The Walking Dead, “Thank You,” was written by Angela Kang and directed by Michael Slovis. This was an incredibly intense episode with really brilliant performances from Steven Yuen (Glenn) and Andrew Lincoln (Rick) in particular. I admit that I was utterly stunned and sat with my face in my hands simply staring at my screen when Glenn fell from that dumpster. Almost immediately, however, the theories started coming from every directions, and I think that there’s more than enough evidence to suggest that Glenn is not dead – let’s delve into that a little later in this review.
I’m loving how the show is really ramping up the tension by splitting the story and following different threads in each episode. This episode primarily follows the group trying to stay ahead of and turn the part of the herd that is heading for Alexandria. The episode begins with Glenn running and leading the less experienced Alexandrians. It’s a nice nod to how he has stepped into the leadership role.
We cut to Daryl (Norman Reedus) who desperately wants to turn and head for Alexandria to help. Rick tells him to stay with the rest of the herd. I loved Daryl essentially bargaining with Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) over whether he needed to stay for 5 miles or 20. Daryl can’t resist though and telling Abraham and Sasha that he has faith in them, he turns for home. Daryl’s entire journey in this episode seemed singularly pointless. He doesn’t manage to hook up with anyone and turns back to Abraham and Sasha when he maybe should have kept going to help Rick.
Rick pulls Glenn and Michonne (Danai Gurira) aside to tell them not to stop or turn aside for anything. No matter what they do, Rick tells them that not all the people with them will make it back. Rick proves once again that he is a good leader. His instincts are 100% correct, even if on the face of it, it looks utterly cold-blooded to Heath (Corey Hawkins). Would the body count have been lower if Glenn and Michonne had listened to Rick? It’s certainly unlikely that it could have been higher.
As soon as they meet walkers in front of them, the Alexandrians prove how unable to look after themselves that they are. Annie (Beth Keener) has already fallen and twisted her ankle. Glenn, Michonne, and Heath go ahead to deal with the walkers, telling the others to hang back and not shoot unless they have to. Sturgess (Jonathan Kleitman) manages to shoot Scott (Kenric Green) in the leg before panicking and running off – only to be found later being eaten by walkers. One of the Alexandrians is killed outright and David (Jay Huguley) is bitten.
They manage to stay mainly in front of the herd, but when they enter a deserted town, Glenn and Michonne ignore Rick’s orders and they hole up in the pet store to try to patch up the injured. The pet store – with the dead pets in cages was particularly gruesome! It was also a nice metaphor for the dangers of putting yourself in a cage.
Michonne is oddly drawn to David. He’s already said to Glenn – before getting bitten – that he has to get back to his wife. Glenn said he did too – and it would seem neither of them will. Michonne asks David how long he’s been married and he tells her three months. Aaron found him on a run and they found Betsy, his wife, on the way back to Alexandria. David tells Michonne he’d been alone. He wasn’t crazy, but he’d given up on being someone. And of course, we know that Michonne has been in the exact same place – before Andrea and then again after the prison fell.
The Alexandrians may be completely out of their depth, but they aren’t stupid. David tries to get Michonne to take a good bye note to Betsy, but she refuses, insisting he’ll see her himself. Both Annie and Scott want the others to leave them behind. When Annie does go down, she bravely insists the others keep going. She completely absolves them of any guilt they might want to feel.
Much is made of Rick’s words. When they first arrive at the town, Glenn insists that they not leave anyone behind, but they need to stop. Michonne reminds him that Rick knows what he knows. It may seem harsh or cruel, but that is realistically the world they live in. Rick has had to make the hard calls again and again. Heath also insists in the pet store that they don’t leave anyone behind, “We don’t leave people behind. Not US.” Clearly drawing a line between the Alexandrians and Michonne and Glenn. Michonne wants to know what Heath’s problem is, and he confesses that he heard what Rick said. Of course, it’s already coming true.
This was a terrific scene and Hawkins and Gurira are terrific in it. The intensity is simply magnified by their enforced hushed voices. Michonne points out that Glenn is risking his life to save all of them, and she also points out that Heath really just doesn’t know. She tells him, “Rick said what he said because sometimes, you have no choice.” She tells Heath, they’ve been out there and had to do things that made them afraid of themselves. She asks him if he’s ever been covered in so much blood that he doesn’t know whose it is – is it his, walkers, his friends? And of course, there’s a beautiful shot at the end of the episode of Heath looking at his bloodstained face in the river as they cross it – a symbolic baptism of his losing his innocence. Because by the end of the episode, he has had to leave people behind.
Throughout the episode, Glenn has had to pull Nicholas (Michael Traynor) back from panic attacks as Nicholas suddenly just zones out. Glenn has already forgiven him for almost getting him killed several times and is determined to lead Nicholas back to being a useful member. Nicholas has come a long way. He admits to Heath that the abandoned town is where their raid went bad. He tells Heath that the people in the group weren’t afraid, he and Aiden were, and they got their crew killed.
When Glenn determines that he will create the distraction to keep the herd from continuing to Alexandria – and to allow their group to escape – Nicholas insists on coming with him. Theoretically, Nicholas knows the town – but he still ends up leading Glenn into a dead end alley. Michonne wants to be the one to burn down the feed store and reminds Glenn that he has a wife, but Glenn insists it’s on him because it was his plan. He quotes Hershel in saying, “We all have a job to do.” Glenn even takes a moment to pray – or at least to pause over Hershel’s watch. All of the nods to Hershel were perfect and certainly point to Glenn dying heroically. But does he?
Glenn and Nicholas come across Will, one of Nicholas’ crew that they left behind. He was only 19 and is now half pinned beneath a car. Show loves these half creatures! Glenn reassures Nicholas that he’s not that guy anymore – he’s not the guy who’s going to leave his crew behind because he’s afraid. Traynor is also excellent in this episode, and there’s really no scenario in which he isn’t dead by the end of the episode. He does take responsibility for his actions, however. This is a great scene as he kneels over Will and finally does what he should have done – he kills Will.
The absurdity of the two risking their lives to burn down the feed store to save the others only to find that the feed store has already burned down was Beckett level. This show just knows how to keep the punches coming. Nicholas has simply been an albatross around Glenn’s neck since he met him. Nicholas is the equivalent of stopping. He’s exactly the guy you don’t stop for. Yet you can’t fault Glenn for having that Hershel-inspired belief in the basic redemptability of people. But Nicholas was already a burnt out shell.
When the two end up on top of the dumpster, surrounded on all sides, I just could not believe that something fantastical wasn’t going to happen to save them. This absolutely brilliant sequence is only ratchetted up by being cut with the others attempted escape from the pet store. They’ve had to leave the relative safety of the feed store after two walkers suddenly make their presence known in a back room just as the herd arrives in town. Annie doesn’t make it 100 yards from the door, but Heath, Michonne, David, and Scott also end up down an alley – but at least there are only walkers behind them. Scott and Heath get over but Michonne and David can’t quite get out of reach. And go show for going with an almost universal childhood fear of something latching on to your feet or ankle! Having two primary characters in peril at the same time – not cool!
David is pulled down and gruesomely eaten while the others watch. Please explain to me why someone didn’t just stab him from the other side of the fence so he wasn’t eaten alive? Someone also explain to me why no one thought to disguise themselves on a clear day with walker guts??? Regardless, David’s letter to Betsy is seen on the ground, trampled by walkers. Michonne’s note to him on her arm – “You’re getting home” – she simply wipes off on her arm. You stop for the living – or half dead – at your peril. The dead cannot slow you down.
Meanwhile, there is no miraculous save – or so it seems for Glenn. Nicholas has one final major freak out – Tremblay’s face here is simply fantastic – his terror and despair are palpable. Glenn brings him back one final time. It would seem simply that his despair finally won out, except for him turning to Glenn and saying “Thank you” – the title of the episode. Glenn has managed to help Nicholas find some redemption for the things he’s done. Does he shoot himself to end his own pain or in an attempt to help Glenn? Does he tip Glenn off the dumpster by mistake or by design? Does Nicholas land on top of Glenn?
Stephen Yuen’s face in this scene is utterly stunning – he just acts the hell out of this scene. What he’s feeling – his despair at what he’s lost and the pointlessness of both their deaths – is palpable. There is just so much blood and so much intestine! But is it Glenn’s? If it is Nicholas we see the walkers eating, what is the possibility that Glenn is not scratched or bitten anyway? Wouldn’t they simply eat right through to Glenn and keep going? Could he simply roll under that dumpster and hope for rescue? Being covered in dead guts would be good camouflage, but being covered in the guts of the living would simply seem to be special sauce.
One quick shout out for how brilliantly this scene was shot. I loved the perspective of Nicholas’ face as he stares in horror at the walkers clawing at his feet and snapping. It says something about this show that it can keep instilling a real fear in the viewer, to keep that fear alive. But the most brilliant shot is after Glenn falls, and the camera pulls back to a crane shot of the walkers all in a packed circle of grey with the only color the red of blood in the center. It reminded me very much of an eye. Or a bullseye.
Meanwhile, Rick has been running for the RV. Andrew Lincoln needs a special award for the amount of running he had to do to shoot this episode! And in the Georgia heat! Kudos to the effects team and Greg Nicotero for coming up with yet another horrific “hero” walker – “Machete Walker.” I loved Rick ripping out the machete to kill the walker with it. For anyone who follows the comic, I’m sure you’re with me in worrying every time that Rick hurts his hand (*spoiler alert* Rick loses his hand in the comics)… And if he cut himself on the machete and got walker guts in the cut, what does that mean? Could he be infected?
Rick does make it to the RV and takes off to head off the herd and lead them back with the main herd. The scene on the radio is poignant as he tries desperately to reach Tobin, Glenn, and Daryl. There is silence on all but Daryl’s radio and you can see Rick struggle against the despair. Just as this season has been interestingly structured, so too is this episode. We hear gunfire – the same gunfire heard in the town just before the group leaves the pet store. Which also gives us an idea of how long Rick ran for.
Daryl wants to head for Alexandria, but Rick insists that they can only go forward. Going forward is for “them” while going back is for “us.” Rick’s mission is to save as many as possible, but he is always realistic. Rick makes it to the rendezvous only to be beset by the wolves that Morgan (Lennie James) let go last week. Rick makes short work of the first two and then gets the rest through the RV. Rick knows they’ve come from Alexandria when he finds the bottle of preserves in one or their pockets. Daryl hears the shots and hesitates but carries on back to Sasha and Abraham, rejoining them at the head of the herd at the end of the episode.
The other half of the herd is now almost on the RV, and of course, Rick has damaged it by shooting through it and it won’t start. Lincoln is simply fantastic as he is physically shaking as the fear sets in. He’s trapped in the RV with no help in sight or likely able to come for him. He’s also failed to prevent the herd from reaching Alexandria. It’s inconceivable that Rick could die, right???
Many have floated the theory that Glenn couldn’t have died this pointlessly. Yet, was it pointless? He didn’t give up on Nicholas and managed to somewhat redeem him. He was trying to lead and save others the way Hershel would have wanted him to. So far this season, saving others seems to be a no-win situation, however. It’s yet another chapter in what it takes to survive and what the costs of those choices are.
What did you think of the episode? Is Glenn dead? How will Rick get out of this? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
About the Author - Lisa Macklem
I do interviews and write articles for the site in addition to reviewing a number of shows, including Supernatural, Arrow, Agents of Shield, Agent Carter, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, The X-Files, Defiance, Bitten, Killjoys, and a few others! I'm active on the Con scene when I have the time. When I'm not writing about television shows, I'm often writing about entertainment and media law in my capacity as a legal scholar. I also work in theatre when the opportunity arises. I'm an avid runner and rider, currently training in dressage.
