And so the gleaming Alexandrian utopia begins to tarnish. Now that most of the characters seem to have found their fit in this new society “Spend” took time to show that not everything is hunk inside or outside the Alexandrian walls. But the question remains who can be/will be to blame
Since entering Alexandria The Walking Dead has not done the greatest job of keeping up with some of the more fringe characters of Rick’s group. Gabriel is one such person. His freak out at the beginning of the episode as he tore apart a bible showed that he is still clearly struggling with his inner demons and his faith in God. However this level of freak out was still surprising for his character, especially since he has not had a meaningful moment since he burned his priest collar weeks ago. But it seems as though Gabriel just does as he wants. Especially when it comes to visiting Deanna’s house.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be all that surprising that Gabriel went to Deanna to “warn” her that Rick and his people do not belong in this utopian society because “they’ve done bad things.” This is the same guy who left his parishioners to survive on their own and tried to run away from Rick’s group once already. But why now? Why all of a sudden does he decide to come to Deanna in “Spend”? It seems like a cheap plot device as the audience has not seen him after many episodes and don’t really know how he has been acclimating himself to Alexandria. Without understanding his motives behind this power play his pow wow with Deanna, which he keeps as vague as possible (when he easily could have told her about the animalistic retribution Rick and Sasha doled out to the cannibals earlier in the season), seems only a way to move the plot forward as opposed to a natural progression of his character. Maggie overhearing Gabriel will almost certainly escalate things between Rick’s group and Deanna. Even if Deanna doesn’t necessarily take Gabriel to heart, which was unclear after their conversation.
“Spend” did a good job of juxtaposing Gabriel with another fairly new and unknown member of the group in Eugene. While Gabriel was busy losing his faith in both God and Rick, Eugene’s loyalty and fortitude was tested. Glenn, Tara, Eugene, Noah, and Aiden (Deanna’s son) and Nicholas (Aiden’s raid partner) go to a warehouse stocked with solar panels because Alexandria’s power grid failed due to a broken part. When they get there Aiden seems to have been humbled after being punched out by Daryl in an earlier episode and decides to allow Glenn to call the shots.
What follows is a lot of craziness, including Aiden shooting a grenade on an armored zombie, impaling himself and incapacitating Tara. It also shows Nicholas to be the most loathsome coward in the entire series as he runs away from trying to save Aiden, then saves himself at the detriment to Noah (yet another gruesome death) and Glenn, and finally tries to fight Eugene for the van keys so he can get back to Alexandria. But more importantly it shows Eugene becoming more courageous as he throws Tara over his shoulder and gets her out of the warehouse while taking out any zombies along the way, luring zombies with the van away from Glenn and (at that time a still alive) Noah, and standing his ground against Nicholas. Earlier in the episode Eugene told Tara he would never become a combatant, mainly because he was scared, but he clearly redeemed himself with his actions.
And despite Nicholas’s cowardly actions, which caused at least one death, Glenn decides to bring him back in the van after he knocks him cold. Glenn’s action was a smart way for “Spend” to reintroduce the theme of humanity becoming your downfall, which was introduced by Gareth’s cannibal member during his discussion with Tyreese in the beginning of this season. Glenn saves Nicholas in spite of his worthlessness much like how Rick and the gang saved Gabriel, twice, even though he has proven worthless and how now betrayed the group. And, if Gabriel’s tete a tete with Deanna does begin a breakdown in relations between the Alexandrians and Rick -- there is no way it can’t because Deanna’s son is now dead and Rick very well may have to take action with Pete (soon to be discussed) -- Deanna’s humanity by bringing Rick’s group into Alexandria could also backfire on her.
Carol seems to have learned this lesson of humanity, however. Her threat against Sam, Jessie and Pete’s son, last episode when Sam found her stealing guns felt rather out of character for Carol but seemed somewhat justified. But in “Spend” she is even more of an ice queen towards Sam. Though you can’t blame her for not liking the fact that Sam broke into her house to find cookies, once she acquiesced to make him some it was absolutely ridiculous that she wouldn’t even talk to him while they waited for the cookies to bake. Sure, between her daughter’s death and having to put down Mika, you could understand why Carol would not want to be around any children. But it still seems a tad out of her character to be so mean to Sam without, at least, giving a reason in passing. Then Carol finds out that Pete at least abuses Jessie (though I can’t remember any physical evidence) and could possibly be abusing Sam, as well.
Carol’s reaction to all this? She tells Rick he must kill Pete. And that’s that. What?! Look, it makes sense based on Carol’s past with her abusive husband and that the way that problem resolved itself was by him dying but Rick can’t just go around killing established Alexandrian citizens, especially ones that offer so much to the community as Pete does being a doctor. This also seems like a very “survivalist” move for a group who now must begin to become a part of a “civilized society” again. Whether Rick listens to Carol’s suggestion or not still remains to be seen but since he kind of has the hots for Jessie that could certainly cloud his judgment. And Daryl being away on a recruitment mission will probably not help things.
However, Alexandria still doesn’t have anything completely odd about it like Woodbury did with its gladiatorial zombie fights and the kind of crazy governor. Yes, Pete is a drunken abusive husband and father. Yes, the Alexandrians are would rather run than fight when zombies come near (in the form of Nicholas and the construction/hauling team that Abraham is working for, though Nicholas does seem to be a pretty awful coward of a human). But these are not systemic reasons to condemn Alexandria or the Alexandrians. People will be people and not everyone can be a good person. Likewise it makes sense that the Alexandrians would rather run than fight zombies because they have no experience fighting zombies and realize how much they have to lose.
“Spend” finally got things moving in Alexandria. Gabriel’s betrayal seemed to come out of nowhere since we haven’t seen his character in weeks but, at least, there is some history to back his actions up. The deaths of Aiden and Noah were pretty surprising simply because there is something else in the show going on besides surviving and wandering through the wilderness. It will be interesting to see where The Walking Dead lands as it, supposedly, will give the audience an answer to what happens when you try to be a good guy in an inherently bad world.