Recap: THE WALKING DEAD S10E15 – “The Tower”

Hey! Good to see you again.

Before we continue, need a reminder of what happened last week? Check out my recap.

In this week’s episode, Eugene, Ezekiel, and Yumiko continue their important mission to find another community while Beta and his undead army march on Alexandria.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Princess.” 

Eugene, Ezekiel, and Yumiko are in awe of the purple figure standing before them, who introduces herself as Juanita Sanchez, or Princess since she never liked her first name. She’s a bit of a wild character, rapidly spitting out her every thought then stopping when she thinks she may be talking to hallucinations. She’s been on her own for a year, you see. She invites the trio for a tour of her pad but they’re saying they need to get moving since they have a mission to complete. Just then, some walkers approach them and Princess decides to show them what she can do, and guns them down with her machine gun. It’s badass, but the gunfire scares the horses away, stranding our heroes.

Ezekiel suggests taking the time to look for their horses, but Eugene points out that they have a limited time window as it is; looking for the horses would only make them later. Ezekiel also suggests that they bring Princess along since she promised them she can find them transportation, but Yumiko refuses. She says that being alone for this long can make someone either selfish or crazy… in this case, both. Eugene moans that they don’t really have a choice, so thus she joins the group and begins leading them to a garage where she promises a car can be found.

Meanwhile, Beta and his horde enter a deserted Alexandria. All of its occupants are somewhere else, and we catch up with a few of the characters. Judith is walking around, absorbing everything. Kelly is teaching Gabriel sign language. And Luke is working on some gizmo, but asks someone to run an errand for him. Which Carol volunteers for. In the woods, Daryl is trying to catch Michonne up with what he and the gang are up to but there’s apparently nobody on the other side.

Back in Alexandria, Beta and some Whisperers watch their horde from the windmill. It’s then when Alden peaks his sneaky head from the window above them, making note to Aaron as to how many walkers he spots. There’s a close call as Beta nearly discovers Alden, but Beta prepares to leave before he can double check to see if he was discovered.

“I wanna learn what you do.” 

In the safehouse, Judith approaches Lydia and offers her condolences for the death of her mother. Lydia doesn’t seem entirely receptive to the well-wishes, noting that not everybody has a mother like Michonne in their lives. With that, Judith takes her leave with a pout on her face… which Negan notes.

Judith is out killing walkers in the woods when Daryl finds her. He demands that she follow him back to the hideout but she refuses, saying it smells like cat pee and she’d rather stay with him. After a pause he agrees, making her promise to stay next to him and to listen to whatever he says.

Beta and his pack leave Alexandria, and he’s clearly lost it. He’s talking to himself and can hear a voice in his head telling him what to do, presumably Alpha. The voice tells him where he needs to go, and he listens. From Alexandria, Aaron and Alden radio into Oceanside and tell them that Beta’s on his way.

“I have been afraid of many things, but this one’s new.” 

Princess is leading Eugene and the others through an empty field, counting her steps as she goes along. She loses count when they notice the head of one of their horses in front of them. Yumiko wonders if it was walkers that did this, but Princess assures her that it was probably a mine. The group is appalled: Princess led them into a minefield. She can get them out of it, but she needs to remember where she left off. She finishes off her canteen of water and tosses it right in front of her, and it explodes.

Carol and Kelly are in a car trying to hotwire it, and Carol thanks Kelly for her help as well as for joining her in the first place. Carol breaks down and apologises profusely to Kelly about what happened to Connie, but Kelly is actually surprisingly okay with everything and tells Carol not to worry about it. She doesn’t think that Connie is dead, and remembers what she told her when Kelly first learned about her hearing loss: “It’s not your weakness, it’s your superpower.” Kelly says that she knows about Carol’s past and doesn’t expect her to change who she is just because of what’s happening to them.

“Most of us wish you had died too.” 

Negan approaches Lydia who tells him that she’s been trying to avoid him. He tries to bridge a connection between them by saying that he liked a lot about her mom despite some of the evil stuff she was behind. It doesn’t really convince Lydia, and she walks away.

Back at the minefield, some walkers enter the fray and cause a couple more mines to blow up. Princess undertakes a game of chance and randomly picks a direction to go in, which surprisingly doesn’t get her killed. The others follow close behind her.

Daryl and Judith continue their perimeter check when they spot a Whisperer leading some walkers. Daryl shoots her but she runs away, leaving him to take care of the dead. After the deed is done, he and Judith give chase.

Princess and the trio have left the minefield when Eugene notices a road sign: Fleetwood Drive. He says it’s the same road he spotted from before they entered the minefield. This pisses Yumiko off, who draws her bow and aims it right at Princess’ face while she tries to explain her actions. All in all, after some pretty contrived backstory diving, she didn’t want to be alone and wanted to spend more time with new people. Eugene forgives her since he knows the feeling.

Daryl and Judith find the Whisperer with an arrow in her chest and slowly dying. She’s one of Beta’s top people, and tells Daryl everything she knows. The horde is a few miles east of them and they’re on their way to Oceanside. She begs Daryl to not shoot her in the head so she can walk after her death, but he doesn’t oblige. He puts an arrow right in her forehead. He drags Judith back to the tower where everyone is holed up so they can spot the horde.

Beta is going through some stuff, talking to the voice in his head when he notices a cat walk near him; the same cat Lydia was playing with back at the tower hideout. He starts to laugh. Aaron and Alden are watching from behind when they notice the walkers change directions. Aaron tries to call it in but the radio isn’t working, and they find themselves surrounded by Whisperers when they turn to run.

Lydia goes up to Negan and calls him an asshole for telling her how she should feel about her mom. Negan’s trying to get her to open up about her feelings; despite everything, Alpha was her mom. Lydia calls Negan out for killing her, saying that he only did it because he wanted everyone to think of him as a hero but they never will. She bashes his chest in a bit and then cries in his arms, with him telling her that everything will be okay.

Princess takes the trio to the garage which turns out to be chock full of bicycles. Yumiko is upset over the way she treated Princess, so she goes over to her and asks if she wanted to join the group. Princess enthusiastically agrees and is over the moon with excitement.

“Come back.” 

Judith is upset with Daryl over him leaving the Whisperer dead in that ditch. Daryl asks her where this is coming from, and she confesses that she thinks Michonne isn’t going to come back since she’s on a mission. She says she wants things to go back to the way they were before, when she had a family. Daryl tells her that everybody back in the hideout is her family, that they’ll all do anything for her and expect the same when she gets older. This seems to satisfy her as she wipes the tears out of her eyes, but Gabriel radios in and tells Daryl to get back to the hideout as they’re being surrounded by Beta and his massive walker army.

The End 

This was a good episode! It’s a shame it’ll be the last for a while. Yeah, it’s a hell of a cliffhanger to end on but AMC has delayed the finale to sometime this year. It’s rough, but I understand their reasoning.

I’m looking forward to catching up with you when my next recap hits! Take care in the meantime, wash your hands, and stay home as much as humanly possible.