as well. It should be interesting to see who exactly survives their journey to, or their stay in, Terminus.